playnext.fm

Too Opinionated

Too Opinionated Interview: Michael Dahan

·45 min·4 clips
A filmmaker explains how a real person foreshadowed his own murder, sparking the idea for his new film.
The episode features an interview with filmmaker Michael Dahan on the podcast Too Opinionated. Dahan begins by recounting his career, starting in film development at companies like Brillstein Gray and working with producer Mark Gordon on films such as 'Saving Private Ryan' and 'The Patriot.' He shifted to photography and fine art, later becoming a film professor at Emerson College. Dahan discusses his frustration with the film industry's tendency to simplify content and the impact of short attention spans due to smartphones. The main focus is his new film 'Yes, Repeat No,' about Juliano Mer-Khamis, an actor of Israeli and Palestinian descent who ran the Freedom Theater in Jenin. Dahan describes how Mer-Khamis predicted his own death, which inspired the film. The movie uses an experimental format where three actors—Israeli, Palestinian, and Lebanese—audition to play Mer-Khamis, leading to unscripted arguments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dahan explains the filming process with multiple cameras over 10 days, resulting in 250 hours of footage that took years to edit. He talks about the film's reception at festivals like the Warsaw National Film Festival and its release on platforms such as Amazon and Apple TV. The conversation touches on the current political climate, with Dahan noting increased polarization and the difficulty of discussing Palestine without accusations of anti-Semitism. He emphasizes the film's goal to present complexity without offering easy answers. Dahan also shares his previous projects, including a music documentary about a band that didn't achieve success, and his next idea for a psychedelic thriller involving AI. The host concludes by recommending the film and promoting the podcast's website.

As heard by us

A film-business conversation that grows into a pointed discussion of privilege and social-media polarization.

The episode follows Michael DeHaan from development work through Brillstein Gray, Mark Gordon, Speed, Saving Private Ryan, and The Patriot before turning to his interest in directing.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You get film-biz war stories, political gray areas, and a conversation that lets the hard parts breathe.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
Listen to the show on
Apple PodcastsSpotify
Play clips from this episodeMore from Too Opinionated