FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Nizam Najjar, director of the film Aleppo’s Fall.

Nizam Najjar presented his feature documentary, Aleppo’s Fall, at the 30th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Najjar is Syrian/Norwegian, and for this documentary returned to his native country to see with his own eyes why the rebels in Aleppo were failing. In this interview, we ask him about the filming of Aleppo’s Fall, and about his own reaction when he had first heard about the Arab Spring. He also tells us that while filming, the more he knew, the more he wanted to find out, and so we ask him whether it was this curiosity, this desire to know, that helped him get through terrifying moments of war that he captured in his documentary. Among other things, Najjar also tells us about an IDFA promoted idea to distribute Aleppo’s Fall not only in the Netherlands but also in Aleppo.

Aleppo’s Fall:  When the Arab Spring reached Syria in 2011, Nizam Najjar, a Syrian now living in Norway, thought the rebels would quickly oust President Bashar al-Assad. But the peaceful protests were brutally suppressed, and the once united rebel movement fell apart. Najjar returns to Syria to investigate why the rebels are failing in Aleppo, the city of his birth. Embedded with the rebels and a local cameraman, he risks his life on the front. In the heat of battle, he discovers how danger comes not only from the outside but also from within, as two rebel leaders operate opposing strategies. In meetings, during a ceasefire, at a party and in the midst of fighting, it becomes only too apparent that there’s no brotherhood among the rebels. How can such a divided group defeat a leader who appears to be able to draw on inexhaustible resources from outside the country?

The post Nizam Najjar – Aleppo’s Fall #IDFA2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Mohamed Siam, director of the film Amal.

Director Siam Mohamed talks about Amal, his feature documentary, which he presented at the 30th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. The film talks about a young woman, Amal, and her coming of age from 14-years-old to 20-year-old, during the Egyptian Revolution and in the years after it. In this interview, the director tells us that one of the things his documentary is that change is a hard thing, even harder when what is changing is a huge country like Egypt, of 90,000 people. Yet, all the facts, stats, and news are much easier to comprehend when it is characterized in a person. Amal, the protagonist of his film, allows a spectator to comprehend this, and as Siam describes Amal as a “kind of a sponge, absorbing everything, and a mirror, reflecting everything. Through her we see all of the country.” Among the other topics dealt with in this interview, we ask Siam about filming a person’s life over the course of many years, and the bond that developed between him and Amal.

 Amal:  Amal is 14 years old when she ends up on Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution, after the death of her boyfriend in the Port Said Stadium riot. During the protests, she is beaten by police and dragged across the square by her hair. This coming-of-age film follows her over the years after the revolution. As the film cuts between the unfolding current events and Amal’s rapidly changing life and appearance, we see her searching for her own identity in a country in transition. Amal is fiery and fearless, sinking her teeth into the protests and constantly lecturing her mother, who works as a judge. A girl among men, she also has to fight for respect and the right to take part, both in the street and in the rest of her life. In Egypt, even for a young woman like Amal—her name means “hope”—the choices open to her for her future are limited.

The post Mohamed Siam – Amal #IDFA2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Feargal Ward and Tadhg O’Sullivan, director and co-writer of the film The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid.

Feragal Ward and Tadhg O’Sullivan presented their latest documentary, The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid, at the 30th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) – Ward directed the film and they both co-wrote it. The Thomas Reid of the title is an Irish farmer locked in a legal battle with a U.S. multi-national company eager to force him to sell his land. “There aren’t too many types of story in the world,” says O’Sullivan in this interview, “and what I liked about teasing this film was that the story is quite simple.” The space within the dramatic moments allows us to really get to know Thomas Reid and what it’s like to be him: “Beneath the oddness, and the strangeness, there is a universal humanity that comes through.” Ward talks about Reid not being very excited about the project and the difficulties of maintaining a level of trust with him throughout the filming stage. He also talks about the use of re-enactments: “I was quite fascinated with the language of the legal process … and I wanted [it] to be represented on the actual lands in which this legal discourse was about.” In the end, what was important about The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid was the truth. “You’re always taking the queue, to my mind, from how … your character perceives the world in the given psychological state that he is in in the moment of the film,” O’Sullivan says. In this interview, Ward and O’Sullivan also talk about whether Thomas Reid’s story is common in Ireland, where they hope their film will travel in the future, and more.

The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid:  For years, the Irish farmer Thomas Reid has been locked in a grueling battle with his neighbor, U.S. microchip manufacturer Intel. The multinational wants to expand and has its eye on Reid’s land. Eager to boost employment in the region, the Irish authorities are doing their utmost to force Reid into a sale. But the farmer has no intention of leaving his 300-year-old ancestral home, where he lives alone, surrounded by cows and chickens. The desaturated color, the soundtrack with snippets of radio shows, and the unorthodox reimaginings of courtroom scenes produce an intriguing and slightly alienating effect. Director Feargal Ward follows the calm rhythm of farm life, which seems to stem from a different age. Traffic roars by beyond the stone walls that mark the boundaries of Reid’s land, but he travels everywhere on foot or on his old bicycle. His house is crammed with hoarded junk and he appears to live in chaos. Nevertheless, this tenacious eccentric proves to be a formidable opponent of the system.

The post Feargal Ward, Tadhg O’Sullivan – The Lonely Battle of Thomas Reid #IDFA2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Jens Pedersen, director and producer of the film Kids on the Silk Road.

Director Jens Pedersen presented two films from his Kids on the Silk Road Series at the 30th International Documentary Film Fesival Amsterdam (IDFA). The series follows five children in five different countries and was made over two years with many filmmakers and researchers. In Pedersen’s words, the series is not so much focused on geography, as much as it is focused on the characters themselves, who are “kids who get into a challenge in life that they feel they can act on,” and “who find a way to simply grow as a person.” Five films in total are complete in the Kids on the Silk Road series for now, and Pedersen also looked to attract financing for ten more films, season two of the series, at IDFA this year. In this film, he also talks about the difference between directing children between filming grown-ups, the challenges of making a documentary series in collaboration with many different countries, and more.

Kids on the Silk Road:  A documentary series of unique stories of the extraordinary lives of young children from ten different countries along the colourful Silk Road from China to Venice.

The post Jens Pedersen – Kids on the Silk Road #IDFA2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Michael Pearce, director of the film Beast.

Michael Pearce, in competition at the Torino Film Festival, brings us into the land of Jersey, with its wide landscapes and its narrowminded folks. A tale about a girl with a troubled past, living in an constrained surrounding, where the arrival of a foreign guy breaks all balance, for everyone. With a strong hand he delivers a mezmerising narrative, with the help of a truly impressive cast. Let’s hear directly from his mouth about the genesis of the film, its influences and the idea behind it.

Beast:  Moll lives on the Channel Island of Jersey. Even though she is twenty-seven years old, she still lives with her parents. What keeps her there is the small, rather oppressive community which surrounds her and her morbid relationship with her elderly father and very strict mother. Everything changes when she meets Pascal, a foreigner she knows virtually nothing about but who wins her over with his free spirit. Moll, who is hopelessly in love, goes to live with him and begins a new life. But her happiness is short-lived: Pascal is accused of having committed a series of brutal murders. Despite the hostility and the pressure of the locals, Moll stands by her man. But she will have to pay the consequences of this decision.

The post Michael Pearce – Beast #TFF35 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Richard Loncraine, director of the film Finding Your Feet.

At the past few festivals, there have been more and more films celebrating “old age” as a moment to enjoy and live without regrets and why not, even start again. This was the case of Our Souls at Night and Ella & John in Venice and at the 35th Torino Film Festival with Finding Your Feet, the opening film directed by Richard Loncraine. It is not the first time that Loncraine portrays this particolar moment in people’s life, the protagonists of his previous film, Ruth & Alex (Diane Keaton and Morgan Freeman) had to face similar struggles. “I hope this is a film with a real heart” says Loncraine on FRED about Finding Your Feett, a tale of second chances, a love story between a man and a woman but also between two sisters who become close again. Loncraine reveals how great and easy it is to direct great actors such as Timothy Spall, Imelda Staunton and Celia Imrie and then explains the poignant choice of the italian song Tintarella di Luna for the protagonists’ trip to Rome.

Finding Your Feet:  When ‘Lady’ Sandra Abbott (Imelda Staunton) discovers that her husband of forty years is having an affair with her best friend, she seeks refuge with her estranged, bohemian, older sister Bif (Celia Imrie). Sandra couldn’t be more different to her outspoken, serial dating, free spirited sibling. But it turns out different is just what Sandra needs and she reluctantly lets Bif drag her along to her community dance class, where gradually she starts finding her feet… and romance. Featuring a star studded cast including Imelda Staunton, Celia Imrie, Timothy Spall, Joanna Lumley and David Hayman, Finding Your Feet is a hilarious and heart-warming modern comedy proving that it’s never too late to start again.

For the official page of the film on the Festival website, click here.

The post Richard Loncraine – Finding Your Feet #TFF35 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Jessica Gorter, director of the film The Red Soul.

Director Jessica Gorter presented her feature-length documentary, The Red Soul, at the 30th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Gorter talks to us about her interest in post-Soviet Russia and Josef Stalin’s popularity in the country more than fifty years after his death. In The Red Soul, the director shot many people from many different backgrounds telling many different types of stories, and we ask her how she found them and whether they were influenced by the presence of the camera. In The Red Soul, there is a moment in the end in which two old women, among the protagonists of the documentary, worry about the possibility of having said something that will make Russia look bad. Gorter suggests that this is a moment that refers to the act of filmmaking itself.

The Red Soul:  More than 50 years after the death of Joseph Stalin, Russia is still divided. Was Stalin a great leader who made Russia into a superpower? Or was he a ruthless dictator, responsible for the deaths of millions of innocent people? Virtually no family has been left untouched by the consequences of Stalin’s regime, and in every corner of the country, victims’ families are struggling with history. A father wanders through a desolate forest with his teenage daughter, in search of the mass graves of Russian prisoners. Two sisters whose mother was taken away to a prison camp share their early memories. They are still scared to talk about the events openly, because it would put their fatherland in a negative light, and there are plenty of others who would prefer to forget this dark chapter of history altogether. Throughout society, Stalin’s popularity is growing, and there is a yearning for a sense of national unity. The Red Soul shows how the past lives on in present-day Russia, and thus makes its mark on the future.

The post Jessica Gorter – The Red Soul #IDFA2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Antonio Russo Merenda, producer of the documentary The Deminer.

Antonio Russo Merenda produced the documentary feature The Deminer, directed by Hogir Hirori and Shinwar Kamal, which was presented at the 30th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). The film takes place in the chaotic aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein, and follows the life of Fakhir, a father of eight who dedicated his life to disarming landmines with his own hands after seeing so many innocent civilians getting injured by them while serving in the Iraqi army. The bulk of the film is composed of archive footage, shot by Fakhir himself and members of his team. It was Kakhir’s eldest son who found them in a suitcase, as Russo Merenda tells us. As he tells us in this interview, it was Hirori who approached him, and showed him ten minutes of the film shortly after he ended his term as documentary film commissioner at the Swedish Film Museum. He recalls that these ten minutes were, to him, “the strongest ten minutes ever [and] we immediately joined forces. He also recalls feeling the need to build “a monument for this incredible character [whose clear goal was] to same as many human lives as possible,” this regardless of race, colour, etc. In this interview, Russo Merenda also tells us about the resonance of The Deminer in light of the recent developments in Northern Iraq. He also talks about the challenge of using aforementioned primary source footage, and about where he hopes the film will travel after IDFA.

The Deminer:  In the chaotic aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein, Fakhir, a father of eight, is serving in the Iraqi army. All around him, he sees innocent civilians getting injured by landmines, so he determines to disarm them with his own hands, using just a pocketknife and some wire cutters. He clears thousands of roadside bombs, mines and car bombs, knowing that every time he cuts a wire it could cost him his life—which he seems to find less important than the lives of others. In 2014, by this time having lost a leg, he starts working for the Kurdish Peshmerga, disarming boobytraps left behind by IS in and around Mosul. An enthusiastic home video maker, Fakhir collects hundreds of hours of footage of his day-to-day work. We hear his son’s commentary in voice-over as he watches videos of his heroic father in action. Fakhir perseveres despite the warnings of his colleagues—after all, every ringing cell phone could herald an explosion. Every snip of the wire-cutter almost gives us heart failure as well, because there’s certainly no guarantee of a happy ending here.

The post Antonio Russo Merenda – The Deminer #IDFA2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Phil Cox, director of the film Betty – They Say I’m Different.

Director Phil Cox presented his documentary Betty – They Say I’m Different, on the life of 70’s funk singer Betty Davis, at the 30th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). In Cox’s words, Betty was a “black pioneering funk woman who … took on the establishment and the for some reason disappeared off the face of the earth.” She performed electrifying, sexual, bold, provocative, female empowered music at a time when it was completely unheard of. Even now, when music is neatly packaged and dull, it’s very hard to be as original as she was, and her struggle to remain independent is more remarkable when we consider that she was a black woman. In this interview, Cox also talks about the influence she had on the great jazz trumpeter Miles Davis, who she was married to at one time, at a time when his music was becoming dull and people were turning away from jazz. He also talks about how he found her; it was, he says, very difficult and it took some time before she started to open up. Even then, “things were complicated.” The director also talks about whether he always had a style in mind for Betty – They Say I’m Different, or whether the visual style of his documentary was formed by the conversations he had with Davis. The filming, in fact, led him to conclude that “the more obstacles you have, the more you’re forced to become creative.”

Betty – They Say I’m Different:  With her suggestive lyrics (If I’m in Luck I Might Get Picked Up) and audacious outfits, the funk singer Betty Davis is far ahead of her time. Too far, perhaps. “If Betty were singing today she’d be something like Madonna; something like Prince,” wrote jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in his 1989 autobiography. Davis married Betty in 1968, and she kept his surname after their divorce the following year. Betty – They Say I’m Different, named after her second studio album, which was released in 1974, focuses on the reasons why this “bold soul sister” left the music industry in the late 1970s. There are interviews with family members, friends, and former band members. The voice-over, tinted with resignation as it describes her life and its directions, is inspired by interviews with Betty Davis and her song lyrics. Davis has various alter egos: besides Nasty Girl (the title of her third album), there’s also the more spiritual Crow. Regardless, she’s “happy my music is still alive.”

The post Phil Cox – Betty – They Say I’m Different #IDFA2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Matt Micucci interviews Talal Derki, director of the film Of Fathers and Sons.

Filmmaker Talal Derki talks about his latest documentary feature, Of Fathers and Sons, which had its world premiere at the 30th International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Derki filmed the family of an Al-Nusra fighter in a small village in northern Syria for two years and a half, focusing his camera mainly on the children, with an eye towards “the future of the new generation that don’t have a background about life except for what is going on in the war in Syria.” Of Fathers and Sons also marked the return of Derki to his native country and to his people, but by pointing the camera at his protagonists, the story formed itself. His purpose, he says in this interview, was to “focus on the relationship between fathers and sons,” and also about “how the sons can resist the brainwashing.” This is because while childern are expected to start training for the war very quickly – the footage of which is seen in this documentary – they are still childern: “For the kids, there is a resistance to stay kids. They get military training, [but] they’re still kids, and that’s the sad part of the documentary.” The sacrifice is also the father’s, who really loves them. Therefore, in a way, the film represents the paradox of life, when you love something but at the same time you destroy it. In this interview, Derki also talks about gaining access to this part of Syria, and an overview of what life is like there, and how cut off people seem to be from the outside world. He also answers the question of whether he will be going back there to film some more and whether he expects Of Fathers and Sons to ever be screened in Syria.

Of Fathers and Sons:  If you want to tame your nightmares, you need to capture them first. That’s what Syrian documentary filmmaker Talal Derki learned from his father. As in his previous film Return to Homs, he returns to his homeland and becomes part of life in a war zone. For more than two years he lives with the family of Abu Osama, an Al-Nusra fighter in a small village in northern Syria, focusing his camera mainly on the children. From a young age, the boys are trained to follow in their father’s footsteps and become soldiers of God. The horrors of war and the intimacy of family life are never far from one another. At the nearby battlefront Abu Osama fights against the enemy, while at home he cuddles with the boys and dreams of the caliphate. Talal Derki sets out to capture the moment when the children have to let go of their youth and are finally turned into Jihadi fighters. No matter how close the war comes, there’s one thing they’ve already learned: they must never cry.

The post Talal Derki – Of Fathers and Sons #IDFA2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.