FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Camilla Magid, director of the film Land of the Free.

Camilla Magid is here at the Zurich Film Festival to present her latest documentary Land of the Free. A powerful look on the systemic failure of America’s criminal justice system, Land of the Free digs into our collective conscience, making us question how and when everything went so wrong.

Land of the Free:  South Central, Los Angeles. After 24 years of imprisonment, Brian is looking forward to a fresh start and a clean slate in a brave new world: he wants to explore the internet, get a driver’s license, find work and maybe even a girlfriend. The charismatic 42-year-old attends meetings of a self-help group of people looking to reintegrate into society every week: 18-year-old Juan, member of a notorious gang, is out on parole, but whether he will be able to leave the drug scene and his former friends behind he does not know quite yet himself – leaving his wife and new-born daughter in a state of uncertainty. Meanwhile, Cezanne has just been released from jail and tries to regain the confidence of her son Gianni. In spite of poverty, a dark past and a difficult future, these ex-prisoners are determined to build a new and dignified life of freedom. Danish filmmaker Camilla Magid accompanied the protagonists over a period of two years to create a film that is as touching as it is sensitive.

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PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Mark Grieco, director of the film A River Below.

FRED has the pleasure to meet Mark Grieco, here at the 13th edition of the Zurich Film Festival. Mark is competing in the International Documentary section with his latest film A River Below.

A River Below:  Deep in the Amazon, the population of the fabled indigenous pink river dolphin is dwindling. The reason for its near extinction is heart-breaking and absurd: its flesh is used to catch another fish that fuels a business in South America worth millions. The dead dolphins are nothing more than bait. However, two activists are working tirelessly to raise awareness: famous TV star Richard Rasmussen stirs up scandal and often hits the headlines in Brazil, while Colombian biologist Fernando Trujillo presents his government and the media with alarming facts. Their mission requires a great deal of courage, when it also attracts the wrath of others. With its breathtaking imagery, A River Below takes us on a journey into the very heart of the Amazon, into cities, fishing villages and even the water itself. It depicts the difficult situation faced by two environmental activists who follow their own very different approach to one common goal.

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PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Rob Reiner, director of the film Shock & Awe.

We owe it to Rob Reiner if iconic films such as When Harry Met Sally, Misery, Stand by Me or The Princess Bride are out there in the cinema world. The director is at the 13th Zurich Film Festival to receive a Tribute to…Award and to present, as a world premiere, his new film Shock & Awe which tells the story of the few journalists who investigated on President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq, back in 2003. Reiner describes the reason why he decided to embark on this film’s journey and officially manage another film genre: the political thriller. The film stars James Marsden, Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones and Reiner himself. The director comments on his decision to act in the film.

Shock & Awe:  Immediately after 9/11, the US government under George W. Bush, began maneuvering and mobilizing for an invasion of Iraq. Without any firm evidence, a campaign was launched that took over almost the entire American media machine. However, four fearless reporters from the press agency Knight Ridder refused to jump on the propaganda bandwagon. Raising questions that nobody else dared to ask, they reported on the dubious basis for the war plans. Under immense pressure they maintained their integrity – even in the face of bitter scorn and hate. Director Rob Reiner brings the true story of journalists Jonathan Landay, Warren Strobel, John Walcott and Joe Galloway to the screen and tells a tale about courage and honesty during a thought-provoking chapter of American history.

To discover more about this award, click here.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Rob Byrne, president of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival.

FRED interviews Rob Byrne, president of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, at the 36th Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto). He introduces the San Francisco Silent Film Festival as a celebration of films from the first thirty years of cinema, which, as he explains, was a rich period of technnical advancement and cultural understanding of what could be done with the medium. Among the titles he lists that were screened in San Francisco at this year’s edition of the festival, he mentioned Now We’re In the Air. This was a film directed by Frank R. Strayer in 1927, and is on the “most wanted list” due to it featuring the great silent film actress Louise Brooks. As Byrne explains, many of her American films are considered lost or only exist in fragments, which is why even only twenty minutes of Now We’re in the Air (this was the version that was screened in San Francisco and in Pordenone) is so special. Finally, he shares with us his opinions from this year’s Pordenone Silent Film Festival, and comments on the exhibition of silent films by saying: “I think you can get away with [watching] modern films on a smaller screen, but silent films were made to be seen big.”

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Paolo Cherchi Usai, one of the founders of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto). 

FRED Film Radio meets Paolo Cherchi Usai, one of the founders of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto), the most important silent film festival in the world, now in its 36th edition. Cherchi Usai is the curator of the Canon Revisited program of the festival. He tells us about the idea of behind the section and the film featured in it this year. These include The Crowd (King Vidor, 1928), Aelita (Yakov Protazanov, 1924), and A Fool There Was (Frank Powell, 1915). Cherchi Usai is also the senior curator of the film department of the George Eastman Museum, and the director of its Nitrate Picture Show. Though we have met with him before, at last year’s Pordenone Silent Film Festival, we did not have the chance to talk about it. This year, we finally get to discuss this wonderful event (which takes place annually at Rochester, New York, USA), which, as he specifies, is subtitled as “a festival of film conservation.”

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Alicia Svigals, composer of the film The Yellow Ticket. 

Alicia Svigals is a klezmer musician and composer, and founding member and former musical director of the Grammy award winning group, The Klezmatics. She was at the 36th Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Le Giornate del Cinema Muto) to present her score for the Victor Jansen 1918 film The Golden Ticket (also referred to as The Devil’s Pawn), starring Pola Negri (one of a number of movies featuring the great silent film actress at this year’s Pordenone Silent Film Festival). She performed it alongside Marilyn Lerner, whom she calls her “musical partner” on this project. We met Svigals to chat about making her silent film music debut. She explains how “when I viewed the screener to see if I wanted to take on the project, I fell in love,” and that “my very existence on earth is, in a way, because of the practice of playing to silent movie,” as her grandfather, a pianist, as a young man, met her grandmother while playing piano at a movie theatre. Regarding her approach to scoring The Yellow Ticket, Svigals tells us: “I didn’t have preconceptions about what silent movie music should be.” The final work was includes elements of klezmer and Bela Bartok’s idea of taking modern music and twisting in into modern shapes. In this interview, we also discuss the difference between composing and performing silent movie music, whether she feels the audience while performing and how that influences the playing, and more.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Serge Bromberg, head of Lobster Films, at the Pordenone Silent Film Festival.

Filmmaker, film preservationist, and head of Lobster Films Serge Bromberg, was at the 36th Giornate del Cinema Muto, the Pordenone Silent Film Festival. We interviewed him there for the first time. We begin the interview by asking him about Lobster Films. He describes his company as a “unique company in its genre.” In short, Lobster Films is an idea to find films that are lost (it is generally believed that at least half of the films that were ever produced are lost), gather them like an archive, restore them and, most importantly, share them with an audience. We also asked Bromberg where his passion for early and classic cinema comes from and, regarding the early films, about what he believes to be a contemporary audience’s reaction to silent films that may have been made over 120 years ago. Finally, Bromberh attended the Pordenone Silent Film Festival also to present a real treat: one of two films by the great Georges Melies, which were deemed lost but were found and restored by Lobster Films. The film that was presented in Pordenone was The Wonderful Rose Tree, from 1904, while the other, presented in Bologna earlier this year at Il Cinema Ritrovato, was The Triple-Headed Lady, from 1901. He told us a little bit about Melies, and the fascinating story of the recovery of these films.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Sebastián Lelio, director of the film A Fantastic Woman.

After the success of Gloria, and after Chile decided to select A Fantastic Woman as its Oscar candidate, Sebastián is back on FRED Film Radio from Rome where he’s presenting the italian release of the film. It’s the second time that Sebastian Lelio entrusts a whole film in the hands of a single protagonist. It happened with Paulina Garcia, Lelio’s extraordinary Gloria and now it’s transgender actress and singer Daniela Vega’s turn to become A Fantastic Woman. Sebastián Lelio talks about his first meeting with Daniela and his decision of making her his protagonist since she started working on the film project as script consultant. The Chilean director then defines A Fantastic woman as a Transgenre film and explains why he decided to experiment and go beyond genres.

A Fantastic Woman is the story of Marina, a waitress and singer, and Orlando, an older man, who are in love and planning for the future. After Orlando suddenly falls ill and dies, Marina is forced to confront his family and society, and to fight again to show them who she is: complex, strong, forthright, fantastic.

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PODCAST — Matt Micucci interviews Emil Langballe, director of The Wait, from the 5th Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival of Tangier.

Director Emil Langballe presented his film, The Wait, in competition at the 5th Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival, where it picked up the festival’s top prize. The documentary follows a young Afghan girl and her family, who emigrated from Afghanistan to Denmark, and risked deportation. Specifically, The Wait becomes a film about their frustrating wait, as they wait for an answer on their asylum application. Langballe tells us that he thought he would be making a film about a young girl, perfectly integrated into the Danish society, who would be deported because of a ruthless bureaucratic system. However, his original plans changed, as the aforementioned wait and the effects it had on the young protagonist and her family gradually took over the vision of the project. Indeed, one of the question we ask the director is how and when he felt he could end the film, and he tells us whether or not the film actually helped its protagonist’s situation.

THE WAIT. A film about an Afghan girl and her family, who after six years are still waiting for an answer on their asylum application.

THE WAIT – Trailer from Emil Langballe on Vimeo.

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PODCAST: Matt Micucci interviews Sohaib El Ouassani, festival director, and Jamal Souissi, head advisor, of the Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival of Tangier.

“Europeans don’t know a lot about us, but we know a lot about them. And we want to tell them about us.” These are the words of Jamal Souissi, who was among the founders of the Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival of Tangier, as was Sohaib El Ouassani, festival director. We met both for an interview about the festival, now in its 5th edition, and what it represents. We also talked about the importance of the documentary form in telling stories, in promoting cultural exchange, and in showing different points of view. Tangier, geographically and historically, has always represented a major bridge between Orient and Europe. As El Ouassani says in the interview, it is important to “cross that bridge,” in order to fight back the media’s depiction of the Orient. The Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival not only does that through its film program and various parallel events but also by encouraging discussions and promoting new ideas.

The Europe Orient Documentary Film Festival continued this year, in its fifth edition, in the development of the fields of aesthetic and cultural communication between the actors and those interested in documentary film in Europe and the East, in an open-minded civilized humanitarian dimension and a deep artistic and cultural vision. The festival takes place in the city of Tangier, which represents the crossroads of cultures and civilizations throughout history, and is home to transit between Europe and the East, and the city of precession in cinema in Morocco thanks to its spaces of projection, reception, and interaction. It is the great Tangier that regains its historic role, and bears the features of the present and the promise of the future, promising an outstanding welcome and an effective dose of communication.

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