FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Dave Kehr, curator in the department of film at MoMA.

Dave Kehr, curator in the department of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) of New York City, meets us after the screening of Sherlock Holmes (1932) by William K. Howard. The film is part of one of the strand of the 2017 Il Cinema Ritrovato, which he has programmed, named “William K. Howard: Rediscovering a Master Stylist.” The other strand he has programmed is a continuation, or rather, more precisely, a second part of last year’s strand dedicated to the motion pictures produced by Universal during the years of Carl Laemmle Junior. This year, the strand included highlight films by James Whale and Tod Browning. Kehr explains both the works of Howard and Laemmle Junior as well as a general overview of MoMA’s work with film.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, documentary filmmakers.

Documentary director and pioneer of the cinema verité style D.A. Pennebaker is celebrated at the 2017 Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna. The annual film festival is hosting a special open-air screening of his 1968 music documentary feature Monterey Pop at the Piazza Maggiore, and Pennebaker will also be interviewed publicly by esteemed film historian Kevin Brownlow, an event titled “Cinema according to D.A. Pennebaker” (translated from Italian). We caught up with him and his wife and filmmaking partner Chris Hegedus. The two have made many movies together, including Town Bloody Hall (1979), The War Room (1993), and most recently Unlocking the Cage (2016), to name but a few. On this, one of our lengthiest interviews to date, we cover many topics; from the impact of the development of new and portable technology in filmmaking to the importance of story in documentary filmmaking; from the filming of music documentaries such as Monterey Pop to a documentary about a musician, Bob Dylan, in Don’t Look Back; from the connection to the actuality films of the Lumiére to their most recent experimentation with VR; and from the importance to capturing moments in history to the importance of the fight for animal rights.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Bernard Eisenschitz, film historian.

The esteemed film historian Bernard Eisenschitz talks about two very important figures of film history: French cineaste Jean Vigo and Hollywood lead actor Robert Mitchum (the latter also happens to be the poster boy of the 2017 Il Cinema Ritrovato). Both were lead subjects of two strands of this year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato named “Jean Vigo Recovered” and “Two Faces of Robert Mitchum.” Eisenschitz curated the former and co-curated the latter with Philippe Garnier. In this interview, he shares with us his knowledge and admiration for both Vigo and Mitchum, while also sharing with us some insight, such as details of the restoration of the filmography of Vigo and how the origins of an idea of putting together a program that would pay tribute to Mitchum, who is often not given the right credit as a great actor that he deserves.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Frédéric Maire, director of the Cinémathèque Suisse and president of FIAF.

Frédéric Maire makes his first appearance on FRED Film Radio. No time would be more appropriate for a first-time appearance, as the director of the Cinémateque Suisse has also recently been appointed as the new president of FIAF (the International Federation of Film Archives). Naturally, the interview is structurally divided into two parts; in the first, Maire talks about his Swiss Cinematheque – one of the most respected film archives in the world – and in the second, we discuss FIAF and some of the most pressing issues that were discussed at the 2017 FIAF Congress. In between, Maire also takes the time to talk to us about a number of topics; these include La Roue (1923) by Abel Gance, his interesting film education project, and a comment on this year’s program of Il Cinema Ritrovato.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Neil McGlone, co-curator of the program A Sunday in Bologna.

This year, Il Cinema Ritrovato featured a strand made up of films that take place on Sundays. The strand was curated by Neil McGlone and director Alexander Payne. Payne was unable to attend. Luckily, McGlone was in Bologna to introduce the movies, and we caught up with him there. In this interview, we talk about where the concept for the “A Sunday in Bologna” strand originated. McGlone also mentions each film in the strand, giving us an idea of the great variety of movies featured in it – some better know, such as It Always Rains on Sunday, and others quite rare, like the made-for-TV Sunday Pranks by Robert Glinski.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Lisa Stein Haven, about the program Chaplin and the Beat Generation.

Lisa Stein Haven is presenting a program titled Chaplin and the Beat Generation at the 31st edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna. The program is a subset of some of her research on the 50’s and 60’s and Chaplin in America, and the ways in which the Beat writers and poets of the time reinvigorated Charlie Chaplin’s Little Tramp persona in America. Figures such as Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti felt a huge connection with Chaplin’s Little Tramp. How did this connection show up and influence their works? Besides this, Lisa tells us about what Chaplin himself was doing at the time – what films he was making and whether his earlier works were being seen, as well as what the reaction of the general public was to Chaplin at this time. Furthermore, she also takes the time to share with us her thoughts on Il Cinema Ritrovato, and early memory of experiencing something truly special at it, and a film from the 2017 program that she looks forward to watching.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Petersen Vargas, director of the film 2 cool 2 be 4gotten.

Petersen Vargas, whose film won the Audience Award at Lovers Film Festival 32, is celebrating the world premiere of the film in Torino, and the happiness of showing it to an auduence that can undersatnd the effort and the meaning of it. A fresh and sweet tale of love and coming of age, in a school system antique and rigid, written by the most praised screenwriter of his country.

2 cool 2 be 4gotten: late 90’s, Philippines. In the city of Angeles, which is returning to normal after the catastrophic eruption of volcano Pinatubo, Felix attends tenth grade with good grades. He does not have any friends, but this does not worry him, because his aim is to be top of the class and to move away once he graduates. His life takes a new, unexpected direction when the Snyder brothers arrive. Magnus and Maxim are the children of a local prostitute and an American soldier, whom they wish to join in the United States. Felix is attracted to their aura of coolness, due to their Philippine and American origins. As the acquaintance with Maxim and, in particular, with Magnus, turns into friendship, Felix is troubled by complex and unknown emotions. These feelings will lead him to create a bond with the two brothers and discover the mysteries that they hide, which he will end up fighting against.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Pekka Strang, actor of the film Tom of Finland.

Pekka Strang is the lead actor of the biopic about Tom of Finland; he plays the illustrator himself, throughout the tale of the man’s life, from his beginnings in Finland to his over-the-top life in Los Angeles. Pekka was initially worried about playing such a huge personality, from his own country. Here he tells us how he found the right way to do it.

Tom of Finland: finally on the big screen, a biography of Tom of Finland, the brilliant illustrator who contributed to inventing and recording the imagery of the leather fetish: leather, uni- forms, muscles, giant penises. The years of his youth in rural Finland, where there did not seem to be a place for gay people like him. Then came the Second World War, which allowed him to discover his fascination with powerful and authoritarian male beauty, of which he found examples among his fellow soldiers and among the enemy troops. After the war, he moved to Helsinki, where he lived and worked as an advertising designer with his sister Kaija: here he created his iconic pictures, which were seen all over the world even though homoerotic pornography was illegal everywhere, and made him a timeless artist. And then there is his relationship with dancer Veli, which would last their lives, despite the disapproval of his sister and the backward views of Finnish society.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

The post Pekka Strang – Tom of Finland #LFF17 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews John Trengove, director of the film The Wound.

John Trengove, recipient of the award for Best Feature Film at the Lovers Film Festival 32, talks with us about the unexpected attention the film is getting worldwide. It was an urgent film to make, the only possible film with a gay subject he thought made sense in South Africa. A difficult journey with a rewarding arrival.

The Wound: Eastern South Africa. A group of teenagers, from the Khosa ethnic group, are preparing for the ukwaluka, a rite of passage to adulthood, consisting of circumcisions that take place during a period of isolation in the mountains. Kwanda, a rich, westernized boy, is one of them. Forced to take part in the rite by his father, a traditionalist, who is displeased by the “feebleness” of his son, kwanda is unable to adapt easily to an environment so full of latent aggression and flaunted maleness. Xolani, a 30-year-old worker, a loner and introvert, who is the khaukatha, or mentor, of the group, immediately takes a liking to him and takes care of him. But Kwanda realizes that Xolani is hiding something, a kind of wound that has never healed and that will bleed once again. A courageous and dark bildungsroman, John Trengrove’s debut feature film is a continuation of his short film iBhokhwe, presented at Lovers FF in 2014.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Patricia Potter, actress of the film Just Charlie.

Patricia Potter plays the role of the mother of Charlie, a regular kid with a gender issue that cannot be hidden anymore. She is a genuinely sweet and funny woman, a mother in real life too and an actress with sensibility and wit. Here we can find out her thoughts about embracing diversities and the need for happiness. But you can listen yourself. And enjoy!

Just Charlie: Charlie is a boy who, like so many others, loves football. But he has an innate talent: when he has a ball at his feet, nobody can stop him. When he’s offered a spot in a top club, his father has no doubts and does all he can to make him accept it. He’s not motivated by the need to ensure a successful future for his son or by a father’s pride, but by a desire to compensate for his own failed football career. However, Charlie is happier when he is secretly hiding in the woods, wearing girls’ clothes, than when he’s on the football field. Very soon, this desire to freely express his physical identity will create a dramatic conflict with what his family and friends have chosen for him. But he only wants to be Charlie, just Charlie. A coming-of-age story, that is painful but not without hope.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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