Making Media Now

Joshua Seftel Enters "All The Empty Rooms"

On this episode host Michael Azevedo welcomes back Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Joshua Seftel to discuss his latest documentary, "All the Empty Rooms," which is currently available on Netflix and has been short-listed for the 2025 Oscars in the category of best documentary short.

 

Across America, bedrooms sit untouched — walls still covered in posters, clothes folded neatly in drawers — silent memorials to children lost to gun violence.

 

"All the Empty Rooms" is a 33-minute documentary that follows CBS News correspondent Steve Hartman on a seven-year journey visiting families who have lost a child, photographing each child’s room as it was on their last day. These “sacred spaces frozen in time” form an intimate portrait of grief, love, and the enduring need for empathy.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

"Third Degree Burnout" Documentary Connects the Personal & the Planetary

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is first-time filmmaker Nivi Jaswal-Wirtjes, the director & executive producer of a powerful and thought-provoking new documentary called “Third Degree Burnout”

 

Narrated by renowned meteorologist John Morales, "Third Degree Burnout" uncovers the hidden connections between personal burnout and the climate crisis, revealing them as symptoms of a larger socio-economic metacrisis.

With world-class animation, engaging interviews with over 20 experts, and playful humor woven into thought-provoking skits, the film breaks down complex ideas into something accessible, relatable, and impactful.

From the history of our food systems to the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the intersections of healthcare, politics, and society, this documentary offers a fresh lens on the systemic forces shaping burnout.

In 2020, Nivi lost her father to COVID-19 while she was in the process of struggling through her own burnout after 15 years in high-pressure global marketing and strategy roles across consumer packaged goods, life sciences, and media.

That dual reckoning — grief and exhaustion — became the catalyst for her life’s new direction: uncovering the connections between personal well-being, food systems, and planetary health, all of which a explored in "Third Degree Burnout."

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Pixela Films' "The Last Yztari" Merges Innovation & Imagination to Cope with Trauma

On this episode, host Michael Azevedo joined by long-time friend of the podcast Tim O’Donnell of Pixela Films and by first-time guest Mary Dague to discuss the just-completed film, "The Last Yztari."

 

This innovative and moving film tells the story of how after using her body as a shield to protect her unit from an IED in Iraq, Mary Dague is left medically retired, missing both arms from the elbow down. 

 

Many years after returning home, she finds a new place in online gaming communities as she adapts her controllers to work with her feet. 

 

When her active-military husband readies to deploy again Mary is faced with the trauma of the past and the worry for her partner's yet to be diagnosed PTSD. 

 

The film explores the liminal space between trauma and healing, and this world and a fantasy space where old wounds might present themselves as future insights or abilities. 

 

The film weaves observational documentary with an original generative AI system built from Mary's own fantasy novel. The novel itself a secret only revealed to the filmmakers and her husband after seven years of writing.

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Daniel Masciari Makes Film Directing Debut with "Stationed At Home"

Director Daniel Masciari who joins host Michael Azevedo to discuss "Stationed at Home," his debut feature film. 

 

Set on a clear and frigid Christmas Eve in 1998, in a small, forgotten city, "Stationed at Home" tells the tale of a solitary taxi driver on the graveyard shift breathlessly awaiting the sight of the International Space Station. As the hours count down, a parade of offbeat misfits derail his plans, propelling the story to its exhilarating climax.

 

Daniel Masciari grew up outside of Boston in a neighborhood of new arrivals to America from all over the world—a community that nurtured his imagination and fueled his sense of humor.

 

Fascinated by film’s unique ability to tell stories earnestly and intimately, Daniel began shooting and directing his friends at age eleven using a camera his parents had given him.

 

By twenty-two, Variety selected him as one of 110 students who “represent the future of film, media and entertainment.” By twenty-four, he had already edited his first feature film, which was profiled in Filmmaker Magazine.

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

"In Waves and War" Explores Potential of Psychedelics in Treating PTSD

Host Michael Azevedo is joined on this episode by Jon Shenk co-director of a powerful documentary now streaming on Netflix called In Waves and War.

 

Blending observational scenes and animation, "In Waves and War" traces the journey of three Navy SEALs, tormented by trauma, to Mexico where they embark on a mission to rescue one another with powerful psychedelics whose effects shake them to the core and open a path toward healing.

 

Alongside intimate interviews, captivating animation, and first-of-its-kind research at Stanford’s Brain Stimulation Lab, "In Waves and War," is the emotional, inspiring odyssey of three American heroes as they overcome the aftereffects of war and rediscover their humanity.

 

Jon Shenk is an Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker and the winner of both Emmy® and Independent Spirit awards. He recently co-directed the Oscar®-nominated short film Lead Me Home, which premiered at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival and is a Netflix Original. Previously, Jon and Bonni Cohen (who is also Jon’s wife) co-directed Athlete A, which won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Documentary and was nominated for five Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards, winning for Best Sports Documentary.

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

"The Green Box": A Tale of War, Heroism, and a Son's Quest to Know His Father

Host Michael Azevedo is joined on this episode by Vicki Hughes and Holly Stadtler, two veterans of the documentary filmmaking world who’ve teamed up to produce The Green Box: At The Heart of War, a film based on a memoir by Jim Kurtz that tells the story of his decades long search to learn more about his father, 2^nd Lt. Robert Kurtz, who died when Jim was just 2 years old.

 

All Jim knew of his father was that he was a bomber pilot in the European theater during WWII.  And because of his mother’s grief, most of the details of Jim's father’s life remained a mystery.

 

It would take Jim more than fifty years to learn essential details about this devoted father and husband… and unexpected hero. "The Green Box," narrated by Martin Sheen, weaves together Jim's efforts to piece together the emerging picture of his father’s life, vividly telling a story that is war chronicle, romance, mystery and personal reflection. 

 

"The Green Box: At The Heart of War" will air on Boston’s PBS station, 'GBH on November 4 at 4:00pm and on 'GBH World on November 8.  The film’s release is timed to coincide with Veteran’s Day and will air across the country on PBS stations between throughout November in commemoration of the upcoming 80^th anniversary of the end of WWII.

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

 

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Addicts Seeking Recovery Get Caught in the "Shuffle"

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Ben Flaherty, the director of Shuffle, a film that won the documentary jury award at the 2025 SXSW festival. 

This powerful documentary provides a look into the lives of three Florida residents who struggle to free themselves from a predatory system of for-profit recovery centers that benefit from their reliance on substances.

The film depicts a depressingly familiar pattern of institutions failing the very individuals they exist to help.

A former addict himself, Ben Flaherty uses his own sobriety journey as a starting point to discuss the ways that corrupt facilities can play with patients’ lives as a means of scamming insurance companies, ultimately making the argument that true recovery can only be accomplished through a communal effort of people who genuinely care about each other.

Learn more at www.stoptheshuffle.com

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

 

Documentary Examines How US Newspapers Are Being "Stripped for Parts"

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Rick Goldsmith, the director of the documentary “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink.

Rick’s film offers a clear-eyed look at the current state of journalism in the United States with a focus on the insidious threat from a secretive hedge fund that has put America’s free press at risk.  

Alden Global Capital, operating in the shadows, has managed to upend countless local newsrooms in the past 15 years. But their profit-at-all-costs efforts have not gone un-checked.  

This powerful, eye-opening 90-minute documentary tracks the courageous efforts of investigative reporter Julie Reynolds, Denver Post editorialist Chuck Plunkett and a handful of others, backed by the NewsGuild union, who go toe- to-toe, at great personal risk, with Wall Street interests in a battle to save local journalism across the United States.  

The film is available for streaming and repeat broadcasts:

• Streaming – From October 1st to December 31st, the film is available for free at PBS.org or the PBS app (sometimes called “PBS video”) through Roku, Apple TV, Google Play or most smart TVs
• Broadcast – check our website here for more dates and times, which we will be updating periodically. You can also check your local listings.    
• October 20th at 5pm PT/8pm ET, (and then 3 repeat airings that week) on the PBS World Channel broadcast everywhere, check your local listings to see if your local station carries the World Channel or check the schedule on our website. 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

Director Clay Tweel Delivers "The Bitter Pill": One Man's Battle Against Predatory Pharma Companies

Host Michael Azevedo is joined on this episode is Clay Tweel, director of a powerful new documentary called "The Bitter Pill." 

 

Clay’s film—which debuted on PBS on 9/22 and will be available to stream on PBS digital until December 10-- follows the charismatic West Virginian plaintiff attorney Paul Farrell, Jr, as he wages a legal war against some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies in a landmark battle fueled by personal stakes.

 

 A powerful chronicle of justice, accountability, and resilience, the Bitter Pill is set in Farrell’s hometown, Cabell County, West Virginia, a community at the epicenter of America’s opioid epidemic, where 20% of babies are born addicted to opioids. 

 

A plaintiff attorney, Farrell is determined to recover damages, bring justice to his neighbors, and rebuild a community ravaged by corporate greed. 

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead

"Hard Hat Riot" Foreshadows The Splintering of America

On May 8, 1970, “the Hard Hat Riot” erupted in lower Manhattan. At midday, construction workers, including those building the World Trade Center, violently clashed with students demonstrating against the Vietnam War.

 

Workmen saw the protesting students as privileged “draft dodgers” disparaging the country and those who fought for it. On the other side, many student activists saw the workers as pawns, unwilling to see the changes that America needed. 

 

On this episode, host Michael Azevedo speaks with Marc Levin, the director of "Hard Hat Riot," a new documentary that will broadcast on PBS’ American Experience on September 30 and be available online thereafter. 

 

"Hard Hat Riot" tells the story of a struggling metropolis (NYC), a flailing president (Nixon), a divided people, and a bloody juncture when the nation violently diverged ― culminating in a new political and cultural landscape that radically redefined American politics and foreshadowed the future.

 

Marc Levin is an award-winning, independent filmmaker dedicated to telling powerful, real stories in a unique, authentic style.

 

He has won four Emmys, four duPont-Columbia Awards, the Peabody Award, the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and the Camera d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Highlights include: Slam, his breakout festival hit; Brick City, the groundbreaking docu-series about Newark, New Jersey’s charismatic Mayor Cory Booker; Gang War: Bangin’ in Little Rock; Emmy-winning Thug Life in DC for HBO; Chicagoland, a docu-series for CNN and Robert Redford’s Sundance Productions, nominated for a 2014 IDA Award for Best Limited Series.

 

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

About the host: www.writevoicecreative.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-azevedo/

 

Sound Engineer: A.J. Kierstead