FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Špela Čadež, director of the film Steakhouse.

A conversation with director/animator Špela Čadež about her short film Steakhouse, which will compete at the Locarno Film Festival. In this interview, she talks about the expressive potential of animation and the psychological themes she tries to explore in her animated short. She also talks about some of the challenges she had to overcome working on the film during the pandemic and more.

Steakhouse : Franc takes great pleasure in preparing a steak. On the other side of the city Liza is hurrying from work. The apartment is thoroughly engulfed in smoke. She extinguishes the damage, but the anger growing in Franc cannot be extinguished so easily.

The post Špela Čadež – Steakhouse #Locarno74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Udi Nir, director of the film Viral.

A conversation with Udi Nir, co director with Sagi Bornstein, of the film Viral, which premiered at this year’s Docaviv. The film retraces the general tumult of 2020 via the first-hand documentation of a diverse range of YouTubers. In this interview, Nir discusses the genesis of this project and his interest in YouTube and social media, as well as how their rise in popularity may even have impacted the film industry and cinematic language.

Viral: Composed entirely of videos uploaded to social media in 2020, Viral tells the story of a new generation, coming of age during a global pandemic. Seven YouTubers in their early 20’s all have big plans for 2020, but as the year unfolds the world around them starts to change dramatically: news of a new virus emerges, Black Lives Matter protests take to the streets, the US elects a new president, and an economic crisis is looming on the horizon. As the YouTubers try to find their way in this increasingly unforeseeable future, they turn to social media to communicate and express themselves, while documenting everything from long distance relationships, to unemployment and financial hardships, to surprising political awakenings.

The post Udi Nir – Viral #Docaviv21 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Cristiana Palmieri interviews Christof Wehmeier, Festival Co-Curator of the Scandinavian Film Festival.

Christof Wehmeier is the Festival Manager at the Icelandic Film Centre in Reykjavik and co-curator of the Scandinavian Film Festival presented by Palace in Australia. Christof talks about Nordic cinema, similarities and differences that characterise productions coming from the Nordic countries, the authentic stories they tell and the genuine characters they portray, which are behind the success of the Nordic cinema.

The Scandinavian Film Festival showcases the best contemporary Nordic cinema from Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, selected from international film festival to present a curated selection for the Australian audience. The festival runs nationally in Australia in major cities until the end of July.

To discover more about the Festival, click here.

The post Christof Wehmeier #ScandiFilmFest2021 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Mark Cousins, director of the film The Story Of Film: A New Generation.

Mark Cousin focuses on the last 10 years of planetary filmmaking to give us a new glimpse on the cinema language and its evolution. In this interview he explains why these last ten years are important, why Indian cinema is misread and wrongly underestimated and why the map of cinema needs to be redesigned.

A decade after The Story of Film: An Odyssey, an expansive and influential inquiry into the state of moviemaking in the 20th century, filmmaker Mark Cousins returns with an epic and hopeful tale of cinematic innovation from around the globe. In The Story of Film: A New Generation , Cousins turns his sharp, meticulously honed gaze on world cinema from 2010 to 2021, using a surprising range of works including Joker, Frozen and Cemetery of Splendour as launchpads to explore recurring themes and emerging motifs, from the evolution of film language, to technology’s role in moviemaking today, to shifting identities in 21st century world cinema.

Touching on everything from Parasite and The Farewell to Black Panther and Lovers Rock , Cousins seeks out films, filmmakers and communities under represented in traditional film histories, with a particular emphasis on Asian and Middle Eastern works, as well as boundary pushing documentaries and films that see gender in new ways. And as the recent pandemic recedes, Cousins ponders what comes next in the streaming age: how have we changed as cinephiles, and how moviegoing will continue to transform in the digital century, to our collective joy and wonder.

The post Mark Cousins – The Story Of Film: A New Generation #Cannes2021 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Abdullah Mohammad Saad, director of the film Rehana.

Saad does not know if his film Rehana can be described as a feminist film, but he knew what he wanted the film to convey and look like. he tells us how he worked writing it, who inspired him and how the look of a film such his is important to tell its story.

Rehana: Rehana, an assistant professor at a medical college, struggles to keep the harmony between work and family, as she has to play all the complex roles of a teacher, doctor, sister, daughter, and mother. One evening, she witnesses a student storming out of a professor’s office, crying.Deeply impacted by this event, Rehana’s life starts to spiral out of control. She gradually descends into obsession, seeking retribution, just as she receives a complaint from the school about her six-year-old daughter’s unusual behaviour… Rehana refuses to accept the madness of the patriarchal society she lives in and will put every thing at stake, in order to find justice for her student and her daughter.

The post Abdullah Mohammad Saad – Rehana #Cannes2021 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Daniel Sivan, director of the film Dirty Tricks.

A conversation with Daniel Sivan, director of Dirty Tricks, a new documentary that premiered at this year’s Docaviv. The documentary explores a recent huge scandal in the world of competitive bridge. Here, Sivan talks about how he came across his story, as well as what it is that fascinated him about the world of competitive bridge, once it opened its doors to him, and why working on this project was so refreshing for him on a personal and artistic level.

Dirty Tricks: Bridge is the most popular card game in history, enjoyed by millions of senior citizens all around the world. It is also a world of cutthroat competition, with elite players sponsored by billionaires who go toe-to-toe in ruthless high stakes tournaments. The world’s best player is Lotan Fisher, who by the age of 26 became “The Michael Jordan of Bridge”. He was unstoppable, until his archnemesis, Boye Brogeland accused him of cheating, throughout his whole career. Lotan vehemently denies the accusation, which quickly spirals in a massive controversy threatening to bring down the entire competitive Bridge world. With millions of dollars and their lucrative careers at stake, the truth behind one of the world’s most bizarre blood feuds will be revealed in a true-crime comedy documentary.

The post Daniel Sivan – Dirty Tricks #Docaviv21 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Peter Schernhuber, co-artistic director of the Diagonale.

The Diagonale, the annual showcase of Austrian cinema, returned in Graz this year and we talked about it with its co-artistic director Peter Schernhuber. In this interview, we bit about this year’s program, some of its main winners and dedicated strands, including one spotlighting the works of Jessica Hausner. We also discuss some of the defining traits of Austrian cinema at large and what makes Graz such a great place for a festival like the Diagonale.

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