Special Report: Galicia! (2026)

Hold your ears, folks. It's showtime. People pay good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn, and no monsters in the projection booth. Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring.

Turn it off. Which is your wine? This one! Ay! What's it called?

What's that mean? What does it mean? Everything is bullshit to us. Everything is bullshit. That's the perfect translation.

Hey folks, welcome to The Projection Booth. I'm your host, Mike White. Today, I'm talking with the married co-directors, Anna McGuire and Kyle Greenberg, about their new film, Galicia. Born out of a trip to visit friends in Spain, this hybrid documentary-style feature weaves real-life events, lost luggage, grape harvesting, into a story shaped by McGuire and Greenberg's long collaboration, which began with two acclaimed short films. Galicia has its world premiere on October 13, 2026 at the Downtown Festival screening at the Roxy Cinema in New York City, followed by a screening at the Santa Fe International Film Festival on October 16, 2026.

Visit stupidco.biz to catch their earlier shorts and then find out more about this film. I had a wonderful time talking with them, had a great time watching their film. I hope you have a great time listening. Enjoy. Obviously, I want to ask you more about the movie, but I want to know a little bit more about y'all.

How do you know each other and how long have you been working together? We're married. I can never assume. Never assume. No, no, no.

And we've been working together pretty much since we met, actually. Well, I mean, you know, give or take a few months, but we started making things together before. pretty hot on the heels of us starting a relationship and it's been quite a nice way to yeah a different way to get to know one another as well yeah. We've been together about four years now going on three years married and Galicia is our third co-directed project together we made two short films together Hi You are currently being recorded from 2024 and French Lessons from 2025 Um, and yeah, out of our relationship, um, out of our friendships, out of our travels, um, a lot of, um, creativity as, as blossomed and, um, come about. So yeah, a lot of it has happened somewhat organically, um, pun and no pun intended.

Um, and, um, yeah, you know. There's, there's, More in store, Anna and I are apart currently as she's in Toronto doing post-production on another film she's making. Al, you have been involved, at least via distribution, on a lot of films that I've seen over the years. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Yeah, I've been really lucky.

I've been in distribution for about 15 years, and I've been lucky enough to work with the likes of artists like Gaspar Noé and Jonas Ackerlund, Daryl Morris, Lena Dunham, the Ross brothers. And yeah, I helped start a company called Utopia about eight years ago and have also worked with a handful of other distribution companies over the years. I always knew I wanted to make films. I went to film school at the University of Texas at Austin. And while I was there, I found that there was a lot of great education about film production. but I just wasn't connecting with any, I wasn't necessarily finding the education in regards to film distribution and stumbled into it outside of school.

As a lot of my peers were taking PA gigs over the summer and during school, I was working in film offices and starting to learn various aspects of distribution and really kind of realized that the more traditional aspects of production didn't really excite me. What excited me was channeling, making films like I was a kid, I guess you could say. And yeah, doing it with my friends in kind of a more laid back way. The work that Anna and I have made together, I think is really rooted in a place of play and yeah, working with our friends and doing stuff a little bit outside of the box. Anna, you are a multi-threat type of person, writer, director, producer, cinematography, but primarily acting.

And you've been acting for quite a while. Can you tell me how you even got involved in that? Everyone knows Jack Fultrade's Master of None, but we just learned the other side of it. There's more to it, which is it's oftentimes better than a Master of One. Jack Fultrade's Master of None is oftentimes better than a Master of One.

But that was a nice learning in the context of wearing many hats. Yeah, I got into acting when I was seven, actually. And I was in an opera called De Rosencavalier at the ENO because I was part of a children's choir. And we came on in the background and sang Papa multiple times, Castigate Our Father. And I got the bug after that.

I think I came off my first night and my dad picked me up from the stage door and I was like, I want to do this forever. And he was like, oh, dear God. Quickly after, I went to a French primary school because my mum's from Quebec. And I grew up in London, but she wanted us to learn French and French. Not very long after that, there was a sign on our school door looking for French kids who could speak French for an unnamed film project.

And my mum dutifully was like, oh, you said you missed this. I think I'd probably been moping around the house after the opera finished. She was like, oh. Do you want me to send away, find out what this is? And I was like, yes, 100%.

And it turned out to be Saving Private Ryan. And I auditioned for that and I got that part. And then the same casting directors gave me a script for Ever After. And I auditioned for that and I got that part. And then one thing led to another and I acted as a kid.

I went to school. It was a pretty normal life. I was lucky in that respect. I did go up for some big parts in my time when I was quite young. And at the time, I'm sure I was disappointed that I didn't get them back.

As I've gotten older, I've been very grateful that I had the sort of pretty normal childhood I did. It's just every now and then I'd pop off to school. get to be on set, which I've always loved being on set. So the opposite of Kyle, always loved being on set, loved all things, making movies, loved getting lost in the source of just 12 hours and real life outside, not mattering. So yes, you are a couple. And I'm curious, how do you work together on these projects?

How do you decide who's going to do what? Who's going to be picking up these pieces versus those? What's that relationship like too? I think it's something that has changed slightly depending on the projects, but I feel like it's been somewhat of an unspoken agreement that we know how to divide and conquer, but also just work in tandem. On our first project, how you were currently being recorded, it stemmed out of real life and experience that Anna and I had just taking a walk one day and the script or the treatment for that project, because in a way it's also a hybrid documentary, like Galicia really came about with just the two of us hanging at a beach one afternoon and talking out the beats of what.

The story could look like. There was a seed for our next project, which was more rooted around myself and the caricature of film distributor. So that was something I took an initial pass on. And then Anna really helped define and shape in a greater way because Anna has such a background in not just acting, but also education and script development and has been teaching screenwriting for many years. In a way, my.

Lack of formula Or structure can also be really supported by Anna's knowledge of structure. And then I think we've joked at times that once you know the formulas, once you know the structure, then you can start playing with. It a bit more. Famously, Michael Caine would take roles in places that he wanted to go basically on vacation. I've heard the same thing about Adam Sandler and all of his Hawaiian films.

Is this just a major tax write-off that you're doing with this Galicia film? Oh my God, we're trying to learn that stuff right now. So yeah, maybe Adam Sandler, if you've got any tips, let us know. We'd love Adam Sandler's tips on how to best write off a vacation film. it definitely stemmed out of the desire to visit our friends. Galicia came together because we love to travel.

We went, Anna's mom currently lives in France. We went to go visit her for Christmas and on the heels of Christmas, we said, Oh, let's, we were on our way back to London. So we said, why don't we pop into Paris and just spend a couple of nights by ourselves. And we went to a natural wine bar that a friend had told us about. And at that wine bar, We just ended up hitting it off with a couple across the table from us.

And their names were Max and Paola. We just spent the whole night chatting and drinking wine and yeah. Just quickly building an immediate friendship. And about a month or so later, they reached out to us and they said, Hey, do you want to come visit us in Galicia and help us harvest grapes? They were making their own wine and we were walking to dinner. shortly after, and Anna said, what if we went to Galicia and the apocalypse happened and we could never come home?

Yeah, I think travel and film, those are kind of the perks of the job on some level. Having the opportunity to go to places. And often when you meet friends abroad, you don't necessarily have the opportunity to go visit them. So this was a nice way to go, oh, we're going to come visit you. Do you want to make something with us?

And they'd never made a film before, but luckily they are fun, adventurous, playful people who were like, yeah, sure. Why not? Sounds like something to do. Why not? So it was great.

How much was scripted versus how much did you just let the situations dictate the film? It wasn't scripted as such. We'd actually initially thought a bit about it as like a short film, a kind of a third short film. There was one scene that was scripted. There's one actor in the film.

We had a sense of a shape and we had a sense of that. But in terms of script, it was more structured like a documentary. It was more kind of the idea of setups or different ways to script. Communicate elements of the. Story but we also we'd never been there before so we didn't know the locations we didn't know who else was going to be there Max and Paola had friends who were helping with the harvest and they were all willing to jump in and we also didn't want to impose dialogue upon people because we wanted it to feel they weren't actors in the first place so I think the notion of it being a documentary or a hybrid documentary was very baked into the idea right from the start and we wanted to go and see what happened but like the baggage being lost for example that was all real that we didn't even think about that until it literally happened and then obviously with going out and picking the grapes we didn't know what the weather was going to be like and so it was we had to really respond to what was happening and And yeah, for us, it was more about how we crafted in the edit, which is also why our editor is, has a writing credit because it was so much about crafting this, the energy and the feeling of.

It as we get towards the space, which is a bit more hybrid. It was, how do we maintain the authenticity as much as possible? Anna and I are ourselves, but we're not. We like to joke that we're exercising the worst versions of ourselves. In the movie.

Deciding on demons, yeah. And so, yeah, I think we knew there were certain beats that we wanted to hit. However, it was really just about how do we make sure everybody feels comfortable and has as much fun as well doing it because everybody was donating their time around an intense harvest. Out there picking grapes, stomping grapes all day. It's not easy work. it was really about that play aspect.

How do we have as much fun as we possibly can? And how do we just make sure that everybody can be themselves in a lack of, for lack of better words. And you're talking about, we didn't know what the weather was going to be like. We hadn't been to these locations. It's basically filmmaking to the nth degree where it's like, you, you might not know where a location is, or you might lose location and suddenly have to pivot.

So it feels like, All of those things that you two have probably learned over all these years of being in front of and behind cameras or in post-production positions. It's like you had to rely on all of those things that flying by the seat of your pants, which I'm sure you've had to do in real situations so many times before. Yeah, absolutely. It did really feel like the sort of culmination of a lot of previous work. And also its own thing.

I think it was so liberating because. We didn't have investors or a studio. Or producers beyond us. And it was really just us wanting to try something different and taking a bit more of a leap than the shorts that we'd made. And in that respect, it was a really amazing exercise in letting go and in just saying, okay, it's going to be what it wants to be.

And yeah, okay, I can craft this a bit here, craft this a bit there. Letting something run through you on some level. It did feel quite, I always say this, but it did feel quite a bit witchy on some level. There were elements where you were like, I don't need, I'm not driving this. I don't need to, I just need to show up and cook meals and point a camera at something.

Then it's happening. So it was interesting. It's a very interesting experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in making a no budget film. There are multiple levels to it, right?

It's one of the most memorable vacations I've ever had. And one of the, you know, most unique trips that Anna and I have taken together in the last four years, we've probably been to 20 plus cities, if not more. And yeah, I think there's a level to it that we've talked about, or there's an aspect to it to making a film like this that we've talked about a couple of times, which is it has to stop at some point. You can't be filming yourself every single day, every hour. There's stuff in the film that it's clear that we didn't want to be filmed or is not showing the most flattering aspects or angles of us, whether it's from the chin up while Anna's sleeping on an airplane or me a bit hungover getting up after lots of wine the night before and Anna filming me in bed.

There's an aspect of committing to the bit that was necessary. Yeah, you had to be all in, right? You just had to be like, okay, we're all in. It is what it is. Yeah, when we started filming, I was like, oh, maybe we should buy this camera so we can just keep expanding on this.

And then by the end of it, We were just like, oh no, we need to give the camera back. We borrowed it from a friend and we can't film anymore. It's done. I definitely cherish the experience and the opportunity we had to spend more time with Max and Paolo. We haven't been able to be in the same place with them since making the movie.

Bringing the movie or distributing the movie is an exciting opportunity to reconnect with them, hopefully in Europe and in Spain in the next year. And then, yeah, we made some new friends along the way. And that, to me, was very special. And part of what we want to instill in the release of the film is this movie wouldn't exist if we hadn't spoken to people across the table from us, which requires a bit of bravery. It's, oh, who are these people?

And I think with the release of the film, we would really love for there to be conversation and for people to meet and talk and question things. Apocalypse and love and hope talk. To me a little bit about your editor how long have you known them and how is that relationship shaping this film because like you said like this could just be a vacation film but there is the apocalypse to it and there is the shape and size of this film how did. That work out well saffron weaver is an amazing editor big shout out saffron weaver. And she was one of my students.

I was working, I've done quite a few years working for the BFI Future Film Academy. And I can't remember what year it was that she was on. Our course, but she came in as, I think it's 18 years old, one of our students and was very amazing at the time already. And super wanted to get stuck in and super conscientious and got some great assistant editing gigs quite soon after that on quite big shows. And then I posted online when our first short came up, how you were currently being recorded, because we were like, we don't know who's going to edit it.

But we're like, maybe we just need someone to help organize the footage to start with. And so I just posted. Online looking for an assistant editor. to help with some footage organization get in touch and she reached out she was like oh I'd be interested maybe in in maybe editing but I don't know if I'm where I'm at in that respect and I was like oh this could be a really great opportunity for both for all of us I was like we can help guide you in that respect And it was fun for her. So we started working together and very quickly realized that she was a brilliant genius. That was really awesome and really just such an amazing artist in her own right.

And so, yeah, we just all very. Quickly developed a really lovely workflow and rapport. And then we had two shorts to play with to explore that. And then Galicia was a no brainer. And she actually was living in Australia during Galicia, the beginning of it.

She's lived in multiple places subsequently. So we've been like doing it via online for quite a long time. And yeah, she's developed so many amazing skills. She learned all the After Effects stuff and all the glitching stuff is all hers. And yeah, she's brought so much to the table.

It really feels like she's so invaluable to our process that, yeah, we can't wait to make more work with her. And now your premiere is coming up, right? Coming up pretty darn soon. Yeah, so the film world premieres on October 13th as part of the Downtown Festival in New York at the Roxy Cinema. And then after New York, it's screening at the Santa Fe International Film Festival on October 16th.

And yeah, both of those locations are really special to us. Not only did both of the festivals screen our two short films, but I'm from New York originally and Anna and I eloped in New Mexico in route to the Santa Fe International Film Festival nearly three years ago. And the film is going to screen the night before our anniversary, which yeah, it just feels quite crazy and cool. What a way to celebrate an anniversary too. We just like to make things.

Can people see your earlier shorts? They can, yeah. We have a website which is hiyouarecurrentlybeingrecorded.com where the shorts are playing on a loop after one another. There's only a bit of time they have left. The link is actually going to expire on October 13th when the film premieres in New York.

The films have been up there on what we first referred to as an endless loop. And now it's time for that loop to end. as Galicia comes out into the world and we kind of enter the next phase of our releases. With stupid cow. Yeah. But yeah, for, for folks who do want to see the short films after October 13th, we've partnered with a great new label called video storage to create some really awesome encrypted hard drives that, that we'll have on hand for special screenings and events.

And the hard drives for people who haven't heard of video storage are like a Blu-ray that you stick into your computer. They're quite small. They're like dinky. They're really cute. You use a USB or USB-C port and you plug it into your computer and it's like you've plugged in a Blu-ray.

So it has a menu, but it has Galicia on it. And then it also includes the two short films. So that's going to be one way to find the shorts going forward. We certainly hope that there'll be opportunities to screen Galicia with the shorts at some point. And then the shorts are still playing some festivals as well.

High Year currently being recorded is going to play at the Destroyed Underground Film Festival in Vancouver in November. And French Lessons is screening actually at a wine festival in called Most Festival in Barcelona in November as well. So it's cool to see that they're still living their lives. We think of the films as like a spiritual trilogy. We didn't set out to make a trilogy by any way, shape, or form.

And they don't have a traditional continuity, but the three projects feature Anna and Kyle as Anna and Kyle. Yeah. They all intersect with real life in their own unique and fabricated ways. We're excited to see where the closing of the loop leads to next. Yeah, we'll see what the next loop is.

Maybe it's not a loop. Maybe it's a spiral. Obviously, if I Google Galicia, I'm going to see a lot of information about the area of Spain. So where's the best place to find out more about the film itself? This is one of my favorite things to plug.

You could find more about all of our films and Galicia at our website, stupidco.biz. Or for folks on social media, it's at stupidcobiz, B-I-Z. So yeah, check us out there and you can find tickets, information on the shorts. You'll be able to find a link to our endless slash ending loop and more. And what's next for y'all other than supporting this film and enjoying your anniversary?

I'm currently editing my first solo feature, which is called External Neighbors. And it has been a labor of love by very many people in very many places. And I'm so excited to share it. Sometime next year, you just got to edit as you go and see where you land. And then in the meantime, we're just doing a lot of stuff with Stupid Co.

We're continuing. We're doing stupid chat. I'm teaching a screen development workshop, a script development workshop right now. Yeah, we're interested and excited to see what comes next naturally with SuperCode and what we're doing in that arena. Kyle's got his own projects as well.

Yeah, there's a few things bubbling project-wise. I recently illustrated a poetry book called Blood Brother by an artist named Lily Lady. There's a handful of other films that we've been talking about with some of our frequent collaborators between Anna and myself. Yeah, we're excited to get Galicia out there. There's an.

Out-of-the-box tour that we're working on. For folks who haven't been to our website yet or seen our social yet, we recently announced that we've partnered with a Napa Valley label called The Vice Wine to create our own limited edition orange wine called Stupid to Do, Stupid Not To in celebration of Galicia. So that wine will be available to taste at the Downtown Festival and the Santa Fe International Film Festival. And then we really want to take the film on more of an alternative, intimate tour where We can meet more people. We can enjoy wine.

Visit more places. The Adam Sandler effect. Yeah, so if Adam's listening to this, we have a few months to figure out how to write off a tour next spring. Anna and Kyle, thank you so much for your time. I look forward to talking with you again about your next projects.

Thank you so much, Mike. And best of luck and happy anniversary early. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.