FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Göran Hugo Olsson, director of the film That Summer.

After his last film Concerning Violence, Göran Olsson receives a warm welcome back at the Berlinale with That Summer. Based on footage of exceptional rarity and cultural value, Olsson threads an extremely interesting alley through the lives of Little and Big Edith Beale, the stars that many film fans remember from the Maysles brothers’ documentary Grey Gardens. We once again are part of their family, which- by proxy – comprises some of the most iconic and influential figures of the second half of the 20th century. A real treat, and a reminder of the purest joy that comes when art does not simply mean money making.

That Summer is a feature documentary centered on the film project artist Peter Beard initiated in 1972 with Lee Radziwill about her relatives, the Beales of Grey Gardens. Lost for decades, this extraordinary footage re-emerges in a film that focuses on Beard and his family of friends, who formed an enormously influential and vibrant creative community in Montauk, Long Island (NY) in the 1970s. Featuring Peter Beard, Lee Radziwill, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale, Edith Bouvier Beale, Andy Warhol. Including footage directed by Peter Beard, Jonas Mekas, Andy Warhol and with additional cinematography by Albert Maysles and Vincent Fremont.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Göran Hugo Olsson – That Summer #Berlinale2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Barry Keoghan, Hugo Weaving and Lance Daly, actors and director of the film Black 47.

Director Lance Daly, along with Barry Keoghan and Hugo Weaving, talks to us about their ground-breaking work together, Black 47. Tackling the an Gorta Mor (‘great famine’ in Irish) through a Western film structure definitely posed a few challenges: here at Berlinale, we hear the impact that this film had on his creator and the cast involved. Black 47 is in the 68th Berlinale’s official competition.

Black 47:  Ireland, 1847. After fighting for the British crown in the war in Afghanistan, Martin Feeney returns to his Irish homeland as a deserter. He finds his country in dire straits. Potato blight has destroyed the crops and over a million people have perished in the resulting famine. Martin’s family has also been affected: his mother is among the victims and his brother has been sentenced to death by the British occupying forces. Martin’s plan to emigrate to the USA with his sister-in-law and her children fails, and witnessing his last remaining relatives wasting away almost robs him of the will to live. In desperation, he begins a bloody vendetta across the social and political hierarchy of Ireland. To stop this wrathful avenger, the British hire Hannah who fought with Martin in Afghanistan. Lance Daly draws on motifs from the western for his drama about a dark chapter of British colonialism in neighbouring Ireland that has rarely been told on the big screen. The gritty realism of the film’s photography conveys the misery of a suffering people and describes individuals cast adrift in austere landscapes.

To discover more about the film, click here.

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PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Corneliu Porumboiu, director of the documentary Infinite Football.

Corneliu Porumboiu is here at the 68th edition of the Berlinale with a quite short and yet powerful genre-defying documentary: Infinite Football. Continuing his reflection on his favourite sport – the only one he likes – Mr. Porumboiu dissects the most popular game in the world through the Don Quixotesque theories of his friend Laurentiu Ginghina. The game must evolve from its simplicity: to become free, through more stasis.

Infinite Football:  They talk about the beautiful game, but for Laurențiu Ginghină, it’s not enough. Football must be modified, streamlined, freed from restraints; corners are to be rounded off, players assigned to zones and subteams, norms revised. In retrospect, he first realized that the rules of football were wrong when he was tackled during a game in his youth, in the summer holidays, on another pitch now covered in snow, but in Vaslui, not Bucharest. The tackle hit so hard it fractured his fibula, a year later his tibia broke too, on New Year’s Eve 1987, he had to walk home in the snow and no one helped him. Today he’s a local bureaucrat with an uninspiring job, it’s no wonder he prefers to talk about the game, his own version of it, to Porumboiu, his friend, the director, who’s always listening, asking questions, nearly always in frame. Ginghină’s monologues are so rich you might think someone wrote them in advance, they proceed from the same old subject, but never stay in one place. All roads lead to football, but all roads lead away from it too, to land ownership issues, to orange farms in Florida, to political utopia and the traces left by life, to version 2.0, 3.1, 4.7, to infinity.

To discover more about the documentary, click here.

The post Corneliu Porumboiu – Infinite Football #Berlinale2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Ibrahim al Hussein and Qutaiba Naefa, protagonists of the film Central Airport THF.

The Brazilian director Karim Aïnouz is back at the Berlinale with his latest documentary Central Airport THF. At the festival, he came by along with his two protagonists, 20-year-old Ibrahim al Hussein, from Syria, and the Iraqi gentleman Qutaiba Naefa. FRED’s Nicolò Comotti had the pleasure to talk to them, and learn from their courage and intelligence.

Central Airport THF:  Tempelhof Airport in Berlin is Europe’s largest heritage building. It became a symbol of both National Socialist self-aggrandisement as well as of freedom during the airlift of 1948/49. Since autumn 2015 several hangars have been providing temporary shelter for refugees. Like the other 2,000 people here who have fled their homeland, Ibrahim from Syria and Qutaiba from Iraq dream of being able to make a new start. Full of hope, they work with translators, doctors, language teachers and job agents to prepare for life in their new German home. The lack of private space and communication and administrative barriers are some of the challenges they face while, on the nearby recreation area of Tempelhofer Feld, Berliners and tourists escape their daily routine. Chaos and harmony: two very different worlds in one place. Karim Aïnouz spent a year following these men in search of a place they can call home. The film’s sensitive and well-composed images capture their lives that are shaped by uncertainty, stress and anguish, but also jollity and aspirations. The building’s architecture and the changing seasons add a surreal dimension. A portrait of a city within a city that is also a snapshot of Europe caught between utopia and crisis.

The post Ibrahim al Hussein, Qutaiba Naefa – Central Airport THF #Berlinale2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Nicolò Comotti interviews Karim Aïnouz, director of the film Central Airport THF.

FRED’s Nicolò Comotti talks to the director Karim Aïnouz about his latest endeavour: Central Airport THF. A film born out of the disgust felt by Karim towards the inhumane depiction of the migrants by Europe’s media, Central Airport THF studies the invisible walls and flaws that encompass this very delicate issue through the investigation of a place full of contradictions: Berlin’s Tempelhof.

Central Airport THF:  Tempelhof Airport in Berlin is Europe’s largest heritage building. It became a symbol of both National Socialist self-aggrandisement as well as of freedom during the airlift of 1948/49. Since autumn 2015 several hangars have been providing temporary shelter for refugees. Like the other 2,000 people here who have fled their homeland, Ibrahim from Syria and Qutaiba from Iraq dream of being able to make a new start. Full of hope, they work with translators, doctors, language teachers and job agents to prepare for life in their new German home. The lack of private space and communication and administrative barriers are some of the challenges they face while, on the nearby recreation area of Tempelhofer Feld, Berliners and tourists escape their daily routine. Chaos and harmony: two very different worlds in one place. Karim Aïnouz spent a year following these men in search of a place they can call home. The film’s sensitive and well-composed images capture their lives that are shaped by uncertainty, stress and anguish, but also jollity and aspirations. The building’s architecture and the changing seasons add a surreal dimension. A portrait of a city within a city that is also a snapshot of Europe caught between utopia and crisis.

The post Karim Aïnouz – Central Airport THF #Berlinale2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Till Schauder, director of the documentary When God Sleeps.

Till Schauder tells us the story of When God Sleeps, a documentary about Shahin Najafi, a young Iranian singer and musician who was forced to flee his country to run away from life threats and a fatwa on his head, for his music and his lyrics. The movie was complex to make and the life of the main character made it even more difficult, as you can hear from the voice of the director.

When God Sleeps: “My songs did not make me famous. The fatwa did”. That’s what the Iranian musician Shahin Najafi says after being sentenced to death for blasphemy, exiled to Germany and forced to live in hiding. He is guilty of writing hip hop songs about delicate subjects such as censorship, theocracy and, most of all, violence and discrimination against women. After fleeing to Cologne, he will live an incredible adventure and the will even fall in love with the granddaughter of the Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran. A sort of modern-day Romeo and Juliet, in which the protagonist has to deal with a multifaceted music scene and threats to his life, while the danger he faces is always underestimated by the police. A story that highlights the intimate and existential sides of a battle against silence. Shahin Najafi is an example to all migrants and refugees who try to realise their hope for freedom, his only weapons being the lyrics of his songs, rich in poetic, literary and philosophical references, and his live concerts.

SEEYOUSOUND International Music Film Festival 2018, the first festival in Italy dedicated to international cinema with a musical theme, returns with the fourth edition, which will be held in Turin from 26 January to 4 February 2018, at the Cinema Massimo of the National Cinema Museum. There are 62 films scheduled in the 10 days of the festival, divided into 4 competitive sections, 2 out-of-competition reviews and 1 retrospective, accompanied by panels, meetings and events. With 1 international preview and 1 European preview and 27 Italian premieres, the festival increasingly aims to establish itself internationally, in the light of a path that has lasted four years and which, with passion and constancy, has led to the construction of a dense network of reports on the territory.

The post Till Schauder – When God Sleeps #SYSF2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Florian Weghorn, programme manager of Berlinale Talents 2018.

If last year’s theme was “Courage Against All Odds”, Berlinale Talents celebrates its sweet 16 years of life by deciding to focus on the mysteries of cinema and developing the new theme: Secrets. Florian Weghorn, programme manager of the Talents is once again on FRED to describe how this theme has been developed and shaped into the various talents’projects, activities and panels. “Sharing and participation are true secrets for success”, Weghorn remarks while proudly quoting a new talents’ record which received 3,191 applications from 133 countries this year. 250 filmmakers from 81 countries have finally been chosen, 128 women and 122 men. As in the previous years, the Berlinale Talents is proud to announce that the only two debut films in Competition, Touch Me Not and Las herederas are both by alumni directors, Adina Pintilie and Marcelo Martinessi besides David Zellner who co-directed with his brother Nathan and is in competition with Damsel. Even if it’s by chance that there’s a majority of women among the Talents selected, the Berlinale Talents doesn’t fail to keep on track with the recent happenings and discussions in the cinema world and not only, about equal treatment and gender equality and takes this opportunity to organize debates on how to achieve a better gender and power balance. As a tradition, many important guests are going to hold workshops and panels. To mention only a few: Gus Van Sant (Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot), Christian Petzold and Barbara Auer (Transit), Jury President Tom Tykwer, director of the fortunate TV series Babylon Berlin, Lav Diaz, the makers of the new German Netflix series Dark and composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. The new key visual for Berlinale Talents 2018 lends a visual dimension to the theme of “Secrets”: by not revealing everything, Talents, guests and the Berlin public are invited to complete the various statements with their own interpretations.

Berlinale Talents is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, a business division of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, in cooperation with Creative Europe MEDIA, a programme of the European Union, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. It was initiated in 2003. In addition to the extensive summit programme of master classes and panel discussions with top-notch experts, Berlinale Talents offers a range of Project Labs in which you can further develop and present your own project. Berlinale Talents also provides Studio programmes and workshops for specific groups of film professionals. As an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, the entire event is closely linked with the programmes of the festival sections and the European Film Market. While the roots of Berlinale Talents are firmly planted in Berlin new shoots of the initiative have been sprouting internationally. These Talents International editions, Talents Beirut in Lebanon, Talents Buenos Aires in Argentina, Talents Guadalajara in Mexico, Talents Durban in South Africa, Talents Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Talents Tokyo in Japan have the familiar structure and purpose of their German counterpart; all the while retaining a regional perspective and finding support and the necessary amenities in a locally based international film festival. Talents initiatives are supported by local partners as well as by the Goethe-Institut.

To know more about Berlinale Talents, click here.

The post Florian Weghorn – Berlinale Talents #Berlinale2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Phil Cox, director of the film Betty: They Say I’m Different.

Phil Cox worked for 5 years on the project, two years just to locate Betty Davis, who has been living secluded for years. She was a rebel, a pioneer of female rock funk performers and she paid a huge price for her freedom. She could have been huge, but she was far too ahead of the times. As Miles Davis said she was “Madonna before Madonna, Prince before Prince”.

Betty: They Say I’m Different: Betty Davis was an icon of music, style and feminism. She grew up on a farm in Carolina, then among the steelworks in Pittsburgh. At the age of sixteen, she moved to New York, where she began working as a model and she had the opportunity to meet famous musicians such as Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone. She was married for a year to Miles Davis, who described her as the forerunner of Madonna and Prince. Her funk debut album, Betty Davis, challenged the male chauvinism of 1973 with its explicitly provocative energy, especially on sexual themes. For this reason her career was never a commercial success; however, she gained the cult status of a Black Power Goddess, before retiring in 1979. Phil Cox’s documentary goes back through Betty’s life, analysing the way she influenced modern music: from soul to pop and rock, revealing all the personal challenges she had to overcome during the thirty-five years of her almost invisible career.

SEEYOUSOUND International Music Film Festival 2018, the first festival in Italy dedicated to international cinema with a musical theme, returns with the fourth edition, which will be held in Turin from 26 January to 4 February 2018, at the Cinema Massimo of the National Cinema Museum. There are 62 films scheduled in the 10 days of the festival, divided into 4 competitive sections, 2 out-of-competition reviews and 1 retrospective, accompanied by panels, meetings and events. With 1 international preview and 1 European preview and 27 Italian premieres, the festival increasingly aims to establish itself internationally, in the light of a path that has lasted four years and which, with passion and constancy, has led to the construction of a dense network of reports on the territory.

The post Phil Cox – Betty: They Say I’m Different #SYSF2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Aditya Vikram Sengupta, director of the film Jonaki.

Director Aditya Vikram Sengupta presented his latest film, Jonaki, at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it had its world premiere in the festival’s Bright Future strand. The film was inpired by the stories her mother used to tell the director and the emotions, thoughts, and experiences that resulted in him from his grandmother’s coma and subsequent passing. “It was my way of coming to terms with things because I was very deeply attached to her,” he explains. “As a child, when I would hear these stories, I had an innocent way of constructing and imagining the stories … even in the film … it’s almost like a fairytale.” The director also talks about the reason for his disjointed but cohesive narrative, the influence of dream on Jonaki, and the influence of music on everything he does. “Most of the things that I do are very musical,” he tells us in this interview. “I’ve been a musician since childhood … there’s an attempt to achieve this balance and rhythm and this form of balance and dance in whatever I do, whether it’s film or painting.”

Jonaki, an eighty-year-old woman, finds herself in a decaying world of nostalgia. She relives moments of her life with a strangeness that churns up feelings buried deep in her soul. Her memories surface in dream-like modes in which the line between real and surreal blurs. The echoing space of this fascinating meditative journey gently and carefully confronts us with a possible moment of transition between life and death. The cinematic form of a beautiful, esoteric trance with meticulously created painterly images suggests a temporal and spatial void inhabited by a less immediate kind of time. The Bengali director (also a painter, animator and film author), whose remarkable debut Labour of Love was screened at IFFR in 2015, daringly and successfully digs deeper in search of an exciting personal cinematic language.

The post Aditya Vikram Sengupta – Jonaki #IFFR2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Alexey Fedorchenko, director of the film Anna’s War.

Director Alexey Fedorchenko presented his latest film, Anna’s War, at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it had its world premiere in the Voices strand. The film is set in Ukraine in 1941 and follows a little Jewish girl entering survival mode and finding an unlikely hiding place in a Nazi-occupied building. Fedorchenko explains in this interview that Anna’s War is based on a true story and as a filmmaker, everything about this story interested him. The film opens with the shot of a shallow mass grave and not much information is given because, as Fedorchenko tells us “I respect my spectator and I understand that everybody knows what happened during those times in those territories that were occupied by the Germans.” He also talks about the challenge of having a child lead character and finding the right child lead actress: in praise of the six-year-old Marta Kozlova, he says “I worked with her as if she were an adult actress … at the moment of shooting she was six-years-old but worked as a real adult actress, absolutely mature.”

Anna’s War: Ukraine, 1941: a Jewish girl regains consciousness under a layer of black earth. Close-ups of milky-white body parts reveal she is in a mass grave. The images are of great beauty despite all their horror. Director Alexey Fedorchenko (Silent Souls, 2010; Angels of Revolution, 2014) modestly, empathically tells the true story of six-year-old Anna, who views the war from her hiding place in a building taken over by the Nazis. The guard dog outside imprisons her. The threat of discovery is constant. Her ingenuity, the items left behind by the slowly alternating visitors and the treasures she discovers in the adjacent rooms help her survive, simultaneously creating some absurdist, theatrical moments. This ode to children’s resilience and ingenuity hinges on the phenomenal child actress Marta Kozlova. (Text of the synopsis taken from the official website of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.)

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