FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Amichai Greenberg and Ori Pfeffer, director and actor of the film The Testament.

Director Amichai Greenberg screened his directorial feature debut, The Testament, in the Orizzonti section of Venezia 74. The director stopped at our studio to talk about it, alongside his lead actor Ori Pfeffer, who plays the role of the Holocasust historian investigating on a tragic incident that happened at the end of World War II. Greenberg discusses with us the influences of the stories from the Holocaust and how they impacted him as the son of a generation of Jewish people who were not alive themselves at the time. He also talks about the contrast between the personal and the universal in the film, and how both aspects are balanced in The Testament. Pfeffer too tells us whether he felt this internal search of the character he plays, and also whether he likens it to the acting process in general.

The Testament: Yoel, a senior Holocaust researcher, is in the midst of a widely covered legal battle with powerful forces in Austria, concerning a brutal massacre of Jews that took place toward the end of WWII in the village of Lendsdorf. An influential family of industrialists on whose land the murder took place, is planning to build a real estate project on the very same land. Yoel suspects that their aim is to bury the affair for good, but has trouble finding the conclusive evidence that would stop the project. While investigating the incident Yoel examines classified testimonies of Holocaust survivors, and to his shock and surprise he finds a testimony given by his mother, a testimony he didn’t know existed. In her testimony she confesses to a substantial secret from her past. Yoel, who’s conducting a double-investigation, personal and scientific, is trapped between walls of silence. As a historian with an unshakeable commitment to the truth, he decides to continue his investigations even at the cost of ruining his personal and professional life.

For the official page of the film on the festival website click here.

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PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews Jon Alpert, director of the film Cuba and the Cameraman.

Jon Alpert tells us the story of Cuba and the Cameraman, which is inevitably a big chunk of his own story too. Throughout the years, from the 70s till today, the American journalist/documentary filmmaker has been visiting Cuba and analysing first-hand its socialist structure. An earnest and exciting example of gonzo-style filmmaking, Cuba and the Cameraman shows Cuba as a one-of-a-kind social experiment, but most importantly, as a cradle of beautiful, resolute people.

Cuba and the Cameraman: since 1959, when Fidel Castro ascended to power in the revolution that marked an era, no one had ever gone as deep inside Cuba as Jon Alpert. He began filming in Castro’s Cuba in 1972, having become fascinated with the country, its people, and its culture years earlier. Alpert brought along a small crew and a portable camera, beginning a fascinating, intimate, decades-long chronicle of the Communist country that was 90 miles off the coast of Florida, a longtime political foe, but a mystery to much of the world. Compiled from more than a thousand hours of footage and filmed over 45 years, Alpert follows three families and Fidel Castro. He was there for Cuba’s optimistic socialism of the early ’70s, and for the 1979 Mariel boatlift. He then returned to cover the hardships of the 1980s; the harrowing “Special Period” after the fall of the Soviet Union, when Cuba literally went dark. Cuba and the Cameraman is Castro himself—unguarded, offthe- cuff, and unedited. In their numerous, exclusive oncamera interviews, the cigar-chomping revolutionary affectionately called the straight-shooting Alpert “The Journalist,” and showed a side of himself never seen publicly. Alpert was one of the last Americans to see Castro before his death. Cuba and the Cameraman captures the soul of a nation and its people, and an unknown side of the man who shaped it.

For the official page of the film in the festival website, click here.

The post Jon Alpert – Cuba and the Cameraman #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Vivian Qu, director of the film Angels Wear White.

Director Vivian Qu talks about her latest film, Angels Wear White, presented in competition at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. She stopped at our studio for a quick chat about it. She tells us that the film is a story of women in a society that shapes our perception and values. She talks in more detail about the story behind the story and the origins of this idea. She also reveals to us, also by making reference to her previous work Trap Street, that her films have a tendency to be misunderstood by people. Given that her latest film, Angels Wear White, revolves around an event as delicate as the assault on two schoolgirls in a motel, we ask Vivian Qu about the casting process, and she tells us behind the scenes anecdotes about how she worked with the young actresses after an extensive and lengthy search.

Angels Wear White:  In a small seaside town, two schoolgirls are assaulted by a middle-aged man in a motel. Mia, a teenager who was working on reception that night, is the only witness. For fear of losing her job, she says nothing. Meanwhile, 12-year-old Wen, one of the victims, finds that her troubles have only just begun. Trapped in a world that offers them no safety, Mia and Wen will have to find their own way out.

For the official page of the film on the festival website click here.

The post Vivian Qu – Angels Wear White #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Warwick Thornton, director of the film Sweet Country.

Warwick Thornton is a western lover, specifically of the Italian ones by Leone and Corbucci. He wanted his characters to be humans and not perfect, this is why he’d rather be Clint Eastwood than John Wayne. His life, his family history and his aboriginal traditions they all ends into this atypical and elegantly intense western.

Sweet Country: Inspired by real events, Sweet Country is a period western set in 1929 in the outback of the Northern Territory, Australia. When Aboriginal stockman Sam kills white station owner Harry March in self-defence, Sam and his wife Lizzie go on the run. Eventually, for the health of his pregnant wife, he decides to give himself up. He is put on trial in the courtroom of Judge Taylor. But will justice be served?

For the official page of the film in the festival website, click here.

The post Warwick Thornton – Sweet Country #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Shirin Neshat, director of the film Looking for Oum Kulthum.

Shirin Neshat is a visual artist turned film director with a good heart and a gentle attitude, and a clear idea on how to tell stories and how too use at her best the rules and the limitations of the cinema media. But her main concern is telling stories that can touch the audience and stay with them as long as possible. And she actually manages to do that.

Looking for Oum Kulthum: Mitra is an ambitious artist in her forties who embarks on her dream project of making a film about the legendary Egyptian singer and diva Oum Kulthum. Her film explores the struggles, sacrifices and the price of Oum Kulthum’s success as a female artist in a male-dominated society. However, having left her family behind for her career and striving to capture the essence of Oum Kulthum as a myth, a woman and an artist, Mitra’s own struggles blend with those of the singer and she finds herself headed for an emotional and artistic breakdown.

For the official page of the film in the festival website, click here.

The post Shirin Neshat – Looking for Oum Kulthum #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews Robert Corbitt and Crystal Feimster, protagonists of the film The Rape of Recy Taylor.

Fred has the honour to speak to Robert Corbitt and Crystal Feimster, here in Venice to promote Nancy Buirski’s The Rape of Recy Taylor. Robert was raised by Recy Taylor, and her brave actions against injustice inspired Crystal’s academic and activist work. Recy Taylor was and still is a leading figure in the fight for equality. For everybody, everywhere.

The Rape of Recy Taylor: Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. Our film exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story. An attempted rape against Parks was but one inspiration for her ongoing work to find justice for countless women like Taylor. The 1955 bus boycott was an end result, not a beginning. More and more women are now speaking up after rape. Our film tells the story of black women who spoke up when danger was greatest; it was their noble efforts to take back their bodies that led to the Montgomery bus boycott and movements that followed. The 2017 Global March by Women is linked to their courage. From sexual aggression on ‘40s southern streets to today’s college campuses and to the threatened right to choose, it is control of women’s bodies that powered the movement in Recy Taylor’s day and fuels our outrage today.

For the official page of the film on the festival website click here.

The post Robert Corbitt, Crystal Feimster – The Rape of Recy Taylor #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews Nancy Buirski, director of the film The Rape of Recy Taylor.

Nancy Buirski presents her latest documentary The Rape of Recy Taylor, competing in Venice in the Orizzonti selection. The Rape of Recy Taylor tells Recy’s sad and yet incredbly brave story, who waged war against the entire American establishment, and spoke up to reclaim her dignity as a person, an african-american, a woman.

The Rape of Recy Taylor: Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. Our film exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story. An attempted rape against Parks was but one inspiration for her ongoing work to find justice for countless women like Taylor. The 1955 bus boycott was an end result, not a beginning. More and more women are now speaking up after rape. Our film tells the story of black women who spoke up when danger was greatest; it was their noble efforts to take back their bodies that led to the Montgomery bus boycott and movements that followed. The 2017 Global March by Women is linked to their courage. From sexual aggression on ‘40s southern streets to today’s college campuses and to the threatened right to choose, it is control of women’s bodies that powered the movement in Recy Taylor’s day and fuels our outrage today.

For the official page of the film on the festival website click here.

The post Nancy Buirski – The Rape of Recy Taylor #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Stephen Frears, director of the film Victoria & Abdul.

Director Stephen Frears talks about his latest film, Victoria & Abdul, presented out of competition at the 74th Venice International Film Festival. The great British cineaste, who also received the Jaeger-le Coultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award, stopped by our studio to talk about it. Frears praises the script, talks about Judi Dench’s performance as Queen Victoria and her presence on set, whether he can imagine this type of friendship talked about in the movie Victoria & Abdul being conceivable today.

Victoria & Abdul tells the extraordinary true story of the amazing and unlikely friendship between Queen Victoria and a young clerk, Abdul Karim, who becomes her teacher, her spiritual advisor, and her devoted friend. In 1887, Abdul travels from India to present a ceremonial medal as part of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee but surprisingly finds favor with the elderly Queen. The unprecedented and unlikely relationship causes a battle within the royal household, pitting the Queen against court and family. Victoria & Abdul humorously explores questions of race, religion, power, and the farce of Empire through the prism of a highly unusual and deeply moving friendship.

For the official page of the film on the festival website click here.

The post Stephen Frears – Victoria & Abdul #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Annika Berg and Katja Adomeit, director and producer of the film Team Hurricane.

Director Annika Berg presented her film, Team Hurricane, at the International Critics Week of the 74th Venice International Film Festival. She stopped at our FRED studio in Venice to talk about her film, which she calls a punk chick flick, alongside producer Katja Adomeit. Berg tells us what she means by the term “punk chick flick,” about the way in which this is also a personal movie, how she was able to cast the right girls, and more.

Team Hurricane: a punk chick flick about teen girls that mixes highly stylized fictional elements with documentary material: loneliness, pussy-power, Kawaii, electric green, hentai, graffiti, vibrators, friendship, teddy bears, resting bitch face, ART, fire, fear, bubble-gum, mom & dad, anorexia, cactuses, homemade piercings, nail art, cherries, cutting, dolphins, Lolita, secret diaries and daydreaming. Radical girls in an ordinary world.

The post Annika Berg, Katja Adomeit – Team Hurricane #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Faouzi Bensaidi, director of the film Volubilis.

Director Faouzi Bensaidi talks about his film, Volubilis, presented at the Giornate degli Autori of the 74th Venice International Film Festival. Bensaidi tells us about his film as a story of beauty and love among ruins, and about the many other themes discussed in the film, including class division, the violence of contemporary times, and more. He also talks about the cinematic form, the way in which he worries about the perception of art and, in particular, cinema as a form of entertainment and how story (intended as “the story”) is not the most important thing in film.

Volubilis is a tale of love in a world of despair, of beauty among the ruins. In the Moroccan city of Meknés, recently married Abdelkader and Malika struggle to make ends meet. They dream of leaving the family house and finally starting a life of their own together. But one day at work, Abdelkader gets mixed up in a violent incident that will turn their lives upside down.

The post Faouzi Bensaidi – Volubilis #Venezia74 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.