FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Judita Gamulin, director of the film Marica.

An interview with director Judita Gamulin, from Croatia, who was selected to be part of Future Frames at the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. European Film Promotion (EFP) presents ten outstanding young directors from Europe with their latest work at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival every year. Gamulin’s film is called Marica.

Marica:  Marica’s husband has problems again and, for her, it’s the last straw that prevents her from returning home from work, but it’s also what allows her to finally be on her own. To have the time to reflect upon the life she doesn’t have and possibly can’t ever have. A fragile film about a moment that can change everything in the life of a middle-aged woman.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Dawid Ullgren, director of the film 1981.

An interview with director Dawid Ullgren, from Sweden, who was selected to be part of Future Frames at the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. European Film Promotion (EFP) presents ten outstanding young directors from Europe with their latest work at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival every year. Ullgren’s film is called 1981.

1981:  Gay saunas have their specific rules, which might be summed up as “what happens in the sauna, stays in the sauna”. And that’s what married couple Ivar and Pal are hoping as they set off with the aim of adding some zest to the partner stereotype. A film about love and about the kind of excesses one should only treat oneself to once in a while.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Ana Katz, director of the film Sueño Florianópolis.

Director Ana Katz presented her latest film, Sueño Florianópolis, at the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, in the official competition. In this interview, we talk about the theme of family, humour, and the cultural differences between Brazil and Argentina – two cultures that meet in her film.

Sueño Florianópolis:  Lucrecia, Pedro, and their teenage kids Julian and Florencia set out from Buenos Aires one sweltering day in a rattletrap Renault to vacation in the Brazilian summer resort of Florianópolis. Renowned Argentinian director Ana Katz draws upon gentle humor and light melancholy to relate a tale of first love, past lovers, fateful encounters, and fleeting joys.

The post Ana Katz – Sueño Florianópolis #KVIFF53 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Ivan I. Tverdovskiy, director of the film Jumpman.

Director Ivan I. Tverdovskiy’s latest film, Jumpman, had its international premiere in the official selection competition of the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. This marks Tverdovskiy’s return to the festival after the success of his previous work, Zoology, in 2016. In this interview about Jumpman, he discusses his difficulties of explaining what his films are about, the metaphor employed in his film – particularly relating to the theme of pain and the mother/son relationship, the documentary influence and origins of the story, and more.

 Jumpman: Young Oksana put Denis in a baby box when he was an infant. Sixteen years later she steals him away from a children’s home, intent on making amends for her neglect. Denis, however, has no idea of the heavy price to be paid for his mother’s favour: the fragile boy has one unusual quality which Oksana has no qualms about exploiting.

The post Ivan I. Tverdovskiy – Jumpman #KVIFF53 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Cyril Aris, director of the documentary The Swing.

Director Cyril Aris presented his new documentary, The Swing, at the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere. The documentary sees him filming his grandparents in Lebanon, although the film is equally defined by its universal theme. The mix of personal story and universality is fascinating, as is the private drama which subtly unfolds throughout the film and the themes of memory, loss, aging and more that it deals with.

The Swing: Viviane and Antoine have lived together for 65 years, and while she still has her strength, he has long been bedridden. And so no one is able or has any desire to tell the weakened old man the distressing news that his beloved daughter has suddenly died. Indeed, the grief might cause his death… A heavy, lyrical portrait brightened by the warming rays of loved ones’ smiles.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Cyril Aris – The Swing #KVIFF53 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Jan Gebert, director of the documentary When the War Comes.

Jan Gebert presented his documentary When the War Comes at the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Documentary Film Festival, where it was screened in the Czech Films strand, which highlights standout Czech films of the past season. The film documents a Slovak paramilitary group, but it is also a universal story about fascism. Even more, Gebert gets so close to his protagonists that we somehow get through the facade and see the human side and the human face of a fascist.

When the War Comes: “We’ll become legends of our time,” states one of the members of the Slovak Recruits paramilitary group, which puts young people through inhumane drills and aims to “defend and preserve the nation”. Jan Gebert’s documentary, screened at the Berlinale, observes a youngster with authoritarian inclinations, part of a growing nationalism in unexpected age groups.

The post Jan Gebert – When the War Comes #KVIFF53 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Ewa Bukowska, director of the film 53 Wars.

Ewa Bukowska aptly presented her feature directorial debut, 53 Wars, at the 53rd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it was featured in the East of the West – Competition strand. The film talks about PTSD by telling the story of the anxiety experienced by the wife of a war reporter. In this interview, Bukowska discusses this interesting fictional and universal take on the topic, as well as the importance of creativity and the Stanislavsky method.

53 Wars: Anka is becoming extremely anxious about her beloved husband Witek, a war correspondent. But where does the border lie between reality and catastrophic visions? An evocative psychological drama adapted from the autobiographical novel by Grazyna Jagielska about experiencing war second-hand: we don’t have to be there for it to have a destructive influence on our lives.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Ewa Bukowska – 53 Wars #KVIFF53 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Samantha Sartori interviews Masato Harada, director of the film Sekigahara.

We met Masato Harada at the New York Asian Film Festival 2018, where three movies of the Japanese Master have been shown: his big hit Kamikaze Taxi, the most recent Kakekomi, and Sekigahara. Mr. Harada received the Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to Asian Cinema. We had the great honor and pleasure to met Mr. Harada and we talked about the importance of the battle of Sekigahara in Japanese history and how he wrote the script for this complex story based on the famous novel Sekigahara by Ryōtarō Shiba. Mr. Harada is a movie buff with 360-degree knowledge of cinema, and it was a real pleasure to talk about every aspect of Sekigahara, and where he found the surprising inspiration for the structure of this epic and astonishing movie. We also discuss the making of the subtitles, which is a very challenging problem in such a complex story. Sakigahara won Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Lightning at the Awards of the Japanese Academy. The movie is visually astonishing and, unbelievably, was made with a budget of only 9 million dollars! Mr. Harada’s mission in movie-making is to grant justice to all the women and men who have been unfairly mistreated, persecuted or oppressed by history. We finally talk about Killing for the Prosecution, his final movie, which will open August 24th in Japan.

Sekigahara: Sekigahara was a one-day battle in 1600 AD which left more than 30,000 lives on the field. The movie depicts the lives of Mitsunari Ishida and all the protagonists of this battle with a richness of detail, capturing the Japanese culture in scenes of political intrigue and an enigmatic story of cups of tea. We finish with a sense of deja vu, where the person who championed the people lost against political opportunism.

Discover more about the film here.

The post Masato Harada – Sekigahara #NYAFF2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Samantha Sartori interviews Richard Somes, director of the film We Will Not Die Tonight.

At the world premiere of We Will Not Die Tonight, we met the director, Richard Somes. In this interview he tells us where the inspiration of his movie came from: the struggles of stunt-men and women, whose work is not recognized and always underpaid. He tells us about his collaboration with the famous stuntmen Baldo Marro, who sadly passed last year, a month after the end of the shooting, and to whom Somes dedicates this action movie. It will also be the first chapter of the new movie he is working on, and which we are thrilled to see soon. We talk about the difficulties of shooting a movie of this genre in only 8 days and how he did it!

We Will Not Die Tonight: Seaman turned production designer Richard Somes celebrates his tenth year as a film director with this homage to Walter Hill’s The Warriors. It reunites him with star Erich Gonzales (Mariposa in The Cage of Night), reinventing her pristine image as Kray, an underappreciated and underpaid stuntwoman who takes on one last job with her former gang, only to be trapped in a hellish underworld. Shot in just eight days, this pure genre piece is driven by a raw energy as Kray must defend herself from hordes of bloodthirsty avengers, armed with every sharp and blunt object imaginable. World Premiere.

Discover more about the film here.

The post Richard Somes – We Will Not Die Tonight #NYAFF2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Samantha Sartori interviews Irene Villamor, director of the film Sid and Aya (Not a Love Story).

At the New York Asian Film Festival 2018, we meet Irene Villamor and talk about her new movie Sid and Aya (Not a Love Story). Every summer, the festival brings movies to New York from all of Asia: China, Japan, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand, with free talks with directors and actors. Irene Villamor is a prolific director in the Philippines. She wrote and directed this modern fairy tale inspired by Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s Black Swan theory: “A Black Swan is an event that is impossible to predict, but has major consequences for us all.” Irene’s stories are based on real people that surround her and she told us how she develops and writes her movies, and how she works on set collaborating with actors, assistant directors, and the D.O.P. to give the final shape of the movie.

Sid and Aya (Not a Love Story): After decades of films that followed formula, a handful of (mostly) female filmmakers are reinventing the staple genre of cinema from the Philippines cinema: the romance. Irene Villamor is at the vanguard, with vibrant dialogue, honest situations…and sex. Here, Dingdong Dantes plays a cutthroat stockbroker who can’t sleep at night. He befriends Anne Curtis’ sassy cafe waitress and offers to pay her $20 an hour to talk him through his insomnia. But she becomes the one in control in this anti-romance that has as much to say about class war as the battle of the sexes. New York Premiere.

Discover more about the film here.

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