KUCI: Film School

Mind Over Murder / Film School Radio interview with Director Nanfu Wang

The HBO Original six-part documentary series Mind Over Murder, directed by Nanfu Wang and produced by Vox Media Studios chronicles the bizarre and psychologically complex story of six individuals who were convicted for the 1985 murder of a beloved 68- year-old grandmother, Helen Wilson, in Beatrice, Nebraska. Despite five of the individuals originally confessing to the crime, the “Beatrice Six” as they became known, were exonerated by DNA evidence in 2009, a turn of events which divided the rural town and incensed the family of Helen Wilson. As the filmmakers track the case from the murder, through investigation, trial, exoneration and two civil suits, shifting perspectives cloud the truth; a stranger-than-fiction tale emerges that raises salient questions about the reliability of confessions and memory in criminal cases. Director Nanfu Wang (Hooligan Sparrow, One Child Nation, In the Same Breath) joins us for a conversation on her own journey to gain the confidence of a community convinced they already knew the truth, uncovering the venality of local government officials, and her ideas about how storytelling can be a way to break through to people traumatized by violence and misinformation.
For updates and screenings go to: hbo.com/mind-over-murder

Civil: Ben Crump / Film School Radio interview with Director Nadia Haligren

From Emmy-nominated Director Nadia Hallgren and producers Kenya Barris & Roger Ross Williams comes the NETFLIX documentary CIVIL/BEN CRUMP. CIVIL is an intimate vérité look at the life of maverick civil rights attorney Ben Crump and his mission to raise the value of Black life in America. CIVIL follows a year in the life of Crump as takes on the civil cases for the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Black farmers, and "Banking while Black" victims, in doing so challenging America to come to terms with what it owes his clients. Peeling back the many layers of Crump, Hallgren gives a behind-the-scenes look at his upbringing and his balance of work and family life. CIVIL also underscores other countless issues Crump is passionate about including environmental justice and banking while Black. Director / Cinematographer Nadia Hallgren joins us for a conversation on the profoundly significant role that Ben Crump has taken on, symbolically and practically for the African American community. Hallgren’s multi-layered approach to storytelling provides the viewer with a window into Mr. Crump’s world of rampant state sanctioned carnage, grief counseling and legal triage.
To watch go to: netflix.com/CIVIL
CIVIL is produced by Kenya Barris, Roger Ross Williams, Lauren Cioffi and Nadia Hallgren and executive produced by Erynn Sampson, Matthew Carnahan and Geoff Martz.

After Sherman / Film School Radio interview with Director Jon-Sesrie Goff

Beautifully layered and expressionistic, AFTER SHERMAN is a story about inheritance and the tension that defines our collective American history, especially Black history. Director Jon Sesrie Goff follows his father, a minister, in the aftermath of a mass shooting at his church in Charleston, South Carolina to understand how communities of descendants of enslaved Africans use their unique faith as a form of survival as they continue to fight for America to live up to its many unfulfilled promises to Black Americans. Goff’s feature documentary debut, lays out intimate accounts of the lives of the Black community in the filmmaker's Black Belt hometown, on land that has been in his family for 150 years, where they were once enslaved. Now transformed, primarily on the backs and resourcefulness of Black people, and thriving as a wedding destination, it stands as a reminder of the painful, cross-generational consequences of racism, and a validation of life's beauty. Pure cinematic poetry informed by a history still to be conclusively reckoned with, AFTER SHERMAN foregrounds the Southern Black experience while posing complicated questions about home and ownership that it isn't so presumptuous to believe it can readily answer. Director Jon Sesrie Goff joins us for a conversation on the many ways that our country’s hidden history, bigoted culture, blinding greed, deceitful religious leadership and cynically racist political system has failed an astonishingly resilient people.
For news and updates go to: aftersherman.com

End of the Line / Film School Radio interview with Director Emmett Adler

Award-winning filmmaker Emmett Adler's feature documentary END OF THE LINE is a character-driven political drama about the New York City subway crisis and a long overdue reckoning on infrastructure. Establishing the vital economic importance and grandeur of New York City’s historic subway system, the film dives into its dire modern-day troubles picking up in the late 2010s when flooding, overcrowding, power failures, and derailments have become commonplace. After a particularly bad spate of disasters in the summer of 2017, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo proclaims a state of emergency and hires a new international wunderkind executive named Andy Byford to save the subways. Byford, an earnest Briton with an impressive resume, enters as a charismatic would-be hero. As the political turmoil behind the subway’s decline comes into sharp focus, scenes in barbershops, bodegas, and bakeries show the frustration and devastation among business owners and residents who are caught in the middle.  Director Emmett Adler seamlessly captures the hurly-burly of New York - State and City - politics, the daily miracle of moving nine million people across the five NYC burroughs, the immensity of the challenges facing anyone willing and able to “fix” the MTA and clashing politicos, bureaucrats and transportation engineers who all think they know what’s best.
For updates and screenings go to: endofthelinedoc.com

Kaepernick & America / Film School Radio interview with Co-directors Tommy Walker and Ross Hockrow

Tommy Walker and Ross Hockrow’s documentary short KAEPERNICK & AMERICA takes us back to the summer of 2016, an election year with unrest rumbling through America. There were countless triggers – the murder videos of Philando Castille and Alton Sterling, the counterpunch of Alt-Right and Fake News, Black Lives Matter, Russian meddling – a discordant national cauldron ready to boil over. It was the birth of Trumpism, but no knew it yet. Then, Colin Kaepernick took a knee and America lost its mind. Kaep’s knee touched down on the divide between America’s Black and white tectonic plates, creating an earthquake in the eternal race debate. The aftershocks of his singular gesture have already rippled through our country for years. Kaepernick himself answered any and all thoughtful questions for a time, then stopped talking. And the resulting quiet has allowed for a thoughtful examination of the man and his story. It reveals layer upon layer of surprises and contradictions.  Raised in a white family, he became a Black quarterback, while in fact, he is an adopted, biracial man. Co-directors Tommy Walker and Ross Hockrow join us to talk about their deep dive into the story behind the headlines and in doing so provide us with insight into how and why this inherently shy young man became the center of attention still dealing with the scourge of racism in America.
For updates and screenings go to: tribecafilm.com/kaepernick-america

Brian and Charles / Film School radio interview with Director Jim Archer

BRIAN AND CHARLES follows Brian, a lonely inventor in rural Wales, who spends his days building quirky, unconventional contraptions that seldom work. Undeterred by his lack of success, Brian decides to build a robot for company. ‘Charles’ is not only Brian’s most successful invention, but he appears to have a personality all of his own and quickly becomes Brian’s best friend, curing his loneliness and opening Brian’s eyes to a new way of living. However, Charles creates more problems than Brian bargained for, and the timid inventor has to face-up to several issues in his life; his eccentric ways, a local bully, and the woman he’s always been fond of but never had the nerve to talk to. BRIAN & CHARLES is a feel-good comedy about friendship, love, and letting go. And a 7ft tall robot that eats cabbages. Director Jim Archer joins us for a conversation on how the project came into his life, finding the right location for evoking the off-kilter ambiance of the story and capturing the mixture of quirky, funny and endearing that has allowed BRIAN AND CHARLES take hold of audiences everywhere it has been screened.
For news and screenings go to: focusfeatures.com/brian-and-charles

Bitterbrush /Film School Radio interview with Director Emelie Mahdavian

Emelie Mahdavian’s sweeping documentary BITTERBRUSH follows Hollyn Patterson and Colie Moline, range riders who are spending their last summer herding cattle in remote Idaho. Totally off the grid with only their dogs as companions, Hollyn and Colie brave inclement weather and perilous work conditions while pondering their futures. A portrait of friendship, life transitions, and the work of two skilled young women in the isolated and beautiful landscape of the American West, BITTERBRUSH is an intimate portrayal of a way of life rarely seen on film that takes us beyond the “oh look” stereotypes of women’s work and celebrates the excellence of their skill and expanding capacity to adapt. Director Emelie Mahdavian joins us to talk about the logistical challenges of capturing the stunningly beautiful and rugged terrain that Hollyn and Colie have to navigate, conveying the tension that comes from doing what you love in a potentially very dangerous “workplace” while highlighting the friendship and teamwork that is at the heart of this enthralling journey.
For updates and screenings go to: magpictures.com/bitterbrush
Watch at home: magpictures.com/bitterbrush

Neptune Frost / FIlm School Radio interview with Co-directors Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman

NEPTUNE FROST is a multi-hyphenate, multidisciplinary from the hearts and minds of artists Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman. They bring their unique dynamism to this Afrofuturist vision, a sci-fi punk musical that’s a visually wondrous amalgamation of themes, ideas, and songs that Williams has explored in his work, notably his 2016 album MartyrLoserKing. Co-directed with his partner, the Rwandan-born artist and cinematographer Uzeyman, NEPTUNE FROST takes place in the hilltops of Burundi, where a group of escaped coltan miners form an anti-colonialist computer hacker collective. From their camp in an otherworldly e-waste dump, they attempt a takeover of the authoritarian regime exploiting the region's natural resources – and its people. When an intersex runaway and an escaped coltan miner find each other through cosmic forces, their connection sparks glitches within the greater divine circuitry. Set between states of being – past and present, dream and waking life, colonized and free, male and female, memory and prescience,  Neptune Frost co-directors Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman bring an invigorating and empowering direct download to the cerebral cortex and a call to reclaim technology for progressive political ends.
For updates and screenings go to: kinolorber.com/NeptuneFrost

Miracle (Miracol) / Film School Radio interview with Director Bogdan George Apreti

Divided into two chapters, director Bogdan George Apetri's MIRACLE begins with the young, beautiful Cristina Tofan (Ioana Bugarin) sneaking away from an isolated convent. Working in the style of the Romanian New Wave, Apetri withholds key information about her motives as we follow her enigmatic journey, allowing tension to steadily build to a wavering precipice. The film's second part follows Marius Preda (Emanuel Pârvu), a determined inspector retracing Cristina's steps days after her departure. Here, the narrative opens into both gripping police thriller and devastating social commentary, as Marius gradually uncovers clues and revelations leading not only to the unfathomable truth behind Cristina’s mysterious actions, but possibly, to an actual miracle as well. Director / writer Bogdan George Apetri joins us for a conversation on the multi-part story, of which Miracle is one part, that he is in the process of telling, the decision to lean into long tracking shots, recruiting a superb cast of actors into Miracle and Unidentified and his love of cinema.
For updates and screenings go to: filmmovement.com/miracle

Stranger at the Gate / Film School Radio interview with Director Joshua Seftel

Stranger at the Gate - Director Joshua Seftel
Joshua Seftel’s documentary short, STRANGER AT THE GATE, tells the story of U.S. Marine Richard Mac McKinney after returning home to Indiana, after 25 years of service, filled with an all-consuming rage toward the people he had been fighting against. Still fueled by his desire to fight for his country, he plans to bomb the local mosque. But when he comes face to face with the community of Afghan refugees and others of Muslim faith that he seeks to kill, his plan takes an unexpected turn. Director Joshua Seftel (Lost and Found, This American Life) joins us for a conversation on his pursuit of the people who opened their hearts to a man determined to carry out a heinous act, and came to find out that sharing their common humanity would prove to be the greatest gift that they could give to one another.
For news and screenings go to: strangeratthegate.com