On this week’s episode of The Sounds of Film, host Tom Needham speaks with Annie Roney, founder of the In Real Life (IRL) Movie Club. Roney’s national nonprofit is dedicated to strengthening communities and bridging America’s political divides through the simple act of gathering together for films and conversations.

The club’s upcoming nationwide screening of My Omaha will take place on October 12 in over 100 theaters across the country, including Hudson, Huntington, New Paltz, and Bronxville in New York.

The chosen film, My Omaha, follows filmmaker Nick Beaulieu as he documents his hometown’s activism and his difficult relationship with his father, Randy, a devoted Trump supporter battling terminal cancer. Guided by activist Leo Louis II, Beaulieu searches for common ground with his father while confronting the racial and political divides that define Omaha—and the nation.

By selecting this film, IRL Movie Club hopes to encourage audiences from different backgrounds to sit down, watch together, and then engage in meaningful, face-to-face dialogue.

Instead of a traditional Q&A format, IRL encourages members to strike up conversations with seatmates and carry those discussions into local coffee shops and restaurants afterward. With subsidized tickets costing only $5 and free membership, Roney’s vision is deliberately grassroots, accessible, and community-driven—an effort to rebuild connection one screening at a time.

The Sounds of Film is the nation’s longest-running film and music themed radio show. For decades, host Tom Needham has interviewed a diverse roster of influential guests, including Laurie Anderson, Billy Joel, Cornel West, Alec Baldwin, Nile Rodgers, Dionne Warwick, Rob Reiner, and Ric Burns. The program has earned a reputation for spotlighting socially conscious filmmakers, musicians, and cultural leaders while offering in-depth discussions on the intersection of art, politics, and society.

The Sounds of Film can be heard on radio and is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music.

For more information, visit soundsoffilm.com