Filmwax Radio

Ep 501: Bing Liu • Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader & Pierce Rafferty

The director of an exceptionally moving documentary called Minding the Gap, Bing Liu, is up first on Episode 501. The film is opening in NYC on Friday, August 17th at the Metrograph Theater. Three young men bond together to escape volatile families in their Rust Belt hometown. As they face adult responsibilities, unexpected revelations threaten their decade-long friendship. Minding The Gap was made in conjunction with Kartemquin Films. It is being distributed by Hulu and will have its TV broadcast premiere later this year on POV.

The filmmakers behind the seminal and groundbreaking 1982 documentary The Atomic Cafe —Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader & Pierce Rafferty— are in the second segment. The film is currently screening at Film Forum in a new 4k restored digital print. This darkly humorous documentary consists of archival footage about nuclear warfare. Drawing largely on government propaganda and training films for American soldiers, the movie, presented in collage form, features clips from early in the Cold War era that are filled with alarming misinformation. Some segments address the alleged safety of nuclear radiation, “duck and cover” drills and other related topics, including instructions for living in a fallout shelter. The film, which is currently being distributed by Kino Lorber, will be opening wide over the coming days. This segment will be included on the forthcoming DVD as bonus content.

Music on this episode is from upcoming Filmwax guest singer-songwriter Mike Viola from his recent album The American Egypt.

Filmwax Radio is presented by Rooftop Films. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. The podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher & Youtube.

Ep 500: Ramin Bahrani

Filmwax Radio’s 500th Episode welcomes the director Ramin Bahrani. Bahrani has made six feature films including the Neo-realism  inspired Man Push Cart (2005) and Chop Shop (2007). The last of his films directly concerned with immigrants was Goodbye Solo (2008). He moved into more overtly political territory with his next two films: At Any Price (2012) dealt with big agriculture and the influence of biotechnology on modern farming; and then came 99 Homes (2014) which dealt with the mortgage and housing crisis of the past decade. Most recently Bahrani directed a new adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s seminal science fiction novella Fahrenheit 451 for HBO. Most of his films have opened in major world festivals including the Toronto International Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, Berline Film Festival, the Viennale, Sundance and Cannes. He is currently at work writing a new screenplay, an adaptation of Aravind Adiga’s novel The White Tiger. Bahrani also teaches two classes at Columbia University’s film department department.

This episode was gratefully recorded in the offices of Kickstarter in Brooklyn.

Filmwax Radio is presented by Rooftop Films. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. The podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher & Youtube.

Ep 499: Amy Jenkins • Joe Tropea & Robert A. Emmons

[9 mins. 5 secs.] I caught up with Amy Jenkins and her extremely personal non-fiction film, Instructions on Parting, at the Montclair Film Festival this past Spring. Jenkins’ film weaves breathtaking artistic footage with cinema verite to tell an elegiac story about transformation, grief, and the essential nature of the collective human journey. Told in an unconventional visual style, the story evolves from the viewpoint of director Amy Jenkins, whose first child is born while she negotiates the cancer diagnoses and transits toward death of three of her closest family members. By chronicling with her camera to interrogate loss, the filmmaker leads us to a bold and daring acceptance of our inevitable end. The film is still in the festival circuit and we’ll keep listeners updated as it makes its way to you.

[34 mins. 30 secs.] Then, filmmaker Joe Tropea and editor Robert A. Emmons with their documentary Sickies Making Films. A love letter to the movies, the film looks at our urge to censor films and asks why? We find reasons both absurd and surprisingly understandable. Using the Maryland Board of Censors (1916-1981) as a lens, as well as archival materials, classic film segments, and interviews with filmmakers and exhibitors who were subjected to censorship, this documentary examines the recurring problem of censorship in America. Sickies Making Movies will screen at the Sidewalk Film Festival later this month.

The music on this episode is presented by The Jayhawks off their new album Back Roads and Abandoned Motels, available now for download and physical media.

Filmwax Radio is presented by Rooftop Films. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. The podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher & Youtube.

Ep 498: Mike Maggiore • Dan Mirvish • Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui & Pamela Keogh

[3 mins. 55 secs.] A brief call from Film Forum programmer Mike Maggiore regarding the current renovations and addition of a 4th screening room at the esteemed NYC arthouse cinema, Film Forum. The cinema will re-open on Wednesday, August 1st, after being closed for three months. Mike fills us in on upcoming programming which includes a Jacques Becker retrospective, a theatrical of a new 4k restored print of the classic documentary Atomic Cafe, and Nico, 1988.

[18 mins. 40 secs.] This segments celebrates a terrific new documentary, McQueen, about the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen, who started his career in his teens before gaining notice as designer for Givenchy and launching his own label, which continues to this day. He took his own life in 2010. We’re joined by the film’s director Ian Bonhôte, co-director & writer Peter Ettedgui, and my friend author, fashion writer & contributor to Vanity Fair, Pamela Keogh. McQueen which is being distributed by Bleecker Street Media, is currently screening at the Landmark at West 57th and at the Angelika Film Center NYC, at the Arclight in Hollywood and at the Landmark in LA. The film opens in San Francisco this Friday, July 27th, and in Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Minneapolis on August 3rd.

[45 mins. 38 secs.] Slamdance co-founder & filmmaker Dan Mirvish is in this segment. We discuss the upcoming 25th Slamdance Film Festival as well as new comedy Dan recently directed, from a script by Pulitzer Prize-winning author & cartoonist Jules Feiffer called Bernard and Huey. The story about two old friends (David Koechner & Jim Rash) who reconnect after 30 years apart, and the women who complicate their lives. The film also stars Richard Kind, Sasha Alexander & Mae Whitman, and is available on various VOD platforms including iTunes and Amazon.

The music on this episode is presented by The Jayhawks off their new album Back Roads and Abandoned Motels, available now for download and physical media.

Filmwax Radio is presented by Rooftop Films. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. The podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher & Youtube.

Ep 497: Legendary Cinematographer Ed Lachman

[4 mins. 19 secs.] Finally, the legendary cinematographer Ed Lachman does the Filmwax Radio podcast. Ed has shot too many films to mention so other than The Lords of Flatbush and Desperately Seeking Susan, let’s stick to the results of his collaborations. He shot several films with Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl including the Paradise Trilogy and Import Export. He shot all of Todd Haynes films since Far From Heaven which includes I’m Not Here and Carol. He show two movies with Todd Solondz including Life During Wartime and Weiner-Dog. Oh yeah, he also shot Robert Altman’s last movie, A Prairie Companion. Myriad others. Lovely man.

Filmwax Radio is presented by Rooftop Films. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. The podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher & Youtube.

Ep 496: Milford Graves & Jake Meginsky • Paul Rutan, Jr.

[6 mins. 51 secs.] A new documentary called Milford Graves Full Mantis directed by Jake Meginsky is currently screening at the Metrograph in New York City. The film is a portrait of renowned percussionist Milford Graves, exploring his kaleidoscopic creative process and relentless curiosity. We have both Graves and Meginsky on the podcast. Please check out the schedule and see this exceptional documentary. The film will open theatrically on the West Coast on July 27th.

[35 mins. 50 secs.] Then Paul Rutan, Jr. who has been restoring hundreds of films for many years, including all of the The Beatles films, discusses the 4k restoration for the 50th Anniversary re-release of Yellow Submarine. This is currently screening at the IFC Center and many other theaters around the country. Check the website for screenings and other details.

Filmwax Radio is presented by Rooftop Films. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. The podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher & Youtube.

Ep 495: Gus Van Sant • Bo Burnham & Josh Hamilton

[11 mins.] The great filmmaker Gus Van Sant (To Die For, Milk) visits Filmwax Radio (for the first time) to discuss his exceptionally moving new movie, based on John Callahan’s memoir Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot. After nearly dying in a car accident, the last thing Oregon slacker John Callahan (Joachin Phoenix) intends […]

Ep 493: Andrew Fleming • Harris Doran, Auden Thornton & Catherine Curtin

[2 mins. 55 secs.]  In the first segment, a conversation with the director Andrew Fleming (Dick, Hamlet 2). Andrew has a new comedy called Ideal Home which stars Steve Coogan and Paul Rudd. Paul (Rudd) and Erasmus (Coogan) are a bickering couple with an extravagant life. But when Bill, the grandson Erasmus never knew he had, shows up at their dinner party with nowhere else to go, the couple reluctantly decide to take him in. Despite the difficulties of incorporating a child into their lives, Bill grows on them. But when Bill’s father is released from prison and comes to take back his son, the men realize that you don’t fight with your family, you fight for them. Ideal Home opens tomorrow, Friday, June 29th in New York City at the Cinema Village, and on iTunes and on demand.

[24 mins. 6 secs.] Then, recorded from the 2018 Woodstock Film Festival, a conversation with the team behind a new dramatic film called Beauty Mark, including director Harris Doran and actors Auden Thornton and Catherine Curtin (Orange is the New Black). When an impoverished young mother (Thornton) and her toddler are evicted, she is forced to turn to the only one she knows who has any money, the man who abused her as a child. Beauty Mark is being distributed by The Orchard and is available for streaming on iTunes, youtube, Amazon Prime and elsewhere.

Filmwax Radio is presented by Rooftop Films. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. The podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher & Youtube.

Ep 492: Debra Granik • Eugene Jarecki

[4 mins. 30 secs.] Debra Granik (Winter’s Bone, Stray Dog) makes her first appearance on the podcast. Debra has a new film which opens on Friday, June 29th, called Leave No Trace. The film is about a father (Ben Foster) and daughter (Thomasin McKenzie) who live a perfect but mysterious existence in Forest Park, a beautiful nature reserve near Portland, Ore., rarely making contact with the world. But when a small mistake tips them off to authorities, they are sent on an increasingly erratic journey in search of a place to call their own. Leave No Trace is being distributed by Bleecker Street.

[37 mins. 13 secs.] Then documentary filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight, The House I Live in) makes his first appearance on the podcast to discuss his new film, The King, which opened in New York City this past Friday to rave reviews. With this film, Jarecki takes a musical road trip across the U.S. in Elvis Presley’s 1963 Rolls Royce during the 2016 presidential election, comparing Elvis’s transition from country boy to “The King” to America’s transformation into an empire. The King, which is being distributed by Oscilloscope, opens this Friday, June 29th at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles, then it will go wide after that.

Filmwax Radio is presented by Rooftop Films. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. The podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher & Youtube.

Ep 491: The Return of the Zellner Brothers • Tara Culp

The Zellner Brothers were last on Episode 279 discussing their film Kumiko: The Treasure Hunter. They’re back on this episode with a brand new feature film called Damsel which had its premiere this year at the Sundance Film Festival. Samuel Alabaster (Robert Pattinson), an affluent pioneer, ventures across the American frontier to marry the love of his life, Penelope (Mia Wasikowska). As his group traverses the west, the once-simple journey grows treacherous, blurring the lines between hero, villain and damsel. Both David and Nathan Zellner also appear in memorable roles. The film, distributed by Magnolia Pictures, opens Friday, June 22nd.

Then actor, producer and former assistant to Brand De Palma, Tara Culp appears in the second segment. Tara stars in a short film called The Audition which is currently in the festival circuit.

Filmwax Radio is presented by Rooftop Films. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. The podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher & Youtube.

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