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This week I talk Michael Greenberg, film director, writer and producer about his new short film “The Combination”. We talk about taking a deep-dive into some of the less-savory parts of Minneapolis Jewish history, what drew him to filmmaking, and the Twin Cities as a place where great movies can be made, on this week’s Who The Folk?! Podcast.Trailer: https://youtu.be/FOhT2vr0hg0Limited Tickets for the premiere on 11/9: https://www.trylon.org/film/the-combination/The Who The Folk?! Podcast is part of the Jewfolk Podcast Network, a product of Jewfolk, Inc. Episodes are produced by Jewfolk editor-in-chief Lonny Goldsmith. If you have questions, comments, or a guest to nominate, send an e-mail to editor@jewfolk.com. For more information, go to TCJewfolk.com/podcast
This is the Podcast home of TC Jewfolk's Who The Folk?! Podcast. Hear from interesting Members of the Tribe from all over the Minneapolis and St. Paul area.
Welcome to this week's Who the Folk podcast.
I'm Lonnie Goldsmith, the editor of TC Jew Folk.
This week I talked to Michael Greenberg, film director, writer and producer about his
new short film The Combination.
We talk about taking a deep dive into some of the less savory parts of Minneapolis
Jewish history.
What drew him to filmmaking?
And the Twin Cities is a place where great movies can be made on this week's Who the Folk
podcast.
Michael Greenberg, welcome to The Who the Folk podcast.
Thanks for joining us.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Really excited to talk to you.
You are the director and producer of the new short film The Combination.
It is premiering at the trilance cinema on November 9th.
Tickets may or may not be available by the time you hear that.
But we will, we'll have a link in the show notes where you can find out.
Tell me a little bit about for starters what the combination is and what led you to
want to make this film?
Yeah, absolutely.
Towards the tail end of the pandemic, I was bored in doing some research and I came across
this history growing up here in Minneapolis.
I'd never heard of that we had a Jewish mob and this amazing history right there beneath
our nose that people don't really want to talk about.
So I dove in, I was over three years ago and I just found it incredibly fascinating, kept
researching and was trying to figure out a way to do a short story out of obviously a much
larger amount of history there.
It took me a while to come up with exactly the point that I wanted to tell and it was,
I settled on the first time that Isador Blumfeld or Kid Can killed somebody and I felt that
was a good entry point in there.
Took us a little bit and then we shot the short, it was last February, 23.
No, 24, sorry.
And yeah, it spawned a whole idea for a series based off of this short ended up being about
the last 15 minutes of a pilot episode that we have written.
Oh, interesting.
Okay.
It's been done for a while, we've been waiting for to hear back from some festivals but
now is the point to at least some of the people see it.
What was it about the, like Asyr, how did you find this history?
Where do you stumble on to something like this to even then start processing what a film
could look like?
Yeah, it was just through a personal relationship of somebody that is kind of a four times
relative of, you know, that was really two of that told me one thing about it and it just
was like, really, we had a Jewish mob running in the Twin City and like, okay, I'm in, I'm
in, like, sign me up.
You know, where do I learn more about this?
And, you know, there's plenty of newspapers and articles, you know, every year it seems
like the newspapers and even the local TV channels are talking about them.
We're finding relevant things to compare what they were doing to stuff happening now.
You know, so it's all around, you know, FBI files, all that stuff you can dig in and find
so much information.
Why did you settle on this particular moment?
Because obviously a short film is, well, short.
Yeah.
Just like it implies.
But like, you've got to, you're focusing on like just a 15 minute snapshot in time.
How did you pick that one as the moment to focus on?
For me, when we're talking about the mob genre and all the great shows and movies that we
have, we never really get to see much of how they got into power, how they rose to power.
What was interesting about going back to the beginning of when they were young kids, they
fell into it extremely early.
I mean, I think he was 19 or 20.
Okay.
It's been a while since I've like, except I've done other projects.
Sure.
I love the history, but the rise in the loss of innocence in Isador when he, you know, it
is an accident when he, you know, in reality, it was a cab driver named Charles Goldberg outside
their speak easy.
They were fighting over a girl.
He pulled the gun on Isador, turned into a fight, gun went off is the kind of official story.
Okay.
You know, part of what we play with is the unreliable narrator as he is telling the story in
the short film, which is something that the show would have a lot.
Yes.
You know, obviously gangster do not like to tell the truth.
That's very fun for us to be able to tell the story that way.
And, you know, so I took the actual event and put it inside a speak easy one because we didn't
want to shut down an alley and shoot in the middle of the winter.
Right.
I just felt like the imagery of being inside a speak easy with a band would be so much, so
much.
I just wanted that.
Yeah.
I mean, I think it makes it better.
I mean, yeah, for scene, scene craft, it's better.
And I think just, you know, being outside in the dark, it's like you've got a, if you're
going to shoot it outside, you either got to light it the right way or it's going to be
daytime and it's just a different vibe to it than if it's a night.
Yeah.
And so everything about how the incident goes down is is basically how, how all the, all
the history books say it happened.
But we changed it to set up for the show.
You know, a lot of Isidore's career, he was battling one, the press, the, you know, I think
when anybody looks into who's could can, they're going to see all these news articles about,
you know, creating him as some sort of giant monster that looms over Minneapolis and making
him not seem like a real person.
You know, I've definitely been able to talk to some people, you know, within his descendants
of family and other people that have had run ends with him, whether, you know, I think
everybody in Minneapolis and the Jewish community has like, oh, you know what?
My great grandpa was like, he was asked to do this for him and he said, no, it's like, you
know, the stories are, are endless.
But I've come across so many stories of him personally, you know, being not that monster.
And so I wanted to tell, you know, the story of a very complicated man, obviously, who's
capable of doing terrible things of murder, of, of corruption, you know, that was obviously
much more common and back in the, in the 20s and through the, through the 60s.
But, you know, I wanted to tell the story of a very complicated, complicated guy and really
the best way to start doing that is at the beginning when we see him lose his innocence and
see him truly become kind of the young man that he will end up being to do, you know, his
worst crimes and murders that he would supposedly was, you know, responsible for.
And I think it's interesting that they're, you know, you talk about the unreliable narrator
of his story and that I'm not suggesting that the people you
spoke to weren't being honest, but I mean, you got to sort of plan for a, maybe a little
bit of embellishment, shall we say of the opportunity to say maybe my family have this little
connection.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And, and so, you know, more in that research of trying to find out, you know, who is this,
one, what is this character of, is it or that we're going to be building and we want
to be as authentic as possible?
So, you know, hearing those stories, whether, you know, you can trust them or not, or they've
been passed down is like, you know, they may not be completely factual, but it could tell
you something, it could give you a little, little something about the character that you
may be like, okay, that's good.
I think that's right.
Yeah.
You know, I've had the chance to talk to, there's this wonderful woman named Marie Wu, who's
writing a book about Isador and she's done a ton of research.
Oh, wow.
And so, she was, she's still, you know, as of now in the, in the finishing stages of
finishing up the book, part of the last chapter is about how people are finally starting to
talk and tell these stories and why that's important to, you know, to do.
Yeah.
And, you know, she was talking about the film in there, she used some screen grabs from the
film in her book and, you know, she has such a wealth of documentation and interviews
with people and, you know, I'm surprised it took this long to, you know, to have somebody
tell that story in a book.
Well, you know, something we had talked about before we started is that people, I think
go, you know, as you get further removed from, from Isador's generation, I think people,
there's a degree of quil factor maybe.
And I think even if the things he did weren't cool, which, I look, they're not, I mean, he
was a criminal.
Yeah.
But there's a, there's just a different level of interest, I think now.
And maybe you can be interested in the story without, you know, while also condemning what
he did.
Yeah.
I'm in no way trying to glorify him or the violence of gangsters or, you know, is he a shining
example of the Jewish community?
Absolutely not.
No, no, no.
No.
And, you know, in our show, we would, we would tell not only his story through, through their
lens of what they were doing, but they're really the entire story of Minneapolis and how, you
know, Minneapolis and St. Paul became to be the cities they are today.
And that's, they had a just a giant involvement in so many things in, you know, our railway system
being taken out.
You know, this mayor being elected over this mayor, you know, so much stuff, but they're
the center of it.
And for me, I wanted to tell a story of, you know, of Jews, tough Jews standing up to anti-Semites
and that's, that's really what a lot of the show would be.
And a lot of people don't know the history of like Minneapolis being the home of Nazism
in America when it comes, you know, just before World War II and through World War II.
And, and we talked about the purple game before we started.
It's like, they were, they were commissioned by like the FBI and other people to, let
us stomp out these Nazi rallies and Jewish gangsters really on so that they like turn the
other eye and like go do what you need to do, but like we need your help.
Like, I think that's just extremely, extremely interesting.
It is.
And it's an, you know, and I think we're, I don't know, would it be like 25 or so years after
Sopranos started, maybe actually probably even more at this point.
But like again, it sort of glorified Italian mafia.
Definitely.
And modernized it from, I mean, because in between, you know, Godfather and Sopranos, that's
a lot of change.
A lot of change, and I mean, Godfather was really much, a, really, very much a look back.
Yep.
Because, you know, it came out in 1972, but it took place in the 40s, in 50s.
And then you have Sopranos, which came out in the late 90s and was very contemporary.
Yep.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And I think it's not to suggest that there are contemporary Jewish mafia.
No.
I, not that I've come across.
No, that I've never, ever come across.
I've never, ever gotten a knock on the door.
I'm in light of, yes.
I think we probably would have heard that by now.
But I think it's interesting that there's a way to sort of look back at it because,
you say it is an important part of the Twin Cities Jewish history.
And American Jewish history at large is the role that that Jews played in those mafia
and organized crime in the early 20s and 30s.
Yep.
So how do you sort of take this piece of it once it is more widely released and then how
does that sort of fit into what you're planning to hopefully do with the series?
As a series?
Yeah.
So we have a pilot episode written.
We have, you know, a document that's called Like a Show Bible.
It talks about, you know, the plan of what we've, you know, we've kind of planned out season
one and then it'd be probably ultimately about five seasons.
Coming from, you know, 1924 when this all starts to really the moment that they're kicked
out of Minneapolis for good in the 60s, maybe with a little touching up later with the end
of his life when he's in Miami with Meyer Lansky and his brothers and then, you know, isn't
supposed to come back to Minneapolis.
That was part of like, well, you're not going to go to jail forever, but you're not
coming back to Minneapolis either.
But so we have, we have those two things.
We have this, you know, this short film that's kind of our proof of concept as they call it.
As of now, it's been passed around a little bit out in LA, sent through some contact, through
many of the contacts to people that kind of make similar type of shows and movies and, you
know, we haven't heard anything back and, you know, I think it's a long process of being
of just as being a younger filmmaker myself and in the beginning of my career, you know,
asking for that type of budget doesn't happen very often, you know, the Duffer Brothers walked
in to Netflix and got, however, many millions of dollars to make Stranger Things and that
was in like 2015 or whatever, things have tightened up since then.
Significantly.
So I have no doubt my mind in our team is planned on like, this is one important story that
we want to tell and we want to do it authentically and we want to do it correctly.
So if this takes 10 years and I can go make some feature films and then come back and revisit
it when it may be a better opportunity in the world we live in and also just from a career
standpoint to get the budget necessary to make this as best as it can be.
So you know, it is a long term thing.
You know, I wish I could, we could continue telling it right now, but, you know, we did our
best with the short film and people are going to love it.
I hope.
Yeah.
And then, you know, when the time's right, you know, we'll find the right people to help
make it.
I thought it was great.
Ryan Levin plays KidCon.
I thought he did a, he was excellent.
He was convincing.
Ryan was the absolute perfect choice.
I'm so happy.
He was available because obviously Ryan is a giant theater star and we were lucky to steal
him for a few days.
Absolutely.
You know, he was, he was great.
He was very convincing and I think without giving too much away and I think you said what
happened, like with him committing his first murder, right?
I think the sort of the shock of what happened and like the, the, the sort of difficult nature
of how you've gone back from that, he portrays that very well.
Yeah.
He wears that well.
Yes.
Yeah.
He, he portrayed that, that loss of innocence and that kind of recollection of realizing what
just happened, but then, you know, how he, how he reacts to things is perfect.
Yeah.
How characters react to things tell us, you know, can tell us so much.
And that, you know, that was, that was the point, the transformation of him into, into this
man that can go on to gun somebody down with the time he gun outside of his house with
his family watching.
And that's, you know, that, that's a little flash, much, much, much, bigger flash forward.
Yes.
Well, hopefully there will be a series that we get to see that happen again.
So you mentioned the, the festival circuit.
Yeah.
How does one get onto a festival circuit?
Fistples are, festivals are very difficult, especially for emerging filmmakers.
You know, festivals that are looking for, for bigger films, the bigger stars in it, you know,
they want to draw the most attention to themselves.
But for us, you know, younger filmmakers making short films and stuff, it's, you know, it's
like a needle in the haystack being, you know, being picked.
Festivals are all kind of run through a website called Film Freeway.
Okay.
So really anybody could make a film and submit it through.
There's no like big gatekeeping, your guarantee at least a watch or two from whatever festival
up to, you know, from Twin Cities Film Fest all the way up to Sundance.
Oh, wow.
That's how they do their festival submissions.
Okay.
You know, not talking about big studio run or bought feature films that are, you know, obviously
the top of the list for like, who's in this?
Okay.
Yeah, we want you.
Right.
But for the short film stuff, it's as simple as is going on there, filling out a profile
and submitting a screen or a link for them to, for them to check out.
And so part of the reason is, you know, this film was finished in June.
Okay.
It's been sitting around in June with it because a lot of the bigger festivals don't want
anything online being able to screen widely for them.
They want it to be some sort of premiere, some sort of, it hasn't been filmed in California
or has been shown in California or the Midwest.
Right.
They want to make as big of a deal as possible.
So as of now, we are submitted to Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Fest, which is
in the spring.
Okay.
We really hope we get in there.
We want to give people another chance to come see it because it may be until next
summer that it's not widely released online because of the festival rules and things like
that.
I mean, the opportunity for the local festival to, you know, the premiere local festival
even, it's like they put on a great catalog every year.
They do.
For them to be able to have first crack at premiering, you know, a hometown kid putting on his hometown,
you know, talking about his hometown history.
Yeah.
Like, that's pretty great.
Yeah.
They, you know, they see the romantic side of storytelling and get to get the, it's a great
way to hopefully, you know, a lot of, a lot of those shorts programs too in festivals.
They come up with predetermined like this block is, you know, kind of like a sci fi, you know,
they give them names and they're looking for specific little things.
So you know, as filmmakers, we rejected every day.
It's put in this industry.
That's all we do.
We get rejected.
You know, you get rejected until you don't.
But, you know, for these short films, you know, it's not a, you know, it's not a, it's not
a feature.
You're not a, you know, a big thing there for an hour and a half that people are coming
specifically to see, they're going to come see a block.
Yeah.
And so they come up with these predetermined things about what they want their festival
to be that year.
Right.
And if your film doesn't happen to fit into one of those blocks, it may be one of the best
films they see, but if they don't have a place that fits in with like six others,
that makes a good block for people to come out and see, they're not going to accept
you.
And that's, that's also the difficult thing, which is, you know, that, that's not in the
filmmakers or the quality of your film.
Right.
And what are the film fest focus on doing?
And, you know, and it, it would surprise me just, and again, I don't think every film festival
could, could pull something like this off, but I think because of the quality of the art
scene in Minneapolis and the Twin Cities and Minnesota in general, you could pull off
like a, a Minnesota night.
Yeah.
And like, not, not just Minnesota theme movies, but like local directors telling stories.
Yes.
I feel like you could pull something like that.
They, they do, they're, they're good about giving free submissions to local films.
And, you know, I don't think that they necessarily do like an only specific Minnesota made films
in blocks together from short films, but, you know, I think they definitely try to give some
preference in making it accessible to at least submit your film, which is great.
But you know, there's, they get so many submissions, even the smallest film fest gets so many
submissions.
Okay.
You know, people explore different, you know, different ways.
There's, you know, everybody wants to see their film on the big screen.
Of course.
And, you know, so that's, you know, it's worth
waiting to put it out there if you can get that in front of a live audience.
We'll tell you a lot more than putting a film on YouTube and see, see when happens when
I can get that live feedback and see it.
No, for sure.
No, I get that.
I get that.
So backing up, you like well before the film, what was it that you're into filmmaking?
I, so I was an athlete growing up.
I always loved movies, but I never really had time to, to focus on any sort of movie making
if, if I was in class and had the option to make a, a film or a music video for, for,
an assignment, I did.
Yeah.
Um, and I, I always love that, um, you know, I, I played golf in college and then played pro
for about a year and a half traveling around just like many tours, stuff, um, because that
was my life.
And after doing that, you know, I have some family out in LA and, you know, I, I always wanted
to, you know, I always romanticize about making movies and filmmaking and I decided to
do it.
I'm just going to dive right in and I moved to LA.
Um, I was lucky enough to get a job working as an assistant for some executive producers
out there in development.
Okay.
Um, of, you know, mainly like streaming stuff, uh, even stuff that was playing on like Snapchat,
like the little shows that run on there and stuff like that.
But learned a lot, started getting on set, started doing everything, started shooting stuff,
editing, uh, acting a little bit, you know, just dipping my, my tone, the water and, you
know, realized pretty quickly.
I want to be a writer, director and make films and, um, move back, uh, shortly before the
pandemic.
Okay.
Um, you know, to be out in LA, you got to have a good support system and be around there and,
you know, I had family out there and some friends out there, but, you know, your nearest friends
are in our halfway and traffic and nearby yourself and, you know, it just looked like,
things are changing.
You can get stuff done in Minnesota.
So I moved home right before the pandemic and have just been kind of working on stuff
with me a few other short films before and, uh, been working my way up to, to this and
then I have a, uh, first feature film, uh, that script is just being finished now and
development to shoot hopefully next September and October in town here.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah.
So, I mean, in LA an hour and a half away, it could be like five miles.
Exactly.
Exactly.
It's a night.
Do you want to hang out in a month and a half from now?
Yeah.
Sure.
No.
Good decision to come home.
And obviously the, like I mentioned, you know, before the, the art scene in the Twin
Cities, I mean, at least the theater scene is, is very well-run out.
How is the movie scene?
I think we are well on our way, you know, the state, we just passed some more tax credits
to try to incentivize bigger productions that come here.
No, that's right.
You know, if we're talking about budget level, you got, I think you got to spend a million
dollars to be able to tap into that.
Right.
But it's pretty good.
I think it's like up to 40% in some places more, like up north.
But you know, we have wonderful actors.
We have talented crew.
What we don't have is producers and, and, and people developing films to, you know, from
here that are shooting here.
Okay.
You know, I think anybody, most people that have, that have kind of come up in the world,
have kind of reacted like how, you know, the Coen's did.
They, you know, they made their, their first film and then they, you know, they moved on
to bigger things.
Right.
With the, with the tax incentives and with, you know, the growing number of crew and,
good people here, I mean, my plan, at least, is to make as many films as here as I can.
I mean, I love being home.
We have, we have crew that are just as good as, as anywhere else in the world.
Yeah.
The passionate film, we have such a big passionate, you know, group of filmmakers here in
town.
But what we don't have is, is some stabilizing force like, you know, like the, the combination
would be, if we got a bigger series up, that's guaranteed work for, you know, however
long for shooting all of it here.
Right.
And, you know, that's, I think the piece that's kind of missing from, from our industry
here, you know, we have, and right now we have features come in, you know, like downtown,
Owl shot here last year.
There's been a few other this year, you know, up to a couple million dollars shooting kind
of north, with the, you know, B or C level talent in there to help sell the film, you know,
nothing giant, but, you know, there, there are people from LA or New York saying, well,
that's kind of Minnesota and take advantage of the tax credits, you know, we don't really
care about the place, but like, we can shoot there, we can make that look like any town
USA and take advantage of tax credits.
Like, you know, what I want to see is, you know, the filmmakers from here taking advantage
of that and getting outside money to then build up that industry.
Right.
I mean, and I think you've seen that happen with, like, there was a run where Atlanta, yeah,
in Georgia was giving tax credits, everything was being shot in Georgia.
Yeah.
Still are.
I mean, it's probably number, number two on the list.
Oh, really?
I think, I think even, well, I think Canada is really where it lies.
Right.
It's going, but I think one in six films or shows are shot in LA now.
Oh, wow.
That was just like expensive.
I mean, I remember there was a big, that was the big thing with Juno.
Yeah.
It was, it was based here, but it was all shot in May.
Shot in the river.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there was maybe a little bit of stuff shot here, but not, not a lot of it.
Most of it was up in Canada.
Yeah.
Well, then you get the, the reverse side of that of the Collins who did a serious man.
It was just one of my favorite movies.
Yeah.
Shot here.
They turned out in Bloomington.
Yeah.
You know, they used so many local people in there.
I really watched that film in a kind of picture of, you know, I don't go to send a
picture of one of the canters in that, you know, in that bar mitzvah scene to my mom.
And I'm like, do we know that guy and she's like, he helped you study for your bar mitzvah.
Like, it's, and you're like, I knew he looked familiar.
Yeah.
He's like, he's a cantor.
I felt like he helped you study for, I'm like, oh, so they really, like, I love that.
Yes.
Of finding people locally that like can fit not necessarily big actors, but like, you
know, that authenticity of, right.
Of, of, of that was, was great.
So, and I think there's, I mean, there's something special about the idea of, you know, of
having pride in your hometown, that you're willing to come back here and do, you know,
what you can to make your career happen as a filmmaker have in here in not the most traditional
filmmaker market.
Yeah.
No, absolutely.
But, you know, I think in the next, in the next five or so years, we're going to see
we're already seeing a big, a big resurgence of indie films.
And there's no reason why, by Minnesota and Minneapolis can't play a, a good chunk of
that.
You know, things, it doesn't matter where things are shot, but if you have a good support
system and you have great crew that you can rely on or work on and work with again and
again, I mean, that's, that says something and that, you know, I mean, that's the, I think
we have that here.
I think the pro and the con of the sort of streaming world we live in right now is that
there's plenty of places to stream and there's no shortage of inventory that's needed to
fill.
Yeah.
But there's so much stuff to watch all the time.
Exactly.
And that's primarily with me.
I focus on watching features and, you know, I want to make features.
But the combination in the story of Isidore and his brothers really begs to be a series.
Yeah.
But, you know, our plan is structuring it as kind of a seven or eight hour movie each season.
Yeah.
Clear beginning middle and end.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And then we have a plan that if like, if we don't get season two, it's still going to be
satisfying and still tell a story.
It's not like how all those shows on Netflix are like, you know, $200 million show in the
after season one, they cancel it with a giant cliff hearing.
And you're like, why would I ever go back and watch that?
It makes zero sense.
So, you know, planning, planning to do one season at a time and make, you know, make them
like, okay, if this is it, then this is it.
But, you know, I think series are, there's some good series out there and then there's
some series that are definitely watered down.
And to me, the pinnacle of storytelling is still a good feature.
Oh, absolutely.
I'm not going to get that.
Absolutely.
What's the feature that's the script being developed?
What's that?
Yeah.
How much do you want to give away about?
I mean, I can tell you a little bit about, but it's called come down.
It's a new nor thriller kind of a contemporary thing.
Okay.
Super inspired by good time by this after-brothers, a little bit of taxi driver, a little bit
of pulp fiction and some dark humor and, you know, a good cross section of all things
I like.
Awesome.
Yeah, nothing too much on there on the plot and stuff.
Okay.
No, that's fair.
Who or what inspired you as a filmmaker is you're trying to figure out your own style.
What did you, you know, you said, you know, you like watching movies and stuff and as you
got into it, what was the, I guess, what really resonated with you?
My favorite filmmakers are, you know, not just because they're from here in Andrew, but
the Coen.
The variety of the films they make, the uniqueness of the films they make.
I mean, they're just phenomenal.
They're just phenomenal.
You know, obviously I love Scorsese, I love Brian De Palma.
You know, obviously some Spielberg in there.
Sure.
But, you know, for me, I like, you know, I like dark things but not too dark and I like some,
some comedy thrown in there, not in your face comedy, but some absurd, some absurd kind
of more, more tempered comedy.
Okay.
But for me, like as a director the more I learn and the more I, you know, good experiences,
what I love about filmmaking is that harmony between, you know, camera movement and the technical
side with the storytelling and, you know, the best films to me are when those are, you
know, perfectly working together of a shot choice, you're moving the camera off for a specific
reason.
And I always strive, you know, I think a lot of filmmakers are just, you know, coverage,
you can cover, you can cover, you can shoot it and we're worried about the act, but then,
you know, they're missing that part of like, well, I'm going to move my camera here and show
this because of this.
And if you get to that level, you really know the exact story you're telling and that, you
know, that's, that's what I love about it is when those things all come together and,
there's some good moments in the, in the combination that really reflect that, I think.
So, for sure.
Yeah.
I'm pretty proud of it.
Sorry, now this might be the most impossible question for you to answer.
Favorite Kone Brothers movie.
Straight up, no country for old man.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No country for old man.
Besides that, I love Miller's Crossing just because that was a big, that was a big reference
for, for the combination, you know, what was it?
What was it?
Working, well, the way, the way it looks in the color wise, you know, it kind of looks like
we're suddenly looking through a whiskey glass at home movie, but, oh, one of my favorite
movies so underrated as, as a, you know, a mob, a mob movie.
Yeah.
I love it so much.
I don't know how you pick one though.
No, you don't.
I mean, the dude is probably the best character.
Yep.
But like Nicholas Cage and Raisa and Arizona is ridiculous.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's too many good, good ones to pick one.
Yeah.
There's too many good movies to choose from.
Yeah.
And what I love about them is their, their range, you know, not that many filmmakers have
a range.
Like, there's some big filmmakers, you know, exactly what you're getting, they're going
to get no matter what movie watch of theirs.
Right.
But if you can have range and still tell quality stories, I mean, that, that just sets them apart,
but, you know, the bunch of other stuff too, but.
Which is always a bad thing that you know what you're getting.
No, it isn't.
It isn't.
I mean, sometimes maybe it is, but like, in the main, it's not like, I think it's, like,
you know what you're getting, like a Scorsese movie, right?
You know, like, if you know the genre, like, you know, like, with the departed.
Yep.
It was, it was, it was an excellent movie with solid.
I don't think it's spectacular.
There's a lot of people did, but like, you know, it's going to be at least 40 minutes too
long.
But you know, it's going to be well acted.
It was going to be well directed.
It was going to be well shot.
Like, it was going to be all of those things.
It was just, to me, too long.
Yeah.
But with the com brother, again, it's the variety of the, they'll take on any genre.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And they're going to make it awesome.
Yeah.
And I hope as a filmmaker is to be able to flex some of that, that flexibility in the
types of stories I tell too.
And, you know, don't want to be stuck in, you know, one trick, pony of telling the same
movie with different characters every time.
No, absolutely.
And no question.
Yeah.
Last couple questions from get you out of here.
Total left turn.
First, what is your favorite Jewish holiday?
Hanukkah.
How come?
I don't know.
I don't know.
Growing up, you know, I grew up as a hockey player in, you know, I think it was just me and my
cousin, one of the friend who were the Jews full of, you know, full of not Jews.
And we played, we made such a big like, around our hockey team about like Christmas and stuff.
And it was always just jokes about like, well, you guys get one day, we get eight like, you
know, I don't know.
I just, I just love Hanukkah.
I love, I do like the winter and all that.
Funny for a golfer to say.
I know.
I know.
I'm unexpected there.
What is, what's your favorite Jewish food?
That's tough.
I mean, I love multiple soup with corn brief sandwiches.
Conditions are great.
Yeah.
All excellent.
Any, anybody's multiple soup in particular?
Well, my great aunts growing up, she always used to make it at the Mugrams house and she's
not with us anymore, but that, that recipe still being passed around and she always made
the best multiple.
So, excellent.
It starts with a good recipe and you just gotta hope that people can follow it once it gets
passed down.
Yeah, that's a key.
You know, it's so funny that the variation in motsables, obviously, you know, you go to one family's
house and they're so there and then you go to this and so different.
I mean, they're all great, but so-
Right, the density, I got, I'm not-
The size, the density, smoothness.
Yeah, floaters, sinkers, like, I'm, I don't discriminate.
No, I just want good motsables.
They're all good.
Flavors gotta be there though, like you can have two people.
Do you a noodle guy feel like lots of noodles?
I don't mind noodles.
See, I like noodles too and I've had, I've heard people complain, and they're like, I don't
want noodles in my motsables, so I'm like, well, why wouldn't you?
Lloyd, if you didn't give me noodles, I wasn't, I wouldn't cry about it.
Yeah, I mean, the motsable, it's motsable, like it's, the motsable is good and flavorful,
the soup is good and flavorful.
That's where I've got to start with.
If there are noodles to add on to it, then I'll take them.
But if there aren't, like, I'm okay with that thing.
Yeah.
It's like a cherry on top.
Yes, the soup, but it starts with, to me, it starts with a broth.
Like if the base of the soup isn't good, then forget it, it's a lost cause.
I totally agree.
Michael Greyberg, this has been great.
The combination will be out there somewhere for people to watch soon.
We will have a link and hopefully, if there are still tickets left, folks, you can snag
one of those last seats, but it is definitely worth your time to go watch because it was
a very, a very fun 15-minute short.
But thank you for joining me and talking to me about moviemaking.
Appreciate it.
Thank you so much.
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(Locky piano music)