Past Present Feature with Marcus Mizelle

E70 • Build It Small, Release It Smart • GILLE KLABIN, dir. of ‘Weekend at the End of the World’

Past Present Feature with Marcus Mizelle

Show Notes

Gille Klabin discusses Weekend at the End of the World, his follow-up to The Wave, and the deliberate choice to build a second feature that didn’t require waiting for studio permission. Shot in 12 days on a sub-$300K budget, the film was designed around creative, logistical, and financial control. Gille reflects on the lessons he learned from The Wave’s release, where traditional distribution left him frustrated by opaque marketing spends and limited transparency, and how that experience resh...

More from Past Present Feature with Marcus Mizelle

Oct 8, 2026

The Past Present Feature Film Festival returns Saturday, November 21, 2026, for a full day celebrating independent cinema at Eastwood Performing Arts Center in Hollywood, California. Three eras. One celebration of cinema. The Past - films worth rediscovering. The Present - acclaimed new releases and festival favorites. The Future - bold new work from the next generation of filmmakers. Join us for feature films, shorts, and conversations with filmmakers, including an in-person Q&A with Shi...

Oct 6, 2026

Yoon Dan-bi discusses her second feature, The World Before, ahead of her premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. We explore her fascination with emotions that resist easy explanation, her search for authenticity in fiction, and an intentionally restrained approach to filmmaking that leaves room for actors, accidents, and imperfections to shape the film. Yoon also reflects on her first feature, Moving On, finding a sense of belonging through cinema, and Yasujiro Ozu’s Good M...

Sep 22, 2026

Irene Kaltenborn discusses The Mother Age, her sensory documentary which premiered in CPH:DOX’s NEXT:WAVE competition. Inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, which explores a different approach to storytelling that questions our fixation on heroes, conflict, and competition in favor of coexistence, care, and connection. We also discuss Irene’s intuitive filmmaking process, creating the film in the Finnish forest, and the cinema that inspires her, including Robin Pe...

Aug 25, 2026

Miles Williams discusses the revival of Glendale's historic Alex Theatre and its return to first-run cinema after more than 35 years, including the installation of 70mm projection and its breakout success with Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. We explore why audiences are returning to theaters, the resurgence of physical media, and what the communal moviegoing experience can offer that streaming can't replicate. We also discuss curation, repertory cinema, getting audiences into seats, and crea...

Jul 28, 2026

I Is Another marks Felix Randau's return to the Locarno Film Festival, where the film premieres in competition. Inspired by the true story of Felix Kersten, personal masseur to Heinrich Himmler, we discuss why Randau rejected a conventional hero narrative in favor of a morally ambiguous portrait, exploring the blurred line between truth, history, and the stories we choose to believe. We also discuss antiheroes, historical storytelling, filmmaking in Germany, and the films that shaped Felix's ...

See all episodes →