The Projection Booth

Nothing says team-building like a trap. Corporate Retreat (2026), a horror comedy that had its world premiere at BIFFF in Brussels, lures ambitious young executives to a luxury desert estate where the trust games turn deadly. Director Aaron Fisher follows his debut feature Inside the Rain (2019) with a cast that includes Odeya Rush, Rosanna Arquette, and Alan Ruck.

Mike talks with Fisher and actress Ellen Toland, who plays COO Aubrey Johnson, about a one-room thriller in the spirit of Saw (2004) born from his father's 2008 financial collapse, blocking the carnage with chalk drawings and action figures in a backyard, Gary J. Tunnicliffe's practical gore, parodying summer-camp trust falls after consultants quoted $250,000, and a Brussels crowd that treated the premiere like a midnight-movie party.

Follow Aaron Fisher on Instagram and follow Ellen Toland on Instagram.

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Gunshots on Lioness aren't supposed to sound like movie gunshots. Supervising sound editor George Haddad, an Emmy winner for The Studio, talks with Mike about building Taylor Sheridan's CIA drama from authentic sources: researching how a specific weapon sounds in a specific place, recording a friend's Rivian for another series, and cleaning dialogue so viewers never reach for the subtitles.

The conversation also goes back to Berklee, drumming, and a childhood Star Wars (1977) moment, then to DVD-era restorations of Highlander II: The Quickening (1991) and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), where Clint Eastwood returned to re-record lines, and to Jackass Number Two (2006) versus House of 1000 Corpses (2003).

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Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

Nearly sixty years after Roger Patterson and Bob Gimlin shot the most famous footage in Bigfoot history, forty seconds of forgotten 16mm film locked in a safe for half a century threaten to blow the legend wide open. Capturing Bigfoot (2026), a SXSW documentary that had the Bigfoot community arguing before most of them had seen it, comes from director Marq Evans of Claydream (2021) and arrives October 20, National Bigfoot Day, on Prime Video and in select theaters.

Mike talks with Evans about the email from a colleague that started it, 130 interview tapes from researcher Greg Long, how Patterson's son Clint became the film's emotional heartbeat, watching the new footage on camera for the first time, being shut down by a bank president mid-interview, and why Evans pulled the film from festivals to protect its secret. 

Visit the film's official website.

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Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

The Joe Louis Fist is among Detroit's best-known monuments, yet plenty of people have forgotten whose fist it is. Etched in Pavement (2026), a festival documentary from Detroit photographer-turned-filmmaker John Sippel, brings that legacy back through two young fighters from Southwest Detroit. Sippel spent four years inside the grassroots Guns Down, Gloves Up movement, where boxing becomes an answer to gun violence, addiction, and loss. After Woods Hole and a packed Detroit homecoming, the film is now on digital and VOD.

Mike talks with Sippel about two and a half years of shooting, screening the first rough cut for his subjects in his living room, an $80,000 post-production budget raised through boxing gyms and Kickstarter, and Joe Louis's children speaking on film about their father for the first time.

Visit the film's official website for more details.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.

Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth

What does it cost to believe everything? Gimme Truth (2026), which had its world premiere at Hot Docs and went on to Fantastic Fest, follows UFO contactees, starseeds, anti-vaccine crusaders, and other seekers of hidden knowledge without sneering and without sharing their beliefs. Co-directors Simon Ennis, who made The Hobby: Tales from the Tabletop (2024), and Brad Abrahams care less about what these believers believe than why.

Mike talks with both filmmakers about earning trust from wary subjects, including anti-vaccine filmmaker Mikki Willis, who took two years to say yes; shooting at the Red Pill Expo in Des Moines with no crew but each other; and a stash of footage that could become a film of its own. 

Follow Brad Abrahams on Instagram and see where Gimme Truth is screening, including Windsor and DOC NYC in November.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-projection-booth--5513239/support.

Become a supporter of The Projection Booth at http://www.patreon.com/projectionbooth