Neil LaBute & Kenneth Turan in conversation, as part of the 2006 L.A. Film Festival.

Combining provocative moral metaphors with dark portraits of American life, writer and director Neil Labute emerged as one of the most controversial new filmmakers with his debut, In the Company of Men. He has gone on to direct and write Your Friends and Neighbors, The Shape of Things, and The Wicker Man.

Kenneth Turan is the film critic for the Los Angeles Times and NPR's Morning Edition, as well as the director of the Los Angeles Times Book Prizes. His books include Never Coming to a Theater Near You and Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made.