KUCI: Film School

Day Night Day Night / Julia Loktev Interview

A Lobster Tale / Court Crandall Interview

An interview with screenwriter Court Crandall of the film A Lobster Tale. A movie tinged with magical realism, A Lobster Tale won for its screenplay at the Austin Film Festival and was given the Sundance Channel Audience Award. Shot in Halifax, Canada, the film takes place in a small Maine fishing town, where a struggling lobster fisherman discovers a mysterious healing sea moss in one of his traps. Tension in his already fragile family erupts when the true supernatural quality of the moss is revealed and becomes sought after by everyone in town.

Away From Her / Sarah Polley Interview

An interview with Sarah Polley director of "Away From Her," a screenplay adaptation of celebrated author Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain." Starring Julie Christie, "Away From Her" explores the dilemma of a man coping with the institutionalization of his wife because of Alzheimer's disease. Polley is a director, writer and actress renowned in her native Canada for her peace and justice political activism. From child star to director, her career ranges from the TV series "The Road to Avonlea" to Atom Egoyan's "The Sweet Hereafter," from Terry Gilliiam's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" to Isabel Coixet's "The Secret Life of Words."

Sing Now or Forever Hold Your Peace / Bruce Leddy Interview

Everythings Gone Green / Paul Fox Interview

The Newport Beach Film Festival 2007

An interview with Gregg Schwenk, executive director of the Newport Beach Film Festival. In 2007, the Festival will spotlight over 350 films from around the world including features, shorts, documentaries, and animation that will compete for a series of awards including Jury Awards and Audience Awards. In addition to film screenings, the Festival will host several premiere galas, yacht parties, and question and answer sessions with filmmakers. The Festival runs from April 19th through April 29th, 2007 and is expected to attract more than 35,000 film devotees.

Kevin Thomas / Remembering Fritz Lang

Filmmakers in the indie, experimental, foreign, avant-garde and documentary fields desperately need critics. Lacking money for a promotional campaign and forced to rely on word-of-mouth, these filmmakers have found no better friend over the past 40-plus years than Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times. Thomas, one of the few people in Hollywood to befriend the legendary Fritz Lang, will share his personal rememberances of the director who brought us Metropolis, M, Die Nibelungen, The Big Heat and The Blue Gardenia.

The Prisoner / Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein Interview

An interview with co-directors and co-producers Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein of the documentary The Prisoner Or: How I Planned To Kill Tony Blair.
Baghdad, September 2003: In a middle class house on a quiet street in Baghdad, a family is fast asleep. Without warning, the front door is crashed and American soldiers storm the house looking for weapons and bomb-making material. Cameraman Michael Tucker documents the event as the men in the house are cuffed and forced to kneel in the garden. Combining Tucker's embedded footage, Yunis' home movies, testimony from former guard Benjamin Thompson and original comic book art, Tucker and Epperlein trace the moving story of an ordinary man trapped in a Kafkaesque nightmare.

China Blue / Micha Peled Interview

An interview with Micha X. Peled director of China Blue. Like no other film before, China Blue is a powerful and poignant journey into the harsh world of sweatshop workers. Shot clandestinely, this is a deep-access account of what both China and the international retailers don't want us to see: how the clothes we buy are actually made. Following a pair of denim jeans from birth to sale, China Blue links the power of the U.S. consumer market to the daily lives of a Chinese factory owner and two teenaged female factory workers. Filmed both in the factory and in the workers' faraway village, this documentary provides a rare, human glimpse at China's rapid transformation into a free market society. China Blue will air on PBS's Independent Lens Series on Tuesday, April 3 at 10:30 pm.

In Between Days / So Yong Kim and Bradley Rust Gray

An interview with director and screenwriter So Yong Kim and screenwriter Bradley Rust Gray directors of In Between Days. Winner of Los Angeles Film Critics Association Independent / Experimental Film and Video Award and Independent Spirit Someone to Watch Award, In Between Days follows a Korean immigrant as she falls in love with her best friend while navigating her way through the challenges of living in a new country.