Techno Music came from Detroit Michigan. The Motor City gave the world another sound from its streets in 1979.
Check out the Chat Cinema Podcast episode with filmmaker Kristian R. Hill. The documentary storyteller gives the backstory of his work and the history of the sound.
GOD SAID GIVE EM DRUM MACHINES was screened at the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival.
This episode of Chat Cinema talks to award-winning director Murad Abu Eisheh about his work, TALAVISION. A short film centered on lost childhood innocence during the Syrian conflict.
The episode of Chat Cinema talks to Bay Area filmmaker Erica Eng about her new short film AMERICANIZED.
Americanized was screened at the Bentonville Film Festival.
Running time: 17 minutes.
Reading the headline about the Ryanair flight intercepted to Belarus, a story straight from a Cold War novel, suddenly the world was back in an East versus West game of high stakes chest. President Alexander Lukashenko has been in power for almost 3 decades with no signs of exiting the stage. After the the 2020 election demonstrators took to the street demanding accountability and change.
While interviewing Director Aliaksei Paluyan about his film COURAGE,a documentary on thethe current Belarus political sitaution, he said something that hit me, “Minsk is equal flying distance from Berlin as Paris.”
The exclusive interview with Aliaksei.
After the Roman Protasevich hijacking, do you feel safe?
It would be a lie If I said I feel safe, There is a feeling of fear by all of Lukashenko’s critics. I think more about safety.
I’ve not lost control, but I have held to my goal of telling the truth.
Were you expecting a “Ceausecu Moment” during the demonstrations?
Yes. No one wanted violence. If there is a civil war, the protesters don’t have guns. This is a movement of moral choice. Our choices were taken away from us. The country does not want to be a geopolitical chess piece between the east and the west. Belarus’s destiny must be decided by us not in foreign capitals.
There is a wrenching scene, standing outside the prison, is this a tradition in Belarus?
There are 350.000 detainees in the country. Not a tradition! A tragedy! This was the hardest scene to shoot. How to understand the emotion? Women reading a list of the disappeared. The nightmare of waiting for loved ones outside a prison, while inside, people are tortured. The crowd applauses when detainees are released.
You can see sense of loss in the guard’s eyes, especially the young ones. People on both sides are broken.
When Dzianis speaks about being abused in prison in the 90’s. It left me in doubt concerning hope. Oppression has been handed down, is this right?
It was important to bring this fact to the audience. Lukashenko has been power since 1994. I used archival footage to show how long this has been going on. He is not a dictator, he is a tyrant abusing his own country, declaring war on his people. Many turned a blind’s eye what was happening.
Are you political?
I can’t say I’m political. It is impossible not say anything cause the of critical situation. The trauma is huge.
The wife, Maryna, was the most pragmatic of the characters. She says, “What’s Next?”
She’s a mother.
What about the play and the actors, what happened?
All the performers were detained for a while. They knew the possible consequences. That is the courage. Keep fighting, overcoming the fear and hopeless.
Pavel left for Kiev. The Director of Photography is still in Belarus. After the Ryanair event, Myrna left on the last flight out. Denis was blackballed. He can not work anywhere.
Courage was screened in May with English subtitles
Running Time: 90 minutes
Filmmaker Alton Glass could have gone the easy way to make his film POV:Points of View, but decided to push filmmaking technology to a new realm. For some, the future will have the same choices as the present and past.
The interview with Mr. Glass.
Are you a futurist/technologist?
I enjoy both but I’m just a Storyteller using technology to prototype and reimagine the future.
You used state of the art cinema technology to tell an all too familiar story, is this irony?
Yes irony on many levels. I’ve learned narratives and algorithms are essentially the same thing. The impact and evolution of both can be beneficial or detrimental in many ways.
In your vision of the future, should citizens be concerned about the state?
Citizens should be aware and examine what’s happening with the state so you have agency at all levels where your civil liberties can be impacted.
What attracted to you filmmaking? Was there a particular film or director?
Robert Townsend and Michael Shultz who made Five Heart Beats and The Last Dragon. I fell in love with how they captured characters and their journey of growth. I love discovering the hidden gifts that we often don’t know was inside us all this time when you thought you were not enough no matter what time in your life. We create reality and I enjoy seeing those ups and downs as that power unfolds on screen or in any medium.
How will VR influence filmmaking?
I’ve heard the term Story living by Vicki Dobbs Beck at ILM and I think there’s a convergence of the two worlds of traditional filmmaking and immersive technology that will evolve into something special. I’m still learning so the influence and reward I see now is challenging storytellers to think outside the frame and understand the richness of a multi dimensional world. VR takes you from filmmaking to literally world building.
It might not be my generation who brings VR to it’s fullest potential but I’m happy to plant the seed and see where diverse voices will take immersive storytelling in the years to come.
POV:Points of View screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. Running Time: 16 Minutes
For this Chat Cinema Podcast the interview centres on Shooting Star pick Actress Seidi Haarla. The Finnish native has an impressive resume with a career that is about to take off.
What happens when three by chance meetings turn into moments of self realisation? Japanese director and writer Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy provides clues, but no answers.
The triptych film centres on emotions lost and rediscovered over the years bringing along with it consequences of past decisions. Life is based on decisions.
The second story, Door Wide Open, in my opinion the strongest of the three, concerns a plot of revenge and humans abilities to injure ourselves actively and passively. Actor Kiyohiko Shibukawa’s melancholic performance as an acclaimed university professor stands out. His character’s incapability of escaping from an emotional box was memorable.
Magic, the first story, concerns intertwined relationships and outcomes.
The last of the trio, Once Again, is about reconnecting, longing, then rationalisation.
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy runs for 121 minutes.
4 Stars out of 5.
Neopa Inc and Fictive LLC.
This year I rejoined the press junket for the European Film Promotion’s European Shooting Stars Program, virtual of course. The initiative serves as a platform to promote and showcase European Talent on the global stage. Since 1998 many famous faces have passed through the door moving on to becoming recognized performers in the entertainment industry. Daniel Craig, Carey Mulligan, Michaela Coel and 1917 star George McCay are a few examples of the talents who leaped to fame after their EFP debuts.
This year casting directors and filmmakers chose 10 European talents:
Abrecht Stork from Germany, Fionn O’Shea from Ireland, Natasa Stork from Hungary, Nicolas Maury from France, Alba Baptista from Portugal and Sara Klimoska from North Macedonia and Gustav Lindh from Sweden.
For 2021 I interviewed Martijn Lakemeier from The Netherlands, Seidi Haarla from Finland and Zygimante Elena Jakstaite of Lithuania. Normally there is face to face time but for 2021, we had one on one Zoom conferences. Hopefully, in June the live ceremony will take place in Berlin. I have my fingers crossed.
It is always inspiring to be one of the first to interview a raising media figure. I like saying “I interviewed him or her when they started”.
Congratulations to all the winners. Well deserved. I look forward to seeing them on the screen.
Stay tuned for the one on one interviews on the Chat Cinema Podcasts.
From International Film Festival Rotterdam, an interview with film director Yoshida Kota. His film Sexual Drive dives into 3 episodes of cuisine eroticism.
Click below to watch the latest Chat Cinema podcast.
The latest move by Warner Bros to release its entire slate on HBO Max sent shock waves through the film business. From Christopher Nolan to Steven Soderbergh weighed in on the move and consequences. For the second time on the subject of steaming, Chat Cinema discusses the fall out and shock. Should cinema goers start worrying about the future of theatres? Or is this a blimp in a strange year? Click down below to watch the entire episode.