Oscilloscope Laboratories

Executive Producer for Independent Lens, Lois Vossen, returns for her second visit. The PBS documentary series began its new season this week. Also, director Margarethe von Trotta discusses her film Searching for Ingmar Bergman which premieres at the Quad Cinema on November 2nd, in addition to a retrospective of her work.

[6 mins. 9 secs.] In the first segment of this episode, first-time documentary filmmaker Amy Scott, with a film about the legendary 70’s filmmaker Hal Ashby called Hal. Although Hal Ashby directed a remarkable string of acclaimed, widely admired classics throughout the 1970s— Harold and Maude, The Last Detail, Shampoo, Coming Home, Being There— he is often overlooked amid the crowd of luminaries from his generation. Amy Scott’s exuberant portrait explores that curious oversight, using rare archival materials, interviews, personal letters, and audio recordings to reveal a passionate, obsessive artist. Ashby was a Hollywood director who constantly clashed with Hollywood, but also a unique soul with an unprecedented insight into the human condition and an unmatched capacity for good. His films were an elusive blend of honesty, irreverence, humor, and humanity. Through the heartrending and inspiring Hal, you feel buoyed by Ashby’s love of people and of cinema, a little like walking on water. Hal opens Friday, September 7th, at the Nuart Theater in Los Angeles, at the Landmark Cinemas in San Francisco, at the IFC Center in New York City, and many other cities around the nation. Check the Oscilloscope web page for details.

[46 mins.] Then I speak with filmmaking team Kristin Slaysman and Josh Crockett about their film, Dr. Brinks and Dr. Brinks, which as of this week is available on demand, on iTunes, Amazon, other digital streaming platforms as well as on cable. Estranged siblings (Slaysman & Scott Rodgers) reunite after their parents die in a plane crash. In the days following the wake, they can’t help but turn their current lives and relationships into chaos as they’re forced to reckon with their shared past.  The film —which premiered last year at the Maryland Film Festival— also stars Filmwax friends Robert Longstreet & Ashley Spillers.

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

[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.

The legendary screenwriter & director Paul Schrader (Hardcore, Light Sleeper) is on this episode to discuss his new film, First Reformed. The film, which opens in NYC and LA on Friday, May 18th, stars Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried & Cedric Kyles (aka Cedric the Entertainer) and is being distributed by A24. Reverend Ernst Toller (Hawke) is a solitary, middle-aged parish pastor at a small Dutch Reform church in upstate New York on the cusp of celebrating its 250th anniversary. Once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the church is now a tourist attraction catering to a dwindling congregation, eclipsed by its nearby parent church, Abundant Life, with its state-of-the-art facilities and 5,000-strong flock. When a pregnant parishioner (Seyfried) asks Reverend Toller to counsel her husband, a radical environmentalist, the clergyman finds himself plunged into his own tormented past, and equally despairing future, until he finds redemption in an act of grandiose violence.

Then Baltimore-based filmmaker Matt Porterfield (Putty Hill, I Used to Be Darker) makes his first appearance on the podcast. His new film, Sollers Point, was shot entirely in the Baltimore county titular neighborhood and stars McCaul Lombardi, Zazie Beetz, Jim Belushi, Lynne Cohen & Marin Ireland. Keith (Lombardi) is a 24-year-old drug dealer who is newly released from prison and living with his father (Belushi) under house arrest in Baltimore. He struggles to re-establish himself in a community scarred by unemployment, neglect and segregation. The film is opened this past week in Baltimore and opens in NYC and LA on Friday, May 18th thanks to Oscilloscope Laboratories.

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

Andrew Cohn (Modera) returns to the podcast with a new documentary, Night School, which follows the story of three Indianapolis adult learners Greg, Melissa and Shynika, finally earning their high school diplomas could be a life-changing achievement.The film opens theatrically in NYC at the IFC Center on Friday, June 9th.

In the second segment, senior programmer for the NY Human Rights Watch Film Festival, Leah Sapin, stops by to discuss the upcoming festival which runs June 9th through the 18th. Some of the films that are part of this year’s festival include Matthew Heineman’s City of Ghosts, Peter Nicks’ The Force, and Pamela Yates’ 500 Years.

This episode of the podcast is sponsored by Magic Drop. Magic Drop is a music licensing business based in Brooklyn, NY which represenst an eclectic roster of bands and composers, licensing their music for use in films, TV and beyond.

Filmwax Radio is part of the ShowBriz Studios podcast network and presented by Rooftop Films. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram. The podcast is also available on iTunes, Stitcher & Youtube.

Segments include [9 mins] a conversation with filmmaker Ti West (House of the Devil, The Inn Keepers) who discusses his new film, a western, called In A Valley of Violence. The film stars Ethan Hawke, John Travolta and Filmwax Radio friend James Ransom, and is distributed by Focus World. It premieres theatrically today. After that, [26 mins. 55 secs.] returning for his third appearance on the podcast, filmmaker Joel Potrykus (Ape, Buzzard) with his new film —currently in theaters and on demand— The Alchemist Cookbook. The film is being distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories. Lastly, [1 hr. 1 min.] recorded from the 2016 Hamptons International Film Festival, a conversation with the team behind a new documentary called Davi’s Way, which follows the character actor Robert Davi as he attempts to launch a tribute performance of Frank Sinatra’s famous 1974 concert, The Main Event, at Madison Square Garden. I’m joined by actor Robert Davi, documentary filmmaker Tom Donahue, plus two other subjects form the film, Stevie Guttman & Danny A. The film is still in the festival circuit and we’ll continue to keep audiences appraised of future ways to see it. This episode is sponsored in part by Warby Parker. Get a free 5-day home try-on by visiting www.warbyparkertrial.com/filmwaxradio. 5 days, 5 pairs, 100% free. Filmwax Radio is part of the ShowBriz Studios podcast network and presented by Rooftop Films. Like us on Facebook. Subscribe on iTunes.

Guests include Oscilloscope producer Debra McClutchy; documentary filmmaker Marshall Curry with his new film Point & Shoot; and the director of the new documentary, Do I Sound Gay?, David Thorpe.