Rediscovering Obsession: A Conversation with Richard Shepard on his movie FILM GEEK, airing on TCM next weekend

By James Kenney
April, 2025

For filmmaker Richard Shepard (The Matador, Dom Hemingway, HBO’s “Girls”), movies are more than a job, more than even a passion—they’re a personal history. His latest film, Film Geek—which premiered at New York City’s Film Forum in 2024 and makes its broadcast debut Sunday, April 27th on Turner Classic Movies—is a rich, reflective documentary that weaves together more than 200 film clips, intimate home videos, and vivid memories from a bygone era of New York movie-going. It’s both a cinephile’s dream and a moving exploration of family, memory, and identity.

Last year, I sat down with Richard Shepard for an in-depth career-spanning interview tied to the re-release of his debut film, The Linguini Incident, starring David Bowie and Rosanna Arquette. In this new Q&A, Shepard opens up about the intimate process of making Film Geek, how his relationship with his enigmatic father shaped the story, and the nostalgic magic of New York’s lost theaters. From the emotional ride of revisiting old memories to the fun of finally giving The Linguini Incident its moment in the spotlight, Shepard opens up with real honesty, heart, and a clear love for movies and the stories they tell.

Q & A with Richard Shepard

Your film has clips of over 200 movies and personal archives. What was your process for selecting these specific clips?

I wrote the first draft of this movie during Covid, during a two week quarantine in Toronto while I was shooting some episodes of Handmaid’s Tale. I started the choices with the movies I remember going to as a kid, as that’s a big part of the film— how I remembered the exact NYC theaters where I saw almost all the films from ages 6-18. As I started actually putting the film together— with my old NYU classmate editor Adam Lichtenstein— other films started organically becoming part of the narrative. But every film featured in the doc was one I actually saw during that time.

You delve into your relationship with your enigmatic father. Did exploring this relationship through film help you understand him and yourself better?

Fully. This was actually the hardest film I have ever written. Because it was so very personal. I loved my dad, but he was a complicated person and really diving into that, and how it affected my childhood and my future moviemaking was definitely tougher then I first imagined, but also enlightening and fascinating.

Growing up in New York City during the 1970s and 1980s, you were immersed in its vibrant movie-going culture. What are some key theaters that you recall spending time in or screenings?

Sketch by Skip Sturtz, Memory by Richard Shepard

I talk about over 20 theaters that made huge impressions on me. Whether it was the Ziegfeld where I saw The Towering Inferno to The Regency on the upper west side where I saw The Godfather in revival for the first time, to Theater 80 St, Marks in the east village where I saw all sorts of classics in 16mm. Of all the theaters we talk about only two remain in New York. It sucks.

The film features artwork by Skip Sturtz, illustrating 22 movie theaters from your youth. How did this collaboration come about, and what role do these illustrations play in the narrative?

At first we looked for photos of those theaters but there weren’t many and they were always showing the wrong movies on the marquees, so we decided we would get an artist to draw the theaters, that way the marquees would only show movies I actually saw there. My producing partner Stacey Reiss — who also produced my John Cazale doc, I KNEW IT WAS YOU: REDISCOVERING JOHN CAZALE (which by the way will be showing in June at Film Forum as part of their John Cazale fest) and my bonkers Netflix horror film movie THE PERFECTION— Stacey found Skip on Instagram after searching for artists who drew buildings. Skip turned out to a a fantastic find— he meticulously researched each theatre, and his drawings are near perfect renditions of those forgotten movie houses.

For aspiring filmmakers and cinephiles, what do you hope they take away from your journey depicted in Film Geek?

I made this film for my friends and family to understand my weird movie obsession. The fact that audiences have responded and we’ve shown it at Film Forum and The American Cinematheque and now TCM is a true gift.

Now that your Linguini Incident has gotten a fair shake in its recut on home video, Criterion Channel, etc., do you have any reflections on the last year of its re-release?

Shepard and David Bowie on the set of THE LINGUINI INCIDENT

I made Linguini Incident when I was 25, and the whole experience from the producer taking the cut away to it opening on the weekend of the LA Riots damn near ruined my career just as it was starting. The fact that 30 years later I got the rights back and could “fix up” the film back to something I am proud of is one of the greatest adventures of my career. And being able to hang out with Rosanna Arquette and Eszter Balint and Marlee Matlin again, and to finally be proud of this weird movie we all made with David Bowie three decades ago was a blast.

Film Geek isn’t just a love letter to cinema—it’s a memoir in reels, a testament to the formative power of the movies, and an emotional excavation of the bonds that shape us. Whether you’re a filmmaker, a film lover, or someone just trying to piece together your past, Shepard’s story resonates in all the right ways.

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Tremble…Sigh…Wonder…