FRED Film Radio - English Channel

Raoul Peck – director – Murder in Pacot

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi meets Raoul Peck, director of the film Murder in Pacot from the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.

Raoul Peck made a documentary on Haiti after the earthquake last year. The urge of telling and in a way helping the people of Haiti returned in him when he shot this film. Not all international helps are alike, much in the same way not all tragedies are alike. And through this small, four character drama, Raoul Peck wants us to get the real deal on the Haitian catastrophe – as well as who ends up paying the most in the end.

Haiti after the devastating earthquake of 2010. Streets, houses and bridges have collapsed and men in white protective gear are retrieving thousands of dead bodies. A middle-class couple’s large home in Port-au-Prince has also been badly damaged. A building authority orders the owners to renovate immediately otherwise their house will be pulled down. To raise the money needed for this, the couple moves into the former servants’ quarters and rents out the only habitable room in the house to the head of an international aid organisation named Alex. But the young man is not alone. He is accompanied by a 17-year-old Haitian woman named Andrémise, who wants to change her name to Jennifer in the hope that this will help her to meet foreigners. Andrémise’s provocative and positive approach to life and love soon throws the cat among the pigeons.

After his documentary Fatal Assistance Raoul Peck now takes a look at the effect of the earthquake on the country’s middle-class. Inspired by Pasolini’s classic 1968 work Teorema, Peck’s film is an intense and intimate drama about social contrasts that also poses fundamental questions about responsibility and justice in the face of catastrophe.

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Justin Kelly / James Franco – Director / Actor -. I Am Michael

FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti meets Justin Kelly and James Franco, respectively Director and actor in the film I AM MICHAEL, at the 65th Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama Special section.

The film which has been presented at the Sundance Film Festival less than a month ago, is based on a true -life story of Michael Glatze who turned from gay activist to anti-gay Christian pastor. I AM MICHAEL gives a very detailed portrait of the process leading Glatze to this radical change of path. The idea of the film comes from a NY Times article by Benoit Denizet Lewis who brought this peculiar life story to massive attention. James Franco and his producing partner at Rabbit Bandini Vince Jolivette were introduced to this film project and idea by Gus Van Sant who is also executive producer of the film. A special thanks to Anna Tatarska for the smart questions.

Plot: Michael Glatze (Franco) is handsome, charismatic, and opinionated. An Ivy League grad with multiple degrees, he’s a writer, pianist, and “queer theorist,” espousing his belief that sexual orientation shouldn’t define one’s identity. After years co-editing the iconic XY Magazine, a gay periodical based in San Francisco, he moves to Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, with his charming and intelligent architect-boyfriend, Bennett (Quinto). Michael experiences a traumatic health scare during which he thinks he’s going to die. Plagued by doubt, paranoia, and fear about the afterlife, he begins to question his beliefs and his identity. Once deemed healthy, he’s convinced that God saved him, pushing him to explore religion, eventually coming to his own decision that homosexuality is not a God-given identity. Michael renounces his gay lifestyle, rejects his friends, and endeavours to find his “true self.” He explores Buddhism and Mormonism, yet ultimately lands at a Christian Bible school in rural Wyoming where he meets his girlfriend, Rebekah (Roberts), and becomes the pastor of his own church.

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Jukka-Pekka Laakso – director – Tampere Film Festival

This is an extract from the Berlinale Talents master class entitled “Short Cuts”, a panel discussion dedicated to short films.

In this extract Tampere Film Festival director Jukka-Pekka Laakso talks about the various trends they see in short filmmaking, and gives some advice to anyone looking to make their own short films.

Jukka-Pekka Laakso is the festival director of Tampere Film Festival. He also acts as the executive director for Pirkanmaa Film Centre, a non-profit organisation that runs an art-house cinema, distributes films in Finland and works in media education. On top of that he is a member of the Finnish National Council for Cinema.

Click here to listen to the full Berlinale Talents master class “Short Cuts” on FRED Extra.

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Howard Shore – Music Composer

This is an extract from the 2015 Berlinale Talents master class entitled “Scoring Goals: Howard Shore”.

In this extract Howard Shore, the legendary music composer behind such memorable scores as the ones in Cronenberg’s Crash, Scorsese’s Hugo and of course The Lord of the Rings trilogy talks about how he picks his projects and reveals some of his methods of work.

Howard Shore is a Canadian-born composer. In a career spanning over 40 years he has scored over 90 films for directors like David Cronenberg, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, Tim Burton, David Fincher, Stephen Frears and Peter Jackson. Among his many international awards are several Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammys for his work on the LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy.

Click here to lisnen to the full 2015 Berlinale Talents master class “Scoring Goals: Howard Shore” on FRED Extra.

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Joanna Hogg – filmmaker – Exhibition

FRED Film Radio, I’m Matt Micucci from the 65th Berlin International Film Festival. This is an extract from the Berlinale Talents master class entitled “Room for Emotions: Embodying Architecture in Film”.

In this extract, filmmaker Joanna Hogg discusses the concept of architecture in film by referring directly to her 2013 film Exhibition, in which the setting on the house played a specific and defining role.

Plot: Joanna Hogg is a British film director and screenwriter. Her feature films have won numerous awards and include UNRELATED, ARCHIPELAGO and EXHIBITION (2007), which starred the artist Liam Gillick and the musician Viv Albertine. Joanna co-founded the film collective A Nos Amours with Adam Roberts. Dedicated to programming over-looked and under-exposed cinema, its retrospective of the complete works of Chantal Akerman runs until late-2015. She is currently working on a film about the 1980s.

Click here to listen to the full 2015 Berlinale Talents master class “Room for Emotions: Embodying Architecture in Film” on FRED Extra.

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Marcel Ophuls – Filmmaker – The Memory of Justice

This is an extract from the Berlinale Talents panel discussion “The Memory of Violence”.

In this extract, the legendary filmmaker Marcel Ophuls talks about coming face to face with Nazi architect and minister of war Albert Speer in his film “The Memory of Justice”.

Marcel Ophuls is a legendary French writer and director. After apprenticing with John Huston and directing his feature debut BANANA PEEL, starring Jeanne Moreau and Jean-Paul Belmondo, with the help of Claude Sautet and François Truffaut, he turned to documentaries. His films THE SORROW AND THE PITY, THE MEMORY OF JUSTICE and HOTEL TERMINUS were groundbreaking in their depiction of Nazi-occupied France and the Resistance and brought him awards in Cannes and Berlin as well as an Oscar and a BAFTA. He also directed NOVEMBER DAYS about the East German revolution in 1989. At the 65th Berlin International Film Festival, Marcel will be awarded the Berlinale Camera.

Click here to listen to the full Berlinale Talents panel discussion “The Memory of Violence” on FRED Extra.

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Joshua Oppenheimer – filmmaker – The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence

This is an extract from the 2015 Berlinale Talents panel discussion “The Memory of Violence”.

In this extract, filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer talks about filming his documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence in the Indonesian setting where the perpetrators of the violent acts that are revisited were still in power, and also directly quotes The Memory of Justice by Marcel Ophuls as a great influence of his.

Joshua Oppenheimer is an American documentary filmmaker based in Copenhagen. His film THE ACT OF KILLING about the mid-1960s genocide in Indonesia won several awards at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival, was nominated for an Academy Award and won a European Film Award. His follow-up THE LOOK OF SILENCE took no less than five awards from last year’s Venice Film Festival and is featured in this year’s Berlinale Special.

Click here to listen to the full 2015 Berlinale Talents panel discussion “The Memory of Violence” on FRED Extra.

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Mark Christopher – director – 54: The Director’s Cut

FRED’s Angelo Acerbi interviews Mark Christopher, the director of 54: The Director’s Cut from the Panorama section of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.

Mark Christopher tells us about what happened between the studios version of his film 54 and this final cut, 16 years later. Finally the film is in the shape and form he wanted to be, and the quest for footage and dailies and material to make this restoration and re-edition possible was not at all an easy one.

Plot: ‘We’ve revolutionised going out‘, pronounces club owner Steve Rubell. At the legendary Studio 54, the mother of all nightclubs since the invention of disco, clubbing was much more than just socialising to music. In 1998, director Mark Christopher created a cinematic monument to this ostentatious mixture of Art Deco and plush, frivolous 1970s hedonism and drug-induced 24-hour party people. At the producers’ behest, his film about this upmarket disco in New York was changed considerably prior to its theatrical release and an extra 25 minutes of new material was added – including an ending that differed from the one in the original screenplay.

Now, seventeen years after the premiere of the producers’ version, the Panorama is presenting for the first time the painstakingly reconstructed original version telling the story of young, curly-haired blond Jersey boy Shane O’Shea who loses himself in the bewitchingly glamorous world of sex, drugs and disco and who only just manages to jump ship before the club is closed down by the police. This reintegrated version by Mark Christopher is weightier, darker, more drug-addled and above all queerer than the version that received the nod at the time.

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Micah Magee / Devon Keller – director / actress – Petting Zoo

FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti meets Micah Magee and Devon Keller, respectively Director and actress of PETTING ZOO, first feature film by the texan director Micah Magee which has been presented at the 65th Berlin Film Festival in the section Panorama Special.

The film is a very intense and perfectly tailored coming of age story of a teenage girl, Layla,who struggles to find herself and her place in life as she is constantly challenged by difficult choices and inevitable responsibilities.

Plot: An unplanned pregnancy changes everything for high school senior Layla. Giving into family pressure, she decides against an abortion and drops her college dreams. As her social fabric unravels around her, Layla begins to see her environment differently, the first step toward finding herself… A story of love, sex and teen pregnancy in San Antonio, Texas.

Click here to go to the film’s official website

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Andrew Haigh – director – 45 Years

FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti meets Andrew Haigh, who is at the 65th Berlinale with his new film 45 YEARS which is screening in Competition.

The film sees the participation of British iconic actors Charlotte Rampling and Tom Couternay playing a couple who’s about to celebrate the 45th anniversary of marriage. A few days before celebrating this big event, Geoff (Tom Courtenay) receives a letter finally solving the mistery behind the disappearance of his girlfriend of 50 years before. The memories and all the things he buried in his mind 50 years before slowly start to come to surface again and threaten the couple’s harmony.

After WEEKEND, Andrew Haigh decides to portray relationships again and this time he proves his ability to inflect all aspects of human and love relationships.

Plot: There is just one week until Kate Mercer’s forty-fifth wedding anniversary and the planning for the party is going well. But then a letter arrives for her husband. The body of his first love has been discovered, frozen and preserved in the icy glaciers of the Swiss Alps. By the time the party is upon them, five days later, there may not be a marriage left to celebrate.

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