KUCI: Film School

If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis / FIlm School Radio interview with Director Ramin Bahrani

Rural hospitals around America are closing at alarming rates, leaving communities without care. Since 2005 more than 190 rural community hospitals, mostly in the South, have closed. In this documentary If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis Oscar-and Emmy-nominated director Ramin Bahrani visits Appalachia, where American communities are left with limited or no access to healthcare. Explore the rural healthcare crisis in the South through the eyes of those struggling in it and the dedicated doctors trying to reach them. If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare highlight the challenges faced by Rural American communities today intimately through the lens of individuals, families, and tight-knit towns, underscoring the urgent need for systemic change in the national healthcare, climate and mental health systems. If Dreams Were Lightning: Rural Healthcare Crisis capped off the 2023 Winter Season for INDEPENDENT LENS, the award-winning PBS documentary anthology series presented by ITVS. Director Ramin Bahrani (Chop Shop, 99 Homes) joins us for a conversation on the existential and personal inspiration for the film, traveling around Appalachia in the Health Wagon with Dr. Teresa Tyson and Dr. Paula Hill-Collins and how the heartbreaking stories told by the people living without access to affordable healthcare has impacted his life.
For more go to: pbs.org/if-dreams-were-lightning
Support affordable healthcare @thehealthwagon.org

PBS FRONTLINE / Film School Radio interview with Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath

For over 50 year’s PBS’ FRONTLINE has been the standard by which all other long form broadcast journalism is measured.  Under the leadership of Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath FRONTLINE has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including Peabody Awards, Emmy Awards, and, in 2019, the first Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Gold Baton to be awarded in a decade. FRONTLINE’s reporting has been recognized with myriad journalism honors including Overseas Press Club Awards, Scripps Howard Awards, the Nieman Foundation’s Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism and the Peabody Institutional Award. Aronson-Rath has led an ongoing charge for transparency in journalism — including through the FRONTLINE Transparency Project, an effort to open up the source material behind FRONTLINE’s reporting. She served as the sole public media representative on the Knight Commission on Trust, Media, and Democracy. In addition to increasing FRONTLINE’s digital footprint, Aronson-Rath has  spearheaded FRONTLINE’s expansion into the theatrical documentary space. During her tenure, the series won an Academy Award® for 20 Days in Mariupol (2024), and received Academy Award® nominations for Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (2018), For Sama (2020). In 2021, Aronson-Rath became a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Raney Aronson-Rath joins us to talk about the surpassing importance of reliable and accurate reporting in service to a functioning democracy.
For more go to: pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentaries
Watch 2024 Oscar Doc winner at: frontline/20-days-in-Mariupol

Against All Enemies / Film School Radio interview with Director Charlie Sadoff

Why would US military veterans take up arms against the country they swore an oath to protect? Through gripping personal perspectives from all sides of this ongoing crisis, Charlie Sadoff’s AGAINST ALL ENEMIES goes deep inside the violent extremist movement in America, alongside the Proud Boys, 3 Percenters, and with never-before-seen footage of the Oath Keepers. These groups, organized and led by highly trained military veterans, pose one of the greatest threats to the United States today. While most veterans are successful in their transition to civilian life, an increasingly radicalized element is drawn to the insurrectionist movement. We saw evidence of this during the January 6 Capitol riots, but the danger goes far beyond a single day. AGAINST ALL ENEMIES explores the historical roots of the insurrectionist cause, its powerful draw for today’s veterans, and the top-cover being provided by highly decorated former military officers and political leaders. AGAINST ALL ENEMIES is both a warning about an existential threat to our democracy, and a beacon for those hoping to combat it. Director Charlie Sadoff joins us for a conversation on why he and his production team of Kenneth Harbaugh, Dan Barkuff and Sebastian Junger decided to pull back the curtain on the extremist who have taken over much of the Republican Party, and the movements foot soldiers like Michael Flynn, Eric “General E” Braden, Stewart Rhodes, and disgraced former President Donald Trump hell bent to shatter the ideals and functionality of America’s greatest treasure, democracy.
For more go to: againstallenemiesfilm.com

Commuted / Film School Radio interview with Director Nailah Jefferson

In 1993, Danielle Metz, a 26-year-old mother of two young children, was labeled a drug kingpin by the U.S. Government as a part of her husband’s drug ring. Sentenced to a triple life plus 20 years for nonviolent drug offenses, she was sent to Dublin Federal Correctional Institute in California, more than two thousand miles from her family in New Orleans. In 2016, after having served 23 years in prison, Metz's sentence was commuted by the President Barack Obama Administration's Clemency Initiative to address historically unfair sentencing practices during the “War on Drugs” campaign. Now back home, she is stepping into a different reality - starting life again while helping other women avoid a similar fate. COMMUTED traces Metz's journey in confronting the wounds of incarceration that linger long after parole, and to finding purpose, love and unification with her two grown children. Director Nailah Jefferson joins us to talk about how she learned about Danielle and her plight, some of the issues and hurdles that Danielle has faced and where are we, as a nation, in bringing about a more equitable system of justice to all Americans.
A CO-PRESENTATION OF AFROPOP AND AMERICA REFRAMED.
PREMIERING MONDAY, APRIL 1 at 8/7c
STREAMING APRIL 1 on YouTube and the PBS app
A Co-presentation of AfroPop and America Reframed premiering Monday April 1 at 8 PM. Streaming on April 1 on YouTube and the PBS app

The Tuba Thieves / FIlm School Radio interview with Director Alison O’Daniel

Alison O’Daniel’s powerful feature THE TUBA THIEVES re-examines a tuba-stealing crime spree that took place between 2011 and 2013 and the ramifications it had on students, marching bands and the high schools from which they were stolen. The Tuba Thieves starts from these questions. It is a film about listening, but it is not tethered to the ear. It is a film about Deaf gain, hearing loss and the perception of sound in Los Angeles - by animals, plants and humans. The human protagonist of the film is Nyke Prince, a Deaf woman whose story runs parallel to Geovanny Marroquin's. Geovanny was the drum major at Centennial HS when their tubas were stolen. Their stories are connected by the omnipresence of noise pollution - helicopters, airplanes, leaf blowers, car traffic. The audience is the third protagonist - their experience making sense of the film is the film. The Tuba Thieves reverses the standard process of filmmaking so that listening and lived experiences of hearing shape the method of filmmaking. Director, screenwriter, co-producer, co-editor and co-sound designer Anita O’Daniel joins us to talk about her own experiences living on the d/Deaf spectrum, why she decided to make a film called The Tuba Thieves that did not focus on the thieves, but instead focused on the sonic experience of living and listening in Los Angeles and exploring the idea of ownership over space and air, and how sound travels.
For more go to: thetubathieves.com
Watch in a theatre: thetubathieves.com/screenings
For more about ASL & Deaf identity go to: nad.org

Much Ado About Dying / Film School Radio interview with Director Simon Chambers

MUCH ADO ABOUT DYING begins when the filmmaker Simon Chambers receives a call from his elderly gay uncle, David Newlyn Gale, – “I think I may be dying!” – Simon takes it as a summons. As it turns out, eccentric Uncle David, a retired actor living alone in a cluttered, mouse-infested London house, is being dramatic, sort of: For the next five years, Chambers both cares for and documents David, through all his performative exuberance (constantly acting out passages of King Lear) and anarchic charisma (swinging from boisterous humor to short temper), as various people (including a sexy young hustler) possibly take advantage of him. As their lives become encumbered by hospital visits, a house fire, and Britain's inadequate eldercare system, the younger man (also single and queer) reflects with aching honesty on what may await him in the years to come, in this moving yet hilarious film. Director Simon Chambers for a conversation on the reasons he didn’t think he had a film about his uncle until he realized that he did, the push and pull that was his own life in service to David, saving him from himself and the pure joy that made being with David brought until the very end.
For more go to: Much Ado About Dying at firstrunfeatures.com
Much Ado About Dying opens in NYC at Film Forum on March 15.
Director Simon Chambers and producer David Rane will appear in person at the Monica Film Center for select opening weekend screenings of MUCH ADO ABOUT DYING beginning Friday, March 22. 

Limbo / Film School Radio interview with Director Ivan Sen

Ivan Sen’s latest film zeroes in on a jaded police detective Travis (Simon Baker) as he arrives in the remote Australian Outback town of Limbo to investigate the cold case murder of a local Indigenous girl 20 years ago. As truths about the crime begin to unfold, Travis gains new insight into the unsolved case from the victim’s fractured family, the surviving witnesses, and the reclusive brother of the chief suspect. Shot in starkly beautiful black and white, Limbo is a penetrating modern noir and a poignant, intimate journey into the complexities of loss. Writer-director Ivan Sen, one of Australia’s foremost Indigenous filmmakers, deftly wields the police procedural to chart the impact of the justice system on Indigenous families in Australia. Director Ivan Sen (Beneath The Clouds, Yellow Fella) joins us to talk about the inspiration his black and white, slow burn noir story, bringing Simon Baker on to the project as his lead actor and executive producer, and the importance of making the judicial, political and social disparity between the Indigenous peoples and the non-Indigenous colonizers the centerpiece of this starkly spectacular film.
For more go to: musicboxfilms.com/film/limbo
To watch go to: musicboxfilms.com/limbo

Unfriending / Film School Radio interview with Co-directors Jason & Brett Butler

UNFRIENDING is a dark comedy of manners about a group of friends that includes Blake and his girlfriend, May. The dinner party is the cover story for a 'life intervention' that focuses on the outcast of the group, Isaac, where the friend group tells him all the reasons he has become a burden to them and society in general, and that he should really just kill himself already. This off-kilter comedy is brought to life by a talented cast that includes Sean Meldrum, Simone Jetsun, Michael Pearson, Jenna Vittoria, Rachelle Lauzon, Honor Spencer, Golden Madison, and Alex Stone. After years of turning the Canadian film scene on its head with their fiercely independent, trend-bucking works, Toronto's dynamic duo, The Butler Brothers (Jason & Brett), join us to talk what inspired this dark comedy, their first US theatrical release in Unfriending, and working together for the last 20 years writing, directing, producing and editing.
 For more go to: subprod.com/films

You’ll Never Find Me / Film School Radio interview with Co-directors Josiah Allen & Indianna Bell

Indianna Bell and Josiah Allen’s feature film debut, YOU’LL NEVER FIND ME, drops us in the midst of a violent thunderstorm, where a soaking wet and seemingly shaken to her core, a young woman (Jordan Cowan), knocks at a stranger’s door in an RV park looking for shelter and comfort. Patrick (Brendan Rock), is a strange and lonely resident, lives in one of the mobile homes. At first glance, she finds help in the care and concern shown to her. But soon, that care transforms into curiosity and paranoia. And in this small RV, shaking from the raging rain and wind outside, paranoia spreads like wildfire. Both parties question the motives and desires of the other. As uncertainty and nervousness heat up and questions come thick and fast, things turn dangerous for the duo. Perceptions of what’s real and what’s not come into play, and all roads lead us to a deadly and bizarre showdown. Co-directors and co-writers Josiah Allen & Indianna Bell stop by to talk about their feature film debut, their choice once again cast Jordan Cowan and Brendan Rock as the leads, shooting the entire film in very tight quarters, the amazing sound design and how much they like exploring the cinema of horror to tell this story.
To watch go to: shudder.com
For more go to: stakeoutfilms.com/ynfm

How to Build a Truth Engine / Film School Radio interview with Director Friedrich Moser

Friedrich Moser’s frightening and surprisingly hopeful documentary, HOW TO BUILD A TRUTH ENGINE, about the pervasive influence of disinformation and conspiracy theories that have reached a level unwitnessed since the turmoil of the 1930s. HOW TO BUILD A TRUTH ENGINE portrays a crack-team of investigators from the fields of technology, journalism, folklore and neuroscience who show that if you hack the information feed, you can hack somebody’s mind. Following their personal journeys they take us from the information battlefields into the inner workings of the human brain and show how, through us, a web of lies can change reality. Director / Producer / Screenwriter / Cinematographer Friedrich Moser joins us for a conversation on how his previous documentary, A Good American, provided him with an understanding of cyber tactics and cyber warfare will look in the not so distant future and how we can better arm ourselves against it.
For more about Friedrich Moser go to: blueandgreen.info
2024 SXSW screenings for How to Build a Truth Engine