Face2Face with David Peck

Alba Sotorra and David Peck talk about her new film Commander Arian, liberation, gender disparity, equal rights, real democracy, implementing a feminist state and women, war and freedom.

Synopsis

Filmmaker Alba Sotorra embeds with this group of Kurdish resistance fighters gaining unprecedented access to the Commander and her troops, when Commander Arian is hit by 5 bullets, Sotorra helps nurse her back from the brink of death.

On the front line of the Syrian war, 30-year-old Commander Arian guides a female battalion towards the city of Kobane to release its people from the grip of ISIS in Alba Sotorra's empowering tale of emancipation and freedom. When the war in Syria broke, a group of women from the Kurdish resistance assembled the YPJ—Women's Protection Unit. Arian, who witnessed at a young age the nefarious treatment of sexual assault victims, leads the unit and dedicates her life to battling ISIS.

As the YPJ inches closer to their target, she implores her comrades to discover the true meaning of their fight: freedom for the next generation of women.

With unquestioned access to the commander and her troops, including delicate scenes of her recovering from multiple bullet wounds, Sotorra brilliantly crafts an enthralling portrait of a woman on a mission.

Watch the trailer here.

Biography

EAVE graduate Alba Sotorra has produced feature documentaries and fiction films from cinema and television since 2005. She graduated from cinema school in Madrid (UCM 2003) and has an MA on Cultural Studies (2008). She participated in SOURCES2 (2010), Berlinale Talent Campus (2011), Dokincubator (2014), IDFA Academy (2015) and EAVE Producers Workshop (2017).

She is member of PROA (Producers Association) and CIMA (Women Producers Association).

She is founder and director of the company Alba Sotorra.

To learn more about the film visit the site here.

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Image Copyright: Alba Sotorra. Used with permission.

For more information about his podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Yasemin Şamdereli and David Peck talk about her new film Night of all Nights, love, sex and relationships, living in fast times, patience, romanticism, cloud 9, others and what really counts in a relationship.

Synopsis

An inter-caste couple from India that had to break with their families in order to get married, a Japanese couple that was forced to marry and struggles with love, a

German postwar couple and two gay men from the United States, who were only allowed to marry after five decades, solving the associated legal problems by adopting each other.

Four couples from three continents talk openly and honestly about what it means to be together for 50 years or longer. Whatever brought them together, whether it was love or an arranged marriage, they all have one thing in common: they have devoted their entire life to this relationship.

Yasemin and Nesrin Şamdereli have made an amusing and touching, an entertaining and profound film about love. With surprising openness, their protagonists talk about sex and morals, love and society, children and partnership.

Watch the trailer here.

Biography

Yasemin Şamdereli was born and grew up in Dortmund, West Germany. After completing her Abitur exams she went straight to the HFF (University of Television and Film) in Munich. While studying, Yasemin worked alongside Jackie Chan on two of his international features as Assistant Director.

Her graduation film KISMET was screened at many renowned film festivals and also won the Short Tiger Award. After directing two films for television her first feature length cinema production ALMANYA: WELCOME TO GERMANY premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2011 and went on to receive numerous prizes including two German Film Awards for Best Script and Best Film.

Learn more about the film here.

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Image Copyright: Yasemin Şamdereli. Used with permission.

For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Beatrice Behn and René Gebhardt talk about their new film The Artist and the Pervert, love and destructive desires, the complicated relationship between art and life, voyeurism, the clichéd representation of others and espresso machines as inspiration.

Watch the Trailer here.

Synopsis

Georg Friedrich Haas is arguably the most important living composer of symphonic music, but also a descendant of a Nazi family. His wife, whom he met through the dating site “OkCupid,” is an African-American kink educator.

Their deep relationship is based on an open, yet controversial role-playing game between a white male master and a black female slave.

This groundbreaking film documents their lives between perversion, art, love, and radical self-determination.

Biography

Beatrice Behn is a freelance film critic with 10+ years of experience and senior film critic and editor-in-chief of Kino-Zeit, the largest German language film magazine for arthouse and independent film.

She is also about to graduate from Freie Universität Berlin with a Master's degree in film studies. Her fields of expertise are genre cinema, bodies & genders and feminist film studies. ̓THE ARTIST & THE PERVERT‘ is her first feature length documentary. Beatrice is based in Berlin, Germany.

René Gebhardt is a German art director, designer and filmmaker. He won numerous national and international creative awards for his works as an art director, 10 Lions at the ‚Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity‘ among them.  ̓THE ARTIST & THE PERVERT‘ is his first feature length documentary film. He is based in Berlin, Germany.

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Image Copyright: Beatrice Behn and Rene Gebhardt. Used with permission.

For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck talk about their fascinating and important new film The Cleaners, censorship, the new digital public, content moderators, and what it means to outsource responsibility.

Watch the Trailer here.

Synopsis

Enter a hidden third world shadow industry of digital cleaning, where the Internet rids itself of what it doesn't like. Here we meet five “digital scavengers” among thousands of people outsourced from Silicon Valley whose job is to delete “inappropriate” content off the net. In a parallel struggle, we meet people around the globe whose lives are dramatically affected by online censorship. A typical “cleaner” must observe and rate thousands of often deeply disturbing images and videos every day, leading to lasting psychological impacts.

Yet underneath their work lies profound questions around what makes an image art or propaganda and what defines journalism. Where exactly is the point of balance for social media to be neither an unlegislated space nor a forum rife with censorship?

The Cleaners struggles to come to terms with this new and disconcerting paradigm. Evolving from a shared social vision of a global village to a web of fake news and radicalization, the film charts the rise and fall of social media’s utopian ideology.

Biography

HANS BLOCK - Director Hans Block is a German theater director, filmmaker and musician. He studied music at the University of Arts in Berlin and theater directing at Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. In 2014, Block became resident director and member of the Artistic Direction of the Box at Schauspiel Frankfurt. Productions there included “Mysterien – Unberechenbar werden” by Knut Hamsun, “Aufzeichnungen aus dem Kellerloch” by Fjodor Dostojewski and “Flankufuroto” by Bonn Park.

In 2014, he was invited to the festival “Radikal Jung“ at the Münchner Volkstheater with his production “Austrian Psycho,” which was awarded the Best Production Prize of the festival. His radio drama production “Don Don Don Quijote - Attackéee“ was awarded as best production of Prix Marulić 2015.

MORITZ RIESEWIECK – Director Moritz Riesewieck is a German essay author, scriptwriter, theater- and film director. He studied theater directing at Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin. Before he studied some semesters of Economics as a fellow of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation and worked as assistant director at Schaubuehne am Lehniner Platz in Berlin.

In 2014 he staged the piece “Woyzeck” by Georg Buechner in Mexico City. His Spanish/ German graduation production was invited to renowned Heidelberg Play Market. In 2016 Moritz Riesewieck was granted the state of Berlin’s Elsa Neumann Scholarship for his innovative theater works which were shown at festivals in Berlin and Hamburg and most recently at Theater Dortmund.

In the same year Riesewieck presented a lecture performance about digital cleansing at re:publica Berlin and at Berliner Theatertreffen. His essay “Digital Dirt Work” was published by German publishing house dtv in September 2017. Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck work collaboratively under the label “Laokoon,” named after the legendary Trojan seer who revealed the Trojan Horse as a dangerous fraud.

In their works Riesewieck and Block aim to reveal the Trojan horses of our time. Their projects, which they develop in various media forms, start with investigations and end up as striking, complex narrations.

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Image Copyright: Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion and Hans Block and Moritz Riesewieck. Used with permission.

For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Håvard and I talked about his new film "Golden Dawn Girls", far-right ideology, Greece and how love is interpreted.

Watch the Trailer here.

Synopsis

"Whatever has happened to Greece?" wonders filmmaker Håvard Bustnes out loud at the start of this disturbing documentary. In recent years, its image as a country of sunny beaches and friendly people has been overshadowed by political ideologies that are terrifyingly close to Nazism. With many prominent members of the far-right Golden Dawn party now behind bars, a daughter, a wife and a mother continue to propagate its message—and all three of them are seasoned enough to avoid any slips of the tongue during interviews.

The resulting material, supplemented with archive footage that leaves no room for doubt about the depraved side of this political party, reveals an ever-widening gulf between clear facts and political image-making. While it’s frustrating that the women are so unbending in their views, it does illustrate how wearing blinders can derail an entire society.

Biography

Director Håvard Bustnes is a multi award winning director and producer. He holds a degree in Directing for Television from the College of Film and TV at Lillehammer, Norway. His new film Golden Dawn Girls premiered in the IDFA Competition for Feature-Length Documentary in November 2017. Earlier films include Two Raging Grannies, Health Factory and Big John that have traveled around the world on cinema, TV and in the festival circuit.

The feature documentary Big John won the prestigious national Academy Awards Amanda as best theatrical documentary film. It was also awarded the Best Nordic Documentary Prize at Nordic Panorama. His films have been broadcast on ZDF (Germany), Arte (France), FR (Denmark), NRK (Norway), VPRO (Netherland), Chanel 8 (Israel), ORF (Austria), SVT (Sweden), YLE (Finland), TV4 (Ireland), TVP (Poland), Aljazeera Documentary Chanel (Qatar) and NHK (Japan). His films has been selected to more than 70 festivals all over the world, and two of his films had theatrical release in Norway, Denmark, Taiwan and South Korea.

To learn more about the film visit the site here.

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Image Copyright: UpNorth Film and Håvard Bustnes. Used with permission.

For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound. 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joseph and I talk about his new film The Game Changers, plant based diets, nutrition and diet, why it’s important not to be self-righteous.

Watch the Trailer here.

Synopsis

Directed by Oscar-winner Louie Psihoyos, THE GAME CHANGERS tells the story of James Wilks — elite special forces trainer and winner of The Ultimate Fighter — as he travels the world on a quest for the truth behind the world's most dangerous myth: that meat is necessary for protein, strength and optimal health.

Executive produced by James Cameron and featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger, THE GAME CHANGERS fuses live, groundbreaking science with cinematic stories of struggle and triumph showcasing some of the strongest, fastest and toughest athletes on the planet.

Meeting elite athletes, special ops soldiers, visionary scientists, cultural icons, and everyday heroes, what James discovers permanently changes his relationship with food and his definition of true strength.

Biography

Joseph Pace is a Canadian writer and researcher who has been focused on the future of food for more than two decades. Prior to his work on The Game Changers, Joseph coordinated What’s On Your Plate?, a multidisciplinary report that examined the hidden costs of industrial agriculture in Canada on public health, rural communities, the environment, and animal welfare.

Joseph also played a pivotal role in helping to launch NutritionFacts.org, the first non-commercial, science-based website to provide free video updates on the latest in nutrition research.

To learn more about the film visit the site here.

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Image Copyright: Joseph Pace . Used with permission.

For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Shasha and I talk about her new film Take Light, the power crisis in Nigeria, poverty, corruption, Illegal electricians, suffering and smiling, hope and the legacy of colonialism.

Watch the Trailer here.

Synopsis

Over 50 per cent of Nigeria's nearly 200 million citizens don't have access to electricity. For Africa's largest energy producer and most populous nation, that number is shocking. Those dependent on the unreliable grid are limited to a few hours of power a day at best. Taking matters into their own hands, many households illegally and dangerously wire their homes by tampering with transformers.

While a bungling bureaucracy attempts to privatize the electrical system, an electrician risks his life on power poles, trying to provide for his daughter's education. His colleague in customer service has the more difficult task of going door to door collecting fees from disgruntled customers.

The problems are complex and systemic, but director Shasha Nakhai delicately balances the big picture of a country trying to advance its development with the compelling stories of blue-collar workers attempting to make better lives for their families. 

Biography

Shasha Nakhai is a filmmaker based out of Toronto with Compy Films and Storyline Entertainment. Her award-winning films have screened at festivals and aired on TV worldwide, been released on iTunes, gone viral and been awarded Vimeo Staff Pick and Short of the Week. Her last film with partner Rich Williamson, Frame 394, was shortlisted for the 2017 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short and was part of the CBC’s new Digital Doc Shorts initiative. It had its world premiere at the 2016 Hot Docs Film Festival, and went on to win Best Canadian Short at NorthwestFest, Best Documentary Short at the Rhode Island Int’l Film Festival, Best Documentary Short at the Sidewalk Film Festival, the Audience Award for Best Documentary Short at the New Orleans Film Festival, and Best Documentary at the Charleston Film Festival. It was named one of TIFF’s Top 10 Films of 2016, and was nominated for 2 Canadian Screen Awards.

Shasha was 1 of 8 emerging producers selected for the DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Program in 2015, and was awarded Telefilm Canada’s Pay It Forward Prize as part of the Hot Docs Film Festival’s Don Haig Award.

Take Light is her first feature documentary. She also has a deep love for interactive storytelling, working as a brand ambassador for PlayStation for 8 years, and having been selected as the inaugural recipient of WIFT's Ubisoft Toronto Producer Mentorship program. She recently collaborated with DimensionGate on her first virtual reality project, Take Light VR.

Having graduated from Ryerson University's Broadcast Journalism program, Shasha was born in the Philippines, grew up in Nigeria and came to Canada as an international student in 2003

To learn more about the film visit the site here.

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Image Copyright: Storyline and Shasha Nakhai. Used with permission.

For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sentimentalists and I talk about skepticism, assumptions and religious belief, burlesque theatre, mentalism and magic, scientific headspace and what it means to be a collector of rare oddities.

Biography

World-renowned mentalist Mysterion partners with mentalist Steffi Kay to create a mind reading experience that is truly breathtaking. Steffi brings a grace, flair and elegance to the mentalism she practises and with her vintage look, approach and style you will feel transported back to Vaudeville to the golden age of magic.

Mysterion has appeared on stages around the globe, with hundreds of television and media appearances to his credit. Together they showcase their special way of communicating, with a touch of humour and most importantly class.

Imagine your thoughts transferred across the room into Steffi's mind with 100 percent accuracy. Someone thinks of the name of their favourite film and Mysterion and Steffi are able to divine that movie. Spoons bend, drawings are duplicated and as a special treat The Sentimentalists are able to correctly identify items in the wallets and bags of audience members and random spectators. Corporate events, private events and functions, media appearances and tradeshows are just a few of the endless places The Sentimentalists have been working for the past few years.

The Sentimentalists are members of The Magic Castle in Hollywood CA, have recently toured sold out shows across the US and are the headline act regularly at Dave and Busters in the GTA, The CNE and Canada's Wonderland.

You can find out more info about them here.

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Image Copyright: The Sentimentalists. Used with permission.

For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kathy Kortes-Miller and I talk about her new book Talking About Death Won’t Kill You, the death trade, access to true choice, meaning making, death education, anxiety and literacy, and living life to the fullest.

Find out more info on Kathy here.

Biography

Kathy thinks about dying and death a lot. She knows it helps her to embrace life full on. She is an unconventional death educator with a passion for palliative care and improving the end of life care for all.

Kathy has been teaching and researching at Lakehead University for over a decade inspiring and challenging the future healthcare providers of tomorrow to be prepared to care for individuals who are dying and their families in all healthcare settings. She leverages her experiences as a cancer survivor and as a palliative care provider to challenge us to have the important conversations about dying, death and life.

Kathy strives to make an impact with her teaching, research and speaking to discover, share and communicate the information that we are all "dying to know."

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Image Copyright: Kathy Kortes-Miller. Used with permission.

For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen Campanelli and I talk about his new film Indian Horse based on the Richard Wagamese novel of the same name. We cover residential schools, honesty, bravery and authenticity, why words can be visual, and how stories were meant to heal.

Find out more info about the movie here.

Synopsis:

In late 1950s Ontario, seven-year-old Saul Indian Horse is torn from his Ojibway family and committed to one of  Canada’s notorious Catholic residential schools. In this oppressive environment, Saul is denied the freedom to speak his language or embrace his indigenous heritage and he witnesses all kinds of abuse at the hands of the very people who were entrusted with his care. Despite this, Saul finds salvation in the unlikeliest of places and favourite Canadian pastimes — hockey.

Fascinated by the game, he secretly teaches himself how to not only play but develops a unique and rare skill. It’s as if he has eyes in the back of his head and can see the game in a way no other player can. His talent leads him away from the misery of the school to a Northern Ontario native league and eventually the pros. But the ghosts of Saul’s past will always haunt him. Forced to confront painful memories and revelations, Saul draws on the spirit of his ancestors and the understanding of his friends to gain the compassion he so sorely needs in order to begin healing.

Indian Horse is a survivors’ tale that foregrounds the indomitable spirit of North America’s indigenous peoples in the face of aggressive assimilation policies and racism. Saul Indian Horse’s story can be a tool to help foster further compassion and understanding, and in the process, become universal.

Biography

Stephen Campanelli, started his career as a steadicam operator, when it was quite a rarity in Canada, and quickly became the most sought-after operator in the country. He was the first to combine “A” Camera operating and steadicam, and in doing so unlocked an entirely new filmmaking perspective that quickly peaked the interests of some of Hollywood's top directors including Stephen's boyhood idol: Clint Eastwood. Stephen first joined Clint on the Oscar and Golden Globe nominated Bridges of Madison County and has remained Clint's most trusted "camera eye" ever since.

They have collaborated on the Oscar winning films, Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River, the Oscar nominated Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, and their successful films Gran Torino, Sully and American Sniper. They have just finished their latest, 21st collaboration,15:17 to Paris. Clint, and numerous other prominent directors, have entrusted Stephen with crucial on-set directorial decisions, and have relied on his expertise and guidance for many years now. After over 23 years by Clint's side, Stephen jokingly confesses to being a graduate of the "University of Clint Eastwood", having learned all of the maestro's directing secrets.

Stephen is following in the footsteps of a great story-telling director, who has shared with him his vast knowledge, not only of directing, but of acting, and what it is like to be an actor before a daunting camera.

Now, with Clint’s blessing and the admiration of every cast and crew he has worked with, on the over 65 motion pictures listed in his resume, Stephen Campanelli has made the natural leap to the director's chair, having helmed two motion pictures, Momentum (2015), starring Olga Kurylenko, James Purefoy and Morgan Freeman. He is proud and honoured to present to you, his latest feature film, Indian Horse.

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Image Copyright: Stephen Campanelli and Indian Horse Productions. Used with permission.

For more information about my podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit my site here.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.