FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Catherine Chagnon, producer of the film The Seven Last Words.

An interview with Catherine Chagnon, producer of The Seven Last Words, multidisciplinary film project based with seven different Canadian filmmakers interpreting Joseph Hayden’s oratorio The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross from 1787. The film was presented at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where the film was accompanied by a live performance of the music by the Callino String Quartet. Changon tells us about the genesis of the project (she was approached by filmmaker, musician and composer, Kaveh Nabatian with the idea), the process in which the different filmmakers made their parts of the movies and how they were each given their themes and parts of the music to visually interpret, and more.

The Seven Last Words: As a filmmaker, musician and composer, Kaveh Nabatian doesn’t want to choose between music and film. He’d rather combine both disciplines as far as possible. For instance in this multidisciplinary project, for which he cooperated with six other Canadian filmmakers and the British Callino String Quartet. It’s based on the commissioned composition The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross (1787) by Joseph Haydn – a piece that is a special favourite around Easter and which grippingly expresses the state of the suffering Christ on the cross. Each of the directors in this omnibus film provides their own very personal view of the themes in Haydn’s piece: forgiveness, redemption, abandonment and reunion. Nabatian himself made the intriguing introduction and the concluding ‘earthquake’, which frame the seven short films. These films are very varied in genre and style: fiction, documentary, experimental, magic realist and sometimes also soberly filmed – intimate and personal.

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The post Catherine Chagnon – The Seven Last Words #IFFR2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Ena Sendijarevic, director of the film Take Me Somewhere Nice.

An interview with Ena Sendijarevic, director of Take Me Somewhere Nice, which had its world premiere at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film follows Alma, a young girl who grew up in the Netherlands but goes back to her birth-country, Bosnia, to meet her ailing father perhaps for the last time. Through her relationship with her older cousin and a friend of his, the film also examines the themes of the cultures of the East and the West as well as male and female genders, but in this interview, the director shares with us her interesting takes on these topics. She also talks with us about the characters she designed, neither totally good nor bad, but also on the structure of her narrative, which sometimes takes unexpected road especially as the three protagonists embark on a road trip, and that as she tells us, hence reflects her view on life and its randomness.

Take Me Somewhere Nice: Can you simultaneously be two things or does that make you neither? Alma is in between everything: raised in the Netherlands by Bosnian parents, no longer a girl, but not really a woman yet. She hardly knows her father, but when he is admitted to a Bosnian hospital she decides to visit him one last time. This starts a journey with an unknown destination as Alma discovers herself and her country of origin. Cousin Emir unenthusiastically hosts her, but is too busy with shady deals to take her to the hospital in another town. His friend Denis, a complete layabout, gives Alma more attention. From casual relationships between these young adults to the bone-dry storytelling: everything about this refreshing road movie is reminiscent of the iconic Stranger Than Paradise. And not by accident. Ena Sendijarevic often refers to Jim Jarmusch as an example. Her feature film debut also elaborates on themes and stylistic elements that she explored in Reizigers in de nacht, Fernweh and Import: short films in which the characters seem out of place.

The post Ena Sendijarevic – Take Me Somewhere Nice #IFFR2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews José Celestino Campusano, director of the film Men of Hard Skin.

An interview with filmmaker José Celestino Campusano. Last year, the International Film Festival Rotterdam featured a whole retrospective of his work. This year, it featured his new film, Men of Hard Skin, in its Deep Focus strand. The film is set in the countryside and talks about the difficult sexuality within the rural context, particularly revolving around a young man’s sexual discoveries through a relationship with a pedophile priest. In this interview, he Campusano talks about his interest in sexuality, his familiarity with the countryside setting and also tells us a bit about the VR project that was also presented at this year’s IFFR, La Secta del Gatillo.

Men of Hard Skin: The power of this Argentine drama is shrouded in modesty. Through the prism of only two relationships, José Celestino Campusano sketches the difficult way sexuality is treated in different layers of Argentine society. Ariel is a good-looking farm boy who lives with his father and sister in a rural part of Buenos Aires province. He has become familiar with sex thanks to Omar, a priest with whom he has a secret affair. The film begins when Omar ends their relationship. Campusano, to whom IFFR dedicated a retrospective in 2018, sketches a complex but unsentimental and realistic picture of sex and abuse. He shows how the church tries to hide transgressions; how priests themselves have sometimes been the victims of this; how people regard prostitutes as a remedy for homosexuality. Despite everything, Ariel starts to trust his own body more, and trusts the patriarchal world around him less.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Sam Ellison, director of the film Chèche lavi.

An interview with director Sam Ellison, who talks with us about his documentary Chéche lavi, which had its world premiere at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam. Chéche lavi talks about two Haitian migrants who find themselves stranded at the US-Mexico border with no way forward. Ellison tells us he considers this a political film, and we ponder on what a political film is, and whether the human element of Chéche lavi helps carry the message and spark up a debate about migration within the current discourse.

Chèche lavi: Everything sold, everything left behind. A long journey via Brazil and Peru, in order finally to ride into Mexico in the cargo hold of a truck. Ready to embark on a new life in the USA. But then there’s the wall. Haitian refugees Robens and James face unpleasant surprises in Chèche lavi, even though director Sam Ellison doesn’t show all of the misery. His portrait of two young men on the verge of a future to dream of is honest and subtle. While the camera and music create the mood of a feature as we see Trump’s impenetrable wall being built, James and Robens tell us calmly and factually what they are going through. One is toiling to earn enough money, the other just to get admitted to the USA. Disappointment and resignation continue to vie for attention. The film doesn’t take sides on where these men are basically better off.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Bani Khoshnoudi, director of the film Fireflies.

An interview with Bani Khoshnoudi, director of Fireflies, shown at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam. Fireflies tells the story of a young Iranian gay man in Veracruz and the impact the relationships and friendships he forms in this place of transition have on his life and situation. In this interview, Khoshnoudi discusses the themes of violence and displacement, her influences and how her style favours subtleness. She also mentions that, being an Iranian filmmaker, Fireflies is her first film in Mexico, where she has now lived for some years, but how it was important for her to still have an Iranian element within the narrative.

Fireflies: Ramin, an Iranian immigrant in Mexico, carries his past on his back: literally, in the form of welts. In Fireflies, a Skype conversation reveals that he has left his boyfriend behind in Turkey. Early on in this immigrant drama, Ramin tries to return to Europe, but the high cost stops him. Or is it something else? Ramin single-mindedly steers his own course, even though he could easily join forces with a fellow immigrant, or a woman with a broken heart just like his Luciérnagas deals not only with immigration but also with issues of commitment: two not entirely unrelated issues. Is Ramin’s restless nature the result of the homophobic culture he grew up in? Director Bani Khoshnoudi leaves a lot unexplained, for her audience to chew on afterwards.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Elmar Imanov and Anar Imanov, director and co-writer of the film End of Season.

An interview with director Anar Imanov and his brother Elmar Imanov, who co-wrote End of Season with him, the film which they presented at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam. The two reveal that this film was interestingly born out of a desire to portray an everyday family situation, but also out of a frustration with their unsuccessful attempt to get their previous project funded. We also talk about End of Season‘s sense of humor, their work with the cast and the impact of their perspective as Azerbaijani people who have lived in Germany for 20 years.

End of Season: A small family in Azerbaijan is on the brink of running its course. Son Machmud feverishly seeks a home of his own; mother Fidan wants her life back after years of service to the family; father Samir just wants to be left alone. Three free spirits orbiting each other, ignoring the annoyances as much as possible. However, a dramatic incident during a trip to the beach painfully highlights the hairline fractures in their existence. Azerbaijan-born director Elmar Imanov lives and studied filmmaking in Germany and his debut opens with a brief homage: a melancholy cover of Nena’s 99 Red Balloons. Imanov uses this family as an astute metaphor for what happens when freedom becomes the only goal, but then serves as cover for alienation and mutual incomprehension. The film masterfully navigates between the three characters and portrays them as complete strangers and inseparable ‘partners in crime’ at once.

The post Elmar Imanov, Anar Imanov – End of Season #IFFR2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Ico Costa, director of the film Alva.

An interview with Ico Costa, director of Alva, which had its world premiere in the Bright Future strand of the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam. The protagonist of the film is a man who lives in the Portuguese countryside, commits a crime and goes back to the hills. Little is known about the whys and the hows, but as Costa tells us here, he wanted to get inside the man’s head. The film in fact focuses on him, and in this interview we also talk about his choice of filming in 16mm, using nonprofessional actors and what type of an experience he would like or expect his audience to have when watching Alva.

Alva: Henrique is a terse Portuguese smallholder who lives out in the hills, far from civilisation. We realise something is wrong in his life when occasional passers-by ask if there is any news about his daughters. The next day, he drives to a nearby village, follows someone and does something terrible. He then flees back to the hills. The almost entirely dialogue-free second half of the film focuses on Henrique as he hides out. We occasionally hear voices, or a helicopter swoops overhead. In the end, he returns to the village. Ico Costa explicitly uses an elliptic narrative structure, to allow viewers to form a man from the clay he puts in front of them. Who is Henrique? Can his deed be understood? Is he telling the truth when he says he didn’t want to hurt anyone? In the meantime, almost incidentally, the stunning beauty of the landscape passes by. Henrique washes himself in the waters of a river – a river called Alva.

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PODCAST| Sarah Bradbury interviews Philip Ilson, co-founder and artistic director of the London Short Film Festival.

The co-founder and artistic director of the London Short Film Festival, Philip Ilson, talks to FRED about the festival’s unique history, from its underground beginnings 16 years ago to the eclectic and wide-ranging programme screened from diverse venues across the UK’s capital it is today, what makes the medium of short film so special and exciting, and why he wants to ban the word “experimental”.

Broaching its sixteenth year, London Short Film Festival has been recognised as the premiere UK showcase for cutting edge homegrown and international short film. Renowned as the capital’s “cornucopia of new and beloved shorts from around the world” (CineVue) and for its consistently ambitious cross-arts programming, it strives always to platform emerging talent alongside the established with a 16 year old soft spot for the independent. The first significant date on the UK’s film calendar, each January sees diverse audiences of 10,000+ flock to LSFF helming some of London’s most historic cinematic venues, from the Institute of Contemporary Arts to BFI Southbank, Curzon Soho to Dalston’s Grade II listed Rio.

To discover more about the Festival, click here.

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