FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Diego Aparicio interviews Corinna Downing, from the BFI Education team.

Corinna Downing from the BFI Education team talks to FRED about the British Film Institute, and its participation in the 8th edition of the European Film Academy’s Young Audience Award. Corinna discusses with us the BFI’s initiatives in audience development, and gives us a run through the activities taking place at the 8th EFA Young Audience Award.

Here are the plots for the three EFA Young Audience Award nominees for 2019: Los Bando: A crazy road movie about a young band from Norway who set out on a journey across the country to attend the National Championship of Rock in a race against time, the police and their parents. Old Boys: ‘Survival of the fittest’ is the philosophy at all boys boarding school Caldermount. If you’re not a champion on the sports field, you’re a nobody. No one knows this better than bookworm Amberson, who’s been at the bottom of the school’s social ladder since he can remember. Fight Girl: When her parents end up in an acrimonious divorce, the headstrong, highly volatile Bo (12) moves to an Amsterdam suburb with her mother and brother. Once there, her neighbour, Joy, introduces her to the kickboxing club. She demonstrates natural talent and is very soon taking part in the Dutch championships, but her parents divorce is distracting Bo and threatens to ruin the contest. Bo has to learn restraint and accept that she can’t control everything.

To discover more about the Young Audience Award, click here.

The post Corinna Downing #YAA2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Niklas Pollmann interviews Flora and Luna, speakers of YAA Jury

During the Young Audience Award 2019 Niklas Pollmann was in Vienna to talk with two young jury members. Flora and Luna, two twelve-years old girls who shared the jury speakers’ job for Austria this year.

The interview takes place during the day before they watched the third film (Fight Girl). They are talking about the two films they already watched, their experiences with media consumption and how they got into the YAA.

To discover more about the Young Audience Award, click here.

The post Flora and Luna #YAA2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews YAA Jury speaker Noemi Vinci.

Noemi Vinci is a young film lover who has been selected to be a Jury speaker for the Young Audience Awards day in Turin, Italy. She tells us about her role and duties, and the movies she loves.

To discover more about the YAA, click here.

The post Noemi Vinci #YAA2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Niklas Pollmann interviews Flora and Luna, speakers of YAA Jury.

During the Young Audience Award 2019 Niklas Pollmann was in Vienna to talk with two young jury members. Flora and Luna, two twelve-years old girls who shared the jury speakers’ job for Austria this year.

The interview takes place during the day before they watched the third film (Fight Girl). They are talking about the two films they already watched, their experiences with media consumption and how they got into the YAA.

To discover more about the YAA, click here.

The post Flora and Luna #YAA2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Samantha Sartori interviews Michela Occhipinti, director of the film Flesh Out.

In the “International Narrative Competition” section, one of the most prestigious of the Tribeca Film Festival, Michela Occhipinti’s Flash Out was selected. We met Michela Occhipinti at the North America premiere of Flash Out, a movie about gavage, the ritual of over-eating in order for a woman to attain a fuller figure, more desirable to her future husband. The photography of Flash Out is really impressive but sound is the real gem of this movie, as it takes the viewer inside of the room with Verida. We talk about this aspect of the movie and the collaboration with Silvia Moraes. The difference between the starvation of the top-models or even normal women in western countries, and the women trying to get extremely fat in Mauritania, is not so great, but one is more accepted than the other. “They will forgive you all the drugs in the world. But they will never forgive you for getting fat” – Courtney Love.

Flesh Out: Verida is a modern girl. She works in a beauty salon, is addicted to social Media and hangs out with her friends. Still, she is engaged to be married to a man chosen by her family, and like many girls her age, she is forced to gain a substantial amount of weight in a tradition called gavage, because in Mauritania having a voluptuous body is considered a sign of great beauty, charm, wealth and social status. The wedding is fast approaching and meal after meal Verida will end up challenging everything she always thought was normal, her loved ones, her life and not least her own body.

To discover more about the film, click here.

The post Michela Occhipinti – Flesh Out #Tribeca2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Cosima Mattner interviews Martha Shane, Jennifer 8. Lee and Rayouf Alhumedhi, director, producer and emoji creator of the documentary Picture Character.

The spotlight documentary Picture Character is a thought provoking, fun and artistic tour through the universe of emoji – which is Japanese for “picture character.” We met one of the two directors, Martha Shane, the producer Jennifer 8. Lee and the hijab emoji creator Rayouf Alumedhi. The film had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival in NYC 2019 last weekend. What is a language? And what is the difference between emoji and words? Who gets to decide what new symbols get to be part of the language? Clever and creatively, Picture Character tracks the historical development of emoji from their beginnings in Japan in the 90s and sensitively studies their political and ethical implications. Featuring institutions and individuals from cultures as diverse as Argentina, Japan, the US and Europe, the film negotiates the emotional, identity-related and technical dimensions of emoji. Martha, Jennifer and Rayouf shared their personal emoji stories with us and how they discovered emoji as a complex and flexible tool for expression in digital communication. Their film explores how global players like the Unicode consortium monitor the set of emoji that is available globally and how that impacts peoples’ identities. Balancing between advocates of a standardization of emoji and campaigners for culturally specific emoji, the film shows how integral these characters have become to digital communication all over the world. Picture Character is an insightful and well-researched investigation of the world of emojis that puts on view how happy they make!

Picture Character: The rapid rise of emoji (Japanese for “picture character”) is a global phenomenon without precedent. Their widespread use and ability to convey complex messages have not only cemented emoji’s place as an emerging digital language, but prompted difficult questions about the creation of a language and digital communication’s fraught ties to identity and inclusion. In Picture Character, directors Martha Shane and Ian Cheney lead viewers on a deep dive into the ever evolving world of picture characters, from their humble beginnings in Japan to mobile keyboards the world over, and shed fresh light on the private consortium that approves new emoji offerings and the individuals fighting to make the language more representative of its billions of users.

To discover more about the film, click here.

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The post Martha Shane, Jennifer 8. Lee, Rayouf Alhumedhi – Picture Character #Tribeca2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Angelo Acerbi interviews Mark Blane and Ben Mankoff, directors of the film Cubby.

Mark Blane and Ben Mankoff are thrilled and enthusiast. They wrote, directed and, as for Mark, acted in a fresh unusual and funny feature film with a weird lead character in New York, babysitting on a kid that sometimes looks his age and dreaming of a “Leather-man” who can steal his heart. A quirky film with purity, though. They tell us all about it.

Cubby: In this coming of age dramedy shot on 16mm, a misanthropic gay artist finds hope and self-discipline through his friendship with a sensitive 6 year old, Milo, and the adult superhero “Leather-man” who is conjured from a psychedelic cupcake.

The post Mark Blane, Ben Mankoff – Cubby #LOVERSFF19 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Samantha Sartori interviews Selina Miles and Martha Cooper, director and protagonist of the film Martha: A Picture Story.

We attended the world premiere of the feature documentary about the iconic photographer Martha Cooper screened in the spectacular new section of the Tribeca Film Festival “This used to be New York”. We met with Selina Miles, the director, and Martha Cooper herself to discuss Selina’s idea to make a movie about Martha and how they worked in dangerous situations. Martha loves illegal graffiti and so Selina followed Martha on her rides to capture street artists at work. And while Selina was very worried about Martha jumping and running all over the place, Martha, in her 70s, was totally in her element and not worried at all. This journey is not only the story of a photographer, it is so much more. It shows what it means to have lived a fulfilled life without following the conventional rules of this society. Selina Miles’ ability to balance these double aspects of Martha’s life is striking.

Martha: A Picture Story: Martha Cooper is an unexpected icon of the street art movement – a tiny, grey-haired figure running alongside crews of masked graffiti artists. In the 1970’s, as the boroughs of New York City burned, she worked as a photographer for the New York Post, seeking images of creativity and play where others saw crime and poverty. As a result, she captured some of the first images of New York graffiti, at a time when the city had declared war on this new culture. Martha and her co-author Henry Chalfant compiled these images into the book Subway Art. However, the commercial failure of the book forced Martha to leave graffiti behind, moving on to document many other hidden cultures of New York. 20 years later Martha discovers she has become a legend of the graffiti world – a culture that has now exploded into a global movement. Subway Art became one of the most sold – and stolen – art books of all time, photocopied and shared by graffiti artists for decades. At 75 years of age, Martha finds herself navigating a culture vastly changed. The small community born from struggle and adversity, has grown into a commercial industry fuelled by the rise of social media. Now every new piece of street art is immediately uploaded, and crowds line up for selfies in front of popular works. Martha struggles to find her place in this new world, driven by a passion for capturing the creativity that helps people rise above their environment.

To discover more about the film, click here.

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The post Selina Miles, Martha Cooper – Martha: A Picture Story #Tribeca2019 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST| Samantha Sartori interviews Yu Gu, director of the film A Woman’s Work.

At Tribeca Film Festival we meet Yu Gu, a filmmaker and visual artist born in Chongqing, China and raised in Vancouver, Canada. Yu works in both narrative and documentary film, exploring themes of identity, migration, and the individual’s relationship to society. We talked about how she came across cheerleaders being exploited in the NFL and decided to make a movie, first meeting with a group of employment attorneys and then with the women organizing against the teams, starting with Lacy T. against the Oakland Raiders. There is nothing more American than football and cheerleaders, except for unfair treatment in workplace. This is David against Goliath; the fight of poorly-treated workers against the football teams with effectively unlimited amounts of money to defend themselves.

A Woman’s Work: Football and feminism collide in this documentary following former NFL cheerleaders fighting to end the wage theft and illegal employment practices that have persisted in the league for 50 years. In 2013, Lacy T., an Oakland Raiders’ cheerleader, found herself in a mountain of debt at her team’s behest in paying for beauty upkeep, transportation, and clothing while waiting for a single paycheck that would compensate her for less than the legal minimum wage. In 2014, she enlisted a group of all women labor attorneys, LVBH, to sue her team. NFL mascots and water boys are paid more than $60K per season, concession workers are paid the legal minimum wage plus gratuities, while most NFL cheerleaders were unpaid or paid below the legal minimum wage. Women make up nearly 50% of the audience, yet the NFL abuses the only visible women on their field. Lacy T.’s media blitz ignited four more cheerleader lawsuits. Beyond labor code violations, a culture of toxic masculinity was exposed in cheerleader handbooks setting archaic double standards and rules. On the heels of the #metoo movement, over a dozen more lawsuits were filed by NFL cheerleaders exposing myriad stories of sexual harassment. In the wake of lawsuits, minimum wage salaries have been quietly implemented across the NFL, several lawsuits have settled, and California legislation, proposed by an assemblywoman, was signed into law ensuring the fair treatment of cheerleaders of major league teams as employees.

To discover more about the film, click here.

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