Americana with Tony Tost and Mimi Cave (Ep. 560)

The Director’s Cut - A DGA Podcast

Directors Guild of America

Tv & Film

4.6 • 806 Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Director Tony Tost discusses his new film, Americana, with fellow Director Mimi Cave in a Q&A at the DGA theater in Los Angeles. In the conversation, he discusses how the story structure was influenced by Westerns and nonlinear narratives like Pulp Fiction, how he worked with his cinematographer to achieve an analog 1970s aesthetic, and what he learned making this film as a first-time Director. The film follows a waitress with dreams of bigger and better things, who teams up with a military veteran to gain possession of a mysterious and valuable artifact. They soon find themselves in the crosshairs of a ruthless criminal, an unrelenting Western antiquities dealer and an ever increasing list of pursuers as blood is shed to secure the relic.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know, I told them straight up. I'm just like, I didn't go to film school. Like, I can't really talk to you more than 40 seconds about lenses without exposing myself as a moron. But just like, I want to have it feel this kind of analog 70s feel. Like I wanted to like look like a Neil Young record sounds you know like that that kind of thing
0:22.7	and and so he's like
0:24.8	okay mate I'll
0:26.0	you know I'll figure that out and then he came back
0:28.3	and then he did it Hello, and welcome back to the Director's Cut, brought to you by the Director's Guild of America.
0:52.6	In this episode, a valuable artifact throws a small South Dakota town into turmoil
0:57.2	and director Tony Toast's dark western comedy, Americana.
1:02.1	The film follows a waitress with dreams of bigger and better things,
1:06.0	who teams up with a military veteran to gain possession of a mysterious and valuable artifact.
1:11.7	They soon find themselves in the crosshairs of a ruthless criminal, an unrelenting Western
1:16.4	antiquities dealer, and an ever-increasing list of pursuers as blood is shed to secure the relic.
1:23.9	Americana is Toast's feature directorial debut.
1:28.6	Following a screening of the film at the DGA Theater in Los Angeles,
1:32.6	Toast spoke with director Mimi Cave about filming Americana.
1:36.9	Listen on for their spoiler-filled conversation.
1:48.2	How's it, how's everyone doing?
1:57.3	I was, I was just outside with Tony and I, I didn't say a thing about the movie because I wanted to save it for this conversation.
2:00.0	Um, but that film was so fun.
2:00.4	Okay. Um, yeah, give him a hand, a was so fun. Okay. Yeah, give him a hand a round of applause. And I have
2:07.0	written down some questions for you. Okay. Yeah, I've written down answers and we'll just
2:10.8	check. Yeah, we'll just go back and forth. Exactly. So I don't know if everyone knows
2:17.2	that this is your first feature.
	...

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