Silver Screen Social

Welcome back to Silver Screen Social, listeners! I am your host Jackson Vickery.

John Gürtler and Jan Miserre, both born in 1981, are award-winning composers known for their collaborative work in film music, particularly in international co-productions. John Gürtler, a London-born, Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist, is recognized for his ability to create diverse and emotionally resonant scores. He has received awards such as the European Film Award for his work on Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” and the German Film Award for Best Sound for “No One’s With the Calves.” His other notable projects include “A Mouthful of Air,” the Netflix series “Dig Deeper,” and “A Pure Place,” which won the German Film Critics Award for Best Score. Gürtler has also been acclaimed for his work on “Space Dogs” and “System Crasher,” the latter earning him the European Original Score 2019.Gürtler’s collaborations span artists like Berghain resident Efdemin, Thomas Bloch, and the Film Orchestra Babelsberg. Additionally, he’s dedicated to fostering new talent through his teaching at film schools across Germany.

Jan Miserre, from Erlangen, Bavaria, was influenced by his jazz saxophonist father and began playing piano at age four and drums at twelve. He studied Jazz Piano at the University of Arts in Berlin and has toured internationally, working with artists such as Till Brönner and Curtis Stigers. Miserre has received several awards, including the GEMA Musik Author’s Prize for New Talent and the German Documentary Music Award. In 2022, he and Gürtler won Best Score from the German Film Critics Association for “A Pure Place.” 

Together, Gürtler and Miserre focus on international co-productions, often working on projects from their base in Berlin. They frequently travel to other countries or invite musicians from around the globe to collaborate with them in Berlin. Their diverse backgrounds and collaborative energy create compelling scores for film and television, earning them widespread acclaim and numerous awards.

MORE ABOUT THE OUTRUN:

A vivid and unflinching adaptation of Amy Liptrot's wrenching personal memoir of addiction, powered by an extraordinary central performance from Saoirse Ronan. Addicted to hedonism, drink and drugs, a young woman must wrestle with recovery in the remote islands of Orkney whilst reckoning with her complex family history. Powered by a pounding soundtrack, a kinetic visual style and intricate narrative structure, this extraordinarily moving film is redemptive, cathartic and utterly riveting.

On this episode, I spoke to sound designer Luke Gibleon and co-supervising sound editor Paul P. Soucek about their work on The Fall Guy. 

Gibleon is a 5x Emmy nominee for his work on Avatar: The Last Airbender, Masters of the Air, The Underground Railroad, El Camino and Twin Peaks. He is also a 4x MPSE Golden Reel Award winner for his work on The Underground Railroad, Greyhound, Togo and El Camino. He has also been nominated for The Continental, John Wick: Chapter 4, John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum, Game of Thrones, and A Faster Horse. 

Soucek is a 2x MPSE Golden Reel Award nominee for his work on John Wick: Chapter 4 and Michael Clayton. 

MORE ABOUT THE FALL GUY:

He’s a stuntman, and like everyone in the stunt community, he gets blown up, shot, crashed, thrown through windows and dropped from the highest of heights, all for our entertainment. And now, fresh off an almost career-ending accident, this working-class hero has to track down a missing movie star, solve a conspiracy and try to win back the love of his life while still doing his day job. What could possibly go right?

On this episode, I spoke to directors Angela Patton and Natalie Rae about their work on Daughters. 

Natalie Rae is an award-winning director devoting much of her career to women’s rights. Her work has been commissioned by the U.N. and Gates Foundation. She is the recipient of two Cannes Young Lions nominations. Working with artists such as Leon Bridges, H.E.R., Anderson Paak, Rae brings a distinct style and effervescent energy to music videos, commercials, and now her first feature documentary.

Angela Patton, CEO of Girls For A Change, is committed to advancing opportunities for Black girls. Her TEDWomen talk garnered over one million views and inspired the making of Daughters. As a speaker, author, and co-director, Patton is dedicated to celebrating and sharing the multifaceted experiences of Black girls.

MORE ABOUT DAUGHTERS: 

A moving portrait of empathy and forgiveness, Daughters traces an eight-year documentary journey by filmmaker Natalie Rae and social change advocate Angela Patton. The film intimately follows Aubrey, Santana, Raziah, and Ja’Ana as they prepare for a momentous Daddy Daughter Dance with their incarcerated fathers. Speaking openly about their aspirations, dreams, and the emotional toll of their fathers’ absence, compounded by the constraints of virtual visits, these girls reveal a profound wisdom and resilience beyond their years. As they navigate heartbreak, anger, and uncertainty, they seize a precious opportunity to forge connections. Daughters sheds light on the complexities of familial bonds strained by the unforgiving barriers of the criminal justice system and emphasizes that the foundation of community healing lies within the family unit.

On this episode, I spoke to cinematographer Lachlan Milne about his work on Lady in the Lake. 

Lachlan Milne is an award-winning director of photography, whose work ranges from Academy Award winning dramas to global smash TV series. Milne’s work on the acclaimed 2021 film Minari saw him nominated for a Critics Choice Award, Online Film & Television Association Award, and CinEuphoria Award among others. He has twice been awarded by the New Zealand Cinematographers Society for Minari and Love And Monsters. 

Milne’s other film credits include Hunt For The Wilderpeople and Next Goal Wins, both for Academy

Award winner Taika Waititi.

When the disappearance of a young girl grips the city of Baltimore on Thanksgiving 1966, the lives of two women converge on a fatal collision course. Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman) is a Jewish housewife seeking to shed a secret past and reinvent herself as a journalist, and Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram) is a mother navigating the political underbelly of Black Baltimore while struggling to provide for her family. Their disparate lives seem parallel at first, but when Maddie becomes fixated on Cleo’s mystifying death, a chasm opens that puts everyone around them in danger. From visionary director Alma Har’el, Lady in the Lake emerges as a feverish noir thriller and an unexpected tale of the price women pay for their dreams. 

On this episode, I spoke to three wonderful creatives from the Mary & George team, including makeup and hair designer Paul Gooch, production designer Helen Scott and costume designer Annie Symons.

Gooch is an Oscar nominee for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, a BAFTA Award winner Alice in Wonderland, an Emmy nominee, and a Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Award winner.

Scott is a BAFTA Television Craft Award winner for Small Axe, a Royal Television Society Craft & Design Award nominee for The Lost Honour of Christopher Jefferies, and a British Independent Film Award winner for Living.

Symons is a BAFTA TV Award winner for Worried About the Boy, a British Independent Film Award nominee for Benediction, an Emmy winner for Great Expectations (nominee for Mary & George!), and a 3x winner of the Royal Television Society Craft & Design Award.

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MORE ABOUT MARY & GEORGE:

Mary & George is inspired by the unbelievable true story of Mary Villiers (Julianne Moore), who moulded her beautiful and charismatic son, George (Nicholas Galitzine), to seduce King James I (Tony Curran) and become his all-powerful lover. Through outrageous scheming, the pair rose from humble beginnings to become the richest, most titled and influential players the English court had ever seen, and the King’s most trusted advisors. And with England’s place on the world stage under threat from outside forces and rioters taking to the streets to denounce the King, the stakes could not have been higher.

Prepared to stop at nothing and armed with her ruthless political steel, Mary married her way up the ranks, bribed politicians, colluded with criminals and clawed her way into the heart of the Establishment, making it her own. Mary & George is a dangerously daring historical psychodrama about an outrageous mother and son who schemed, seduced and killed to conquer the court of England and the bed of King James I.

The series was nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy Award.

On this episode, I spoke to four wonderful creatives from the Fellow Travelers team, including editors Christopher Donaldson, ACE, Wendy Hallam Martin, ACE and Lara Johnston. After that chat, I spoke to makeup department head Jordan Samuel.

Donaldson and I spoke back on an earlier episode of the podcast about his work on Sarah Polley’s Women Talking. He is a Canadian Cinema Editors Award winner and a 2x Directors Guild of Canada Craft Award winner.

Hallam Martin is also a past guest, being on of the first five on this podcast. She is an Emmy and ACE Eddie Award winner, as well as a 6x Directors Guild of Canada Craft Award winner and a 3x Canadian Cinema Editors Award winner.

Johnston is a first time guest on the podcast. She is a Directors Guild of Canada Craft Award and a Canadian Cinema Editors Award winner.

Samuel is also a first time guest on the podcast. He is a 2x BAFTA Award nominee, an Emmy Award winner, and a Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Award winner.

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MORE ABOUT FELLOW TRAVELERS:

FELLOW TRAVELERS is created for television by Oscar® nominee Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia, HOMELAND) and stars Matt Bomer (The Normal Heart, The Boys in the Band), Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton), Jelani Alladin (The Walking Dead World Beyond), Allison Williams (Get Out, Girls) and Noah J. Ricketts (American Gods).

The series was nominated for 3 Primetime Emmy Awards.

On this episode, I spoke to directors Emily Kassie and Julian Brave NoiseCat about their work on Sugarcane. 

The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where the film won the Directing Award in the U.S. Documentary category. The film has since gone on to multiple festivals and won awards at the San Francisco International Film Festival, the Seattle International Film Festival and the Sarasota Film Festival. Just to name a few, and surely not the last.  

The film is now open in select theaters. 

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MORE ABOUT SUGARCANE:

A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life - SUGARCANE, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie - is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning. Set amidst a ground-breaking investigation into abuse and death at an Indian residential school, the film empowers participants to break cycles of intergenerational trauma by bearing witness to painful, long-ignored truths – and the love that endures within their families despite the revelation of genocide. 

In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves near an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada sparked a national outcry about the forced separation, assimilation, and abuse many children experienced at this network of segregated boarding schools designed to slowly destroy the culture and social fabric of Indigenous communities. When Kassie- a journalist and filmmaker- asked her old friend and colleague, NoiseCat, to direct a film documenting the Williams Lake First Nation investigation of St Joseph’s Mission, she never imagined just how close this story was to his own family. As the investigation continued, Emily and Julian traveled back to the rivers, forests and mountains of his homelands to hear the myriad stories of survivors. During production, Julian’s own story became an integral part of this beautiful multi-stranded portrait of a community. By offering space, time, and profound empathy the directors unearthed what was hidden. Kassie and NoiseCat encountered both the extraordinary pain these individuals had to suppress as a tool for survival and the unique beauty of a group of people finding the strength to persevere.

Directed by:

Julian Brave NoiseCat

Emily Kassie

Produced by:

Emily Kassie

Kellen Quinn

Cinematography:

Christopher LaMarca

Emily Kassie

Edited by: 

Nathan Punwar

Maya Daisy Hawke

Music by:

On this episode, I spoke to writer and director Michael Sarnoski about his work on A Quiet Place: Day One. 

Sarnoski is a DGA Award nominee (Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film for Pig), a Gotham Independent Film Award nominee (Best Feature for Pig), an Independent Spirit Award winner (Best First Screenplay for Pig) and a National Board of Review Award winner (Best Directorial Debut for Pig). 

On this episode, we have a two-parter. First up, we have cinematographer Jac Fitzgerald to talk about her work on “Masters of the Air.” After that, we will have our conversation with production designer Chris Seagers about his work on “Masters of the Air.” 

On this episode, I spoke to Grammy, Emmy and SCL Award-winning composer Carlos Rafael Rivera about his work on Lessons in Chemistry. 

Rivera is a 2x Emmy winner for Godless (Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music) and The Queen's Gambit (Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score). He is also a Grammy winner for The Queen's Gambit (Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media). Finally, he is an SCL Award winner for Lessons in Chemistry (Outstanding Original Title Sequence for a Television Production) and The Queen's Gambit (Outstanding Original Score for a Television or Streaming Production).