KUCI: Film School

Katrina Babies / FIlm School Radio interview with Director Edward Buckles Jr.

Edward Buckles Jr’s gripping feature documentary debut KATRINA BABIES, brings focus and context the sixteen years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, and an entire generation still grappling with the lifelong impact of having their childhood redefined by tragedy. New Orleans-based filmmaker Edward Buckles Jr., was 13 years old during Katrina and its initial aftermath, spent seven years documenting the stories of his peers who survived the storm as children. In his award winning film, KATRINA BABIES, Buckles draws upon his community’s tradition of oral storytelling to open a door for healing and to capture the strength and spirit of his city. He found common cause-and shared trauma--with young people whose lives were similarly shaped by the storm. KATRINA BABIES interview subjects were between 3 and 19 years old when the storm hit: Some stayed in New Orleans, Others fled the city and the neighborhoods that held so much history for them. Director Buckles joins for a conversation on his award winning film and how he was able to capture both the unique, joyful flavor of Black culture in the Crescent City as well as the nightmarish conditions that swallowed up so many in the aftermath of Katrina.
Debuts on HBO and HBO MAX on August 24, 2022

Claydream / Film School Radio interview with Director Marq Evans

In the engaging and illuminating documentary from director Marq Evans takes us into the world of the “Father of Claymation,” Will Vinton as he revolutionized the animation business during the 1980s and 90s, creating such iconic characters as the California Raisins and Domino’s The Noid. But after thirty years of being the unheralded king of clay, Vinton’s carefully sculpted American dream came crumbling down. Structured around interviews with this charismatic pioneer and his close collaborators, along with a treasure trove of clips of their work together, CLAYDREAM charts the rise and fall of the Oscar®- and Emmy®-winning Will Vinton Studios. Director, screenwriter and producer Marq Evans joins us for a conversation on the challenges of bringing to life the battle between art and commerce in this affectionate, insightful portrait of an artist who put so much of himself into his craft.
For news and screenings go to: claydream.oscilloscope.net

Five Summer Stories / Film School Radio interview with Co-director Greg MacGillivray (Jim Freeman)

Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman were already celebrated for producing gold standard surf films when, in 1972, they released FIVE SUMMER STORIES. They were two young Southern California filmmakers who entered the surf-film world in the mid-‘60s. FIVE SUMMER STORIES originated as a “farewell to surfing” from the talented duo, who were being courted by Hollywood and ready leave the surf-film world for other creative work. They handpicked great sequences they hadn’t used yet, secured legendary cinematographer Bud Browne for new material, and wove all the elements together into a series of stories. They topped it off with original music from the band Honk and classic songs of the Beach Boys and suddenly you have an enduring cinema classic. From the allure of its Rick Griffin poster art to its tightly framed ultra-slow-motion camera work, this was a state-of-the-art film that authentically, and often humorously, captured the state of a sport. Since its initial release FIVE SUMMER STORIES has toured America 10 times in four successive versions that played to more than a million people, many of them surfers and many more that had never even touched a surfboard! Although very much in the surf film genre, FIVE SUMMER STORIES raised the art form to a new level and set the standard for the next two decades. Even today, it remains the standard by which all surf films are artistically measured. Co-director Greg MacGillivray joins us for a conversation on the long, strange trip that FIVE SUMMER STORIES has been for his soaring career, how it allowed him and MacGillivray / Freeman Film to become world’s leading producer and distributor of giant screen (IMAX) films.
For news and screenings go to: fivesummerstories.com
For more on their films go to: macgillivrayfreeman.com
For more go to: macgillivrayfreeman.com/five-summer-stories

A Run For More / Film School Radio interview with Director Ray Whitehouse and Subject Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe

A RUN FOR MORE is an intimate cinema-vérité look at Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe's brave and arduous campaign to become the first trans woman to run for city council in her hometown of San Antonio, Texas. As a corporate executive, political campaigner, military spouse, and proud Latinx daughter of immigrants, Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe is used to fighting for other people’s causes, but this time it’s personal. Filmed over the course of three years, this moving documentary follows Frankie as she embarks on her 2019 campaign, drawing on the strength she needed when recovering from a pre-transition assault. Now happily married to a loving, supportive husband and surrounded by a loyal team of volunteers and friends, Frankie takes on the fight of her life. A RUN FOR MORE follows Frankie’s political and personal journey of discovery over the course of her historic campaign, and what she uncovers about herself along the way is as eye-opening as the reactions she receives from the community she hopes to represent. Director Ray Whitehouse and Frankie Gonzales-Wolfe join us for a conversation on the mutual decision to move forward on documenting not just the public facing campaign of running for city council, but allowing Whitehouse and his crew into their home, as well as, bracing for the reaction, positive and negative, that comes when marginalized people speak up.
For updates and screenings go to: arunformore.com

The Territory / Film School Radio interview with Director Alex Pritz

In his debut feature documentary THE TERRITORY Alex Pritz provides an immersive look at the tireless fight of the Amazon’s Indigenous Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people against the encroaching deforestation brought by farmers and illegal settlers. With awe-inspiring cinematography showcasing the titular landscape and richly textured sound design, the film takes audiences deep into the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau community and provides unprecedented access to the burning and clearing of the protected Indigenous people’s land. Partially shot by the Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people, THE TERRITORY relies on vérité footage captured over three years as the community risks their lives to set up their own news media team in the hopes of exposing the truth. Director Alex Pritz joins us for a informative conversation on the importance that he placed an even-handed approach to conveying the disparate strands of a complex story whose outcome will have a profound impact on the indigenous Uru-Eu-Wau-Wau people, the region surrounding the Amazon rainforest and planet Earth. 

For news and updates go to: nationalgeographic.com/the-territory
To watch: nationalgeographic.com/the-territory/watch
For more on other films: nationalgeographic.com

The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson / Film School Radio interview with Director Leah Purcell

THE LEGEND OF MOLLY JOHNSON drops us into Austrailia in 1893 on an isolated property, where a heavily pregnant woman named Molly Johnson (Leah Purcell) and her children struggle to survive the harsh Australian landscape; her husband is gone, droving sheep in the high country. Molly then finds herself confronted by a shackled Aboriginal fugitive named Yadaka (Rob Collins). As an unlikely bond begins to form between them, secrets unravel about her true identity. Meanwhile, realizing Molly’s husband is missing, new town lawman Nate Clintoff becomes suspicious and sends his constable to investigate. The deadly encounter between Molly, Yadaka and the constable results in a tragic chain of events with Molly becoming a symbol of feminism and anti-racism. THE LEGEND OF MOLLY JOHNSON is a reimagining of Leah Purcell’s acclaimed play and Henry Lawson’s classic short story. Director, producer and co-screenwriter Leah Purcell joins us for a conversation on her searing Australian revenge tale and a stark revisionist Western, and a film that offers a powerful new interrogation of Australian history and a universal story of what a mother will do to protect her children.
For updates & screenings go to: samuelgoldwynfilms.com/the-drovers-wife

Three Minutes - A Lengthening / Film School Radio interview with Director Bianca Stigter

THREE MINUTES - A LENGTHENING explores the human stories hidden within the celluloid. This powerful and emotionally compelling documentary presents a home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938 in a Jewish town in Poland and tries to postpone its ending. The film is a haunting essay about history and memory. As long as we are watching, history is not over yet. The three minutes of footage, mostly in color, are the only moving images left of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk before the Holocaust. Those precious minutes are examined moment by moment to unravel the human stories hidden in the celluloid. Different voices enhance the images: Glenn Kurtz, grandson of David Kurtz, and Maurice Chandler, who appears in the footage as a young boy. AcademyAward winning filmmaker Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave). BAFTA Award winning actress Helena Bonham Carter narrates the film. Director Bianca Stigter joins us for a conversation on her own journey in pursuit of the people behind a providential 16mm home movie, finding an invaluable eye witness from Nasielsk, and working with the son of Glenn Kurtz, David.
For news & screenings go to: superltd.com/three-minutes-a-lengthening

Free Chol Soo Lee / Film School Radio interview with Co-directors Julie Ha and Eugene Yi

Co-directors Julie Ha and Eugene Yi damning documentary begins on June 3, 1973 with the of a man was murdered in a busy intersection of San Francisco’s Chinatown as part of an ongoing gang war. Chol Soo Lee, a 20-year-old Korean immigrant, who had previous run-ins with the law, was arrested and convicted based on flimsy evidence and the eyewitness accounts of white tourists who couldn’t distinguish between Asian features. Sentenced to life in prison, Chol Soo Lee would spend years fighting to survive behind bars before journalist K.W. Lee took an interest in his case. The intrepid reporter’s investigation would galvanize a first-of-its-kind pan-Asian American grassroots movement to fight for Chol Soo Lee’s freedom, ultimately inspiring a new generation of social justice activists. Revisiting this pivotal yet largely forgotten story, filmmakers Eugene Yi and Julie Ha draw from a rich archive as well as firsthand accounts of those inspired to come to Lee’s defense. But even as Free Chol Soo Lee explores this miscarriage of justice, the film also reveals the man behind the cause, and the complex legacy — and human cost — of becoming the symbol of a movement.
For updates go to: fcsl-film.com
Where to watch go to: /mubi.com/freecholsoolee

One Man Dies a Million Times / Film School Radio interview with Director Jessica Oreck

One Man Dies a Million Times chronicles the story of two young botanists as they fall in love as the world wages war around them. A record-breaking, desperate winter sets in and the city slowly, painfully, begins to starve to death. Savagery transplants civility. Maksim and Alyssa defend the seed bank and its priceless collection of edible specimens from the starving masses of the city, the enemy, hordes of rats, and each other. Alyssa (Alyssa Lozovskaya) and Maksim (Maksim Blinov) both work at the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources in the center of the city. The Institute houses the world's first seed bank—an irreplaceable trove of living genetic diversity which holds the potential both to preserve and transform modern agriculture. Part documentary, part legend, One Man Dies a Million Times is the true story of the seed bank and the botanists who worked there throughout the Siege of Leningrad (1941–1944). Though the characters portrayed in this film actually lived, and the events they experienced actually happened, this is not a reenactment. Director Jessica Oreck (Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo, The Vanquishing of the Witch Baba Yaga) and cinematographer Sean Price Williams (Good Time, Her Smell, Frownland) artfully transplant their narrative from 1940’s Leningrad to a science fiction-inflected modern day.
For updates and screenings go to: myriapodproductions.com/oneman

Medusa / Film School Radio interview with Director Anita Rocha da Silveira

In Director Anita Rocha da Silveira’s provocative new film MEDUSA, Mari and her friends broadcast their spiritual devotion through pastel pinks and catchy evangelical songs about purity and perfection, but underneath it all, they harbor a deep rage. By day they hide behind their manicured facade, and by night they form a masked, vigilante girl gang, prowling the streets in search of sinners who have deviated from the rightful path. After an attack goes wrong, leaving Mari scarred and unemployed, her view of community, religion, and her peers begin to shift. Nightmares of repressed desires and haunting visions of alluring temptation become undeniable and the urge to scream and release her paralyzing inner demons is more powerful than ever before. A neon-tinged genre-bender that gives provocative form to the overwhelming feminine fury coursing through modern life, MEDUSA dares us not to look away. Director Anita Rocha da Silveira stops by to talk about the subversive take on cultural norms and gender conformity as experienced through the prism of regressive religious doctrine, vigilante justice and a corrupt political system.
For updates and screenings go to: musicboxfilms.com/medusa