Listening and Empathy: A Conversation with Todd Haynes

Few filmmakers working today know how to listen like Todd Haynes, and fewer still have understood just how crucial listening can be to power unforgettable stories. His characters are often marginalised drifters wrestling with identity crises, societal expectations, and the overwhelming power of their desires. Indeed, many of his indelible protagonists are women struggling to break free from restrictive environments, members of the LGBTQ+ community navigating hostile circumstances, or outsiders fighting to assert their right to exist in a world that leaves them little room to do that. In this career-spanning chat, the filmmaker reflects on his wondrous journey through the seventh art, some of his most essential films, and the significance that listening—to his collaborators, his creations, and his own intuitions—has played along the way.