Allow us to do away with modesty for a moment and theorise on why our show works: it’s not that we talk about the works of great filmmakers, it’s that each filmmaker is told through the unique perspective of that month’s guest. Over in the Alt-U section, you’ll see that Julia Zemiro might have gone with Susanne Bier had we not already covered her with Kristy Best a few months earlier. Julia talking about Bier would have been totally different from Kristy talking about Bier. One would not have necessarily been better than the other: the point is that it’s not just the filmmaker, it’s the guest who chooses them.

This month’s guest is Lynn Shelton, one of US independent cinema’s most interesting and exciting voices. We became aware of her when she made the excellent Humpday, and followed that up with the brilliant Your Sister’s Sister. She’s continuing to do great work across both film (Touchy Feely, Laggies) and television (Mad Men, The New Girl, The Mindy Project), and we were delighted when she agreed to come on the show. Talking to someone you admire and finding out who they admire is always fascinating, and so when Lynn picked Claire Denis, we were keen to find out why.

It turns out the story was more personal than we’d realised. We were completely unaware that Lynn’s filmmaking career actually was kicked off by Claire Denis. This is a story that even Claire Denis probably doesn’t know.

It’s those connections that make discussing filmmakers’ careers so much more interesting, and this month’s episode is a perfect example of that. If you want to know a little more about the films of Claire Denis, check out our Cheat Sheet here, and then download the latest episode of Hell Is For Hyphenates, featuring Lynn Shelton talking the films of Claire Denis.

Special thanks to Lynn Shelton for generously giving us her time, and to Adam Kersch at Brigade Marketing for his wonderful help.

When Humpday came out in 2009, we were pretty enamoured. Although we were hardly experts in the mumblecore movement*, what we’d seen of it had not been hugely inspiring, and Humpday single-handedly changed that: the film was so funny, endearing, and brilliantly-constructed, it single-handedly turned us around on the whole sub-genre. The casual, handheld camera work was an aesthetic that added to the story, rather than feeling like it was simply the only method of production available.

From that moment, we committed writer/director Lynn Shelton’s name to memory, and eagerly awaited her next film. That next film – 2011’s Your Sister’s Sister – was even better: a perfectly-executed film that took an outrageous setup and invested us in it wholly, subverting clichés in all the right ways.

So you can imagine we were pretty chuffed when Lynn agreed to be our next guest on the show, and we were very keen to find out who she would choose as her filmmaker. Who inspires one of independent cinema’s most exciting voices?

She has chosen French director Claire Denis, best known for films such as Beau Travail (1999), 35 Shots of Rum (2008) and White Material (2009). It’s a fascinating choice, and we’re really looking forward to watching or rewatching her films in preparation.

As always, the episode will be out on the last day of the month, so stock yourselves up on Shelton and Denis films and we’ll meet you back here then.

* Is “mumblecore” considered a legitimate term for the sub-genre, or a pejorative? We should look into that.