KUCI: Film School

Composer Spotlight Film School interview with Carlo Siliotto

Diamond on Vinyl / Director J. R. Hughto interview

Narco Cultura / Director Shaul Schwarz Film School Interview

Bettie Page Reveals All / Director Mark Mori’s Film School interview

Reaching for the Moon / director Bruno Barreto interview

Sweet Dreams / co-director Rob Fruchtman interview

The Punk Singer / Director Sini Anderson interview

Film School interview - Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of the punk band Bikini Kill and dance-punk trio Le Tigre, rose to national attention as the reluctant but never shy voice of the riot grrrl movement. She became one of the most famously outspoken feminist icons, a cultural lightning rod. Her critics wished she would just shut-up, and her fans hoped she never would. So in 2005, when Hanna stopped shouting, many wondered why. Through 20 years of archival footage* and intimate interviews with Hanna, THE PUNK SINGER takes viewers on a fascinating tour of contemporary music and offers a never-before-seen view into the life of this fearless leader. Director Sini Anderson joins us for a conversation on the life and times of a galvanizing artist.

12 Years a Slave / Composer Nicholas Britell - Film School interview

Film School interview - As the film 12 Years a Slave opens, we see a group of slaves toiling away in the field, and we hear perfectly synchronized to their chopping, the chorus...
When I was young, I saw the sun, Too hot for me, Too late for me, Live or die, Lay down and cry, Hey boys!, I'm tired, My Lord Sunrise ...
That is the first stanza of the original song "My Lord Sunshine (Sunrise), played against such imagery, sets the tone for the film and is written by songwriter Nicholas Britell for director Steve McQueen's gripping cinematic recounting of the memoir of Solomon Northup, who as a free New York state black violinist was abducted and sold into slavery. In composing and arranging such spiritual work songs like "My Lord Sunshine (Sunrise)" and "Roll Jordan Roll" as well as three traditional fiddle tunes on the 12 Years a Slave soundtrack, Britell painstakingly researched this lost form of music, which was never recorded and in many cases never written out, in an effort to bring the most accurate musical representation to this landmark story. The songwriter joins us for a conversation on the challenges and rewards of recreating musical history.

Pad Yatra / director Wendy J. N. Lee interview

PAD YATRA: A Green Odyssey is the adventure of 700 people trekking across the Himalayas with a call to save the planet's "3rd Pole," a glacial region now devastated by the climate chaos associated with global warming. Battling the most treacherous terrain on the planet, the trekkers spread their message of ecological compassion through human's most basic means - by walking on foot, village to village, and showing by example. Surviving harrowing injuries, illness, and starvation, they emerge with nearly half a ton of plastic litter strapped to their backs, triggering an historic green revolution across the rooftop of the world. Wendy J. N. Lee drops by to talk about the harrowing journey, figuratively and literally, she took in making this remarkable documentary.

Symphony of the Soil / director Deborah Koons Garcia interview