KUCI: Film School

The Crusades / Film School Radio interview with Director Leo Milano

THE CRUSADES follows three friends from private all-boys high school as they receive earth-shattering news about an upcoming merger with their rival school, The bad news sets them and their friends careening towards one last epic weekend before everything changes. Leo (Rudy Pankow, Outer Banks, Uncharted) balances multiple love interests in a constant quest for popularity. Caught in the crossfire is Ryan (Ashley Nicole Williams, Motherland: Fort Salem), a hopeless romantic with a bad habit of giving unlimited second chances. Sean (Khalil Everage, Cobra Kai) struggles with his responsibilities to his cold and calculated girlfriend Jess (Indiana Massara, Hero Mode, Chicken Girls), who is always one step ahead of everyone. Jack (Ryan Ashton) repeatedly clashes with authority and the administration in a never-ending struggle to avoid all responsibility. To make matters worse, the boys unknowingly made an enemy out of Vince (Blaine Maye, Joe Bell) and The Wrecking Crew, who are hell-bent on settling their vendetta at all costs. Completely unaware that the choices made over this fateful weekend could end up impacting their lives more than any merger ever could. Director, writer and producer Leo Milano joins us for a conversation on the long and winding road that The Crusades has taken him and his dedicated crew on, how his career as an actor, Stand-in and Production Assistant on has given him the experience and the confidence to make his debut feature film, The Crusades.
For more go to: thecrusadesfilm.com
thecrusadesfilm.com/ways-to-watch

The Good Side of Bad / Film School Radio interview with Director Alethea Root and Producer Jules Bruff

Alethea Root’s second feature film, GOOD SIDE OF BAD, tells the story of three estranged adult siblings, Sara (Jules Bruff), Peter (Alex Quijano), and Florence (Lexi Simonsen) as they are brought back together after a mental health diagnosis forces them to confront harsh future realities regarding the mental state of one of their own. GOOD SIDE OF BAD is a raw and intimate look into what it means to be a family navigating the waters of mental illness. The film dives into humanity’s dark places while illuminating the love, laughter, and light discovered when you reconnect with those closest to you. Based on the bestselling book GOOD SIDE OF BAD, this raw family drama touches on our shared human experience of psychological isolation, and how connecting to each other is ultimately the best way to help one another push through the daunting challenges that face every person. In addition to Jules Bruff, Alex Quijano and Lexi Simonsen, the film also features Myles Grier, Kim Estes and Academy Award nominated actor Tess Harper (Crimes of the Heart). Director and co-writer Alethea Root and Producer, co-writer and actor Jules Bruff join us to talk about the source and inspiration for the film, being selected as the Opening Night film for the 2023 Dances with Film festival, and the hope that the audience will come away from the film with a better appreciation of living with mental illness and the fragility of family.
For more go to: goodsideofbad.com

Give Me An A - Director Natasha Halevi - Actress Molly C. Quinn, and Actress Jennifer Holland

A warning for a future that could be, GIVE ME AN A features 17 films created by 17 female filmmakers to recount the overturning of Roe v. Wade through a multi-genre lens. The film is fully committed to address the attack on women’s rights, all proceeds from the screenings will be donated to non-profit organizations in their local markets. GIVE ME AN A is an urgent and passionate response from a group of women committed to protecting or securing their right to privacy, bodily autonomy and healthcare. From satire to horror, to dark comedy, to science fiction, these films are a unifying voice that tells the world how they feel about the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Co-director Natasha Halevi, and actors Molly C. Quinn and Jennifer Holland join us for a conversation on why they, along with all of the participating filmmakers and actors, have devoted their time and skills to this timely project, as well as, how the Dobbs decision could lead to further erosion of women’s autonomy, freedom and health.
For more go to: fractalclouds.com
Watch on: AmazonPrime and AppleTV

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy / Film School Radio interview Director Nancy Buirski

Filmmaker Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story, The Rape of Recy Taylor, By Sidney Lumet) journey through the last 100 years of American cultural, political and artistic touchstones continues with Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy. A half century after its release, John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era. With beguiling performances from Jon Voight (Coming Home) and Dustin Hoffman (The Graduate) as two loners who join forces out of desperation, black list survivor Waldo Salt's brilliant screenplay, and Schlesinger's fearless direction, the 1969 film became the only X- rated film to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its vivid and compassionate depiction of a more realistic, un-sanitized New York City and its inhabitants paved the way for a generation’s worth of gritty movies with complex characters and adult themes. But this is not a documentary about the making of Midnight Cowboy: it is about the deeply gifted and flawed people behind a dark and difficult masterpiece; New York City in a troubled time of cultural ferment; and the era that made a movie and the movie that made an era. Director and producer Nancy Buirski joins us to talk about gathering the extensive archival material and compelling new interviews, and how this one film, Midnight Cowboy captured the essence of a time and a place, reflecting a rapidly changing society with striking clarity.
For more go to: zeitgeistfilms.com/desperate-souls-dark-city-and-the-legend-of-midnight-cowboy

Biosphere / FIlm School radio interview with Director Mel Eslyn

Marking the directorial debut of long-time Duplass brothers’ collaborator, Mel Eslyn, BIOSPHERE drops us into the confined lives of Billy (Mark Duplass) and Ray (Sterling K. Brown), lifelong best friends and the last two men on earth. Their survival is largely due to Ray, a brilliant scientist who designed a domed structure with all the systems necessary to sustain life on a planet that could no longer support it. Their custom biosphere is outfitted with basic necessities and creature comforts that make it possible to retain a sense of what life used to be like. A hydroponic garden provides fresh vegetables and a carefully managed fishpond supplies essential protein. Recently, however, fish have begun dying at an alarming rate. With a mere three fish remaining, Billy and Ray face an ominous future. But life may yet find a way. Uproarious and tender in equal measure, BIOSPHERE was a festival favorite. Director Mel Eslyn (Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off, The Lady and the Dale) joins us to talk about making the leap from producing into the director’s chair, as well as finding the credible cinematic space where humor and pathos can co-exist as well as they do in BIOSPHERE.
For more go to: ifcfilms.com/biosphere

Love Gets A Room / Film School Radio interview with Director Rodrigo Cortes

Set in the heart of 1942 Warsaw, where Jews and refugees from across Poland were imprisoned in a ghetto and cut off from the outside world by a towering wall, LOVE GETS A ROOM follows Stefcia and her fellow Jewish theatre actors as they fight to keep their passion for performing alive. As life in the Nazi-occupied ghetto became a fierce fight against cold, hunger, and epidemics, the actors, against all odds, embark on a daring mission to stage Jerzy Jurandot's play, risking their lives to create something beautiful in a world of chaos and destruction. Featuring a superb cast of actors led by Clara Rugaard (I Am Mother) as Stefcia, as well, Mark Ryder (City on a Hill), Ferdia Walsh-Peelo (CODA), Anastasia Hille (Snow White and the Huntsman), Magnus Krepper (A Cure for Wellness), and Henry Goodman (The New Pope). Written and directed by visionary filmmaker Rodrigo Cortés (Buried, Concursante), the film takes you on an emotional journey back to the tumultuous time of World War II. With masterful direction and outstanding performances, LOVE GETS A ROOM is a poignant exploration of the power of love, hope, and sacrifice in the face of unimaginable adversity.
For more go to: buffalo8.com/project/love-gets-a-room
Watch now on: Amazon, Apple TV, Google Play, Vudu

I’ll Show You Mine / Film School Radio interview with Director Megan Griffiths

I’LL SHOW YOU MINE tells the story of Priya Sura (Poorna Jagannathan), an author who found breakout success when she wrote a memoir about her abusive father. She has since made a career of exploring her own trauma through a feminist lens. Recently, however, she has been finding it harder and harder to have an emotional connection in her writing. So she's now mining someone else's trauma by interviewing Nic (Casey Thomas Brown), her nephew by marriage, about his history of exploitation as a gender nonconforming model and pansexual poster boy. But Nic won't engage without a quid pro quo, so to get to the most hidden parts of his story, she must dig into areas she has scrupulously managed to avoid in her own. Director Megan Griffiths (Eden, Lucky Them) joins us for a conversation on the challenges and rewards that come from a two actor film project, working with the talented duo of Poorna Jagannathan (The Night Of, Never Have I Ever) and Casey Thomas Brown (The Kominsky Method) and how finding a cinematic sweet spot for an engaging, and insightful character driven story about trauma and recognition.
For more go to: ill-show-you-mine-2023

Transatlantic / Film School Radio interview with Co-directors Stephanie Chuat & Veronique Reymond

In this compelling Netflix original seven-part series, TRANSATLANTIC, takes us back to France in 1940, where American Varian Fry has traveled to Marseille carrying three thousand dollars and a list of imperiled artists and writers he hoped to help escape from the encroaching Nazi collaboration with the Vichy government, within a few weeks. Instead, he stayed more than a year, working to procure false documents, amass emergency funds, and arrange journeys across Spain and Portugal, where the refugees would embark for safer ports. His many clients included Hannah Arendt, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, and Marc Chagall, and the race against time to save them is a tale of forbidden love, high-stakes adventure, and unimaginable courage. TRANSATLANTIC features an excellent cast of American and international actors that includes; Gillian Jacobs, Corey Stoll, Lucas Englander, Corey Michael Smith and Ralph Amoussou. TRANSATLANTIC was produced and co-written by Anna Winger (Daniel Handler), Co-directors Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond (My Little Sister, join us for a conversation on the challenge of directing the first four of the seven episodes, how important it was for them to strike the appropriate tone for a “film” that moves between from life threatening to life affirming within each episodes, working with an international cast and their upcoming project, a English language reboot of their first film, The Little Bedroom.
Watch on: netflix.com/Transatlantic

Q / Film School Radio interview with Director Jude Chehab

Where do we draw the line between love and devotion? An intimate and haunting portrayal of a quest for love and acceptance at any cost, Q depicts the insidious influence of a secretive matriarchal religious order in Lebanon on three generations of women in the Chehab family. First-time filmmaker Jude Chehab potently documents the unspoken ties and consequences of loyalty that have bonded her mother, Hiba, grandmother, and herself to the mysterious organization. When she’s not teaching the Quran to students or taking part in poetry readings with peers, Hiba strictly obeys the detailed writings of the Anisa (the leader of the order) who instills in her followers the need to closely observe and practice full days of prayer. A masterful portrait of the toll that decades of unrequited love, lost hope, abuse, and despair takes on a person, Q is a multigenerational tale of the eternal search for meaning. A love story of a different kind, the film delicately portrays the complexities of the unseen power that intermesh the lives of those who love a woman whose heart is in the hands of someone else. Director Jude Chehab stops by to talk about her personal journey with Qubaysiat, engaging in an extended cinematic conversation with her family about the influence the group has had on them, particularly her mother, and what being a part of the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival means for Q and her own artistic trajectory.
For more go to: tribecafilm.com/films/q-2023

Blue Jean / Film School Radio interview with Director Georgia Oakley

Georgia Oakley’s stunning directorial debut BLUE JEAN, is set in 1988 England and Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government is about to pass a law stigmatizing gays and lesbians, forcing Jean (Rosy McEwen, in a powerhouse performance), a gym teacher, to live a double life. As pressure mounts from all sides, the arrival of a new student catalyzes a crisis that will challenge Jean to her core. Something has to give, and McEwen embodies with exquisite insight the mounting strain upon a woman who has sought to keep hidden what now burns for some release or resolution. The catalyst for change is the arrival at Jean’s school of a new pupil, Lois (Lucy Halliday) – raw, vulnerable, and instinctively connected to Jean as soon as they meet. When Lois begins to frequent the lesbian bar that is Jean’s refuge, the boundaries between Jean’s worlds collapse, and she finds herself dangerously desperate to rebuild them. The BAFTA-nominated film won the Venice Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, as well as four British Independent Film Awards. Director and writer Georgia Oakley joins us for a conversation on why a look back on laws (Section 28) “governing” the lives of the LGBTQ people provides a greater understanding of past bigotry as well as why it is vitally important to remain vigilant regarding the current threats to the human rights. BLUE JEAN features a slew of terrific performances, led by Rosy McEwen as Jean, Kerrie Hayes, Lucy Halliday and Lydia Page.
For more go to: magpictures.com/bluejean