The Frame

Taylor Mac is the theater artist, drag performer, MacArthur fellow and creative mind behind a 24-hour-long retelling of American history through popular songs; was James Levine allowed to remain in power at the Metropolitan Opera because of "maestro worship"?

Boots Riley of the hip-hop group The Coup talks about his directing debut, "Sorry To Bother You" – a satire about race in America; “High Maintenance” co-creator Katja Blichfeld says she and fellow co-creator Ben Sinclair kept the show intact despite their breakup; the massive SxSW tech, film and music fest is underway in Austin.

"A Wrinkle In Time" author Madeleine L'Engle mixed spirituality and science in her controversial book, now it's a big Disney movie; filmmaker Alma Har'el challenges the advertising business to hire more women to direct commercials; Spotify promises to expand your musical choices, but does it?

Hiro Murai had only directed music videos when Donald Glover tapped him to direct "Atlanta"; Amy Adrion's documentary, "Half the Picture," takes an empowering view of women in filmmaking; Tom Brosseau's latest album is titled "Treasures Untold."

The company that produced "The Wolf of Wall Street" is fined $60 million in embezzlement case; Shawn Colvin's new album is made for kids and their parents; Quiara Alegría Hudes' trilogy of plays gets a first-ever simultaneous staging.

Aparna Nancherla manages to find comic relief in her own depression and anxiety; how to fix an Academy Awards broadcast that hit an all-time ratings low; Tamar-kali's score for "Mudbound" is "the blood beneath the mud."

From the diversity seen on the red carpet and onstage, to the pointed messages delivered during the ceremony, the movie industry is at a tipping point.

We take one last look at the nominees and the larger cultural and political issues surrounding the ceremony; talent agencies have been in the middle of Hollywood's abuse scandals. Maha Dakhil talks about what role the agencies should play to protect their clients.

Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz's book, “The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies,” examines the fallout from Sony's computers being hacked; Spotify seeks cash infusion as it prepares to sell stocks in the company; the Independent Spirit Awards take place on the eve of the Oscars.

John Horn & Rebecca Keegan of Vanity Fair look at key Academy Award nominees in a year that saw significant contributions by women. And, at least this year, it's not #OscarsSoWhite.

We discuss some of the films that screened at TIFF and look at how the triad of fall film festivals (which includes Venice and Telluride) have already begun to shape the awards races; Reality TV veteran Jonathan Murray's latest show "Born This Way," follows a group of seven young adults with Down syndrome and their families.

The Pacific Standard Time art extravaganza features more than 60 institutions across Southern California presenting Latino art; Hollywood Reporter TV critic Daniel Fienberg chats about who will win at the Emmy Awards; actress Natalie Portman has helped turn Jonathan Safran Foer’s book, “Eating Animals," into a documentary of the same name.

Artist Ai Wei Wei, now no longer under house arrest in China, spent a year traveling around the world to track the global refugee crisis for his documentary, "Human Flow." He tells The Frame he wants audiences to realize this crisis is a human crisis that cannot be ignored. And actor Giancarlo Esposito reveals the personal reasons he wanted to direct, produce and star in "The Show"– a satire about society's obsession with sensationalized reality TV.

Actress Greta Gerwig goes behind the camera for her directing debut, "Lady Bird"; despite claims from studios, there's no apparent corollary between Rotten Tomatoes scores and box office performance; the Diaz sisters, aka Ibeyi, break down their song, "Deathless."

For his new movie, "Brad's Status," writer-director Mike White taps into his relationship with his father. The Whites discuss how their social anxieties are reflected in Ben Stiller's character in the film; we revisit conversations with Creative Arts Emmy winners: songwriter Common, voiceover actor Ashly Burch and "Fargo" composer Jeff Russo.

Actor and producer Nnamdi Asomugha ("Crown Heights") reveals how he made the transition from pro football player to Hollywood; the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) begins with hot movies starring the likes of Jennifer Lawrence and Shia LeBoeuf; how the Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez and High School students turned the crosswalks outside the Broad museum into colorful art.

The French street artist JR has installed a provocative image on the U.S.-Mexico border; Oscar's new president, John Bailey, inherits big challenges; "Trophy" examines the politics and controversy of big-game hunting.

The filmmaker debuted his new movie at the Telluride Film Festival — an unlikely love story between a cleaning lady and an amphibious creature being held by the government; DACA recipient Christian Hurtado is included in a documentary about abuse of construction workers in Texas.

The Telluride Film Festival premiered the movie about the 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs; "Dolores" tells the story of the woman who co-founded the United Farm Workers union.

Several venues in Houston's downtown theater district suffered flood damage from Hurricane Harvey; director Scott Cooper debuts his period western, "Hostiles," at the Telluride Film Festival; a new virtual reality experience puts you in flatline mode.

The Telluride festival has become a reliable bellwether for Academy Award attention; Kira Kelly is a Hollywood rarity: an African-American female cinematographer; behind the scenes with the sound engineers at the Bowl.

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, we revisit our recent interview with former Vice-President Al Gore about his latest climate change documentary; in "Patti Cake$," Danielle MacDonald plays a rapper from New Jersey whose rocky road is not unlike the path traveled by the actress herself.