Kentucker Audley is a filmmaker, film programmer, actor and Movies hat salesman. His latest film, Strawberry Mansion (co-directed with Albert Birney), premiered at Sundance 2021. His previous directorial effort, Sylvio (also co-directed with Albert Birney), debuted at SXSW and was named one of the Best 10 Movies of The Year by The New Yorker. As an actor, he’s starred in indie films such as Christmas, Again and Sun Don’t Shine. He also founded NoBudge and Movies Brand.
We’re taking a break for a couple days for the holiday, but there could be no more fitting way to mark Independence Day than with Kentucker Audley’s video essay on the film of the same name, the first in a series of amazing video essays he made for Talkhouse. Happy 4th, everyone! — N.D.
To celebrate the release of Independence Day: Resurgence, I thought I’d go back and watch the original Independence Day movie. It’s a milestone movie full of excitement, suspense, action and comic relief. And it will always be remembered as the movie that made Will Smith a Hollywood legend, and one of Jerry Bruckheimer’s best movies. The form of video essay has grown in popularity over the last couple years because it’s a great way to dig deeper into the magic of movies. ID4, as it’s commonly referred to, is a perfect movie to explore through the video essay because of how awesome it is. I hope you enjoy revisiting this classic as much as I did!
