FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Iveta Grófová, director of the film Little Harbour.

Iveta Grófová presented her feature Little Harbour in the strand of the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Her film talks about neglected children. But in this interview, Grófová underlines that the situations portrayed in her movie are ones that may be experienced in any average family at all. In this interview, we touch base on many elements, including whether or not she set off with the concept of making a poetic film, what it was like for her not only to tell a story where the protagonists are young children but also what it was like to work with child actors, and whether of not it is right to see Little Harbour as, ultimately, a film that, despite everything, has its fair share of optimism.

Little Harbour: under somewhat unusual circumstances, ten-year-old Jarka finds herself a new family when she starts taking care of two abandoned babies. She enlists the help of Kristián, a boy of similar age, to help her prepare baby food in a dirty garden shed. In this poetic film, the children are thus finally able to create the home they never had themselves. But how long will this idyll last?

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Tereza Nvotová, director of the film Filthy.

Tereza Nvotová presented her fiction feature, Filthy, in a strand of the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival dedicated to contemporary Czech films. Filthy deals with the delicate issue of rape through a coming of age drama about a young girl. Nvotová tells us how she prepared for the movie and that she purposefully opted for a naturalistic approach. Furthermore, she talks about the challenges of dealing with this delicate theme within a coming of age drama, and how she ws able to cast the role of her protagonist. Furthermore, in this interview, Nvotová tells us about interesting things that happened during the making of the film, and how her background in documentary filmmaking affected the production of Filthy.

Filthy: “isn’t it partly her fault?” Variations on this dangerous question are put to the heroine of this drama, who has been raped by her teacher. Seventeen-year-old Lena ends up in a psychiatric hospital, but the insensitive staff causes her to withdraw into herself. Tereza Nvotová’s film tells us there are some demons that can’t just be shaken off.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

The post Tereza Nvotová – Filthy #KVIFF2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Pat Collins, director of the film Song of Granite.

Filmmaker Pat Collins presented his latest film Song of Granite at the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film tells the story of the life of the legendary Irish traditional music singer Joe Heaney. Collins tells us about the importance of this type of music, especially Sean Nós (a specific style of unaccompanied singing), especially in the Irish-speaking parts of Ireland, where the film is based. He also tells us about how he did not want to make a conventional biographical movie and was also influenced by his own background as a documentarian. Song of Granite is a remarkably immersive experience; sound plays a huge part in its success. We talk about this too, and more – such as his use of archive footage, the choice of shooting in black and white and how he tries to remain open to change throughout every stage of a film production, during which a film may become something with a life of its own.

Song of Granite: his visually meticulous and mesmerizing film revolves around the life of the great traditional Irish singer, Joe Heaney. The power and magic of the songs provide the central motif threading its way through the film. Indeed, didn’t the songs help the residents of this magnificent but desolate Irish landscape to survive and commune with God? And what part of his heart and soul must the artist sacrifice in order to satisfy his inner compulsions?

For the official website of the festival, click here.

The post Pat Collins – Song of Granite #KVIFF2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Marina Stepanska, director of the film Falling.

Director Marina Stepanska presented her film Falling in the East of the West competition strand 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. At the start of the interview, Stepanska tells that she is quite curious to see how an international audience will react to her film. Why? Because while, to be sure, the film revolves around a blooming romance between a young lady and a young man that is easily universally understood, it is also a film that is marked by Ukrainian elements, a lot of which revolve around the Ukrainian revolution of 2014. Stepanska tells us about a lot of them, and her desire to ultimately make a movie that would represent normal Ukrainian people, which she claims is something that is increasingly rare. Her decision to do so is reflected, for instance, in the way in which she decided to cast two actors in the lead who had never acted in a feature film before. Nonetheless, as mentioned, the film does have a universal dimension, and even an optimistic one, which she also discusses.

Falling: young Anton has just been released from the rehab centre where he had sought treatment for alcoholism and drug addiction. His grandpa, a man of stern principles who brought him up from a young age, takes him off to the country, far from the lure of the big city. One night Anton meets Katia, who, like him, is trying to find her bearings in life, although at least one thing should be clear in her mind: She is shortly to be leaving for Berlin with her boyfriend Johann, a German photojournalist she met during the Maidan demonstrations. Her encounter with Anton, however, brings a new impulse into her life and profoundly affects both of them… The debuting Ukrainian director uses remarkable sensitivity in her depiction of the fragility of fledgling emotion, to a great extent aided by the finely nuanced performances of the leads. In a broader context Marina Stepanska’s psychological drama is also a strong statement on the current young generation as it tries to find its place in post-revolutionary Ukraine.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Bohdan Slama, director of the film Ice Mother.

Ever heard of ice swimming? This peculiar sport is what triggers the transformation of an older lady, the protagonist of Ice Mother by Bohdan Slama, presented in the special strand of the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival exhibiting Czech films of the 2016-2017 season. Bohdan is more than happy to talk to us about ice swimming and even tell us a story of how this important element of the film affected the lead actress of the movie, Zuzana Kronerova. But he also talks to us about the representation of older people in cinema, which is somewhat rare in cinema at large, and the element of the family in his movie. As he says, Ice Mother is a film that represents a message that is really important to him: “no matter how difficult life may be, it is important to have a feeling of hope.”

Ice Mother: is there an age limit to changing your life? And once you decide to go ahead with it, will your nearest and dearest try to dissuade you? In Bohdan Slama’s new tragicomedy a sixty-year-old widow finally manages to shake off the influence of her selfish sons in order to begin a new life with a hardy nonconformist. But any kind of change is going to cost something.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

The post Bohdan Slama – Ice Mother #KVIFF2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Alen Drljevic, director of the film Men Don’t Cry.

Documentary filmmaker Alen Drljevic presented his fiction directorial debut in the official competition strand of the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The film also officially opened the competition strand of Karlovy Vary this year. As mentioned, Men Don’t Cry is the director’s fiction feature debut. However, it is marked by his prominent backgrounds as a documentarian, not least of all because it originated from his own experiences attending therapy sessions for war veterans but also because he is a veteran of the Yugoslav War himself. In this interview, he also reveals to us how working on this film ended up being not only a therapeutic session for him, but also for the entire crew. But as the title implies, Men Don’t Cry also deals more generally with themes of masculinity, and we ask him about this aspect of the film in particular. Given that Men Don’t Cry is a fiction feature debut, we also ask Drljevic to tells us a little bit about his general interests as a filmmaker, how he likes to work and whether there are particular stories that he likes to tell.

Men Don’t Cry: when, less than two decades since the war ended in Yugoslavia, a diverse group of veterans gathers at a remote mountain hotel to undergo days of therapy, it’s hard to expect absolute harmony. This brilliantly directed drama, about the ability to forgive others only after we have forgiven ourselves, presents the pinnacle of the Balkan male acting scene.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

The post Alen Drljevic – Men Don’t Cry #KVIFF2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Camilla Magid, director of the film Land of the Free.

Director Camilla Magid presented her feature documentary debut Land of the Free in the documentary competition of the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Her documentary is set in the depressed neighbourhoods of South Central in Los Angeles, California, and particularly focuses on a slice of life of three different men of different ages – Brian, an adult, Juan, a young man in his late teens, and Gianni, a kid – whose lives have been affected by coming into contact with crime and the wrong side of the law. Besides talking about the origins of Land of the Free, and how she worked to tells the stories of her protagonists, Camilla also shares with us her views on these problems of society and how her opinions, views and expectations of how the stories would develop over the course of filming changes throughout the production.

Land of the Free: in the economically depressed neighborhoods of South Central Los Angeles it’s far too easy to get on the wrong side of the law. One fateful day 42-year-old Brian, who has just been released from serving a long prison sentence, experienced it firsthand. The vicious cycle of social determination, however, also begins to effect the lives of teenager Juan and seven-year-old Gianni. The debuting director immerses herself in the depths of human vulnerability in order to draw out fragments of hope.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

The post Camilla Magid – Land of the Free #KVIFF2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Jun Geng, director of the film Free and Easy.

Jun Geng’s film Free and Easy was presented at the 52nd Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The director describes the film as a tragicomedy, and in this interview, he explains his reasons for wanting to make this film. Free and Easy is also set in a nearly deserted village in the middle of the barren landscape of northern China, which we find out is also Jun Geng’s own hometown. The film is also defined by a sense of humour, which is mixed with more serious issues that it deals with, particularly relating to comments on modern Chinese society. What are the challenges of making a film, or writing a screenplay, in such a way? Jun Geng also reveals to us in this interview that Free and Easy represents the second phase of his filmmaking. The style is quite different, in fact, from his first movies. How so? Find out in this exclusive Fred Film Radio interview.

Free and Easy: a door-to-door soap salesman comes to a sparsely populated village in northern China. With his arrival, however, the number of bizarre attacks on the local population increases. Laced with a considerable dose of black humor, the movie offers an unusually entertaining and uncompromising sketch of Chinese society today.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

The post Jun Geng – Free and Easy #KVIFF2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Eddie Muller,  founder and director of the Film Noir Foundation.

Film noir: a familiar term in discussions about cinema. But what does it entail? And is it always used correctly? For instance, does it only relate to crime movies? We talk about film noir with one of its greatest experts: Eddie Muller. Not only has Muller written extensively about the film noir; he also founded and is the director of the Film Noir Foundation – a non-profit and public corporation that rescues and restores America’s noir heritage, which he introduces us to in this interview. As an expert of film noir and “noircheologict,” Muller was invited to the 2017 Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna to introduce a number of noirs, such as The Asphalt Jungle (John Huston, 1950). He briefly talks about these films, as well as the delight of screening them in front of an audience who may not ever have seen these classic works before.

For the official website of the festival, click here.

The post Eddie Muller – Film Noir Foundation #CinemaRitrovato2017 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Nick Ebeling, director of the film Along for the Ride.

How do you go from being the number one director of your generation – in 1969, opening doors for the directors of New Hollywood – to being blacklisted from 16 years? This is what happened to Dennis Hopper, actor, and director of the landmark film Easy Rider (1969). Easy Rider was followed by The Last Movie two years later, now widely forgotten. Not, however, by Nick Ebeling, who pays tribute to Hopper and The Last Movie through his documentary Along for the Ride, which he introduced at the 2017 Il Cinema Ritrovato. Yet, Along for the Ride is no conventional biographical documentary, but rather, in his words, “kind of like something that would be befitting a major cultural figure like Dennis Hopper who always worked against the grain and always did things differently, and the film tries to honor him structurally and visually in that way.”

For the official website of the festival, click here.

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