Woodstock Film Festival

[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.

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[7 mins.] The Celeste Bartos Chief Curator of Film at the Museum of Modern Art, Raj Roy returns to the podcast (he last appeared on Episode 123) to talk with me about the 46th edition of New Directors/New Films. The annual festival which showcases emerging filmmakers from around the world takes place from March 15 — 26th at both the museum as well as at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Tickets are currently available for most of the screenings. Raj Roy co-chairs the festival with the Film Society’s Dennis Lim.

[32 mins.] Documentary filmmaker Ferne Pearlstein stops by to talk about her new film, The Last Laugh a feature documentary that proceeds from the premise that the Holocaust would seem to be an absolutely off-limits topic for comedy. But is it? History shows that even the victims of the Nazi concentration camps themselves used humor as a means of survival and resistance. Featuring such talking heads as Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Sarah Silverman, Robert Clary, Rob Reiner, Susie Essman, Harry Shearer, Jeffrey Ross and others, the film will make you ask the question “how dark is too dark?” The film which just enjoyed a theatrical in NYC and is opening today at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Theater in Toronto and at will be opening at the Laemmle Theaters in LA next Friday, March 16th. For a complete list of screenings visit The Last Laugh’s website. The film will have its broadcast premiere on Independent Lens | PBS on Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 24th.

[57 mins. 53 secs.] Filmmaker Rosemary Rodriguez, director of the new indie comedy, Silver Skies, is the guest on this final segment. Rosemary is joined from one of the cast members, Jack McGee. The film concerns the sale of a senior residence and the attempt by its residents (which also include the late Alex Rocco, Valerie Perrine, Barbara Bain, George Hamilton & Mariette Hartley) to fight back. The film opens in Florida today and will be available for rental on Netflix in May.

Filmwax Radio is part of the ShowBriz Studios podcast network and presented by Rooftop Films. Subscribe on iTunes.

In the first segment [9 mins. 40 secs.] filmmaker Sam Pollard returns to the podcast. Sam has a new documentary called Two Trains Runnin’, narrated by Common, and featuring the music of Gary Clark Jr. The film pays tribute to a pioneering generation of musicians and cuts to the heart of our present moment, offering a crucial vantage from which to view the evolving dynamics of race in America. Two Trains Runnin’ is currently enjoying a theatrical engagement at the Metrograph Theater in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The conversation was recorded at the 2016 Woodstock Film Festival.

Then [41 kins. 30 secs.] sales agent & film producer Bill Straus visits the podcast to discuss about his approach to the business. If you are in need of a sales agent for your film, feel free to reach out to Bill at bill@bridgeindependent.com.

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Audible.com. Get a free download and trial membership by going to www.audibletrial.com/filmwaxradio.

Filmwax Radio is part of the ShowBriz Studios podcast network and presented by Rooftop Films. Like us on Facebook.

Veteran director Atom Egoyan with his latest film screening at Vienna & Woodstock Film Festival; Documentary filmmaker Doug Tirola discusses his new National Lampoon doc, Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead; and A.D. Calvo returns to update on his feature The Missing Girl.

The Founder & Executive Director of the Woodstock Film Festival, Meira Blaustein, is the first guest. Then Toronto-based documentary filmmaker Alan Zweig, followed by British filmmaker Tomas Leach.

The Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Woodstock Film Festival, Meira Blaustein is the first guest; then filmmakers Michael Wechsler (The Red Robin) and Kevin Schreck (Persistence of Vision).