Face2Face with David Peck

Under Pressure with Andrucha Wadddington, Mini Kerti and Lucas Paraizo.

Andrucha, Mini, Lucas and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their new medical TV series Under Pressure, public versus private health in Rio de Janeiro, infrastructure, science versus faith, corruption and why there is hope. 

Synopsis

An ambulance siren marks the beginning of another tough day for the medical staff of a Rio de Janeiro public hospital. In between patients, they struggle with the constant challenges of the chaotic environment of an ER in the outskirts of the city, crossing every line to keep patients alive in a hospital that is running out of supplies.

Anguish and personal drama are bubbling over among the people who come to hospital looking for help. The desire to save lives is what drives the doctors in Under Pressure, an authentically Brazilian medical drama.

Amid the daily struggles, two people tormented by the ghosts of their past, find solace in one another the soothe their ailing souls.

Under these rough conditions, the surgeons, each with their particular quirks, each a specialist in their own field, come together to make up a team of hero doctors. These heroes are willing to do whatever it takes to help those in need and offer even a glimmer a hope to people who come in every day with their lives at risk. From directors Andrucha Waddington and Mini Kerti, Under Pressure comes out of the Andrucha Waddington feature film of the same name.

Co-produced by Globo and Conspiração Filmes, created by Luiz Noronha, Claudio Torres and Renato Fagundes, the film is based on an original concept by Mini Kerti and freely inspired by Marcio Maranhão's, Sob Pressão – A Rotina de Guerra de um Médico Brasileiro

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Globo and Conspiração Filmes. Used with permission.

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

Chandler, Jesse and Face2Face host David Peck talk about their new film We Forgot to Break Up, identity, memory and sexuality, anger, selfishness, relationships, and the messiness of intimate friendships.

Biography

Chandler Levack is an award-winning writer and director. After being selected for a screenwriting seminar at the University of Toronto taught by Semi Chellas (Mad Men) and Patricia Rozema (Grey Gardens, Into the Forest), she wrote the coming-of-age comedy Felt Up, based on an article written for her college newspaper where she investigated the world of professional pickup artists. A music journalist for SPIN and The Village Voice whose writing has been nominated for multiple National Magazine Awards, Chandler transitioned into filmmaking after graduating from the CFC Writer’s Lab in 2012, where she wrote the short film Lunchbox Loser, which has screened at festivals world-wide including the Portland Women’s Festival, Cannes Short Film Corner, Canadian Film Festival, and the Lahore International Children’s Festival.

Jesse Todd “Evan” is a new actor whose first lead role was as Evan Strocker in the short film We Forgot to Break Up. Jesse also appeared in the film Cave Small Cave Big by Joele Walinga. He has done a number of live comedy performances including Feminist Live Reads Presents: Mean Girls, and Toronto Pride 2016 Stand Up Comedy programming.

Synopsis

We Forgot to Break Up reflects the heartache in encountering the people from your past, while the song remains the same. In this backstage drama, directed by Chandler Levack, written by Levack and Steven McCarthy, and produced by Nicole Hilliard-Forde and Matt Hilliard-Forde of Motel Pictures, Evan Strocker (Jesse Todd) returns to see the band he used to manage after a painful three-year hiatus.

Times have changed and the band members of Heidegger have gravitated towards lives in Los Angeles and as new parents. Evan has also undergone a radical change, now proudly living as a trans man. As he encounters each members of the band moments before their sold out show, he'll find a way forward towards self acceptance and love, especially as he encounters his ex boyfriend Lugh.

Adapted from Kayt Burgess' novel Heidegger Stairwell (winner of the 3-Day Writing contest), the film makes new myths out of Canada's indie rock heritage with raw humour and a landmark performance from trans newcomer Jesse Todd.

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Motel Pictures Inc and Chandler Levack. Used with permission.

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

Mina Shum and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new film Meditation Park, neighbours, Buddhism, the falsity of capitalism, underwear, the obstacles and triumphs we face and why we’re constantly coming of age.

Biography

Mina Shum is a Hong Kong–born, Vancouver-raised filmmaker who studied theatre and film production at the University of British Columbia.

Many of her films have played at the Toronto Film Festival, including her short Me, Mom and Mona, which was awarded a Special Jury Prize; her feature debut, Double Happiness, which won the award for Best Canadian Feature; the films Drive, She Said and Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity; and the Canada's Top Ten Film Festival selection The Ninth Floor. 

Synopsis

“Mina Shum directs an all-star cast — including Cheng Pei Pei, Sandra Oh, Tzi Ma, and Don McKellar — in her latest feature, about a devoted wife and mother (Pei Pei) who is forced to reassess her reverence for her husband after she finds another woman’s thong in his laundry.

In Meditation Park, Mina Shum returns to the themes that propelled her early work. The film opens with Maria (Cheng Pei Pei) hosting a birthday celebration for her workaholic accountant husband, Bing, (Tzi Ma). Maria reveres Bing and remains in awe of the sacrifices he has made for the family, so much so that she even respects his insistence that she not speak to their son.

But when she finds evidence that Bing may not be the perfect person she believes him to be, she's forced to consider her world in a radically different light. Maria embarks on a journey of self-discovery by engaging with the world around her, something Bing has always discouraged. She befriends a group of local eccentrics and a rather shady neighbour, Gabriel (Don McKellar). Maria soon realizes that people's lives are much more complicated than Bing has led her to believe.

Shum exhibits genuine compassion with her insight into the experiences of first-generation immigrant women. Meditation Park is a charming and generous film.”

With thanks to Steve Gravestock - TIFF

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Mina Shum and Thoughts From The Asylum. Used with permission.

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

Arshad Khan and Face2Face host David Peck talk about similarity through difference, his new film ABU, Pakistan, immigration, puritanism, regret and why librarians matter.

Khan is a filmmaker, film festival director, festival strategist and film educator from Canada. Born in Pakistan, Khan believes in cinema as a catalyst for change. He hopes to make films that shed light on subjects that are ignored by the mainstream media.

He is interested in realism in cinema and the new wave in South Asian cinema, yet not restricted to any one cinematic genre. As a gay man, Filmmaker Arshad Khan explores his troubled relationship with his devout, Muslim, Pakistani father Abu. Khan documents his struggles with his sexual identity as his Muslim parents attempt to fit into Canada.

Using family archives, pictures and movies, ABU is a revealing and deeply affecting portrait of a family’s tug-o-war between conservatism and liberalism that has greater implications for those choosing the west as their home.

ABU is a journey to the centre of a fragmented family while they grapple with religion, sexuality, colonialism and migration. Through a tapestry of narratives composed of family footage, observation and classic Bollywood films, gay-identifying Pakistani-Muslim filmmaker Arshad Khan takes viewers through the tense relationships between family and fate, conservatism and liberalism and modernity and familiarity. Hidden within the cabinets of my parents homes, from Lahore to Mississauga, are an enormous archive of family films capturing the days of my youth and teenage-hood.

As I sat to write a film about a Pakistani immigrant girl with magical powers living in Mississauga, another story kept interrupting the narrative: it was the story captured on those tapes, it was the story of my family, my youth and my "abu". My father had recently passed at the time I began crafting this film, while I was awaiting funds for the fiction work that was consistently being put on the back burner while I delved into the VHS tapes of my families histories. I kept the slow wane of time in mind as the fragments of narrative of my family began to unfold before more eyes.

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Arshad Khan and Gray Matter Productions. Used with permission.

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

Sherwin Haji and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film The Other Side of Hope, immigration, voice and identity, fear of the other, history, memory and the extreme right wing.

Biography

Sherwan Haji (born 1985) plays the role of Khaled, a Syrian refugee. Haji, who came to Finland from Syria in 2010, graduated from Higher Institute of Dramatic Arts in Damascus in 2008.

Haji acted in several TV series in Syria and continued his studies in Cambridge School of Art – Anglia Ruskin University in 2015, graduating last year with a Master of Arts degree.

Since 2012 Haji has, in addition to acting, also written and directed several short films and video installations for Lion’s Line, his production company. This is Haji’s first main role in a feature film. The film’s soundtrack also includes music performed by Haji on saz, a traditional stringed instrument.

Synopsis

The film consists of two stories that by chance intersect at the forty-minute mark. The first one is about Khaled, a young Syrian refugee who has lost virtually all of his family. Almost by accident, he drifts to Helsinki as a stowaway passenger on a collier to seek asylum without great hopes for his future life. Wikström, the other protagonist, is a travelling salesman of about fifty (representing mainly men’s shirts and ties). In the beginning of the film he leaves his alcoholic wife and his profession and turns momentarily into a poker shark. With the small amount of money he thus gains he then buys an unprofitable restaurant at the far end of an inner court along a back street in Helsinki.

When the authorities decide to return Khaled to the ruins of Aleppo he, just like many others, decides to stay illegally in the country and disappears into the streets of Helsinki. There he meets, besides various types of racism, also pure kindness. Finally Wikström finds our fellow sleeping in the inner yard of his restaurant. Perhaps he sees something of himself in the battered man because he hires Khaled as a cleaner and a dishwasher. For a moment life shows us its sunnier side, but fate soon intervenes and the film concludes with an open ending leading either to a respectable life or to the cemetery. For a person driven into a corner, both have their merits.

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Sputnik Oy and Aki Kaurismäki. Used with permission.

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

Boris Ivanov and Face2Face host David Peck talk about propaganda, international adoptions, state sponsored hate, political complicity, LGBTQ issues in Russia, independent media and Pussy Riot.

Biography

Boris Ivanov’s directing credits include theatrical recreations for History channel’s Beyond Top Secret, which earned two News and Documentary Emmy nominations. He co-directed Loving a Stranger, TV documentary on the complexity of cross-cultural relationships.

He has directed several narrative films including Seven Storeys, winner of Los Angeles Short Film Festival, and Princess Castle. Recently Boris directed an online documentary In The Monument on the evolution of Holocaust memorialization.

Boris is also the producer behind Sundance premiered Family Portrait In Black and hite (VIFF 2011), Love Translated (VIFF 2010), High Five: A Suburban Adoption Saga (VIFF 2012).

Synopsis

On Putin’s Blacklist presents the reality of how an adoption ban of Russian orphans to US citizens came about and how it was the first step in Russia’s new Cold War with America. Soon enough this adoption ban was expanded to all countries that allow same-sex unions and combined Kremlin’s anti-adoption campaign with anti-LGBT.

The next victims were the NGOs and Human Rights Groups followed by Russian opposition. Anyone on Putin’s Blacklist is labeled as American spy, a foreign agent controlled by Western intelligence agencies with the aim of destroying Russia. This is how Putin is able to control the populace, by creating enemies for Russian’s to hate.

With Donald Trump as president, the world is staring at an unclear future. Can Russia reverse its trajectory of persecuting opposition and vilifying the West or will Donald Trump accept Russia as is and legitimize Putin’s regime.

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

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

Gustavo Salmerón and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Lots of Kids, A Monkey and A Castle, emotional intelligence, hoarding, death, fascism and family and why you need to record your parents on video – soon.

Biography

Gustavo Salmerón, actor and director, (Madrid, Spain, 1970) has worked as an actor in over thirty films by internationally renowned directors like Julio Medem, Agustín Villaronga, Manuel Gómez Pereira, J. Luis García Berlanga, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón and Mario Camus, among others. In 2001 he directed the short film Desaliñada (Salad Days) which won the Spanish Film Academy’s Goya for Best Short Film.

It also won numerous international awards including: Best Short Film at the Los Angeles International Film Festival, the Gold Plaque at the Chicago International Film Festival, Best Short Award (Brest) of Canal+ France. Since 2002 he has been directing, over the course of 14 years, the documentary Lots of Kids, a Monkey and a Castle. The film has been selected for competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Synopsis

This is the story about Julita, a matriarch whose three childhood wishes have been granted: lots of kids, a monkey, and a Spanish castle. At her 81 years old, one of her children needs to find the vertebra of his murdered great-grandmother, lost among the exorbitant amount of weird objects she has hoarded throughout her life, revealing a very picturesque family history.

This unique old lady is about to find the meaning of life.

Trailer 

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more. 

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Gustavo Salmerón. Used with permission. 

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

Karim Sayad and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Of Sheep and Men, ram fighting, Eid al-Adha, Algeria, colonization, democracy and the Arab Spring, empathy and gender injustice. 

Biography

Karim Sayad was born in Lausanne, Switzerland and completed a master's degree in international relations at Geneva's Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. He has directed the short film Babor Casanova. 

Of Sheep and Men is his debut feature documentary.

Synopsis

“Sixteen-year-old Habib dreams of training his prized sheep to become a fighting champion and middle-aged Samir just wants to sell enough sheep before Eid to make ends meet, in this emotive profile of two men in an impoverished Algerian community.

It's a tale of two men, one country, and many sheep. Habib is 16 years old, working as a bus conductor although he had once dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. He is the proud owner of El Bouq, a ram he hopes to raise to become a champion fighter. Samir is 42 years old, having seen enough hardship to know the cost of dreaming is high and that everything in life has the potential to bring a profit. He capitalizes on this ethos at Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) by buying and selling sheep for the coming slaughter. When El Bouq proves to be a far-from-illustrious combatant, and with Eid fast approaching, it looks as though the animal's fate might not be a favourable one.

Building on the style and themes explored in his award-winning short Babor Casanova, Karim Sayad explores in his documentary feature debut the current climate in Algeria following the Arab Spring with an allegorical and intricate eye. Shot in the Bab el Oued neighbourhood of Algiers, with a camera that sinks seamlessly into each scenario, the film captures Habib's, Samir's, and even the sheep's perspectives with an intriguing sense of intimacy that's rich with symbolism.”

With thanks to Kiva Reardon - TIFF

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Karim Sayad and Close Up Films. Used with permission.

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

Leslea Mair and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new film Losing Our Religion, trauma, atheism and non-belief, the power of community and preachers who have no faith.

Biography

Leslea Mair is a writer and producer based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She has been the President and CEO of Zoot Pictures Inc. since 1998.

Following completion of her BFA at the University of Regina, Leslea spent a number of years honing her skills as a writer, participating in the PRAXIS writers' workshop in 1992. She joined the Saskatchewan Filmpool Cooperative, serving as president twice. Leslea produced several experimental shorts and directed the experimental documentary Jigsaw, receiving nomination in the Experimental category at the Yorkton International Short Film Festival. She has also written multi-threaded educational multimedia products.

In the field of documentary, Leslea researched and wrote the treatment for Two Gun Cohen in 1999, and wrote A Count's Colony for White Pine Pictures in 2000. In 2001 she produced, researched and wrote Edible Shorts, a series pilot and was the writer/producer on Black Tuesday, an hour-long documentary, in 2003. Leslea wrote and produced Big Business, Big Union, Small Town for Canwest Global in 2007 and The Path to Shaolin, which Leslea co-directed in 2009.

For 2010 she produced and wrote Operation Extreme Green for CBC's Passionate Eye. Leslea also produced and co-wrote the three part pilot for Weekend Wonder, the award-winning one hour documentary Remote Control War for CBC's Doc Zone, MS Wars for The Nature of Things, Shattered Ground for The Nature of Things, Age of the Drone for Doc Zone, and The Prairie Diner series for CityTV Saskatchewan, finishing its third season.

Leslea co-directed, wrote and produced the feature length documentary "Losing Our Religion", and is now producing and writing the one hour documentary "Something in the Air".

Synopsis

Brendan is a pastor in a small, evangelical church, and he has a secret. He doesn't believe in God anymore. His life and career revolve around his church and faith, and now that's all on the line. His wife is still a true believer. He is incredibly isolated and alone, but he’s not the only one. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of clergy are in the same position. Stan is a preacher in the Deep South where the lines of religion and society blur. He lives in a manse, if anyone knew he is an atheist he would be out on the street. Andy hasn't believed for a long time, but only three people in the world know his secret – except for The Clergy Project.

Losing Our Religion is a feature length documentary about community, acceptance and a view inside the lives of clergy who are joining the rising tide of non-believers.

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Leslea Mair and Zoot Pictures. Used with permission.

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

Mouly Surya and Face2Face host David Peck talk about her new film Marlina The Murderer in Four Acts, multiple possibilities, writing with images, violence, stillness and why women need to fight back.

Biography

Born in Jakarta in 1980, Mouly Surya is considered one of the most promising female filmmakers in Indonesia. Surya had a degree in media and literature before studying film in Australia. She directs her first feature film in 2008, FIKSI. The film opens at Busan IFF and wins numerous awards including Best Director at JIFFEST.

Her second feature WHAT THEY DON’T TALK ABOUT WHEN THEY TALK ABOUT LOVE (2013) screens at various film festivals including Sundance competition and Karlovy Vary. It receives The NETPAC Award at Rotterdam.

MARLINA THE MURDERER IN FOUR ACTS is Surya’s third film.

Synopsis

“Powerful, provocative, and visually stunning, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is a luminous new entry in the feminist western subgenre. Mouly Surya's accomplished third feature is one of a kind: a contemporary reworking of the spaghetti western and smouldering revenge movie that is deeply rooted in the cultural and geopolitical landscapes of Indonesia.

Marlina (Marsha Timothy) is a young widow, living alone in a remote farmhouse with the embalmed corpse of her deceased husband. When robbers arrive, entitled by centuries of male domination, to steal her livestock, seize her possessions, and rape her, Marlina has only her courage and intelligence to rely on. She thinks fast and acts even faster. The next day finds her on the road, hitching a ride to town with a severed head in one hand and a sabre in the other. A tale of repossessed strength and personal identity, the film features a compelling protagonist and introduces a gallery of other splendid female characters, especially "10-months" pregnant Novi (Dea Panendra).

Surya builds tension with an assured mise en scène then dissipates it with bubbly bursts of caustic humour, playing with overused cinematic languages to find a genuine new style. Witty and subversive, Marlina the Murderer in Four Acts is a bold and welcome affront to the staid sensibilities of male-centred cinema culture.”

With thanks to Giovanna Fulvi

Trailer

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For more information about David Peck's podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here or check out the site of his podcast on film, social change and much more.

With thanks to producer Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

Image Copyright: Mouly Surya and Cinesurya. Used with permission.

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