FRED Film Radio - English Channel

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Bruno Smadja, founder of the Mobile Film Festival.

A conversation with Bruno Smadja, founder of the Mobile Film Festival. In this interview, he talks about the history of this festival and its mission statement, including how it shatters the barriers posed by the film industry standards by showcasing films shot on mobile phones and from all corners of the globe. He also focuses on this year’s edition, sharing the winners with us and also expanding on its driving theme about women’s empowerment. In addition, Smadja also talks about how the festival has evolved in recent times and plans for its continued growth in the future.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Evi Romen, director of the film Why Not You. 

A conversation with Evi Romen, director of Why Not You, presented at the 2020 Torino Film Festival. The film marks Romen’s directorial debut and explores the life of a young man struggling with drug addiction and confusion about his own identity, as well as his life in a small Northern Italian community. In this interview, Romen talks about the origins of her interest in her exploration of small communities, the link between addiction and the challenge of overcoming confusion about one’s self, as well as the challenges she encountered in working on her feature debut as a director.

Why Not You: Mario, a young dancer living in a small village in South Tyrol has to face the loss of his beloved best friend Lenz, victim of an attack in a gay club in Rome.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Wissam Tanios, director of the film We Are From There.

A conversation with Wissam Tanios, director of We Are From There, a documentary screened at this year’s Cairo International Film Festival. In the film, Tanios documents the before, during and after stages of his Syrian cousins’ emigration to Europe. Tanios discusses the origins of his interest in filmmaking, the decision to document his relatives’ story and how both the protagonists’ opposite personalities impact the film, as well as the cultural backdrop of the documentary and more. In addition, Tanios, who was born and lives in Beirut, shares some thoughts about the Beirut Explosion aftermath and how it has impacted him personally.

We Are From There: Jamil and Milad are brothers with very different personalities. Jamil is a get-up-and-go carpenter, following in his father’s footsteps. Milad is a sensitive trumpeter and dreamer. As their home country, Syria, sinks further into war, Jamil emigrates first to Beirut and then makes an illegal journey to Sweden. Milad stays in Damascus, but eventually can’t take it any longer and decides to leave to Berlin. Their cousin Wissam records their journey for over five years, bringing back childhood memories, while questioning the true meaning of home.

The post Wissam Tanios – We Are From There #CIFF42 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Cristiana Palmieri interviews Amin Palangi, Festival Director of the Persian International Film Festival.

Amin Palangi take us through the exciting program of the 9th edition of the festival, which includes features, documentaries and a section dedicated to short films.

Get a taste of the best of Persian-speaking cinema with a captivating program that will take you through the many faces of Persian heritage in four days of curated films. Acclaimed dramas, bright comedies, documentary masterpieces and a fabulous selection of short films are included in the program. The program is made exclusively of Australian premieres with the internationally acclaimed Son-Mother and Pari, the facetiously twisted comedy A Hairy Tale, the highly awarded documentary Sunless Shadows and much more!

To discover more about the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Kate Reidy, co-director of Black Movie Festival.

A conversation with Kate Reidy, co-director of the Black Movie Geneva International Independent Film Festival. The upcoming edition of the festival is set to take place in January 22-31, 2021. Reid talks with us about the festival’s history and its mission statement. In addition to discussing how the festival is set to face the challenges posed by the pandemic, she also talks about some of the films that have been confirmed for the program for this upcoming edition and comments on its poster, recently publicly shared.

To discover more about the festival, click here.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews João Paulo Miranda Maria, director of the film Memory House. 

A conversation with João Paulo Miranda Maria about his new film, Memory House, from the 30th Torino Film Festival. The film explores the racial tensions of modern-day Brazil in his lush, haunting debut feature rooted in Brazilian folklore. In this interview, the filmmaker tells us more about the origins of this story and its cultural backdrop, as well as his experience of working with Cinema Novo icon Antonio Pitanga and more.

Memory House: Cristovam, a black man originally from a rural area in northern Brazil, moves to a city in the south, a rich, former Austrian colony, to work at a dairy farm. He is surrounded by xenophobic, conservative people and feels like a stranger in the community and alone. When he discovers an abandoned stone house full of objects that remind him of his origins, he decides to move into that place, where the memories slowly seem to come to life and push him toward a radical transformation. A magical debut that delves into Brazilian folklore tradition to depict today’s social and cultural tensions.

The post João Paulo Miranda Maria – Memory House #TFF38 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Eugen Jebeleanu, director of the film Poppy Field. 

A conversation with director Eugen Jebeleanu, director of Poppy Field, from the 38th Torino Film Festival. The film talks about a closeted gendarme struggling to keep his homosexuality hidden. In this interview, Jebeleanu talks about the queer rights situation in contemporary Romania that served as the backdrop for the story, the style of the movie including the use of uninterrupted takes, how his background in theatre shaped his approach to filmmaking and more.

Poppy Field: A young gendarme from Bucharest keeping his sexuality secret must intervene at a homophobic protest at a movie theatre.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Braden King, director of the film The Evening Hour. 

A conversation with Braden King, director of The Evening Hour, from the 38th Torino Film Festival. The film tells the story of a nursing home aide becomes a small-time drug dealer, reselling his patients’ prescriptions. In this interview, King talks about what drew him to the Carter Sickels’ novel, which the film is based on, and the importance of the fading village in Appalachia where it is set. He also shares the reason why it has taken him almost a decade for him to direct his sophomore feature and more.

The Evening Hour: Dove Creek, West Virginia, was once a flourishing American mining town. Now, this post-industrial community is in decline. Cole Freeman works as a nursing home aide looking after the elderly, but he can hardly make ends meet even by dealing in illegal painkillers on the side. Like many of his generation, he is looking for a way out, but opportunities are few in this rapidly changing landscape. Cole belongs to a generation who feel trapped by a toxic combination of existential fear, lack of opportunity and powerlessness.

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PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews Jane Williams, Head of Studies Torino Film Lab.

Jane Williams, member of the pedagocical team of the Torino Film Lab, and head of studies of TFL and also of Biennale Cinema College, talks about her job and the issues that producers and film directors are facing in this specific times and with the broadening of opportunities of fruition of film productions.

To discover more about the festival, click here.

And to discover more about the Torino Film Lab, click here.

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PODCAST | Angelo Acerbi interviews James Erskine, director of the film Billie. 

James Erskine penned an astonishing documentary about one of the wildest and exploited music icon in history through hours of original interviews to the greatesT jazz musicians , and friends and relatives that worked and knew Billie Holiday. How these recordings were made and what happened around them is the additional fantastic story that pairs with the tale of the excessive life of the great Billie.

Billie: In the late 1960’s journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday, one of the greatest voices of all time, a figure of controversy: a black woman in a white man’s world, both a victim and a rebel. The testimonies ranged from musical greats like Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie to her cousin, school friends, lovers, lawyers, pimps and even the FBI agents who arrested her. But Linda’s book was never finished and the tapes unplayed. Now, five decades after, James Erskine had access to 200 hours of never-before-heard interviews; and thanks to this astonishing material, his film showcases an American legend, capturing her depths and complexity.

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