KUCI: Film School

Chronicles of a Wandering Saint / Film School Radio interview with Director / Screenwriter Tomas Gomez-Bustillo

Director Tomas Gomez-Bustillo magical tale, CHRONICLES OF A WANDERING SAINT focuses on a tiny rural village in Argentina, where Rita Lopez, (Monica Villa) a pious yet insatiably competitive woman, decides that staging a miracle could be her ticket to sainthood. After discovering a lost statue in the back room of her chapel, she convinces her neglected but loving husband to help her orchestrate the grand reveal that will finally anoint her as the most admired woman in town. But before the unveiling, a jarring turn of events illuminates the hidden magic of her world, forcing her to reevaluate everything she once took for granted. Director / Screenwriter Tomas Gomez-Bustillo (Museum of Fleeting Wonders) stops by to talk about his inspiration for his delightfully off kilter, magical tale of flawed people doing very human things to and for one another, recruiting this wonderful cast of actors, led by Monica Villa, Horacio Moseinco, Dahyana Turkie, Noemi Ron and Ana Silvia Mackenzie, and his reaction to the three Spirit Award nominations in 2024.
For more go to: chroniclesofawanderingsaint.com
Also: beplentygood.com

Tell Them You Love Me / Film School Radio interview with Director Nick August-Perna

Nick August-Perna complex documentary feature TELL THEM YOU LOVE ME explores the story of Anna Stubblefield, an esteemed  Rutgers University professor who becomes embroiled in a controversial affair with Derrick Johnson, a Black man with cerebral palsy, and who has been non-communicative since his earliest days. Using a highly disputed technique Anna says she unlocked Derrick’s mind from his body by teaching him to communicate using a keyboard. In addition to Anna Stubblefield, we hear from Derrick’s brother John Johnson, their mother Daisy Johnson and a variety of academics and doctors who lend their perspective on the relationship and what follows from it. The relationship eventually leads to Anna’s arrest and a high profile criminal trial that would challenge our perceptions of disability and the nature of consent. Through exclusive footage and interviews with those on both sides of the case, the film weaves a riveting and endlessly nuanced story about communications, race and sex. Director and co-writer Nick August-Perna (The Oxy-Kingpins) joins us for a conversation on going about gaining the cooperation and trust from the participants, including Anna Stubblefield and her mother, finding a balanced approach to telling the story and his joy at seeing how TELL THEM YOU LOVE ME seems to resonate with audiences at film festivals, 2023 Hamptons International Film Festival, and the 2023 Montclair Film Festival where it won the jury awards for Best Documentary Feature and now as the most popular documentary on NETFLIX.
For more go to: nickaugustperna.com

Ain’t No Back to a Merry-Go-Round / Film School Radio interview with Director Ilana Trachtman

Director Ilana Trachtman illuminating documentary AIN'T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND is the untold story of the first organized interracial civil rights protest in U.S. history. When five Howard University students sat on a Maryland carousel in 1960, the arrests made headlines. When the white community near Glen Echo Amusement Park joined the Black students in picketing, an extraordinary history-making partnership was born. The pickets attracted Nazis, Congressman, and a press avalanche. Picketing together over the sweltering summer led to partying together, and union organizers mentored student activists. Ten 1961 Freedom Riders, including Stokely Carmichael, were incubated on the Glen Echo picket line, and the carousel arrests were challenged in the Supreme Court case. With never-before seen footage, and immersive storytelling by Emmy-award winning director Ilana Trachtman (Praying with Lior, Black in Latin America, The Pursuit), four living protesters rescue this forgotten history, revealing the price, and the power, of heeding the impulse to activism. AIN'T NO BACK TO A MERRY-GO-ROUND includes voiceover by noted actors Jeffrey Wright, Mandy Patinkin, Bob Balaban, Lee Grant, Peter Gallagher, Dominique Thorne, Alysia Reiner and Tracie Thoms.
For more go to: aintnoback.com

LYD / Film School Radio interview with Co-directors Sarah Ema Friedland & Rami Younis

Filmmakers Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland feature length, speculative documentary, LYD follows the rise and fall of a 5,000-year-old metropolis, Lyd. It was once a bustling Palestinian town until it was conquered when the State of Israel was established in 1948. As the film unfolds, a chorus of characters creates a tapestry of the Palestinian experience of this city and the trauma left by the massacre and expulsion, while vivid animations envision an alternate reality where the same characters live free from the trauma of the past and the violence of the present. Using never-before-seen archival footage of the Israeli soldiers who carried out the massacre and expulsion, the personified city explains that these events were so devastating that they fractured reality, and now there are two Lyds — one occupied and one free. As the film cuts between fantastical and documentary realities, it ultimately leaves the viewer questioning which future should prevail. Lyd dares to ask the question: what would the city be like had the Israeli occupation of Lyd never happened? Co-directors Rami Younis and Sarah Ema Friedland join us for a wide ranging conversation on the utterly fascinating and pivotal role that the city of Lyd has played in the multiple empires, ancient and modern, the establishment of the state of Israel, the forced expulsion of Palestinians during Nakba and the provocative question at the heart of the film… What if?
For more go to: icarusfilms.com/if-lyd
For more about the filmmakers go to: lydinexile.com
For Los Angeles area screenings go to: laemmle.com/lyd
All other screenings: Go to: icarusfilms.com/playdate#lyd

Queendom - Director Agniia Galdanova and Igor Myakotin

Gennadiy (Gena) Chabotarev is a queer artist from a small town in Russia, dresses in otherworldly costumes made from junk and tape, and protests the government on the streets of Moscow. Born and raised on the harsh streets of Magadan, a frigid outpost of the Soviet gulag, Gena is only 21. She stages radical performances in public that become a new form of art and activism. By doing that, she wants to change people’s perception of beauty and queerness and bring attention to the harassment of the LGBTQ+ community. The performances - often dark, strange, evocative, and queer at their core - are a manifestation of Gena’s subconscious. But they come at a price.  QUEENDOM boasts a top notch production team that also includes executive producers Jess Search (Citizenfour), David France ( How to Survive a Plague), Arnaud Borges (C’est tout pour moi), and James Costa (Hidden Letters). Director Agniia Galdanova and Producer Igor Myakotin join us for a conversation on the challenge that came from burrowing into the tumultuous life of Gena as she faces the very real danger from hostile Russian police, menacing citizenry and the complicated family, re: her grandfather, a relationships she lovingly navigates.
For more go to: greenwichentertainment.com/queendom

The Ride Ahead / Film School Radio interview with Co-director Samuel Habib and Daniel Habib

Samuel Habib’s goals are pretty typical for a 21-year-old. Moving out of his family’s New Hampshire home. College. Establishing his career. Dating. Sex. Yet every rite of passage is fraught with challenges. Unexpected seizures and uncontrollable movements caused by his rare genetic disorder. Friends’ homes that are inaccessible to his wheelchair. His labored speech and use of a communication device are barriers to a social life. He craves more independence and a family of his own one day. “But no one tells you how to be an adult,” he says, “let alone an adult with a disability.” Samuel is determined to avoid the statistical realities: unemployment, isolation, institutionalization. A turning point comes when he starts talking to disabled adults, who have been through all he is going through now. And when he begins to channel their insights, a roadmap for himself, and for other young adults like him, begins to take shape. Co-director Samuel Habib and Daniel Habib join us to talk about their collaboration , getting to know the wide range of activists, artists, athletes, and stage performers, including; Bob Williams, Ali Stoker, Lydia X.Z. Brown, Keith Jones - Cerbal Palsey, Maysoon Zayid, Andrew Peterson and human rights legend Judith (Judy) Heumann, as well as the opportunity to showcase how and why we all need to be better creating and sustaining a more inclusive society for all.
For more go to: rideaheadfilm.com

Tiger Stripes / Film School Radio interview with Director Amanda Nell Eu

Director Amanda Nell Eu feature film debut, TIGER STRIPES, focuses on the life of a rebellious and carefree twelve-year-old girl, Zaffan, as she starts to experience horrifying physical changes to her body. Struggling to maintain being normal at school, Zaffan is in denial of her inevitable changes and tries to cover herself. Zaffan’s friends however attack her, when all hysteria breaks loose — one by one teenage girls drop to the floors in fits, turning it into a spread of mass hysteria across the school. Hsoon discovers that Zaffan may be the root of their problems and steps in to perform an exorcism on her. The whole community watches, as the Medical Officer uses extreme methods to shame and physically hurt Zaffan. And like a tiger who has been dragged out of its habitat and poked because we fear it, because we don’t know it — Zaffan decides to finally reveal her true self, her wrath, rage and her beauty, to everyone. Director and screenwriter Amanda Nell joins us to talk about Eu where the story for Tiger Stripes came from, her hopes that the film will help de-mystify some fundamental truths about women and her fascination with magical realism as a powerful tool for telling nuanced stories.
For more go to: filmsboutique.com/tiger-stripes

Edge of Everything / Film School Radio interview with Co-directors Sophia Sobella & Pablo Feldman

Straddling the line between childhood and adulthood, 14 isn’t an easy age for anyone, least of all Abby (Sierra McCormick, The Vast of Night), who’s forced to find her way in the world after her mother’s death. On the cusp of turning 15 and at a delicate moment in life, she’s forced to move in with her father (Jason Butler Harner, Ozark) and his younger girlfriend (Sabina Friedman-Seitz). Feeling alone in the world, the angry and determined teen strikes up a possibly dangerous friendship with the carefree and rebellious Caroline (Ryan Simpkins, The Fear Street Trilogy, The House), while exploring new personas, drugs and sexual experiences on the path to finding her place in life. Emily Robinson (Eighth Grade), Dominique Gayle and Nadezhda Amé co-star in the film, which also features Drew Scheid, Anthony Del Negro and Mike Manning. Co-directors, co-producers and co-writers Sophia Sobella and Pablo Feldman join us for a conversation on the process of casting the lead, Sierra McCormick, and the rest of the actors and how that allowed them focus their energy on the filmmaking process and the release of this award-winning film.
For more go to: lightyearentertainment.com/edge-of-everything
To watch go to: geni.us/edgeofeverything

Banel and Adama / Film School radio interview with Director Ramata-Toulaye Sy

Banel and Adama is a great romance, a West African dreamscape, a tragic fable, and a feminist paean. Young, fiery Banel loves her soft-hearted husband Adama with singular passion. She also hates to do chores with other village women, slings stones at small creatures, and fantasizes a liberated life of cattle-herding outside the village in the dunes. Adama is next in line for village chief but resists the responsibility. When a catastrophic drought hits, the curse weighs on his sense of duty, and the chasm between them drives Banel into a feverish, mystical chaos. Senegal’s official submission to the 2024 Oscars®, BANEL & ADAMA was the only debut feature in Cannes’ Official Competition in 2023, and marked Sy as just the second Black woman to compete for the Palme d’Or, after her French-Senegalese compatriot Mati Diop (Atlantics), in the festival’s 76-year history. Director and writer Ramata-Toulaye Sy joins us for a conversation on her breathtaking feature film debut.
For more go to: kinolorber.com/banel-and-adama

The Young Wife / Film School Radio interview with Director Tayarisha Poe

Tayarisha Poe’s spectacular sophomore film finds Celestina, (Kiersey Clemons, DOPE, Hearts Beat Loud) on her wedding day. All that stands between this young woman and marital bliss with her soon-to-be husband, River, (singer/songwriter Leon Bridges) is surviving the chaos and expectations of family and friends, each intensifying her spiraling panic. THE YOUNG WIFE is the story of a young woman grappling with the meaning of love in the face of an uncertain world, "The Young Wife" is a a wholly new take on the wedding film as we follow Celestina over the course of her “non-wedding” day. The frenetic happenings are beautifully captured by cinematographer Jomo Fray (Selah and the Spades, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt). Boasting a superb supporting cast of award winning actors that also includes: Kelly Marie Tran, Michaela Watkins, Aya Cash, Sandy Honig, Brandon Micheal Hall, Lukita Maxwell, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Judith Light, Aida Osman, Connor Paolo, Jon Rudnitsky and Lovie Simone. Director and Writer Tayarisha Poe joins us for a lively conversation on the inspiration for the film, gathering together her fantastic cast of performers, working with Sheryl Lee Ralph and Judith Light, working with he colleagues from Selah and the Spades and geeking out about films and filmmakers.
For more go to: paramountmovies.com/the-young-wife