FRED Film Radio - English Channel

Following the European edition of “Reaction”, including the three in Rome at the Macro – Museum of Contemporary Art and another in Madrid at the Centro de Cultura Contemporaneo Conde Duque.

We meet artists Pietro Jona and Francesca Mor who are currently working on the very first edition of “Reaction NY“ in collaboration with Union Square Partnership.

“Reaction NY” is a collective project that embodies a new way of making art and communicating – “Reaction NY” will give people who live, work, and visit New York an opportunity to participate as co-creators and participants of this moving picture, a portrait of the city through the eyes of its inhabitants.

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Lukas Moodysson, a Swedish auteur also known in Italy especially for his films at the turn of the 1990s and early 2000s (“Fucking Amal“, 1998, “Together“, 2000, “Lilja 4-ever“, 2002 and “We Are the Best!”, 2013 is the protagonist of Europe, Now!, section of the 42nd Bergamo Film Meeting, focusing on contemporary European auteur cinema.

Moodysson’s filmography reflects an interest in authentic human stories and a keen sensitivity to social issues. His unquestionable ability to outline characters with an indulgent and ironic gaze, exploring complex and challenging themes with lightness but also without fear of venturing into the meanders of experimentation and, at times, provocation, makes Lukas Moodysson one of the most significant representatives of contemporary Swedish cinema.

As the Bergamo Film Meeting is showcasing all his work, the Swedish director looks back at his career and filmography to try and trace some common traits in his cinema, from the very beginning with “Fucking Amal” to the last title, the 2023’s “Tillsammans 99“, “sequel” to the famous “Together“.

On Tuesday March 12, 2024, Lukas Moodysson will meet the students of Accademia Laba di Brescia for a master class.

The post Interview with Lukas Moodysson – Europe, Now! appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

The Zellner brothers are back with their surreal stories. With “Sasquatch Sunset“,  presented at the 74th Berlinale in the Special section, they imagine and depict the real life of a family of Sasquatches on North America.

With Nathan Zellner also playing the alpha male in the family besides directing with his brother David, the film tells the story entirely from the Sasquatch’s point of view.

Possibly the last of their enigmatic kind, the Sasquatches are also played by actors Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg who immediately said yes to the project and embarked on this different acting and professional journey.

The Zellner brothers had always wanted to direct a feature film about Sasquatches after working on a short film “Sasquatch Birth Journal 2” as they noticed that almost every part of the world has their own variation on the “man of the woods” myth.

With “Sasquatch sunset“, the directors explore the grey area between human and animal behavior and reflect on our connection to the natural world which has been compromised with the development of human civilization.

The post “Sasquatch Sunset”, interview with directors David and Nathan Zellner appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

“The great yawn of history“, Aliyar Rasti’s debut feature film,  was born from an idea the Iranian director got from a  fever dream he had. The film is in the Encounters competitive section at the 74th Berlinale and it’s script comes from a dialogue between two men talking about a miracle.

This is the story of two men of different beliefs, going on a journey to find a box of gold coins at the end of a cave .

Through his two characters, Aliyar Rasti explores two visions of the world, the religious and mystic one and the non-believer’s to try and understand what miracles really mean.

The director confesses that he based his “believer” character on his own father, the one “who taught him to not only believe in dreams but to make them come true”

The post “The great yawn of history”, interview with director Alyar Rasti appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

“The story is about Cai, a middle-class, full-time housewife and mother. She allowed me to see stories I have personally lived. All those stories that everybody knows but nobody talks about”. These are the words of Chinese director Qiu Yang describing his debut feature film, “Some rain must fall“, competing in the Encounters section at the 74th Berlinale.

The director, who was awarded the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 70th Cannes film Festival with “A Gentle Night“, admits that he based the protagonist character on his mum, a traditional woman, a so-called “Chinese parent” as he writes in his press notes.

Yang elaborates on how the film doesn’t have a specific plot bur relies on narrating the everyday of this woman with an accident to stir up her life, something the director created in the script in order to allow the camera to follow her and observe her life.

The post “Some rain must fall”, interview with director Qiu Yang appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

With the 2019’s title “Anne at 13,000 ft.” Canadian director Kazik Radwanski worked successfully with actors Matt Johnson and Deragh Campbell. As he wanted to reproduce the magic of that film, he cast the two again for “Matt and Mara“, screening in the Encounters competition at the 74th Berlinale.

“Matt and Mara” is the story of a creative writing professor who reunites with an old friend and free-spirited author Matt. Despite her being married with a daughter, they start a sort of undefined relationship where the line between friendship and something more is never really drawn.

Kazik Radwanski admits that he wanted to explore relationships, conversations, two visions of looking at life and love with this story.

Matt Johnson comments on what he declared in an official interview: “I always viewed my role in Kaz’s films as the guy that has to get things going, as the kind of person who’s bringing up the unmentionable”.  The actor explains how his friendship and work dynamic functions with Radwanski and Campbell as the latter is more similar to the director, shy and keeping things internally.

Does bad timing really exist in relationship? is there such a thing as the the right time to meet somebody or to meet them again? Johnson and Radwanski agree on a big yes to the question and the director adds: “like Matt, I believe in timing and maybe this is something Matt and Mara are trying to correct in the film”.

The post “Matt and Mara”, interview with director Kazik Radwanski and actor Matt Johnson appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

“Made in England: The Films Of Powell and Pressburger“, directed by David Hinton, with Martin Scorsese as a narrator, is wonderful celebrative documentary on the films made by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Thelma Shoonmaker, iconic editor of all Scorsese‘s films, is executive producer (and she was Micheal Powell’s wife as well).

As  narrated in “Made in England: The Films Of Powell and Pressburger“, Martin Scorsese helped rediscover the films of Powell and Pressburger, also helped by George Lucas and Stanley Kubrick who were fans and very determined that the duo would not been  forgotten.

Thelma Shoonmaker recalls the first time she met Michael Powell. Scorsese was doing Raging Bull, and they were editing when this man showed up. They had dinner all together and she was taken by the originality and the “britishness” of him; after some time they got married and stayed together until Powell’s death.

The post “Made in England: the films of Powell and Pressburger”, interview with the executive producer Thelma Shoonmaker appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

After talking about it in her book, “L’Inceste” (Stock), which made her a renowned writer, Christine Angot decided to embark on a cinematic journey, a documentary, “A family – Une Famille“, in the Encounters competition at the 74th Berlinale, where she decided to confront her family and that of her father, now deceased and guilty of incest, about how they have dealt ( or not dealt at all) with the situation.

With the help of her director of photography and friend, Caroline Champetier, while on a book tour in Strasbourg, she decided to finally talk to her family while being shot on camera. This is how “A family“, her debut film was born.

Christine Angot accompanies us through her cinematic and personal journey and explains how the shame she has felt her whole life since the incest, went away in the moment she decided to first write and then direct her story.

The pages of her book and the images of her film were there to testify her pain and the violence she had to suffer.

The post “A Family”, interview with director Christine Angot appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Niklas meets Monsieur Abderrahmane Sissako to talk about his new film ‘Black Tea‘ but also about political visions of a new multipolar world, the role of Europe and the awakening giants Africa and China in that.

He criticises Europe’s short-sighted and arrogant perspective on the African continent. Furthermore he gives insights into his international crew’s work, discusses working with his actors, who had to speak Mandarin for his work, as well as working with French cinematographer Aymerick Pilarski, who speaks fluent Mandarin.

The post ‘Black Tea’, interview with director Abderrahmane Sissako appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

With “The Guilty“ in 2018, his debut feature, Gustav Möller had managed to create a fast-paced psychological thriller in one small place such as the Emergency East desk in a police station. At the 74th Berlinale, the danish director brings his new work, “Vogter“, all set into a prison.

“As a filmmaker I think a prison is a very strong canvas to tell a story: strong characters, clear archetypes, a lot of rules and power structures” he states. In that very claustrophobic place, Möller examines the power dynamics between Eva (Sidse Babett Knudsen), an idealistic prison officer and Mikkel (Sebastian Bull), a newly arrived inmate who seems to trigger the worse part of Eva’s personality and past.

Gustav Möller also says that in the Scandinavian legal system there’s a very interesting conflict between wanting to help people and wanting punish people. As these are two conflicting objectives, his film tries to explore how and if they can co-exist.

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