Filmwax Radio

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1317-filmwax.mp3] } The Producer of the South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Conference and Festival, Janet Pierson is responsible for the vision, programming, and execution of the annual event. Before joining SXSW in April 2008, Janet spent over 30 years championing independent films and filmmakers, in a variety of roles including distributor, exhibitor, producer’s rep, investor, workshop producer, executive producer, documentary subject, producing a program at The Moth, and as co-creator and segment director of the IFC cable TV series Split Screen.  Much of this work was in partnership with her husband, the author, producer, professor, and co-president of Grainy Pictures, John Pierson.  An Austin Film Society Board Member 2004-2010, she’s currently on the Advisory Board, and has served on and taken part in several grant panels, festival juries, and advisory roles, including on behalf of the NEA, ITVS, and Creative Capital. This year's SxSW Film Festival takes place March 8 — 16th.

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1316-filmwax.mp3] } New York Magazine contributor and blogger, Bilge Ebiri returns to Filmwax Radio. Bilge discusses some favorite films from recent months including Spielberg's LINCOLN, Paul Thomas Anderson's THE MASTER, Rodney Ascher's ROOM 237, The Taviani Brothers' CEASAR MUST DIE and Michael Haneke's AMOUR.  Bilge's blog: THEY LIVE BY NIGHT. Bilge's archive in New York Magazine

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1316-filmwax.mp3] } New York Magazine contributor and blogger, Bilge Ebiri returns to Filmwax Radio. Bilge discusses some favorite films from recent months including Spielberg's LINCOLN, Paul Thomas Anderson's THE MASTER, Rodney Ascher's ROOM 237, The Taviani Brothers' CEASAR MUST DIE and Michael Haneke's AMOUR.  Bilge's blog: THEY LIVE BY NIGHT. Bilge's archive in New York Magazine

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1315-filmwax.mp3] } JON DIERINGER is the editor, publisher and designer of Screen Slate, a web resource for listings and commentary of New York City repertory film and independent media. His varied professional experiences include art direction and accounting for film and working as an assistant to independent film producers Ted Hope and Anne Carey and artist Neil Goldberg. Dieringer also worked as communications coordinator for independent media arts nonprofit The Flaherty and programmed the fall 2012 Flaherty NYC series, “More Fun in the New World,” at 92YTribeca. Dieringer’s video work has shown at venues across New York City including Anthology Film Archives, Flux Factory and Spectacle, and he has additionally authored video projects supporting various non-profit, activist and cultural organizations. He has written for TIME Magazine’s LightBox and INCITE Journal of Experimental Media. He is presently one of the head programmers at Spectacle, a Brooklyn screening space established and maintained entirely by volunteers, and a board member of the New York Film/Video Council. Dieringer has been a passionate advocate of community cinema since his teens, when he co-established and programmed a still-ongoing weekly art film night at the historic landmark Palace Theater in his hometown, Canton, Ohio.   RELEVANT LINKS We discussed several organizations in this episode.  Here are some of those links.   Screen Slate: a daily comprehensive list of repertory, independent, microcinema and gallery screenings and cinematic events in New York City. It aims to raise awareness and accessibility of moving image culture, bridge cinema and art worlds and illuminate new creative directions.   Flaherty NYC series: a seasonal screening series which presents innovative and groundbreaking films, followed by discussions with the makers on aesthetics, the production process, and the challenges of the work. Flaherty NYC stands apart from other NYC screening series, in that it exposes audiences to filmmakers whose work deserve more attention, as well as more discourse.   New York Film & Video Council (NYFVC): New York’s oldest continuously operating non-profit serving the independent film, video and electronic arts community. For over 70 years, a haven for lively discussions, panels and screenings.   Spectacle Theater: a community screening space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, established and staffed entirely by volunteers. Programming encompasses overlooked works, offbeat gems, contemporary art, radical polemics, live performance and more. Adam Schartoff calls it "Marginalized cinema at its finest".    

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1315-filmwax.mp3] } JON DIERINGER is the editor, publisher and designer of Screen Slate, a web resource for listings and commentary of New York City repertory film and independent media. His varied professional experiences include art direction and accounting for film and working as an assistant to independent film producers Ted Hope and Anne Carey and artist Neil Goldberg. Dieringer also worked as communications coordinator for independent media arts nonprofit The Flaherty and programmed the fall 2012 Flaherty NYC series, “More Fun in the New World,” at 92YTribeca. Dieringer’s video work has shown at venues across New York City including Anthology Film Archives, Flux Factory and Spectacle, and he has additionally authored video projects supporting various non-profit, activist and cultural organizations. He has written for TIME Magazine’s LightBox and INCITE Journal of Experimental Media. He is presently one of the head programmers at Spectacle, a Brooklyn screening space established and maintained entirely by volunteers, and a board member of the New York Film/Video Council. Dieringer has been a passionate advocate of community cinema since his teens, when he co-established and programmed a still-ongoing weekly art film night at the historic landmark Palace Theater in his hometown, Canton, Ohio.   RELEVANT LINKS We discussed several organizations in this episode.  Here are some of those links.   Screen Slate: a daily comprehensive list of repertory, independent, microcinema and gallery screenings and cinematic events in New York City. It aims to raise awareness and accessibility of moving image culture, bridge cinema and art worlds and illuminate new creative directions.   Flaherty NYC series: a seasonal screening series which presents innovative and groundbreaking films, followed by discussions with the makers on aesthetics, the production process, and the challenges of the work. Flaherty NYC stands apart from other NYC screening series, in that it exposes audiences to filmmakers whose work deserve more attention, as well as more discourse.   New York Film & Video Council (NYFVC): New York’s oldest continuously operating non-profit serving the independent film, video and electronic arts community. For over 70 years, a haven for lively discussions, panels and screenings.   Spectacle Theater: a community screening space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, established and staffed entirely by volunteers. Programming encompasses overlooked works, offbeat gems, contemporary art, radical polemics, live performance and more. Adam Schartoff calls it "Marginalized cinema at its finest".    

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1314-filmwax.mp3] } In this special 2013 Slamdance Edition of Filmwax Radio, host Kristin McCracken interviews filmmaker Steven Feinartz, whose new documentary, THE BITTER BUDDAH, concerns itself with the unruly life of comic Eddie Pepitone. Pepitone fully cooperated in the making of the movie. It had its premiere at the festival. The Documentary takes an unconventional journey with a true “comic’s comic”. For a few decades, Eddie Pepitone has proven to be a startling force in the alt-comedy scene. Within THE BITTER BUDDAH we follow Eddie as he deals with a middle-age career surge, while struggling with self-doubt, sobriety, and a challenging family history. Original animation, stand-up comedy and engaging interviews with Patton Oswalt, Sarah Silverman, Marc Maron and others help us gain insight into the life of a beloved career comedian known as “the guitarist that all the other guitarists go to see.” As one of the best-kept secrets in the scene, Eddie Pepitone is documented in this unhinged portrait of creativity, enlightenment and rage. HOST: After abandoning a career in higher education, Kristin McCracken realized that writing about movies all day long was way more fun. Until recently, she was the Vice President of Digital Media at TribecaFilm.com. She now writes about film and consults with filmmakers about social media. Her most recent book is entitled 101 Things to Do Before You Turn 40.

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1313-filmwax.mp3] }   In this special 2013 Slamdance Edition of Filmwax Radio, host Kristin McCracken interviews filmmaker Suzanne Mitchell, whose new documentary, RUNNING WILD: THE LIFE OF DAYTON O. HYDE, concerns itself with the reluctant cowboy, Dayton O. Hyde.  The film begins on a haunting stretch of land in the Black Hills of South Dakota where 500 captured wild mustangs are once again running free. This is one of the last bastions of land where horses can be free and where this cowboy is living out the last part of his life. Dayton’s journey began in Marquette, Michigan where at the age of 13 he ran away from home to join his uncle on a cattle ranch in Oregon. From there he learned the ways of the west; rodeos, cattle drives and Native American’s formed Hyde’s passion for preserving the prairies and the creatures that inhabit the land. From saving the Sand Hill Crane, to creating an environment where coyotes and cattle could co-exist, to reestablishing a lost lake, Hyde’s biggest conservation project sits on an 11,000-acre reserve where he continues to save wild horses and the land they inhabit. Full Motion Pictures is creating this cinematic adventure by examining the life of this man who through prose, poetry, conservation, grace and wisdom has preserved part of American history for generations to come. Running Wild: The Life of Dayton O. Hyde is an exquisite film that will take viewers back to lost times and forgotten places giving each of us pause to reflect on our own contributions to this world. Suzanne Mitchell (Director) has produced numerous long and short form television series and specials as well as feature length documentaries. She has won two Emmys, two Gracie Awards and an Omni Intermedia Award. Suzanne has collaborated with Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple to create several films which include: NEW PASSAGES, THE HAMPTONS, WOODSTOCK: NOW & THEN, and A FORCE OF NATURE, where the team traveled to South Sudan to present the humanitarian work of philanthropist Ellen Ratner. Mitchell has produced two comprehensive historical documentary programs -- ABC's The Century, with Peter Jennings, which included exclusive interviews with nuclear scientist Hans Bethe, Steve Jobs and others; and A&E's The Millennium Biography Special, which focused on 100 of the most influential people of the last 1000 years. In 2005, Mitchell was the Executive Producer of Fatal Fathers, a one hour documentary for A&E. She also created six PBS documentaries focused on women’s issues, for which she won two Gracie awards and one Emmy. Suzanne’s experience as an independent producer for The Oprah Winfrey Show includes Oprah’s 2008 Martin Luther King special and the 2011 Freedom Riders special. HOST: After abandoning a career in higher education, Kristin McCracken realized that writing about movies all day long was way more fun. Until recently, she was the Vice President of Digital Media at TribecaFilm.com. She now writes about film and consults with filmmakers about social media. Her most recent book is entitled 101 Things to Do Before You Turn 40.

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1312-filmwax.mp3] } The Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in 2010 lifted a century-long ban on restricted corporate election spending, unleashing a new era of unbridled special-interest campaign finance. CITIZEN KOCH examines the mushrooming struggle between money and democracy through the dramatic lens of the 2011 standoff in Wisconsin when Governor Scott Walker, bankrolled by out-of-state billionaires, stripped state employees of their union rights. Among a million outraged Wisconsinites, we meet individuals struggling with their Republican political loyalties as they decide whether to join the grassroots-fueled recall of Walker, a GOP rising star and Tea Party favorite. Meanwhile, on a national level, former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer watches his Republican presidential campaign fizzle as he refuses, on principle, donations of more than a hundred dollars and gets outspent and drowned out by Super PAC–funded opponents. Combining intimate vérité scenes and a big-picture–style investigative exposé, Citizen Koch probes behind the headlines to penetrate one of the core issues of our time: Who really has the power in America—private donors or the voting public? Carl Deal and Tia Lesson (Directors and Producers) are Academy Award® and Emmy Award® nominated filmmakers who produced and directed TROUBLE THE WATER, winner of the Gotham Independent Film Award, as well as Grand Jury prizes at both the Sundance Film Festival and the Full Frame Documentary Festival, in addition to being named a finalist for the Britdocs/PUMA Creative Impact Award. They were producers of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine, and most recently Capitalism: A Love Story. Tia and Carl were nominated for an NAACP Image Award and a Producers Guild Award for their work on Trouble the Water. In addition to a 300 city theatrical run, and broadcasts on HBO, National Geographic, Turner Movie Channel and Channel Four, the film continues to be used by dozens of partner organizations and hundreds of educational institutions and NGOs to create dialogue and inspire action for racial and economic justice. In television, Tia was line producer of Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and a consulting producer of Living in the Material World: George Harrison. She received two Emmy nominations for her work as producer of the series The Awful Truth and is the recipient of the  Sidney Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for Behind the Labels. Tia is a Sundance Institute Fellow and Creative Producing Lab Advisor, a Creative Capital grantee and was awarded the L’Oréal Paris/Women in Film Women of Worth Vision Award. She is a graduate of Cornell University and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Carl previously worked as an international news producer and a writer, reporting from natural disasters and conflict zones throughout the U.S., Latin America, and in Iraq. He has an MS in journalism from Columbia University, which awarded him its Social Justice Prize, and is a member of the Writers Guild of America and the Academy of Motion Picture arts and Sciences. HOST: After abandoning a career in higher education, Kristin McCracken realized that writing about movies all day long was way more fun. Until recently, she was the Vice President of Digital Media at TribecaFilm.com. She now writes about film and consults with filmmakers about social media. Her most recent book is entitled 101 Things to Do Before You Turn 40.

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1311-filmwax.mp3] } Host Kristin McCracken with another dispatch from this year's Sundance Film Festival. In this show, Kristin interviews filmmkaer Zachary Heinzerling, whose new film CUTIE AND THE BOXER premiered at the festival. CUTIE AND THE BOXER is an intimate documentary chronicling a unique New York love story between two immigrant Japanese artists. Ushio and Noriko Shinohara met and married in New York City in the late 1960’s and have lived and worked there together ever since. The film is a moving portrait of a couple wrestling with the universal themes of sacrifice, disappointment, aging, and love against the background of lives dedicated to art.  Through candid scenes we come to understand that the stark differences in the Shinoharas’ art and personalities are the basis for a deep and challenging symbiosis that has kept the couple together for nearly 40 years.  The film shifts back and forth between present-day verite footage of their life in Brooklyn and a stylized version of the past, blending archival material and the artists’ own illustrations, blurring the lines between life and art.  HOST: After abandoning a career in higher education, Kristin McCracken realized that writing about movies all day long was way more fun. Until recently, she was the Vice President of Digital Media at TribecaFilm.com. She now writes about film and consults with filmmakers about social media. Her most recent book is entitled 101 Things to Do Before You Turn 40.

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1310-filmwax.mp3] } In this 2013 Sundance Edition of Filmwax Radio, host Kristin McCracken interviews filmmaker Drake Doremus (DOUCHEBAG, LIKFE CRAZY) about his new feature which is premiering at Sundance, BREATHE IN which stars Guy Pearce, Amy Ryan and Felicity Jones. This is one of several dispatches from Park City. As summer turns to fall, music teacher Keith Reynolds privately reminisces about his days as a starving artist in the city. While his wife, Megan, and daughter, Lauren, look forward to Lauren’s final year of high school, Keith clings to those evenings he’s asked to sub as a cellist with a prestigious Manhattan symphony. When Megan decides the family should host foreign exchange student Sophie, the British high school senior soon rekindles an impetuous aspect of Keith’s personality.  HOST: After abandoning a career in higher education, Kristin McCracken realized that writing about movies all day long was way more fun. Until recently, she was the Vice President of Digital Media at TribecaFilm.com. She now writes about film and consults with filmmakers about social media. Her most recent book is entitled 101 Things to Do Before You Turn 40. 

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1309-filmwax.mp3] } In this first 2013 Sundance Edition of Filmwax Radio, host Kristin McCracken interviews filmmakers Lana Wilson & Martha Shane about their new documentary, AFTER TILLER, which explores the controversial topic of late term abortion. This is the first of several dispatches from Park City. After the assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas in 2009, four physicians—Dr. LeRoy Carhart, Dr. Warren Hern, Dr. Shelley Sella, and Dr. Susan Robinson—have become the new number-one targets of the anti-abortion movement, yet continue to risk their lives every day to keep doing work that they believe is vitally important. With unprecedented access into the lives of these doctors and the patients who seek their help, AFTER TILLER will paint a vivid portrait of these four unforgettable men and women and the battles they fight every day in the name of choice. Martha Shane (co-director/co-producer) is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker. From 2006 to 2008, she co-directed, produced and co-edited the feature documentary BI THE WAY, which had its premiere at the SXSW film festival in 2008 and debuted on MTV’s LOGO channel in summer 2009. Subsequently, Shane worked as a freelance editor, producer and cinematographer for projects ranging from a short documentary about a community health center in post-Katrina New Orleans to an experimental film about the Japanese writer Osamu Dazai. After Tiller is her second feature documentary. Shane is currently finishing Make the People Happy, a short documentary that follows the Xylopholks, New York’s only animal-costumed, xylophone-playing, subway-busking ragtime band on a whirlwind tour of India. She is also in production on THE MYSTERY OF MARIE JOCELYN, a suspense-filled feature documentary that unravels the many mysteries surrounding alleged con artist and former film festival director Marie Castaldo. Shane graduated from Wesleyan University in 2005 with a BA in Film Studies. Lana Wilson (co-director/co-producer) is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker. AFTER TILLER is her feature documentary debut. Wilson was previously the Film and Dance Curator for Performa, the New York biennial of new visual art performance, where she has curated and produced performances including Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin’s TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL: Reframed and French choreographer Boris Charmatz’s Musée de la danse: expo zero. She has also organized several film retrospectives, including Not Funny: Stand-Up Comedy and Visual Art, The Polyexpressive Symphony: Futurism on Film, and Dance After Choreography. Her film programs have been presented by the Jerusalem International Film Festival, Anthology Film Archives, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Tanzquartier Wien (Vienna), among other venues. She recently edited the book Performa 09: Back to Futurism (2011), and is currently developing several other documentary projects. Wilson holds a BA in Film Studies and Dance from Wesleyan University. HOST: After abandoning a career in higher education, Kristin McCracken realized that writing about movies all day long was way more fun. Until recently, she was the Vice President of Digital Media at TribecaFilm.com. She now writes about film and consults with filmmakers about social media. Her most recent book is entitled 101 Things to Do Before You Turn 40.

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1308-filmwax.mp3] } Filmmaker Dan Schechter calls in from the set of an upcoming movie to discuss his most recent film, SUPPORTING CHARACTERS, which goes on demand and on to digital platforms today. The comedy, starring Alex Karpovsky, Tarik Lowe and Sophia Takal, opens theatrically Friday, 1/25, and is being distributed by Tribeca Film.

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1307-filmwax.mp3] } Co-directors / co-producers of the new documentary, ONE NIGHT STAND, Elisabeth Sperling (in the studio) and Trish Dalton (via phone). Also on the panel is Tina Fallon, Founding Producer of the Twenty Four Hour Company, the organization behind the 24 hour musical, the subject of the documentary.

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1306-filmwax.mp3] } This episode of Filmwax Radio focuses on an exiciting new web series called F TO 7TH, a homoneurotic web series about Ingrid and her descent into lesbian middle age. Judgmental as ever, Ingrid is stuck somewhere between FTM and PSP as she struggles to find herself in a world where sexuality and gender have left her old-fashioned lesbianism behind. My guests are creator/actress Ingrid Jungermann (THE SLOPE) and actress Ann Carr (THE ACTRESS).

DownloadGet it on iTunes {pb_mediael audio_mp3=[http://d343ypnmzkqpnf.cloudfront.net/filmwax/1305-filmwax.mp3] } Filmmaker Gregory Collins & actor/filmmaker Rodrigo Lopresti stop by Filmwax Radio and discuss their new project, a narrative feature called A SONG STILL INSIDE. Mike is an actor. Or he used to be. Or he still could be. Except Maggie is also an actor, and a more successful one at that. As Maggie books bigger and bigger roles – and works longer and longer hours – Mike is left at home taking care of their newborn son. With Maggie wearing the pants, Mike struggles to feel like the man in the family. So, about to miss yet another audition due to Maggie’s schedule, Mike makes a life-changing mistake: he leaves their son alone and goes anyway. But mistakes that you get away with don’t really feel like mistakes, so Mike’s confidence begins to grow. And since he grew up without a father, Mike is increasingly swayed by the allure of a professional identity unfettered by family commitments. It isn’t that he doesn’t love his son – on the contrary, he would give anything for him – but what if ‘anything’ means giving up a career he is desperate to pursue?