Film Forum Podcasts

Q&A with Tony Kushner and WRESTLING WITH ANGELS filmmaker Freida Lee Mock! (recorded October 4 & 6, 2006)

Q&A with Tony Kushner and WRESTLING WITH ANGELS filmmaker Freida Lee Mock! (recorded October 4 & 6, 2006)

Terry Gilliam appearing in person at 7:30 show of TIME BANDITS on Oct 3, 2006 at Film Forum!

Terry Gilliam appearing in person at 7:30 show of TIME BANDITS on Oct 3, 2006 at Film Forum!

Two friends in their 30s, played by alt-country singer/songwriter Will Oldham and Daniel London, embark on a camping trip in the majestic Cascade Mountains near Portland, Oregon. One is on the verge of fatherhood, the other, more mysterious, has no strings attached. The trajectory of their relationship, surrounded by gorgeous wilderness, makes for a minimalist yet powerful tale of friendship and alienation in Bush-era America. With original music by Yo La Tengo.

Two friends in their 30s, played by alt-country singer/songwriter Will Oldham and Daniel London, embark on a camping trip in the majestic Cascade Mountains near Portland, Oregon. One is on the verge of fatherhood, the other, more mysterious, has no strings attached. The trajectory of their relationship, surrounded by gorgeous wilderness, makes for a minimalist yet powerful tale of friendship and alienation in Bush-era America. With original music by Yo La Tengo.

Throughout the world, struggling people cross borders illegally to find work and make a better life for themselves: Mexicans in the US, Turks in Germany and North Africans in France. But only Israel has a population of illegal Filipinos of indeterminate gender who care for the elderly Orthodox – and for whom they often become substitute children. PAPER DOLLS follows five such men, refugees from families that reject them, who've made a home in Tel Aviv, Israel's most swinging city. Fast friends, they spend their free time on stage, as the drag queen ensemble, Paper Dolls. A multiple-prize winner at the most recent Berlin Film Festival, the film takes a thoughtful, variously humorous and poignant look at people whose very lives redefine conventional notions of gender, family and love.

Throughout the world, struggling people cross borders illegally to find work and make a better life for themselves: Mexicans in the US, Turks in Germany and North Africans in France. But only Israel has a population of illegal Filipinos of indeterminate gender who care for the elderly Orthodox – and for whom they often become substitute children. PAPER DOLLS follows five such men, refugees from families that reject them, who've made a home in Tel Aviv, Israel's most swinging city. Fast friends, they spend their free time on stage, as the drag queen ensemble, Paper Dolls. A multiple-prize winner at the most recent Berlin Film Festival, the film takes a thoughtful, variously humorous and poignant look at people whose very lives redefine conventional notions of gender, family and love.

Twenty-two-year-old Sebastien (Georges Babluani) leads an impoverished life with his immigrant family constantly struggling to support them. While repairing the roof of a neighbor's house, he overhears a conversation about an expected package which promises to make the household rich. Sensing the opportunity of a lifetime, Sebastien intercepts the package which contains a series of specific instructions. Following the clues, he assumes a false identity and manages to slip through the grasp of the enclosing police as he ventures deeper and deeper into the countryside. The closer he gets to his destination and the more people he meets along the way, the less he understands about what he is looking for. Ultimately, he comes face to face with a ring of clandestine gamblers placing bets on the outcome of a multi-player, high stakes tournament of Russian roulette. Directed by newcomer Gela Babluani, 13 TZAMETI is a winner-take-all thriller, where an unfortunate young man is transformed into Contestant #13 with no way out save his luck.

Twenty-two-year-old Sebastien (Georges Babluani) leads an impoverished life with his immigrant family constantly struggling to support them. While repairing the roof of a neighbor's house, he overhears a conversation about an expected package which promises to make the household rich. Sensing the opportunity of a lifetime, Sebastien intercepts the package which contains a series of specific instructions. Following the clues, he assumes a false identity and manages to slip through the grasp of the enclosing police as he ventures deeper and deeper into the countryside. The closer he gets to his destination and the more people he meets along the way, the less he understands about what he is looking for. Ultimately, he comes face to face with a ring of clandestine gamblers placing bets on the outcome of a multi-player, high stakes tournament of Russian roulette. Directed by newcomer Gela Babluani, 13 TZAMETI is a winner-take-all thriller, where an unfortunate young man is transformed into Contestant #13 with no way out save his luck.

EXCELLENT CADAVERS: A powerful, mind-boggling documentary, based on the eponymous book by Alexander Stille about the Sicialian Mafia and the heroic prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino - who brought hundreds of criminals to trial beginning in the 1980s (in '82 there was a Mafia killing in Palermo every 3 days), until they themselves were murdered in 1992. Their work galvanized public outrage as Mafia foot soldiers testified in court that they threw bodies into vats of acid to liquefy them. The violence they described was embodied by the no-holds-barred photographs of death in the streets, made by Letizia Battaglia, who appears in the film. The Mafia's pervasive hold on Italy is documented here, as well as the entrenched corruption of the nation's politicians, dating back to the end of World War II, when Mafia figures were installed in positions of power to counteract the growth of the Italian Communist Party.

EXCELLENT CADAVERS: A powerful, mind-boggling documentary, based on the eponymous book by Alexander Stille about the Sicialian Mafia and the heroic prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino - who brought hundreds of criminals to trial beginning in the 1980s (in '82 there was a Mafia killing in Palermo every 3 days), until they themselves were murdered in 1992. Their work galvanized public outrage as Mafia foot soldiers testified in court that they threw bodies into vats of acid to liquefy them. The violence they described was embodied by the no-holds-barred photographs of death in the streets, made by Letizia Battaglia, who appears in the film. The Mafia's pervasive hold on Italy is documented here, as well as the entrenched corruption of the nation's politicians, dating back to the end of World War II, when Mafia figures were installed in positions of power to counteract the growth of the Italian Communist Party.

THE MOTEL: Michael Kang's debut feature, in the words of Variety, "signals the arrival of a singularly promising filmmaker." With extraordinary subtlety of feeling, THE MOTEL tells a coming-of-age tale of chubby, 13-year-old Ernest (Jeffrey Chyau), a second generation Chinese-American, who helps run his mother's sleazy rent-by-the-hour motel. His relationship with teenage Christine (Samantha Futerman, who played the young lead in MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA), who works at her family's Chinese restaurant, is soon overshadowed by a charismatic stranger (Sung Kang, from BETTER LUCK TOMORROW), a sexy Korean-American ne'er-do-well inhabiting the motel for trysts with prostitutes. Kang uses the specific realities of these Asian-American lives to create a believable, nuanced universe not defined by ethnicity - a world recognizable to anyone who has survived adolescence.

THE MOTEL: Michael Kang's debut feature, in the words of Variety, "signals the arrival of a singularly promising filmmaker." With extraordinary subtlety of feeling, THE MOTEL tells a coming-of-age tale of chubby, 13-year-old Ernest (Jeffrey Chyau), a second generation Chinese-American, who helps run his mother's sleazy rent-by-the-hour motel. His relationship with teenage Christine (Samantha Futerman, who played the young lead in MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA), who works at her family's Chinese restaurant, is soon overshadowed by a charismatic stranger (Sung Kang, from BETTER LUCK TOMORROW), a sexy Korean-American ne'er-do-well inhabiting the motel for trysts with prostitutes. Kang uses the specific realities of these Asian-American lives to create a believable, nuanced universe not defined by ethnicity - a world recognizable to anyone who has survived adolescence.

THE MOTEL: Michael Kang's debut feature, in the words of Variety, "signals the arrival of a singularly promising filmmaker." With extraordinary subtlety of feeling, THE MOTEL tells a coming-of-age tale of chubby, 13-year-old Ernest (Jeffrey Chyau), a second generation Chinese-American, who helps run his mother's sleazy rent-by-the-hour motel. His relationship with teenage Christine (Samantha Futerman, who played the young lead in MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA), who works at her family's Chinese restaurant, is soon overshadowed by a charismatic stranger (Sung Kang, from BETTER LUCK TOMORROW), a sexy Korean-American ne'er-do-well inhabiting the motel for trysts with prostitutes. Kang uses the specific realities of these Asian-American lives to create a believable, nuanced universe not defined by ethnicity - a world recognizable to anyone who has survived adolescence.