Author: Maddy Kadish

Maddy Kadish is a writer and producer. In addition to The Independent, she has contributed articles to MovieMaker Magazine, IndieWire, and No Film School, profiling festivals, filmmakers, and new technologies. She has worked as a consultant for the Boston Jewish Film Festival and Glovebox Short Film & Animation Festival. Maddy spent 10 years as a film, video, and multimedia producer in NYC, Boston, and London, specializing in educational media. She currently works at PBS Education in Washington DC as a content development manager, helping PBS filmmakers bring their work to classrooms across the US. She holds a B.S. from Cornell and an Ed.M. from Harvard. She can be reached at maddy@independent-magazine.org.


Articles Written by Maddy Kadish:

10 to Watch 2018: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Monsters and Men, the first feature from writer/ director Reinaldo Marcus Green, highlights the, unfortunately far-too common, killing of unarmed black men at the hands of law enforcement. Green addresses this big, complex topic by showing us the small, subtle ways it impacts communities, families, and daily life. And for this compelling, important work, he… Read more »

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2018

This is a special year for The Independent’s annual 10 Filmmakers to Watch series. Not only is it the tenth year (and, on a personal note, my eighth year working on it), but we had a record breaking number of nominations through our open call. A special thanks to our readers and nominating jury for… Read more »

10 to Watch: 2018 Nominating Jury

For 10 years now The Independent has been tooting the horn for indie filmmakers everywhere with our annual 10 to Watch series. Help us in our 10-for-10 year by nominating a filmmaker who you think meets our criteria below. In addition to someone poised to make an impact on indie film in 2018, this year… Read more »

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2017

For the 9th year in a row, The Independent’s 10 to Watch highlights filmmakers who we anticipate will bring us something special this year. Our 2017 list honors filmmakers who work in narratives, documentaries, and new media, those who are seasoned and newcomers, and those producing shorts, web series, and features. We sought recommendations for the list from… Read more »

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2017: Peter Nicks

In the Q&A after his film The Force premiered at Sundance 2017, filmmaker Peter Nicks told the audience that he was not an activist filmmaker. His films, The Waiting Room and The Force, the first and second in a thematic-trilogy about the relationship between institutions in Oakland, CA and the communities they serve, provide evidence… Read more »

VR at Tribeca Film Festival

The medium of virtual reality (VR) has matured and diversified greatly as a format over the years. It is almost not enough to describe a work simply as VR anymore, but rather one must specify by genre or device: narrative, game, installation, mobile, or some combination thereof. 360-video is a different animal, but often lumped… Read more »

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VR In the Spotlight 

In 2016, we saw the release of the first consumer versions of virtual reality (VR), including headsets from Oculus Rift (March), HTC Vive (April), Playstation VR (October), among others, enabling audiences to watch movies and play games in VR right in their living rooms. For the uninitiated, virtual reality is an immersive medium, where users… Read more »

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When Institutions Foster More Than Education

“An educated black population could not be an enslaved black population,” Kimberlé Crenshaw, Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum states during an interview featured in filmmaker Stanley Nelson’s documentary, Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Crenshaw describes the illegal nature of teaching an enslaved person to… Read more »

Beyond 10 to Watch, 2016

In addition to our 10 filmmakers to watch, we want to put a handful of others on your radar with work coming out in 2016 and later. Khalik Allah Photographer and filmmaker, Khalik Allah had a big 2015. His documentary, the provocatively titled, Field Niggas, put him on the map as an emerging and risk-taking filmmaker. His… Read more »

10 Filmmakers to Watch in 2016

The Independent‘s 10 to Filmmakers Watch is our annual shout out to filmmakers, working in documentary, narrative, new media and virtual reality, whose work we think you should see. Now in its 8th year, our list celebrates filmmakers who are taking risks, promoting change, and speaking their minds. And their work, all which will be out… Read more »