FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews director Jorge Thielen Armand, who talks about his new movie The Solitude, from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

Director Jorge Thielen Armand embarked on a difficult trip when he decided to tell us his story, the true story, of his parents’ hometown of Caracas, with its real inhabitants needing to leave and relocate in a city on the verge of financial disaster – much like the country of Venezuela as a whole. A touching and impactful film, the power of the film is enhanced by knowing that what we are seeing on the screen is the real person, not the actor, and the facts that we are being told show what is really happening in real life.

THE SOLITUDE (LA SOLEDAD). is a dilapidated villa located in one of the wealthiest neighborhoods of Caracas. It used to be the home of director Jorge Thielen Armand’s great-grandparents, but when the owners passed away fifteen years ago, the property was unofficially inherited by their lifelong maid, Rosina, now 72, who remained to care for the house and raise her grandson, José, now 27, Jorge’s childhood friend. José works as a handyman, dreaming of a better life for his six-year-old daughter Adrializ, amidst Venezuela’s economic crisis. Waiting in long queues for food and the medicine Rosina so desperately needs is part of José’s routine. When he learns that the legal inheritors of the house plan to sell the estate, José struggles to try to find a solution that will keep his family away from the crime-ridden slums. Yet the house holds a secret that could save them all: a treasure that is rumored to be buried in its walls. Set in the beautiful derelict eponymous mansion and played by the real inhabitants, La Soledad poetically depicts Venezuela’s socio-economic crisis through José’s struggle to save his family from homelessness.

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PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews director Midi Z, who talks about his film The Road to Mandalay from the 73rd Venice Film Festival [Venice Days]

FRED Film Radio has the chance to discuss with director Midi Z about his new feature The Road to Mandalay, here at Venice Days 2016.

THE ROAD TO MANDALAY. The people-traffickers have a well-established route: from Burma into Thailand across the Mekong River at Tachileik; along quiet country roads; passing bribed police checkpoints and then into Bangkok, where the illegal migrants are on their own. Lianqing is one of five illegals who travel this route one summer night in 2013; along the way a fellow migrant called Guo is kind to her, and their fates later become entwined. By the standards of illegals, Lianqing does well: she finds ‘underground’ jobs, saves money and finds out how and where to buy faked identity papers. But Guo does less well.

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PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Shubhashish Bhutiani, director of Hotel Salvation from the Biennale College of Venezia 73.

Shubhashish Bhutiani tells us all about a tradition originating from Varanasi, where people go to die – a place in which if they die, it is said, their souls will be saved. This religious tradition is a business, of course, and the film tells us abuout the trip to Varanasi of an old grumpy man and his devoted son. Shubhashish shares with FRED the reasons behind the film’s tone and colour and the sense of a tradition that looks at the passage of death in a totally new perspective.

HOTEL SALVATION (Mukti Bhawan): An ominous dream convinces 77-year-old Dayanand Kumar that his end could be near. He takes the news to his son Rajiv, knowing he wants to breathe his last in the holy city of Varanasi and end the cycle of rebirth, by attaining salvation. Being the dutiful son he is, Rajiv is left with no choice but to drop everything and make the journey with his stubborn father. Daya and Rajiv check into Mukti Bhawan (Hotel Salvation) in Varanasi, a guesthouse devoted to people who want to die there. But as the days go by, Rajiv struggles to juggle his responsibilities back home, while Daya starts to bloom in the hotel. Rajiv gives his father a shot at salvation but as family bonds are tested, he finds himself torn, and not knowing what he must do to keep his life together.

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PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews director Ana Lily Amirpour and Suki Waterhouse, who talk about their film The Bad Batch from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

THE BAD BATCH. A savage dystopian fairytale set in a Texas wasteland where society’s rejects are just trying to make ends meet.

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PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews director Kei Ishikawa, who talks about his film Traces Of Sin from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

TRACES OF SIN. Tanaka is going through a tough time trying to support his younger sister Mitsuko, recently arrested and hold up in jail. As an investigative reporter, he immerses himself into a story about a shocking murder case gone cold. The “perfect” family—successful businessman, beautiful wife and adorable child—was brutally murdered a year ago and the case remains unsolved.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews director Stéphane Brizé and Judith Chemla, who talk about their film Une Vie from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

How terribly recent Guy de Maupassant’s novel Une Vie is. That is the thought that Brizé had when he decided to adapt it for the big screen. At the heart of it all is its viewpoint on women. He expresses this in our short chat, which took place after the official press conference of the film at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, where it screened in competitine.

The film’s power also rests on the shoulders of actress Judith Chemla, playing the leading role in Une Vie with great intensity. How did she prepare for the role? Find out…

UNE VIE. Normandy, 1819. Jeanne is a young woman full of childish dreams and innocence when she returns home after finishing her schooling in a convent. She marries a local Viscount, Julien de Lamare, who soon reveals himself to be a miserly and unfaithful man. Little by little Jeanne’s illusions are stripped away.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews director Laurie Simmons, who talks about her film My Art from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

MY ART. Ellie Shine is a 65-year-old single artist living in New York City. She has a good life: a stable teaching job, successful friends, and a loyal, aging dog named Bing. As her dream of a respectable place in the art world becomes more elusive, her frustration with her lack of recognition feels alarmingly urgent. When she is offered the summerhouse and studio of a famous friend she seizes the opportunity to hit the reset button on her life and work. She unwittingly finds inspiration in two out-of-work actors who maintain the gardens at her summer retreat: Frank, a widower trying to reassemble his life post-grief by turning his back on a mediocre acting career, and Tom, a young, hungry actor whose wife has a less ambitious vision for their idyllic country life. Joining them is John, a thrice-divorced, disillusioned lawyer looking for a summer distraction. This unlikely trio helps Ellie reinvent her artistic identity by participating in her DIY art videos— improbable recreations of old Hollywood films. They accompany Ellie on an odd and unexpected journey toward finding her late-blooming artistic momentum.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews director Deepak Rauniyar, who talks about his film White Sun from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

WHITE SUN. When his father dies, anti-regime partisan Chandra must travel to his remote mountain village after nearly a decade away. Little Pooja is anxiously awaiting the man she thinks is her father, but she’s confused when Chandra arrives with Badri, a young street orphan rumoured to be his son. Chandra must face his brother Suraj, who was on the opposing side during the Nepali civil war. The two brothers cannot put aside political feelings while carrying their father’s body down the steep mountain path to the river for cremation. Suraj storms off in a rage, leaving Chandra with no other men strong enough to help. Under pressure from the village elders, Chandra must seek help from outside the village to obey the rigid caste and discriminatory gender traditions he fought to eliminate during the war. Chandra searches for a solution in neighboring villages, among the police, guests at a local wedding, and rebel guerrillas…

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Jay Weissberg, director of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival, from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

Jay Weissberg’s first edition as director of the Pordenone Silent Film Festival (Giornate del Cinema Muto) will take place from October 1st-8th. Excitement is hard to hold back as he anticipates some things we can expect from this year’s program, including special screenings of The Thief of Baghdad (1924) and a retrospective on the first even winner of Best Art Direction at the Academy Awards, William Cameron Menzies. On top of this, the festival hosts a collegium for young silent film enthusiasts, which Weissberg talks about. Jay Weissberg is, of course, also an established film critic, and us being at the Venice Film Festival, we ask him about his thoughts on this year’s edition of the oldest film festival in the world.

http://www.cinetecadelfriuli.org/gcm/

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PODCAST | Nicolò Comotti interviews Simone Moraldi, education consultant of THE FILM CORNER, from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

FRED Film Radio meets with Simone Moraldi, film literacy expert and FRED@school collaborator, to talk about the exciting new project of the Cineteca di Milano THE FILM CORNER.

The objectives of the project are to design, release and test an online digital virtual platform for film literacy, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by web 2.0 and innovative cross-media approaches in the digital era. Its intention is to raise the average film-literacy level of the EU’s young audiences. The general aim of the project is to create an easy-to-use model for film literacy that will improve film-literacy skills. The technical development will be supported by a set of offline knowledge transfer activities aimed at teachers and students. The goal is to share the platform and to explore its potential uses as a tool for pedagogical purposes in class.

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