FRED Film Radio - English Channel

Celia Rowlson-Hall – director and actress – Ma.

Director, actress, and choreographer Celia Rowlson-Hall talks about the way the Bible inspired her dialogue-less film MA, which was presented as a special screening in the Venice Days section of the 72nd Venice Film Festival. Celia tells us about the journey of self-discovery she undertook through this project, as a woman and an artist, and the way in which she managed to direct whilst being in front of the camera.

MA: ‘In this modern-day vision of Mother Mary’s pilgrimage, a woman crosses the scorched landscape of the American Southwest. Reinvented and told entirely through movement, the film playfully deconstructs the role of this woman, who encounters a world full of bold characters that are alternately terrifying and sublime. Ma is a journey into the visceral and the surreal, interweaving ritual, performance, and the body as sculpture. The absence of dialogue stirs the senses, and leads us to imagine a new ending to this familiar journey. The virgin mother gives birth to our saviour, but is also challenged to save herself.’ (Venice Days).

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Edwina Findley – Actress – Free In Deed.

FRED’s Chiara Nicoletti meets versatile and eclectic actress Edwina Findley, intense protagonist of Jake Mahaffy‘s FREE IN DEED, in competition at the 72nd Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti section, in which it was awarded the Best Film Prize.

In the film Edwina plays Melva Neddy, a single mother desperately looking for a cure to her son’s autism in a society in which she’s left with no help from social services or healthcare system. Edwina Findley explains how the film explores the difficulty of judging a woman in her character’ situation and how, even death, can de liberating in a very desperate sense.

FREE IN DEED: Set in the distinctive world of storefront churches, and based on actual events, Free in Deed depicts one man’s attempts to perform a miracle. When a single mother brings her young boy to church for healing, this lonely pentecostal minister is forced to confront the seemingly incurable illness of the child… and his own demons as well. The more he prays, the more things seem to spiral out of his control.

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