FRED Film Radio - English Channel

Anggun Priambodo, Director, Rocket Rain.

Festival Section: Forum of Independents – Competition.

FRED meets director Anggun Priambodo, whose film ROCKET RAIN had its international premiere at the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

“Do you think Adam ever got bored with Eve?” “If Adam and Eve had separated before they had kids, that would’ve been a disaster!” Jansen is going through a marital crisis, and after a long hiatus he meets his old friend Culapo, who has gone through similar problems. For the present, getting out of town is the only step Jansen has taken. Although of differing temperaments, the men offer each other support and understanding, which helps them in their search for inner peace. This leisurely-paced movie is deeply anchored in the local culture, discussing family values and traditions openly, although the film’s poetics help keep things universally applicable. Here, the blending of reality and fantasy arises from a perception of the everyday that differs from what Western society is used to, where dreaming isn’t usually considered a part of daily life. The movie looks at universal questions of family and, more generally, interpersonal relationships from the perspective of the two men, yet it is entirely free of the macho attitudes that are closer to mainstream Indonesian culture, as elsewhere.

Reporter: Matt Micucci.

The post Anggun Priambodo – Rocket Rain #KarlovyVaryFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Signe Baumane, Filmmaker, Rocks in my Pocket.

Festival Section: Official Selection – Competition.

FRED meets filmmaker Signe Baumane, whose animated feature film ROCKS IN MY POCKET had its world premiere at the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Latvia, the 1920s. Anna, a pretty and educated young woman, falls in love with an adventurous entrepreneur 30 years her senior. But with marriage comes jealousy, and the entrepreneur hides Anna away in the forest where she bears him eight children. Years later, Signe, a young artist, asks her father how her grandmother died.… This writer-director animated movie is a highly personal statement of the director’s struggle with an inherited illness. Set against the backdrop of her grandmother’s life, the first part touches on the difficult living conditions in Latvia during the Soviet and German occupations in order to focus on those members of the family suffering from the same affliction. Baumane is not only the director, illustrator, and screenwriter but also the film’s narrator, allowing her direct contact with the viewer. The filmmaker approached the gloomy and oppressive topic with detachment, hyperbole, and humor without diminishing either sincerity or urgency. Funny and bleak by turns, Baumane’s feature debut is the first animated film to compete in the main competition at Karlovy Vary.

Reporter: Matt Micucci.

The post Signe Baumane – Rocks in my Pocket #KarlovyVaryFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Sara Colangelo, Director and screenwriter, Little Accidents.

Festival Section: Forum of Independents – Competition.

FRED meets filmmaker Sara Colangelo, whose feature film debut LITTLE ACCIDENTS had its international premiere at the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

“Small towns are a microcosm of America,” says screenwriter and director Sara Colangelo. “They are essential to our culture and history. People depend on each other more, so you can never forget that you are part of a community.” This talented creator set her debut in an Appalachian mining town devastated by tragic misfortune. The brooding sorrow that recently overwhelmed the inhabitants is intensified by the sudden disappearance of a teenage boy. Sole surviving minor Amos, young Owen, whose father died in the mine, and lonely Diana, the wife of a man who may bear some responsibility for the tragedy, are characters connected by a web of painful lies and oppressive secrets. In this sensitive and sincere meditation on guilt and conscience, Boyd Holbrook, Jacob Lofland, and Elizabeth Banks excel. The filmmaker was invited, on the basis of her successful short film of the same name, to participate in the Writer’s Lab organized by the Sundance Institute, which provided support for her first feature.

Reporter: Matt Micucci.

The post Sara Colangelo – Little Accidents #KarlovyVaryFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Boris Poljak, Filmmaker, Autofocus.

Festival Section: Documentary Films: Competition.

FRED meets filmmaker Boris Poljak to talk about directorial debut, the documentary AUTOFOCUS that was shown at the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

A little church standing alone in the Croatian landscape, a few scattered trees, an endless sky, and the sun beating down – all you need to set the scene for a caustic satire on mass tourism. Families, young couples and groups of friends file past the hidden telephoto lens, while cleverly placed microphones capture their endearingly banal conversations. This docu-comedy compilation draws on the unremitting voyeuristic urges of the film viewer to see and not be seen in order to expose the shallowness of people who wolf down bulging sandwiches and a Romanesque monument in one sitting.

Reporter: Matt Micucci.

The post Boris Poljak – Autofocus #KarlovyVaryFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Daniel Dencik – Director – Tar R: The Virgin

FRED meets Daniel Dencik, who returns to Karlovy Vary with his documentary TAL R: THE VIRGIN, presented at the 49th edition of the festival.

Multifaceted Tal R is a distinctive figure on the Scandinavian art scene. In a series of tableaux he is introduced by members of his family, friends, and colleagues. This nontraditional portrait fudges the border between an authentic statement and an ingenious performance, enabling it to easily avoid fact-based interpretation. Instead, the Danish director concentrates on gestures, facial expressions, colors, and shapes in order to navigate the magical waters of dream, vision, and illusion. At their intersection we find the creator’s cinematic message, enchanting for its subtle humor and inimitable atmosphere.

Festival section: Documentary Films: Competition

Reporter: Matt Micucci

The post Daniel Dencik – Tar R: The Virgin #KarlovyVaryFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Nariman Turebayev – Director and Screenwriter – Adventure (Priklyuchenie)

FRED meets filmmaker Nariman Turebayev to talk about his film ADVENTURE (Priklyuchenie), presented in the official selection competition of the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Festival section: Official Selection – Competition

Reporter: Matt Micucci

The post Nariman Turebayev – Adventure (Priklyuchenie) #KarlovyVaryFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Maya Vitkova, Director, screenwriter and producer, Viktoria.

Festival Section: Another View.

FRED meets filmmaker Maya Vitkova to talk about her wonderful film VIKTORIA, which was shown at the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Boryana is determined never to have a child in communist Bulgaria. She shares a small flat with her doctor husband and her mother, and dreams of escaping to the West. All the same, her daughter Viktoria enters the world in 1979, born without a belly button. Perhaps due to this physical defect, Viktoria is declared the country’s “Baby of the Decade” and, for the nine years preceding the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, she is pampered by the state and the Communist Party. The director doesn’t aim for realism; on the contrary, in her visually stylised, inventive and, at times, ironic piece, she credibly combines epic passages with intimate episodes testifying to the complex characters of the three heroines, and also to an era when it wasn’t easy to give and receive love. Told in three parts, the film deftly interweaves archive footage with a tale of the ambivalent relationships between women of three generations, set against the backdrop of the historical events w

Reporter: Matt Micucci.

The post Maya Vitkova – Viktoria #KarlovyVaryFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

FRED was present at the Lux Prize 2014 Official Selection announcement, which took place at an event at the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Listen to the full list of 10 films that was short listed for this year’s coveted prize.

Among the people present at the announcement were:

DORIS PACK, LUX Prize co-ordinator

Reporter: Matt Micucci.

The post Lux Prize 2014 Official Selection announcement #KarlovyVaryFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson, Director, Paris of the North (París norðursins).

Festival Section: Official Selection – Competition.

FRED catches up with filmmaker Hasteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson to talk about his latest film PARIS OF THE NORTH (París norðursins), presented in the official selection competition of the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Teacher Hugi, who resides in a village in eastern Iceland, receives an unexpected visit from his relatively young and largely estranged father. Their differing personalities – 37-year-old, recovering alcoholic Hugi is involved with the local temperance center, while his father betrays a tendency toward hedonism – become the source of multiple problems, and their ill-matched cohabitation undergoes various phases. Rather than emphasizing the drama of the plot, Sigurðsson prioritizes the creation of an emotional atmosphere for this story of gradual rapprochement. The central characters’ belated adolescence is a key factor in the process of their reunion as they discover heretofore unknown aspects of their personalities and, along with it, an understanding for one another. The dialogue here is often helpful in revealing the characters’ natures, even in the case of the supporting roles, without in any way disadvantaging the concise depiction of the environment or the musical component, which greatly contributes to the narrative’s melancholy mood.

Reporter: Matt Micucci.

The post Hafsteinn Gunnar Sigurðsson – Paris of the North (París norðursins) #KarlovyVaryFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

David Lambert – Director and Screenwriter – All Yours (Je suis à toi)

FRED meets filmmaker David Lambert to talk about his latest work ALL YOURS (Je suis a toi), presented in the official selection competition of the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

Interpreter: Jana Steffl

Festival section: Official Selection – Competition

Reporter: Matt Micucci

The post David Lambert – All Yours (Je suis à toi) #KarlovyVaryFF appeared first on Fred Film Radio.