Faux Reel Podcast

Multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary artist Saul Williams brings his unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has explored in his work, notably his 2016 album MartyrLoserKing. Co-directed with the Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Anisia Uzeyman, the film takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry. Set between states of being – past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience – Neptune Frost is an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends.

Follow the film: 

Watch the film in theatres: https://kinomarquee.com/film/venue/62685abbfbed6a000159fa76?utm_source=neptunefrost

Watch the film at home: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0B3S7JQ1W/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dedzafilms/ + https://www.instagram.com/dreamstatesmeta/ + https://www.instagram.com/p/CfxmEXGosh4/

MAXIMA follows Peruvian indigenous farmer Máxima Acuña in her fight to protect her land as she stands up to the largest gold producer in the world: US-based Newmont Mining Corporation. 

Throughout Máxima’s fight for justice, the film provides an illustrative case study in the tactics used by transnational corporations to commit human rights violations and environmental crimes, the role played by non-profits and The World Bank, and, ultimately, the resilience of one woman who refuses to back down. Dawn and filmmaker Claudia Sparrow talk about the challenges Claudia had to navigate in making a film in a remote area of the Andes Mountains, the difference each of us can make in fighting for what we believe in, and how Máxima has inspired and forever changed Claudia's outlook on life. 

Follow the film: 

Instagram: @standwithmaxima

Facebook: @standwithmaxima

Website: https://www.standwithmaxima.com/

Watch now on Appletv, Tubi or Google Play. 

Stand with Maxima: 

Sign the petition

Donate on Gofundme 

Support Taleen Kali: 

Taleen Kali is the artist behind our podcast song Lost & Bound, and she is fundraising on Kickstarter to create her new album independently! 

Support her Kickstarter

Listen to Taleen Kali on Spotify

GIRL PICTURE is a coming-of-age film from Finland that focuses on three young women over the course of three weekends. The girls are questioning their sexuality, and for one girl her lack of sexuality, navigating their relationships with their parents and each other, and reconciling with the idea that their childhood dreams may not be the direction they still want to go in. 

Dawn and Alli talk about the stylistic choices made for the film, how you can storyboard and plan so much but unexpected moments still happen that can make the film feel more real, and the importance of complex female characters on screen. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it went on to win the Audience Award for the World Cinema Dramatic category. 

Follow the film: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/citizenjaneproductions/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citizenjaneproductions/

Website: https://citizenjaneproductions.fi/

A coming-of-golden-age film about Florida's most dedicated dance team for women over 60 - The Calendar Girls. A film that is shaking up the outdated image of "the little old lady", and calling for everyone to dance their hearts out, while they still can. 

Dawn talks with documentary filmmaking couple Love Martinsen and Maria Loohufvud about how they were drawn to this dance group and built relationships with them, how The Calendar Girls inspired them in their own lives, and what lessons we can all take away from these women. The film just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, and will go on to have a theatrical distribution later this Spring. 

Follow the film: 

Instagram: @calendargirlsfilm

Website: https://calendargirlsfilm.com/

Rita Baghdadi's documentary SIRENS premiered today, on her birthday, at the Sundance Film Festival! What a way to celebrate a birthday! The film follows the Middle East's first all-female metal band in Beirut as they wrestle with friendship, sexuality and destruction in their pursuit of becoming thrash metal rock stars. In this episode we talk about the value of multi-faceted female representation on screen, intergenerational trauma associated with political and familial histories, and some of the more tender moments that are captured between these badass rock stars. 

Follow the film: 

Instagram: @sirensdocumentary

Facebook: @sirensdocumentary

Twitter: @sirensdoc

Website: https://www.sirensdocumentary.com/

Watch the film at Sundance 

An intimate portrait of mothers and daughters and the effects of trauma, JACINTA follows a young woman in and out of prison as she attempts to break free from an inherited cycle of addiction, incarceration, and crime. Now streaming on Hulu. 

Follow the film: 

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NbcehOCClU

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jacintafilm/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jacintafilm/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jacintafilm

On this episode Dawn sits down with Colombian-American filmmaker Emily Cohen Ibañez for her documentary FRUITS OF LABOR. They discuss trickle down issues from systemic racism and immigration policies, children of immigrants having to step up to help support their families, food insecurity, and finding peace in connecting to our food and land. 

A Mexican-American teenager dreams of graduating high school, when increased ICE raids in her community threaten to separate her family and force her to become the breadwinner for her family. She works long days in the strawberry fields and the night shift at a food processing factory. Set in an agricultural town on the central coast of California, FRUITS OF LABOR is a coming of age story about an American teenager traversing the seen and unseen forces that keep her family trapped in poverty.  A lyrical meditation on adolescence, nature and ancestral forces, the film asks, what does it mean to come into one’s power as a working young woman of color in the wealthiest nation in the world?

The film is now available on PBS's POV series. 

Follow the film: 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fruitsoflaborfilm/

Website: https://www.fruitsoflaborfilm.com/

Watch the film: https://www.pbs.org/pov/watch/fruitsoflabor/

Support the garden: https://canunite.org/our-work/projects-2/growing-justice/

On this episode Dawn talks with documentary filmmaker Brooke Swaney for her newest film DAUGHTER OF A LOST BIRD. The film follows adoptee Kendra as she discovers her Native culture that she didn't grow up with, is welcomed in, meets her birth mother and other blood relatives, and learns more about how her story fits in with the bigger picture of ICWA, boarding schools and assimilation practices forced upon Indigenous people. Dawn and Brooke talk about making a film from an emotional place of empathy, share stories of their own Native backgrounds, and discuss the importance of representation in media. 

Follow the film: 

https://www.facebook.com/daughterofalostbird

https://www.instagram.com/daughterofalostbirddoc/

https://www.daughterofalostbird.com/

Hi everyone! Just wanted to say a quick hello and let you know I'm still here, and more episodes will hopefully be coming out soon! Hope you all are doing well <3 

On this episode Dawn chats with Director Adam Nawrot and Producer Sonia Szczesna for their debut feature doc GODSPEED, LOS POLACOS! They talk about their sense of adventure that matches the subjects of their film, some behind the scenes stories, and their Polish roots.

The film tells the story of five kayakers on the edge of adulthood who skillfully pull the strings of the Soviet system, and find themselves on a kayaking expedition in the Americas with a six-wheeled military truck, homemade equipment, and little to no whitewater skills. The story follows their epic two-year journey that culminates in the record-breaking first descent of the world’s deepest canyon, and finds the kayakers in Soviet cross-hairs after they leverage their newfound fame to fight for democracy in the Eastern Bloc.

Follow the film: 

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/461667982

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/godspeedlospolacos/

Website: https://sourlandstudios.com/