KUCI: Film School

26.2 to Life / Film School Radio interview with Director Christine Yoo

The San Quentin Prison Marathon has an unconventional route: 105 dizzying laps around a crowded prison yard. Director Christine Yoo deeply empathetic documentary, 26.2 TO LIFE, tells the story of incarcerated men who are members of the 1000 Mile Club, the prison’s long distance running club. They train all year for 26.2 mile long marathon race, all of which takes place inside the walls of the infamous San Quentin Men’s Prison mile race. For the men who take their places at the starting line on a cool, sunny November morning, completing the marathon means more than entrée into an elite group of athletes. It’s a chance to be defined by more than their crimes. Cheering them on are a small staff of volunteer coaches, veteran marathoners who train with the runners throughout the year. The bonds they forge on the track create a community that transcends prison politics and extends beyond the prison walls as members are released. 26.2 TO LIFE is a story of transformation and second chances. The film offers a rare glimpse into a world out of bounds, as the men navigating life sentences seek redemption and freedom… or something like it. Director Christine Yoo takes us inside the walls, physical and psychological of the men, who readily acknowledge the mistakes and crimes they have committed, work to define the remainder of their lives as positive and worthwhile.
For more go to: sanquentinmarathon.com

Rebel / Film School Radio interview with Co-directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah

Co-directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah (Bad Boys for Life, Ms. Marvel and Batgirl) deliver their most intimate and personal film, REBEL. The film focuses on Kamal Wasaki (Aboubakr Bensaihi) an idealistic Belgian rapper who after getting busted for drugs in his home country flees to Syria to volunteer to help the victims of the war. Upon his arrival, he is left stranded in Raqqa. Soon after he is kidnapped by ISIS where he is forced to shoot their propaganda videos thanks to his experience shooting his own hip-hop videos. Then one day to prove his loyalty, he is charged to kill a US soldier in front of the camera. When this clip is played on the news his family is reluctantly brought into the story.  While Kamal’s mother Leila (Lubna Azabal) struggles with what drove her eldest son down that path that has branded her an outcast in her community. She starts to notice Kamal’s younger brother Nassim (Amir El Arbi) has become the target of local ISIS recruiters who wish to use his brother and video games to lure in him. REBEL co-directors, co-writers and co-executive producers Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah join us for a conversation on the atrocities of war, the path to radicalization, finding the fragmented humanity in people trapped in these conflicts and why it was so important for them as filmmakers and storytellers to intersperse music and theatre into an otherwise scathing cavalcade of inhumanity.
For more go to: rebelmotionpicture.com

Mr. Jimmy / Film School Radio interview with Director Peter Michael Dowd

In snowbound Tokamachi, Japan, teenaged Akio Sakurai took refuge in his room, escaping to another world with a pair of headphones and a pile of Led Zeppelin records. Moving to Tokyo, Akio worked as a kimono salesman by day, but by night became "Mr. Jimmy," adopting the guitar chops and persona of Jimmy Page. For 30 years, Akio recreated vintage Zeppelin concerts note-for-note in small Tokyo clubs, until the real Jimmy Page stopped by one night and Akio’s life changed forever. Inspired by Mr. Page’s ovation, Akio quits his “salary man” job, leaving behind his family to move to Los Angeles and join “Led Zepagain.” Soon cultures clash, and Akio’s idyllic vision of America is met with reality. Until Jason Bonham (son of legendary Led Zeppelin drummer, John Bonham) calls and invites Akio to audition, and later join his ‘Led Zeppelin Evening’ tour. Director Peter Michael Dowd joins us for a lively conversation on the incredible level of dedication Akio has put into his craft, meticulously fine tuning precision of everything from the amps, frets, cables to the stitching on the “dragon” cape to faithfully replicate the Jimmy Page experience as well as my misspent youth back in 1972, for missing the chance to see the “greatest rock and roll band” at the zenith of their artistic prowess.
For more go to: mrjimmymovie.com

The Mountain/ Film School Radio interview with Director, & Lead Actor Thomas Salvador

Director, writer and lead actor, Thomas Salvador’s beguiling new film, THE MOUNTAIN, follows Pierre, a Parisian in his forties, on his emerging quest to break from his daily routine of morning coffee in a run-down apartment, his phones, his keys, and his computer on the train to work. During a business meeting to demonstrate the capability of a robot to some clients he is distracted by the sight of a mountain. Shortly after his enigmatic encounter with the natural world Pierre begins to act on an unfathomable journey into the unexplored mountainous terrain. He gears up very cautiously, gets informed and takes the cable car up to the Aiguille du Midi, in the Mont-Blanc Massif, with its spectacular view of the French, Swiss and Italian Alps. Setting up his small tent slightly below, he slowly learns about hiking on the glacier, then climbs the passes with and then without guidance. Days pass, more or less easily and comfortably, in his introspective observation of the environment. Pierre feels good, there, in his place, with the essentials and forms only one meaningful connection with the chef of the Aiguille du Midi restaurant (Louise Bourgoin). But this drastic return to nature soon takes a turn when a mountain wall collapses and attracts his attention to very strange lights… Director, writer and lead actor, Thomas Salvador (VINCENT) stops by to talk about the inherent challenges that come with shooting a feature film on a mountainside, what drew him to make this visually stunning ode to the inexorable pull of nature and how little we understand about the world we live in.
For more go to: strandreleasing.com/films/the-mountain
An official selection of the Directors' Fortnight at the 75th Cannes Film Festival.

IO STO BENE / FIlm School Radio interview with Director Donata Rotunno

Director, producer and writer Donato Rotunno’s third feature film, IO STO BENE (I Am Fine) focuses on the life of Antonio, a man who has spent his whole life away from his home country ofItaly. Antonio is facing down his own mortality when he crosses paths with Leo, a young Italian artist who is trying to make it abroad. The old man and the young woman’s destinies mirror each other. Memories from the past are awoken and end up offering a more peaceful future to the both of them. This multi-layered film follows Antonio Spinelli growing up with Vito, his cousin of the same age, and their friend Giuseppe. At the end of the 1960s, pushed out of South Italy by a catastrophic economic situation, they decide to leave the country to work abroad. What’s initially supposed to be a short stay to make ends meet will end up determining their individual paths. While Vito works in Belgium and Giuseppe in Germany, Antonio is the only one who goes to a little country called Luxembourg. There, he meets Mady, who becomes his continued support and gives him the strength to be who he really is. Leopoldina prefers to be called Leo. She has finished her graphic design studies and dreams of an artistic career where she could mix graphic design creations and music. She wants to take her future in her own hands and make a living out of her passion. That’s why she decides to leave Italy with her boyfriend and dreams of going on tour all over Europe to perform in clubs as a visual jockey. But they break up and Leo’s boyfriend goes back to Italy, leaving Leo on her own in Luxembourg. She hasn’t told him that she is pregnant. Director and writer Donato Rotunno joins us for a conversation on his affinity for complex stories that illuminate many of the basic truths about love, family, friends and the capricious outcome of the paths we choose to follow.
For more go to: mpmpremium.com/catalogue/io-sto-bene

Before Now & Then / Film School Radio interview with Director Kamila Andini

Set amid the political violence of late-1960s Indonesia, Kamila Andini's intoxicating film BEFORE, NOW & THEN follows Raden Nana Suhani, a Sundanese woman who in the 1960s lost and father and son to the war in West Java. We find her as the beautiful wife of a wealthy plantation owner, who always looked down on her. For Nana, her inner life remains with her deceased first husband, murdered in the civil war a decade prior. A survivor, Nana values her safety and material comforts, but carries out a haunted existence, dreaming of her lost love. Forced to confront her husband's blatant infidelity, Nana makes an unusual connection with his younger mistress, Ino. The two women, sharing their secrets and desires, discover a newfound freedom and intimacy withheld from them both by the strictures of patriarchal society. Together, these two women seek hope for independence. Director and screenwriter Kamila Andini (Nusa Yang Hilang, Yuni,) joins us for a conversation on how the enveloping stranglehold of patriarchy informs every aspect of these women’s lives, drawing out sublime performances from actors Happy Salma (Nana) and Laura Basuki (Ino), capturing the subversive beauty of a land gripped by violence and upheaval.
For more go to: filmmovement.com/before-now-then
See in a theatre: filmmovement.com/before-now-then

Invisible Beauty / FIlm School Radio interview with Co-directors Bethann Hardison & Frédéric Tcheng

Naomi Campbell, Kimora Lee Simmons, Tyra Banks, Tyson Beckford were dazzling, barrier-breaking supermodels of color in the ’90s. But two decades earlier, Bethann Hardison burst onto French and American runways with a defiant strut and sui generis personality. In this intimate and insightful documentary, INVISIBLE BEAUTY, fashion revolutionary and co-director Bethann Hardison looks back on her journey as a pioneering Black model, modeling agent, and activist, shining a light on an untold chapter in the fight for racial diversity. Catalyzing change requires continuous championing, and as the next generation takes the reins, Hardison reflects on her personal journey and the cost of being a pioneer, as well as the satisfaction of being the first Black woman to own a racially diverse modeling agency, Hardison called out fashion houses around the world (including Prada and Calvin Klein) for the lack of models of color in their shows and the exclusionary casting calls that had become rampant in the industry (“No Blacks, no ethnics”), while profiting from Black consumers. In tandem with Frédéric Tcheng (Halston, Dior and I), Bethann Hardison and her co-director trace her impact on fashion from runway shows in New York and Paris in the ’70s to roundtables about lack of racial diversity in the early 2000s. Interviews with industry players speak to the state of fashion, while friends and family attest to Hardison’s rebellious and ambitious spirit. INVISIBLE BEAUTY is an absorbing record of Hardison’s accomplishments and a rare contemplation on the life of a radical thinker. The co-directors Bethann Hardison and Frederic Tcheng join us for a conversation on the cinematic and personal journey that the film has taken them on.
For more go to: magpictures.com/invisiblebeauty
Opening 9/22 in Los Angeles at the Laemmle Royal
For all other screenings around the country go to MagPictures.com

Film School Radio interview with Production Designer Judy Becker

Production Designer JUDY BECKER is one of thousands of gifted artists who have made crucially important contributions to the most iconic films in cinema history. But their work often flies under the radar in large part because film critics and others don’t often lavish the attention they give to directors and stars on the work of a film’s production designer. But these production designer’s sometimes unheralded art consists of nothing less than building the world of a movie, and in the process do a great deal to create those distinct cinematic environments that one wants to visit again and again. PRODUCTION DESIGNER JUDY BECKER, recent recipient of a recent film retrospective at New York’s Metrograph Theatre, gave all the film lovers who attended an opportunity to better appreciate the painstaking research and crucial creative contribution that goes into the work of a production designer. Becker 25-year career as a lead production designer includes collaborations with Todd Haynes, David O. Russell, and Ang Lee. Production Designer Judy Becker (Carol, American Hustle, We Need to Talk About Kevin) joins us for a conversation on his introduction to the world of production design, the artist who’s work inspire her and how she approaches each new project with the same zeal and attention to detail she brought to her very first project.
For more go to:instagram.com/beckerdesign2000

Our Father, The Devil / FIlm School Radio interview with Director Ellie Foumbi

Nominated for the 2023 "Best Feature" Independent Spirit Award, Ellie Foumbi's elegant moral thriller and debut feature OUR FATHER, THE DEVIL ("Mon père, le diable") stars a riveting Babetida Sadjo, (Ritual), as Marie, the head chef at a retirement home in small-town France. Her easy day-to-day life spent caring for residents, hanging out with her co-worker and best friend Nadia (Jennifer Tchiakpe), and teasing a potential new romance is disrupted by the arrival of Father Patrick (former Spirit Award nominee Souleymane Sy Savané, (Goodbye Solo), an African priest whom she recognizes from a terrifying episode in her homeland. As he further endears himself to the residents and staff, Marie is forced to decide how best to deal with this reminder of her troubled past. Writer / Director Ellie Foumbi joins us for a conversation on her intense and fearless dissection of trauma, power, revenge, guilt, and the devils hiding within all of us and the Oscar-worthy performances by Babetida Sadjo and Souleymane Sy Savané, OUR FATHER, THE DEVIL is a stunning showcase for the impeccable talents of everyone involved.
2023 Spirit Award Nominee: Best Picture
Tribeca Film Festival, Audience Award Winner: Best Narrative
September 1 in Los Angeles at the Laemmle

Fremont / Film School Radio interview with Director Babak Jalali

In Babak Jalali’s playfully eccentric FREMONT focuses on a beautiful and troubled 20-something Donya, an Afghan translator who used to work with the U.S. government and now has trouble sleeping. Each morning Donya (Anaita Wali Zada) leaves her tight-knit community of Afghan immigrants in Fremont, California. She crosses the Bay to work at a family-run fortune cookie factory in San Francisco. Donya drifts through her routine, struggling to connect with the culture and people of her new, unfamiliar surroundings while processing complicated feelings about her past as a translator for the U.S. government in Afghanistan. Unable to sleep, she finagles her way into a regular slot with a therapist (Gregg Turkington) who grasps for prospective role models. When an unexpected promotion at work thrusts Donya into the position to write her own story, she communicates her loneliness and longing through a concise medium: the fortunes inside each cookie. Donya’s koans travel, making a humble social impact and expanding her world far beyond Fremont and her turbulent past, including an encounter with a quiet auto mechanic (Jeremy Allen White) who could stand to see his own world expanded. Tenderly sculpted and lyrically shot in black-and-white, Babak Jalali’s FREMONT is a wry, deadpan vision of the universal longing for home. Babak joins us for a conversation on the moment he knew that casting an unknown actor, Anaita Wali Zada as Donya, his instinctual decision, in collaboration with cinematographer Laura Valladao would work, the calming effect of Gregg Turkington, and the joy he derived from his time spent in the Afghan community of Fremont, California.
For more go to: musicboxfilms.com/film/fremont