FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Eddie Martin, director of the documentary Have You Seen the Listers?.

Director Eddie Martin presented his documentary, Have You Seen the Listers?, at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it had its international premiere. The film is about Australian artist Anthony Lister – his family life and his art life. Martin explains that in Australia, art is not an easy career path to take and that Lister somehow challenges the status quo in Australia. “When it comes to the arts,” he explains in this interview, “we can be a little conservative, we’re not so progressive.” Here, Martin talks about meeting Lister and his impression of the artist as well as the man. He also tells us that he was not only surprised to find that “he’d been documenting his and his family’s life over a couple of decades” but also that he was surprised to find that he filmed the bad times as well as the good times. He tells us that he believes that “once you start to have your eyes open to recording these things … you’re more open to looking at things the way you probably previously wouldn’t – like there’s beauty in everything.”

Have You Seen the Listers?: He grew up on a diet of television and noodles, says Australian graffiti artist Anthony Lister. His father only did martial arts and had no time for the family. When the city of Brisbane organised a competition to spruce up the control boxes for traffic lights, Lister submitted a plan. He landed the commission, and the madcap sprayer turned into a world-famous artist. ‘Brizzy Banksy’ was the headline in one local paper. The unique element of this biopic is that Lister always had a camera with him, so viewers get to see the high and low points first hand. He married his first great love, had children, moved to New York and became even more famous. The tragedy is that he developed the same obsession for work that once drove his father out of the house. Then came drugs and divorce and he didn’t see his three children anymore. (Text of the synopsis from the official website of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.)

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Ikeda Akira, director of the film Ambiguous Places.

Having previously won a Hivos Tiger Award with his film Anatomy of a Paper Clip, director Ikeda Akira returned to the International Film Festival Rotterdam where he presented his latest film, Ambiguous Places. In this interview, the director tells us about the dream influence of this film, and the way in which he makes sense of his dream informed not only the style of the movie, but also the structure. The world of Ambiguous Places, as the title suggests, is very ambiguous and strange: “there’s no clear synopsis and there appear so many strange things,” he explains. “In the world of the film, there are no ordinary things and all the people in the film accept that.” Ikeda Akira also talks about the sense of humour of his film, the way in which he likes to work with actors to include them in the overall bizarre vision of the aforementioned strange (and dreamy) world of the movie, and more.

Ambiguous Places: Tiger Award winner Ikeda Akira (Anatomy of a Paper Clip) returns with his third feature, which amuses and bewilders in equal measure. Konoko, a young woman, wakes up on the beach and finds an insect stuck to her head. As she walks around searching for a barber to help her get rid of it, she faces unexpected obstacles in what at first appears to be an ordinary, quiet village. Comprised of a series of dream-like episodes, this unabashedly offbeat comedy balances otherworldly strangeness with decidedly Japanese scenes. The skilled cast commit themselves to the unusually deadpan humour, bringing extended pauses and empty stares to each line, often delivered with near-robotic repetition. Amid the surrealist absurdity of individual moments – a doctor is forced into marriage for failing to save a human-sized insect from illness – the social and familial pressures that pervade Japanese society surface in surprisingly poignant ways. (Text from the official website of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.)

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Malene Choi Jensen, director of the film The Return.

Director Malene Choi Jensen presented her film, The Return, at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam, where it had its world premiere in the main programme of the Brigth Future strand. The film talks about children from Korea who were adopted and brought up in other countries returning to their native land to discover things about their past and the life they might have had. It is a very interesting concept, especially because, as Choi Jensen tells us, she believes “the notion [of adoption] actually came from Korea,” and originates from the aftermath of the Korean War. She herself has a personal connection with this subject and has gone back to South Korea with the same purpose in mind, and has had to experience the same frustrations that Karoline, the film’s main character, experiences, as she is unable to find out any information about her original parents – which prompts the question of why she persists. The director describes the film as a hybrid, mixing fantasy and fiction. This approach somehow reflects the subject of The Return: “Being adopted has something to do with what is real and what is unreal because a lot of your story is made up by other,” Choi Jensen explains in this interview. “But it was also a way to shoot the film on a very short budget … the framework is fiction … but within the film, we also have scenes that are documentary.”

The Return: A strange country, yet it feels like coming home. On her first visit to South Korea since her adoption in Denmark, thirty-something Karoline discovers she is not the only one who wants to know where her roots are. In The Return, she is supported by fellow adoptees from Europe and the United States who, just like her, are trying to fill the black holes of their childhood. Chastening for some, frustrating for others. Karoline is in the latter camp. She knows where she was born and has a name, but more is needed to find her birth mother. Malene Choi Jensen based her film on her own experience, portraying it so naturally that her feature debut could almost be a full-blooded documentary. Amidst editing that is occasionally abrupt, the long scenes with open-hearted conversations stand out. An emotional high point is a tender, cautious reunion between a mother and son, with Karoline as silent witness. The painful desperation about identity is casually caught in evasive glances. (Text of the synopsis taken from the official website of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.)

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Travis Beard, director of the documentary RocKabul.

Director Travis Beard presented his documentary, RocKabul, at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands, where it had its world premiere. RocKabul is a film about the first and only metal band in Afghanistan. Beard lived in Kabul, where among other things, he ran a lively music scene; he defines the years between 2009 and 2011 as the “golden years,” and this is the time during which he came across the District Unknown, “a bunch of young boys who were aspiring to be a metal band … but they really couldn’t play.” From 2011 to 2014, there was a spike in attacks as the western forces withdrew from the country, and Afghanistan spiralled into mayhem and chaos. This inevitably affected the music scene that was beginning to flourish there, resembling something like one would imagine London during the 70’s punk movement. RocKabul is, in fact, not only about the music but also, somewhat inevitably, about the politics and the aforementioned mayhem. As Beard says in this interview: “for them, for the boys in the band and for their followers, [metal] was a way to let out their frustrations, to talk about the daily … mayhem they lived in,” in a setting where “there’s always potential for attack.”

RocKabul: Afghanistan’s first heavy metal band is District Unknown, a group who taught themselves to play with more enthusiasm than musicality. Discovered in 2009 by musician and filmmaker Travis Beard, he followed them with his camera from early on and coached them in developing their career. However, musical progress is not the only challenge they face: rock music is seen as satanic by religious fanatics in Afghanistan and its practitioners are targeted. The documentary therefore mainly plays out in Kabul’s underground music scene, i.e. cramped practice pads and living rooms, but also at the unique Sound Central music festival. District Unknown are now famous far beyond their country’s borders, but their popularity also increases the danger for the band’s members, who – just like every other inhabitant of Kabul – have to deal with daily bombings and firefights. Is their love of country, band and family stronger than the call of a more normal life abroad?

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Donal Foreman, director of the documentary The Image You Missed.

Director Donal Foreman presented his latest film, The Image You Missed, at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam where it had its world premiere. The film sees Foreman exploring the archive of his father, American documentary filmmaker Arthur MacCaig, who made many films about the conflict in Northern Ireland over a thirty year period. In this interview he tells us that he hardly knew his father growing up, but when he died ten years ago, he came into possession of his film archive, which included approximately one hundred hours of footage: “I had a feeling that there was a film here, that there was something to be done with this material.” The Image You Missed was also a film Foreman claims he needed to make; he calls it “a personal journey and a way to challenge myself as a filmmaker.” The director had, in fact, never made an essay documentary before. The voice over of The Image You Missed is in the form of a letter that Foreman addresses to his father, “a dialogue with him, or a ghost of him, or a fiction of him I have invented,” he tells us. In this interview, he also talks about the differences between his filmmaking style and that of his father, whether his father subconsciously influenced Foreman’s decision to become a filmmaker despite his absence, the potential for manipulation of an image, and more.

The Image You Missed: “An American in Paris making films about Ireland” – this is how Donal Foreman describes his father, Arthur MacCaig, in The Image You Missed, Foreman’s fascinating film essay about his father – someone he had little contact with. During his career, Irish-American MacCaig (1948-2008) made films about the conflict in Northern Ireland and left behind a visual archive spanning thirty years – images Foreman uses to find out what he has in common with his father. Both make films, both emigrated to another country, albeit in opposite directions: from America to Europe and vice versa. But it’s the differences that stand out: Foreman moved back to Dublin, while MacCaig had preferred to film in divided Belfast. The main difference lies in their approach to images and what these say. Foreman, for example, analyses what is missing from the films MacCaig made. And although he has respect for his father’s political convictions, he does not share them.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Robert Clem, director of the documentary How They Got Over.

Director Robert Clem presented his documentary, How They Got Over, at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands, where it had its European Premiere. The film examines quite a few of the mostly unknown gospel quartets who were around in the 40’s and 50’s and the influence they had on subsequent music. Clem shares with us some of the history of the music and talks a bit about the various aspects he examines in depth on the road, such as the hardships the bands experienced on the road, the interesting ways in which gospel music evolved from spiritual to secular, the controversy of the introduction of instruments in the music, and more. Clem began working on How They Got Over about twelve years ago and the film features contributions from artists and performers of the time who have since died. It also features some rare footage of the rarely documented performances by the gospel bands. In this interview, the director talks about all these various challenges he had to overcome in the making of his documentary, his own interest in the music and some of his favourite bands, and more.

How They Got Over: Legendary musicians like James Brown got their ideas from the impressive, dramatic performances of Afro-American gospel quartets that played in churches, on local radio stations and, later, at concert halls starting in the 1930s. The music documentary How They Got Over about the evolution of these quartets illustrates how this often originally religious harmony singing developed into more secular songs with instruments, multiple vocalists, passion and sold-out shows. These singing men and women were musical precursors to famous genres such as doo-wop, rhythm and blues, soul, Motown and rock ‘n’ roll. A number of octogenarian singers regale us with tales of their road trips across the South of the United States when they played for peanuts to make their names. Their stories and those of other genre lovers are augmented by seldom-seen archival footage of concerts by the Dixie Hummingbirds, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and many others.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Steven Eastwood, director of the documentary Island.

Director Steven Eastwood presented his documentary Island, at the 47th International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands, where it had its international premiere. In this interview, he describes his film as “a film about the very end of life and the moment of death.” He tells us about the origins of the film, why he set out to make it, and why he eventually ended up filming in the Isle of Wight, which, as he says, was not his original intention. The setting ended up being important, even somehow defying his initial objective of not working with metaphor, eventually surrendering to that inevitability. In this interview, Eastwood also says that in his initial research he discovered that there aren’t many good images of death nowadays, and tells us why he believes that is. He also talks about approaching the four individuals whose stories he follows, whether he ever thought he should stop shooting but didn’t, why he believes that in the case of a film about the dying there can be similarities between the filmmaker and the nurse and the doctor, and more.

Island: If you haven’t experienced it from close by, you won’t be very familiar with the processes of death. Although there are countless fiction film scripts about life and death, there is still a taboo on a realistic approach to this subject. Eastwood spent a year among terminal patients, who gave him their trust and valuable time. Wisely, he refrains from all sentiment or unnecessary stylisation. No music other than the local choir practising. Eastwood’s title refers to his location, the Isle of Wight, as well as a being a metaphor for the safe haven provided by palliative institutions where people retreat to prepare for the great journey to the other side. The ferries depart like spaceships, whilst slides of mutating cells loom like ‘planets’ under the microscope. This project, created for the Fabrica gallery in Brighton, also exists as a multi-screen installation. The irrevocable linearity of film projection makes the experience even more poignant. (Text from the official website of the International Film Festival Rotterdam.)

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Armie Hammer and Timothee Chalamet, actors of the film Call Me By Your Name.

 Timothee Chalamet, who was just recently nominated for Best Actor at the next Academy Awards is back in Italy with Armie Hammer and the director Luca Guadagnino to present Call Me By Your Name to an Italian audience. Before starting to talk about their first encounter and auditions with Guadagnino, they thank Italy and celebrate the special bond they created with the country. Timothee Chalamet describes the challenges he had to face in playing this role as he desperately wanted to be faithful to Elio’s character as described by Andrè Acimen’s book. Armie Hammer reveals that he managed to work in the film 6 years after actually meeting Guadagnino at the time of The Social Network’s theatrical release. The last moments of this Italian encounter with Hammer and Chalamet are used by Hammer to express his love for Italian arts and culture.

Call Me By Your Name, the new film by Luca Guadagnino, is a sensual and transcendent tale of first love, based on the acclaimed novel by André Aciman. It’s the summer of 1983 in the north of Italy, and Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious 17- year-old American-Italian boy, spends his days in his family’s 17th century villa transcribing and playing classical music, reading, and flirting with his friend Marzia (Esther Garrel). Elio enjoys a close relationship with his father (Michael Stuhlbarg), an eminent professor specializing in Greco-Roman culture, and his mother Annella (Amira Casar), a translator, who favor him with the fruits of high culture in a setting that overflows with natural delights. While Elio’s sophistication and intellectual gifts suggest he is already a fully-fledged adult, there is much that yet remains innocent and unformed about him, particularly in matters of the heart. One day, Oliver (Armie Hammer), a charming American scholar working on his doctorate, arrives as the annual summer intern tasked with helping Elio’s father. Amid the sun-drenched splendor of the setting, Elio and Oliver discover the heady beauty of awakening desire over the course of a summer that will alter their lives forever.

For the official website of the film, click here.

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PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews David Czarnetzki and Mikhele Apitzsch, director and editor of the documentary Lady You Shot Me: Life and Death of Sam Cooke.

Director David Czarnetzki and editor Mikhele Apitzsch presented their feature documentary Lady You Shot Me: Life and Death of Sam Cooke at the 31st International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes (FIPA) in Biarritz, France. The documentary takes a look at the great soul singer/songwriter and entrepeneur Sam Cooke, who may have been, according to a conspiracy theory about his death discussed in the film, uncomfortably ahead of his time for some. Czarnetzki admits he did not know himself the extent of the influence Cooke had on soul music, but also how mysterious his death was. However, as he says in this interview, “in the end, what counts it is music … it was not so important to find out the truth.” We also talk about the challenge or re-evaluating the history of Cooke’s life and, among other things, the challenge of shooting on a tight schedule and their decision to make this film by visiting and shooting the original places that are talked about in the film and the way they are in the present day, “crossing over the history with the present time.” (He also talks about why this film cannot be screened in the United States and other places…)

Lady You Shot Me: Life and Death of Sam Cooke: This documentary tells the story of the short but equally influential life of one of the most important artists of the 1950s and 60s, Sam Cooke. It takes a particularly close look at the mysterious circumstances surrounding his violent death. Was he killed in self-defence, as officially claimed? Or was it murder, as his family, friends and conspiracy theorists believe?

The post David Czarnetzki, Mikhele Apitzsch – Lady You Shot Me: Life and Death of Sam Cooke #FIPA2018 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews FIPA President Anne Georget.

An interview with Anne Georget, president of FIPA, the International Festival of Audiovisual Programmes, which celebrated its 31st edition in 2018 in Biarritz, France. As implied by the name of the festival, the event helps define the often broad term “audiovisual” by showcasing traditional forms and those more related to the age of new media. Georget shares with us the objectives of the festival and the various challenges that this type of festival entails. FIPA is a festival that differentiates itself from others, not only of France but of many other parts of the world, and this year it took it upon itself to integrate VR works in film strands. Georget talks about this, as well as the various ways in which FIPA aids filmmakers, producers, and people working in the audiovisual sector, highlighting that this is an industry that can make one feel very lonely. Another thing mentioned in this interview is the fact that each year, for the past five years, FIPA has shone a light on a particular region where interesting things are happening, as far as the audiovisual sector is concerned. This year, Israel was selected for this focus; Georget defines it as having “a particularly lively scene in terms of audiovisual creation.” In this interview, we also talk about the French city of Biarritz and how the festival benefits from taking place here, and Georget mentions a highlight that she is particularly looking forward to – a screening of Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s entire 13-episode series The Staircase.

nternational Festival of Audiovisual Programmes (FIPA): “FIPA’s mission is as focused as ever: to highlight the diversity and transversal nature of international audiovisual creation and production in the fields of documentary, drama, and new writing. Every year—with FIPA’s increasingly demanding selection process rewarding risk-taking and intelligence—the Festival offers a vast panorama of audiovisual creation from around the globe. In addition to the official competition, “new” practical and theme-based professional events promote networking, create new opportunities, and inspire stakeholders from across the industry. Naturally, innovation remains at heart of the Festival with Smart FIPA, a trend lab dedicated to digital creation and new forms of expression. Through the FIPA Campus programme, the Festival renews its ongoing commitment to education in visual appreciation and to scouting new talent to help tomorrow’s masters get their first break. Last but not least, FIPA Focus shines a spotlight on a specific country: for 2018, Israel is our guest of honour. For six days, the who’s who of the international audiovisual sector will gather in Biarritz. This 31st edition is brimming with opportunities to make new discoveries and new contacts.” (Original text from the official website of FIPA, http://www.fipa.tv/en/)

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