Independent Film Podcast Interviews podcast

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Black Mirror Season 7 28:30

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We're trying something different this week: a full post-show breakdown of every episode in the latest season of Black Mirror! Ari Romero is joined by Tudum's Black Mirror expert, Keisha Hatchett, to give you all the nuance, the insider commentary, and the details you might have missed in this incredible new season. Plus commentary from creator & showrunner Charlie Brooker! SPOILER ALERT: We're talking about the new season in detail and revealing key plot points. If you haven't watched yet, and you don't want to know what happens, turn back now! You can watch all seven seasons of Black Mirror now in your personalized virtual theater . Follow Netflix Podcasts and read more about Black Mirror on Tudum.com .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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The What, How & Why of Independent Filmmakiing

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#Entertainment #Film #Independent #MarBelle #Cinema #Filmmaking #Fine Arts #Arts #Podcasting Education #Movies #Directing #Interviews #Short

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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The What, How & Why of Independent Filmmakiing

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#Entertainment #Film #Independent #MarBelle #Cinema #Filmmaking #Fine Arts #Arts #Podcasting Education #Movies #Directing #Interviews #Short

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Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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SATU - YEAR OF THE RABBIT: Joshua Trigg on His 16mm Indie Feature Odyssey in Laos

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Self-funded with a minuscule budget of just £150,000 and shot on 16mm in Laos with non-actors and a skeleton crew who had to contend with snakes, poisoned well water and a mid-production camera break down due to the heat, writer/director Joshua Trigg’s feature debut Satu – Year of the Rabbit is pretty much the epitome of independent filmmaking. With Satu about to finish up its UK cinema tour, which began with a special IMAX preview screening of the film to open the BFI Future Film Festival and concludes on the 28th of April at Exeter Phoenix cinema, we bring you our chat with Josh where we discuss the determined pursuit of a creative calling which is echoed both on screen and in the production of the film itself. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Get your tickets for the WeAreDN Awards! Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: DN newsletter YouTube Instagram Letterboxd Bluesky…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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THE ONLY GIRL IN THE ORCHESTRA: From Producer to Oscar Winning Director with Molly O’Brien

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This episode marks the last of our Oscar winning short film director interviews and features Sarah chat with Molly O’Brien , who joined DN a couple weeks before the Academy Awards to take us inside her move from producer to director for her Netflix acquired documentary short The Only Girl in the Orchestra , which follows the trailblazing career of musician Orin O’Brien and her beloved double basses as the first female musician in the New York Philharmonic orchestra. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Get your tickets for the WeAreDN Awards! Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: DN newsletter YouTube Instagram Letterboxd Bluesky…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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IN THE SHADOW OF THE CYPRESS: Inside the Oscar Winning Silent Father-Daughter Short Film

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How did a silent, father-daughter animation crafted over six and a half years in Iran defy odds to win an Oscar? We bring you the second part in our series of interviews with this year’s Academy Award winning short film directors as we speak to Shirin Sohani & Hossein Molayemi , the filmmakers behind In the Shadow of the Cypress who reveal the creative triumphs and logistical battles behind their Best Animated Short Film Oscar winner, and why its absence of dialogue speaks louder than words. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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SANTOSH: Sandhya Suri on Crafting a Nuanced Crime Thriller About Violence Against Women

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A film which has been on the Directors Notes radar since we caught it at the London Film Festival last October, Sarah speaks to Sandhya Suri, writer/director of the BAFTA nominated/ British Independent Film Awards winning crime thriller Santosh, about feeling compelled to step out of her documentary background for this gripping feature exploring the complexities between women in positions of power and dissecting the all too common violence inflicted on women. [ Read the full interview ] Links The 9 Short Films Deserving of Top Billing on Your BFI Flare 2025 Watchlist Onir’s ‘We Are Faheem & Karun’ Tells Kashmir’s First Queer Love Story Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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SISTER MIDNIGHT: Exploring Misanthropy and Marriage with Director Karan Kandhari

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A film for all the misfits who have also misplaced their instruction manuals for life and a filmmaker who first appeared on the Directors Notes pocast back in 2012 with his short film at the time, we sit down for an interview with DN alum Karan Kandhari , writer/director of possibly the strangest film you’ll see this year ‘Sister Midnight’, to chat about following his characters’ lead in the writing process, the pushback he faced trying to make the film 10 years ago and why if Radhika Apte hadn’t accepted the role that could well have been the end of the project. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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I'M NOT A ROBOT: From CAPTCHA Fail to Oscar Win with Filmmakers Victoria Warmerdam & Trent

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Defying expectations of being the longshot nominee as the lone genre piece competing for the 2025 Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film by triumphantly taking home the Oscar last Sunday, ‘I’m Not a Robot’ is a delightfully entertaining blend of sci-fi, dark comedy, and existential drama that doesn’t go where you expect. DN sat down with writer /director Victoria Warmerdam & producer Trent a couple weeks before the ceremony for a SPOILER filled discussion about the making of their CAPTCHA inspired Oscar winning short. [ Watch I’m Not a Robot & the full interview with Victoria & Trent ] Check out all of our Oscar 2025 interviews Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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A Roundup of the BFI Future Film Festival 2025

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In this instalment of the Director’s Notes podcast, we explore the 18th BFI Future Film Festival , delving into its programme of electrifying moving shorts and speaking to the inspiring filmmakers behind them in the iconic BFI Southbank. Jesse catches up with Young Programmer Felix Farrow , who provides insight into the BFI Future Film Festival selection and programming process. We then speak to three filmmakers who wowed us with their outstanding works, beginning with Lada Kopytova , who discusses finding her film Blueprint in the edit, followed by a brief interview with Grac Talbot about their Wizard of Oz inspired, mixed-media film We’re Not in Essex Anymore . We then close out with our chat with Dylan Scott , director of A Few More Minutes, Please , an incredibly funny and powerful short film about social anxiety. The entire selection of films are available on the BFI’s YouTube channel until the 6th March. Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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ROCK PAPER SCISSORS: BAFTA Winner Franz Böhm on Depicting the Horrors of the Ukraine War

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Writer/Director Franz Böhm speaks to DN about capturing the all too real horrors of a young man’s experiences on the frontline of the Ukraine-Russia war who is forced to make a difficult decision in order to protect others in his true life inspired BAFTA winning short film ‘Rock Paper Scissors’. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Please Note this interview was recorded before Rock Paper Scissors’ BAFTA win. Check out all of our BAFTA 2025 interviews Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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THE FLOWERS STAND SILENTLY, WITNESSING: How Theo Panagopoulos Reclaimed Archive Films of Palestine

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Director/Editor Theo Panagopoulos sits down with DN to discuss his BAFTA nominated documentary short The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing for which he reclaims archival Scottish missionary footage from the 30s and 40s of his ancestral Palestine to question the role of image-making as a tool of both testimony and violence when connected to entanglements between people and the land. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Check out all of our BAFTA 2025 interviews Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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BAFTA's Anna Higgs on the Awards, Membership & Building an Equitable British Film Industry

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Our first episode of 2025 sets the bar pretty high for the episodes to come this year. This week we’re joined by BAFTA film committee chair Anna Higgs who as well as discussing her route into the film industry and the innovative work she’s done in her roles at places like Film4 and NOWNESS, talks to us about BAFTA’s work to support and nurture talent within the film industry, the process of how films make it to BAFTA nomination, how the voting system works and also shares her advice for building a sustainable film career. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Links Directors Notes BAFTA interviews Anna Higgs’ website BAFTA Awards BAFTA Programmes BAFTA Membership Standing on the Shoulders podcast Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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BRING THEM DOWN - Christopher Andrews on Broken Trust, Violence & Toxic Masculinity

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In our last episode of the Directors Notes podcast for 2024, we bring you Sarah’s chat with, at the time BIFA nominee and now, The Douglas Hickox Award winning director Christopher Andrews for his blistering debut feature Bring Them Down , which pits Christopher Abbott against Barry Keoghan in a tense thriller about two warring farming families set against the harsh landscape of rural west Ireland. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Check out all of our BIFA 2024 interviews Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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WANDER TO WONDER: Nina Gantz on the Craftsmanship of Her BIFA Winning Short

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We sit down with Nina Gantz the talented filmmaker behind this year’s BIFA Best British Short winner Wander to Wonder , a stop-motion tale following a trio of tiny performers from a beloved children’s television show as they struggle to navigate life after the untimely death of the show’s creator. Gantz takes Directors Notes inside the extraordinary craftsmanship of her film, which offers a unique and poignant exploration of loss, blending humour and sadness in perfect harmony. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Check out all of our BIFA 2024 interviews Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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KNEECAP: Rich Peppiatt on Jokes as Molotov Cocktails in His BIFA Winning Feature Debut

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A film which we’ve been endlessly quoting here at DN and that has already bagged a Sundance Audience Award and four BIFA wins (with 10 more nominations still up for grabs), Kneecap director Rich Peppiatt joins us for a chat about his bewilderment over the reactionary backlash to the film before it had even screened, how not coming from Ireland freed him to take shots at all sides and standing strong against conflicting notes from funders in order to not sacrifice the integrity of his blisteringly entertaining film. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Links BAD ASS BITCHES: Screening, Q&A + Networking Tickets Check out all of our BIFA conversations Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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MEAT PUPPET: Eros V on Puppet Possession & the Power of Great Titles

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The story of a man-child, obsessed with toys, who finds himself possessed by a puppet, Eros V’s BIFA nominated, twice SXSW winning horror-comedy short ‘Meat Puppet’ was always going to turn heads. Directors Notes caught up with Eros to learn how a conversation with The Jim Henson Company inspired the short, the unusual challenges actors David Jonsson and Máiréad Tyers had to master for their roles and the lo-fi techniques behind the magic trick of bringing a puppet to life on a shoestring budget. [ Watch/Read the full interview ] Links BAD ASS BITCHES: Screening, Q&A + Networking Tickets Check out all of our BIFA conversations Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Bluesky Sign up for the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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LAST SWIM: Sasha Nathwani on Capturing the Carefree Nostalgia of Youthful Friendships

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A film we enjoyed so much that we invited writer/director Sasha Nathwani to join us for a (second) deep dive interview about his Crystal Bear winning feature debut ‘Last Swim’, in which he explains why the vibrant yet nostalgic colour palette was intrinsic to his contemporary coming-of-age drama and how this specific London-set story captures a universal sense of youth relevant far beyond the borders of England’s capital. Links Check out all of our BIFA conversations Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like to see your film featured on DN then submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Sign up to the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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HOLLOWAY: Sophie Compton & Daisy-May Hudson on Co-Creating a Trauma-Informed Documentary Feature

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The next in our series of director interviews from London Film Festival 2024, Sarah caught up with Holloway co-creators Sophie Compton & Daisy -May Hudson who picked up the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature at LFF and was one of Sarah’s festival favourites. As you’ll hear in their chat, Holloway sees six incredibly brave, former prisoners re-enter the decaying space they were once incarcerated in to reclaim their narratives and give voice to the voiceless women still behind bars, while also prompting us as viewers to examine the purpose of our broken penal system. Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new films. If you’d like to see your film featured on DN then submit it here . Find us at: Instagram YouTube Letterboxd Sign up to the weekly DN newsletter…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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MOTHER VERA: Cécile Embleton & Alys Tomlinson on documenting a nun’s journey of self discovery

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Never have I felt the idiom, never judge a book by its cover to be truer than in my experience with the 2024 London Film Festival Grierson Award Winner Mother Vera . Co-directed by Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson , within the opening scene of Mother Vera I was immediately struck by the discord between the type of documentary I was expecting and what unfolded onscreen. Set in a remote, cold and unforgiving environment surrounding a hidden Orthodox monastery in Belarus, we are offered an insight into one woman’s reckoning of herself, her past and her present as we explore her conflicted pull towards forging a new future for herself. The long, evocative shots of overbearing iconography coupled with the monotony of monastic life are certainly not the film’s sole focus as they are balanced against Vera’s contemplation of the possibilities presented by the opening up of life and the potential of wider opportunities should she decide to make a change. Drawing from the original photography which inspired the film, an enthralling stillness pervades its frames, with absorbing shots of the young nun’s cloistered life. Mother Vera demands you sit still and give yourself to the journey which unfolds. As the striking feature debut continues to delight festival audiences here and abroad, Embleton and Tomlinson speak to us about following their protagonist’s life in real time, leaning into the rhythms of the monastery when planning their shots and confounding audience expectations of the film. A heads up, the following interview contains spoilers for Mother Vera ! It is also available to watch at the end of this article . I love how your different backgrounds but shared vision and style brought you to collaborate on this, how did you come to be making Mother Vera together? Alys Tomlinson: We actually met years ago at an open day at the NFTS for their cinematography and directing courses, that neither of us ended up really pursuing or applying for, and then we stayed in touch. We both went off and did other things but the film Mother Vera came from a photographic project Cécile and I were working on together called Ex Voto . That project involved going to various locations around Europe, one of which included Grabarka, which is on the eastern side of Poland bordering Belarus, where we were looking for interesting pilgrims to photograph. This wasn’t always easy because a lot of pilgrims wear anoraks and carry flasks and aren’t that exciting but then we spotted Vera. We didn’t know she was Vera at the time, she was standing very still, dressed head to toe in her black robes with a donation box around her neck. We immediately looked at each other and said, we have to ask her if she would be up for being photographed for this project. So we approached her and there’s always that anxiety when you’re approaching a stranger. Are they going to let you in? Are they going to respond to your invitation? However she said yes straight away and we took her to this opening in the forest and took a picture of her on this very old fashioned, large format film camera in black and white and during that exchange, she invited us to her monastery in Belarus. We were able to get a small grant from Sony, which allowed us to go for our first trip. In many ways, it was a lucky encounter that took the initiative to approach her in that split second otherwise this film would never have happened. So it’s all those tiny moments that can make a huge difference to many people’s lives. As the monastery is so remote and private did you encounter any adverse reactions to stepping into that world with your camera equipment? Cécile Embleton: So we were really lucky in that the head of the community had seen Alice’s photography and really respected the style of it. It’s very classical, it’s got a very sensitive beautiful approach so that really was our way in as you need their permission. Initially, people were a bit shy and not really sure about it but after return visits, being present for all sorts of liturgies and baptisms, and eating with the sisters and the men who were there in rehab, we just became accepted in the community – it was a matter of time. In our first 5 trips we only had 32 filming days which doesn’t seem like very much but if you’re there every day, really embedded in the community, then you start to build relationships and people start to trust you. There’s also something amazing about filming in a monastery where, more or less you know the rituals, you know what’s going to happen every day, you know what things are going to look like so in terms of cinematography and framing, you can anticipate what the frame is going to be which was really amazing. The rhythm of life there enabled us to create the form of this documentary in its language. There are a lot of extremities in the film, a lot of opposites – so you have the warmth of the community, but then you have these bleak landscapes, entangled branches or the howling gales. The idea is that they draw you in psychologically into Vera’s inner world. The form is in itself beautifully slow and it unravels, as you said, in its own time. There are these incredibly poignant moments, especially when Vera is with her horses contrasting with a lot of bleaker moments and Vera’s overall search for herself. How did you decide what the trajectory of the story would be? AT: It’s a big question and a good question. I just want to start by going back to your earlier question which I didn’t really answer about how we collaborated on our approaches, mine through my photography and Cecile’s through her previous filmmaking. I think we both work in quite a slow, still, thoughtful way so we were immediately aligned in terms of the film that we wanted to make. Then in terms of the trajectory, there are a lot of extremities in the film, a lot of opposites – so you have the warmth of the community, but then you have these bleak landscapes, entangled branches or the howling gales. The idea is that they draw you in psychologically into Vera’s inner world. You have the contrast of warmth and the cavernous and shadowy aspects of the monastery, but also this very strict, disciplined lifestyle. But then Vera is able to find some kind of freedom when she’s with the horses and when she’s with nature. In many ways, I think we both felt that Vera connects with horses in a way that she almost doesn’t with humans and she feels that there’s this very mutual understanding between her and the animals. And that’s when she felt safest. That’s when she feels the most kind of comfort and she communicates with them. Watching her with them was extraordinary, as you can imagine – this, almost piece of performance, unravelled in front of our eyes. I loved the moving and poetic moment of her setting off for a ride as she sweeps her cloak behind her, was she very open with you? CE: As Alice mentioned, within about 5-10 minutes of meeting her we were invited to come visit her in Belarus. I think for her, there was an attraction in meeting these young women who are artists working with this big old camera and talking about imagery, literature and film. She’s a very creative person herself and I know you asked how we decided on the narrative and the trajectory, but it turned out she had been thinking of leaving the monastery for 10 years when we met her which we didn’t know. She had this energy about her that she needed to communicate something that wasn’t able to come out – it was forbidden – and that was always there in our relationship together. Through the camera, there was this exploration of whatever this was that she needed to express. We didn’t know she was going to leave. So in the beginning, it’s about her story and her past and her place in this community but also very much about the atmosphere of this place. It’s a place where all of these men are there to make a second chance for themselves. They’re in recovery which is what Vera went through and still is going through right now. But the backbone of the film is the interviews with Olga and she wasn’t able to speak to us fully and honestly about everything that had happened in her past and wanting to leave until she left. So really, our contact time with Vera in the monastery didn’t amount to very much so when she left we thought, oh my gosh, what do we do? Draw a line? There’s nothing else that can be filmed of her in the monastery but we do have an end to the film now. Through the camera, there was this exploration of whatever this was that she needed to to express. So, in terms of deciding on the narrative, it was capturing this community and the essence of what’s going on there, which is essentially transformation, and Vera within that and her relationship with the men and how they mirror her past. But we were very lucky with the narrative. When we found out she had left we were very worried about her because that’s a really big deal, leaving a monastic community after 20 years and then the question was, how do we show that? Because obviously, we didn’t film it, which you never really would be able to film, even if we had been there so that was a creative challenge. But it was beautiful to work out within the language of the film – what would be the best way to tell that part of the story? The whole look of the film is just mesmerising. You’ve got this very stark landscape. You’ve got the dark corners of the monastery, these big imposing iconographs and faces. What cameras and lights were you using to capture that? AT: Well, we were lucky that we were loaned some equipment from Sony so we used various mirrorless Sony cameras. In the monastery, most of it was shot on a tripod so we were very much mimicking stills photography. As you would have noticed, there are many shots that are held almost like they are stills and that was a very deliberate device that we used so that the viewer and the audience could very much spend time with those images in those moments – you’re not just cutting from one scene to the next. We shot everything with available light. We weren’t there that long, but we were there long enough to understand the rhythms and the routines of the monastery and the sisters. We would know when the light shaft was coming through a window at a particular time. We would know when they were ringing the bells, which was often about four in the morning. Because we understood the way the monastery worked we knew when the best time was to make these shots which came from building a familiarity and also obviously a trust with the people within the monastery. But if you looked at our kit, you’d probably think we’re very lo-fi. We shot mostly on fixed lenses so a lot of the shooting was on 50mm and 85mm so you get that lovely depth of field. Again, we were both drawing on our backgrounds and this alignment in terms of aesthetic style to bring you emotionally closer to what’s happening. Most Popular {"title":"Most Popular","limit":"3","offset":0,"range":"last7days","time_quantity":"24","time_unit":"hour","freshness":false,"order_by":"views","post_type":"post","pid":"115252,154722","exclude":"115252,154722","taxonomy":"category","term_id":"-11,-4,-10","author":"","shorten_title":{"active":false,"length":"25","words":false},"post-excerpt":{"active":false,"length":"75","keep_format":false,"words":false},"thumbnail":{"active":true,"width":"75","height":"75","build":"manual","size":""},"rating":false,"stats_tag":{"comment_count":false,"views":false,"author":false,"date":{"active":false,"format":"F j, Y"},"taxonomy":{"active":false,"name":"category"}},"markup":{"custom_html":true,"wpp-start":"<ul class=\"wpp-list wpp-cards-compact\">","wpp-end":"<\/ul>","title-start":"<h2>","title-end":"<\/h2>","post-html":"<li class=\"{current_class}\">{thumb_img}<div class=\"wpp-item-data\"><div class=\"taxonomies\">{taxonomy}<\/div>{title}<\/div><\/li>"},"theme":{"name":"cards-compact"}} As soon as you start watching Mother Vera it seems so natural that it’s in black and white but was that always an obvious choice for you? CE: It was always obvious for Alys and obviously the photograph of Vera was black and white. For me, it was more of a process of understanding the why of the choice as I had never shot in black and white before and I was a little bit afraid of it just being a form, I needed it to feel organic through the content. As Vera’s story evolved it made sense to be black and white then as we kept going the black and white emphasises the extremity of Vera’s story, the extremity of the story of the men, the extremity of that place. We ended up using a lot of winter in the film to emphasise the fragility and the contrast of the warm and the cold. The internal candlelit, underground crypts and the meetings where everybody’s together and these vast, expansive landscapes that are very open and cold. The black and white is very powerful to emphasise what Vera’s lived and what’s going on, this crucible of transformation at this monastery. In terms of deciding on the narrative, it was capturing this community and the essence of what’s going on there, which is essentially transformation. Then when it came to Camargue and filming there, when I was looking through the camera, it just felt like colour was right. There’s a burst of nature and obviously Olga’s got this amazing connection to the horses and nature. It was a new stage in her life and the colour was to create a rupture and to bring you much closer to her and show her. In the black and white, you could think she was 24, covered with the veil which is exactly what was going on with her. She was literally covered and was not able to express her true desires and what had evolved within her over those years in the monastery. In the beginning she is enclosed in those heavy robes, which we conveyed with the dark phantom figure, and then by the end she’s naked. She’s fully surrendering herself to this river and to the river of life, it’s kind of cheesy but that was the idea. The colour brings you in, it brings you closer to her. We also had a lot more moving cameras, handheld or with a Steadicam to create a different language and to be close to her in that world. I immediately felt myself letting out a great breath of relief – there was something that came off my chest. CE: People have mentioned similar feelings like coming up from underground and some people don’t notice the colour. They have that feeling, but they don’t know because it’s so gradual that they haven’t realised until later on which is quite interesting because we tried to make it very subtle. Originally we had quite a hard cut to colour to really make a big impact then we realised it needed to be more subtle and gradual. The shot of her sleeping is quite important in the beginning of the colour because it also plants this idea that everything could have been a dream which is also how Olga speaks about the different lives she’s lived, that it feels like a dream, it feels so far away. It was quite scary to choose colour at the end, and there are so many more layers but it was showing her freedom. You’ve had a great festival run so far, how have you found audience reactions generally? AT: It’s been really exciting. I think people who really get the film and something in it resonates with them – REALLY get it. And it can resonate with them on quite a deep level, which is what we were hoping for. We understand that a largely black and white film about an Orthodox nun is not necessarily the easiest sell to audiences. But I mean, there have been some incredible comparisons to Béla Tarr and Tarkovsky – these complete legends – which is obviously wonderful to hear. I think also audiences who may have been put off by it being in some way a religious film or a film about God realise that’s not the heart of the film at all and it’s almost surprised them the way that they may have connected with aspects of Vera and aspects of the kind of wider human condition. We understand that a largely black and white film about an Orthodox nun is not necessarily the easiest sell to audiences. I have to be honest, the same happened to me. Initially, I wasn’t drawn in but as soon as the film started I was utterly captivated! AT: That’s been really interesting to hear, I understand people’s apprehension, it’s very hard to get across in the synopsis what it’s truly about, it’s hard to explain just with a few words. CE: There’s a niche of individuals who love it. An astrophysicist who came up to us at the end of one of the screenings in Poland and loved the metaphysical quality of the film and there definitely seems to be a group who are connecting that way. Maybe we need to think more about our PR and how we communicate all of the dimensions of the film because I think you’re right, on the surface some people are put off as you were. We hope that it encourages self-reflection and being in stillness within yourself through connecting to Vera’s struggle and what she’s dealing with. How much input did Olga have in any of the stages of production? AT: Because we had built up this relationship over a number of years. She was very good at allowing us to get on with it. What surprised me was that she never asked to see shots, she never asked how she looked. She would ask how it was going, but she never requested to see specific scenes or anything like that. She really allowed us a freedom, which was a great privilege, to work on it the way we wanted. We did show her the final edit, probably about a year ago now and I think she didn’t really know how to take it, first of all. Imagine seeing your life and your past and your history and your pain and your struggles in the format of a film. She very much appreciated the artistry and the creative input and she found parts of it very funny as well which we were quite relieved about. She says that it’s a great honour for her to be involved in the film and obviously we feel greatly honoured that she allowed us to enter her life in the way that we did but it’s another chapter with her. You never know what’s next. In some ways she’s taken it in her stride, but ultimately emotionally and psychologically and in terms of our relationship with her, it has definitely had a big impact on her. Imagine seeing your life and your past and your history and your pain and your struggles in the format of a film. CE: There’s often a question in audiences asking if the film affected her choice. And she has responded in Q&As saying absolutely. She had obviously already decided she wanted to leave, but it helped her reach that decision which she’d been grappling with for 10 years. It was a really special thing to explore this decision in an unspoken way with the camera and then the catharsis of her finally leaving. It then became a bit of a process to continue filming because it was very, very delicate and initially, she didn’t want to actually continue filming and the film was kind of hanging in the balance. It’s a much longer story, but we ended up having a meeting with her and explaining that we’ve put so much time into this and she actually was quite moved to hear that we were genuinely interested in her. She’d been attached to this identity that she’d lived for 20 years and was on the threshold of this mad change and asking who am I. It was obviously amazing for us to accompany her and then continue our gaze on her with the camera, but as she was just herself, with no identity, she was happy in the end. I felt that loss of identity or her looking for a new way as she was being scolded about the way she was sitting on her horse. AT: I felt that was a real difficult moment and quite a difficult scene to witness because she’s being humiliated by this woman who clearly has a very high opinion of herself And we’ve already seen Vera, at very close proximity to the horses and seen her relationship with them, we’ve seen how she relates to them. Then she’s being told by this French woman you’re doing everything wrong, but in a way, she shrugs that off and I think that’s very much testament to her own strength and fortitude and shows how resilient she really is, because that didn’t actually stop her. Although it wasn’t what she had dreamed of, she had gone to France with this idea of being taught by this highly esteemed woman who’s very high up in the dressage world but of course, the world that Vera was interested in with the horses is almost the exact opposite of the dressage world. She’s very instinctive with them, she’s very intimate with them, she’s almost sensual with them. Whereas the dressage world is all about formality, it’s all about rigour which echoed the discipline that she’d escaped in the convent. So you have these other levels of rules and regulations but she handles it pretty well. She’s very much a free spirit but the reality is that she left in her 40s and she’s rebuilding herself, her identity, who she is as a person. But also on a practical level, she left with no passport, no CV, no formal qualifications, no friends, nowhere to live, no bank account, no possessions which we believe is a really incredibly courageous thing that she did to make that decision. But she’s really starting her life in midlife, she’s got a strong idea of how she sees her life in the future, but it’s how she gets there. What about you two, are you going to continue working together on future projects? CE: This was like an organic, serendipitous evolution of having worked together on Alice’s photography project and there were many things that just made sense to work together but I know Alice probably never had dreamed of making a feature film and it started naturally. So I think it’s a bit of a one-off but that’s beautiful.…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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A Roundup of the London Film Festival 2024

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The relaunch of the Directors Notes Podcast is a multi-faceted episode with a variety of voices where we bring you a roundup of our activity from the 2024 BFI London Film Festival . I dove into the proverbial trenches of the festival, immersing myself in as many films as possible and catching up with filmmakers both old and new to the site as I trod the well trodden paths between Picturehouse Central, BFI Southbank and other festival venues. Featured below is my chat with Dr. Dario Llinares from The Cinematologists , longtime friends of DN and a much loved stronghold in the film discussion podcast landscape – you should definitely sign up to their Patreon . We follow that with an interview with directing duo Daisy-May Hudson and Sophie Compton about their LFF feature documentary Holloway which premiered at the festival this year and provides a canvas for six women to return to Holloway Prison to reclaim their stories before it’s demolished. I was able to snatch literal minutes with DN alum Lorcan Finnegan in which we discussed the joyous madness brought to the screen by Nicholas Cage in his new film The Surfer and spoke to Sasha Nathwani about his BIFA Longlisted feature debut Last Swim – an energetic, music filled coming-of-age drama about of a group of young school leavers on the cusp of adulthood. And finally, this episode is rounded off by a chat with final year MetFilm School student Jesse Williams who tells us all about their favourite picks of the festival and some of the talks and networking sessions they attended. Be sure to subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast in your podcast app of choice and keep an eye out over the coming weeks for our full length in depth interviews with more of the LFF directors we caught up with during the festival.…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN372: The Passion of Desire Spans Decades in Lucio Castro’s Queer Romance Feature ‘End of the Century’

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Joining DN for our final podcast episode of 2019, Argentinian Director Lucio Castro’s debut feature End of the Century reunites two men for a one night stand whose seeds were sown two decades earlier. In our interview, Castro and I get into his use of performance rather than prosthetics to donate different time periods, the flexibility of shooting with a skeleton crew and the importance of walking your actors through the mechanics of sex scenes. End of The Century (2019) Two men meet by chance while in Barcelona. What seems like a one-night encounter between two strangers becomes an epic, decades-spanning relationship, in which time and space refuse to play by the rules. Many times in movies I see the sex is almost too pretty or too perfect and sex in real life is not like that.…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN371: Maura Delpero Embarks on an Enthralling Exploration of the Meaning of Motherhood in Dramatic Debut ‘Maternal’

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Marking her move into fiction filmmaking, Italian Director Maura Delpero’s Maternal ( Hogar ) is an enthralling exploration of the meaning of motherhood set within the confines of a religious Buenos Aires refuge for young unmarried mothers. In our chat Delpero shares why she believes personal stories make universal cinema, how the tools of her documentary background provided an elucidating view of the lives she wanted to dramatise on screen and her methods for building cohesion between the performance styles of the film’s professional, non-professional and child actors. Maternal (2019) Lu and Fati are teen mums living in a religious shelter in Buenos Aires. Sister Paola arrives from Italy to take her final vows. Approaching the girls’ motherhood she’ll face a challenging situation. It’s difficult for women to confess they have difficulties about motherhood, you always have to be the perfect mother.…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN370: Eryk Rocha Captures the Financial and Emotional Struggles of a Nocturnal Rio Cab Driver in ‘Burning Night’

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During our time at this year’s London Film Festival DN took the opportunity to sit down with Eryk Rocha the Brazilian director of Burning Night ( Breve Miragem de Sol ) – a film which depicts the isolation and economic struggle of a Rio de Janeiro taxi driver as he works the city’s late night streets. In our discussion, Rocha reveals the ways in which his documentary background brought an authentic reality to this fictional story and how the film’s themes of hardship and separation mirror the current crisis in Brazil. Burning Night (2019) Down on his luck and recently divorced, Paulo has begun driving a cab around Rio, hoping he’ll make enough to send his ex money to support their ten-year-old son. He mostly works nights, so in addition to his encounters with a colorful variety of customers, colleagues, cops and others, he must cope with loneliness, fatigue and new faces in his life. Through this man we are talking about the crisis that we are living in the city of Rio de Janeiro but also in the country of Brazil.…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN369: Henry Blake Exposes the Cruel Exploitation of Britain’s Youth by Drugs Gangs in Shocking Debut ‘County Lines’

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If you live in the UK then you’ll be all too aware of the shocking amount of youth on youth violence which has plagued the country in recent years. Less often reported is the fact that these attacks are often fuelled by the activities of criminal gangs who recruit vulnerable children as expendable foot soldiers in a cross-country drugs distribution practice know as ‘County Lines’. In his forthright British feature debut County Lines , New Zealand born director Henry Blake draws on his first hand experience as a London youth worker to expose the human cost of this despicable practice. In our interview, Blake discusses the many ways in which his proof-of-concept short paved the way for the feature and why he felt compelled to address this growing national emergency on screen. County Lines (2019) Fourteen-year-old Tyler Hughes has the weight of the world on his shoulders. He attends a Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) in East London where he is isolated and bullied by his brutish classmates. There is no relief at home where he looks after his younger sister Aliyah as his mother, Toni, who works nights, is preoccupied and neglectful. When Toni loses her job she thrusts the family into a desperate financial situation, leaving Tyler vulnerable to Simon – a “recruiter” who targets and grooms children to promote his drug dealing enterprise out of the City. We were always serving the idea and the core idea of the film is that vulnerability is almost extinguished entirely because of exploitation.…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN368: A Defiant Teen Discovers the Destructive Power of Lies in Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Bulgarian Drama ‘Sister’

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Returning to the narrative roots of her well received debut feature Thirst , Svetla Tsotsorkova’s Sister ( Sestra ) is a self proclaimed “confession of love to those who live a seemingly unnoticeable life”. The story of compulsive tall tale teller Rayna, Sister follows the defiant teen as one of her fanciful stories threatens to tear her family apart. In our interview, Tsotsorkova reveals how her time at film school built the foundations of her filmic voice and the power of lies on and off the screen. Sister (2019) A small town in present-day Bulgaria. A mother and her two daughters are struggling to survive. The dreamy and distracted younger daughter often invents stories in order to make life more interesting. Unwittingly, she eventually gets caught in the trap of her own lies and destroys her older sister’s well-ordered materialistic world. While struggling to get to the truth, the two sisters find out the truth about their mother. Because of those two teachers I am what I am and who I am. They formed my personal taste in art in general.…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN367: A Deep Dive into ‘Burning Cane’, Phillip Youmans’ Debut Feature Which Made Tribeca History

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A film which left this year’s Tribeca on a wave of plaudits – not least because this debut feature made history when 19 year old filmmaker Phillip Youmans became the youngest and first African-American director to be awarded Best Narrative Feature at the festival – Burning Cane tells the story of an ageing mother struggling between her religious convictions and the love of her alcoholic son. Arriving on Netflix today, we spoke to Youmans about the necessary ‘mind-split’ when taking on multiple production roles on an independent feature and why his natural affinity for handheld camera work was a welcome boon for the time and resource strapped production. Burning Cane (2019) Burning Cane tells the story of a deeply religious woman’s struggle to reconcile her convictions of faith with the love she has for her alcoholic son and a troubled preacher. Set in rural Louisiana, the film explores the relationships within a southern black protestant community, examining the roots of toxic masculinity, how manhood is defined and the dichotomous role of religion within the African-American community. It can be difficult when you’re focussing on the intention of a shot but also the technical aspects of the shot and being mindful of performance. You can catch up on all our coverage from the London Film Festival here .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN366: Hari Sama Returns to the Hedonistic Days of Mexico City’s Post-Punk Scene in ‘This Is Not Berlin’

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We kick off our 2019 season of podcasts with an interview recorded at the London Film Festival with Director Hari Sama , who talks to us about heading back to a Mexico City of 1986 and the character defining post-punk days of sexual liberty, outsider art and drugs which helped shape him, in his vibrant semi-autobiographical feature This Is Not Berlin ( Esto no es Berlín ). This Is Not Berlin (2019) 1986. Mexico City. Seventeen-year-old Carlos doesn’t fit in anywhere: not in his family nor with the friends he has chosen in school. But everything changes when he is invited to a mythical nightclub where he discovers the underground nightlife scene: post-punk, sexual liberty, and drugs that challenges the relationship with his best friend Gera and lets him find his passion for art. Vulnerability really can be an empowering thing if you use it right and that’s what the film’s about. You can follow Hari Sama’s work on his website , Twitter , Instagram and Facebook . You can also catch up on all our coverage from the London Film Festival here .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN365: Isabella Eklöf Exposes the Rot Beneath the Glitzy Veneer of Power & Money in Unflinching Debut ‘Holiday’

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An assured debut feature which despite its frank depiction of sexual violence never slips into the male gaze and in fact, purposely turns the tables on the long problematic trope of the femme fatale, Holiday from Swedish Writer/Director Isabella Eklöf , uses the life of glitzy excesses experienced on the Turkish Rivera by a newly minted gangster girlfriend as an indictment of ultra-liberal capitalism – where beneath the veneer of wealth and beauty lies the dark reality of a world in which violence rules and money talks. DN spoke to Isabella at the London Film Festival about our problematic attraction to power, the importance of trust when staging a rape scene and why she took the long way round to feature directing. Holiday (2018) Young and beautiful Sascha discovers her dream life of luxury, recklessness and fun comes at a price when she is welcomed into the “family” of her drug lord boyfriend at his holiday villa in the port city of Bodrum on the Turkish Riveria. Physical and psychological violence are a way of life for this gangster family, but when the velvet veneer is stripped raw to the bone, Sascha’s eye drifts towards the “normal” life she is leaving behind – is it possible she could still be accepted by polite society? I suffered from being a woman and also difficult, I feel like you can choose one or the other. Subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast to hear our LFF filmmaker interviews. You can also catch up on all our coverage from the London Film Festival here .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN364: Philippe Faucon Contemplates the Loneliness of Economic Migration in French Drama ‘Amin’

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Our penultimate interview from this year’s London Film Festival , DN speaks to veteran French Director Philippe Faucon about his story of economic separation and loneliness, Amin . Shot in Senegal and France, and featuring a predominately non-professional cast, Philippe discusses why working with non-actors is an integral part of his process and the power of cinema to enable audiences to connect with lives outside of their day to day experiences. Amin (2018) Amin came from Senegal nine years ago to work in France, leaving behind his wife Aïsha and their three children. His work is his life, his friends the men who live with him in the social home. Aïsha sees her husband only once or twice a year, for a week or two, sometimes a month. She accepts this situation as a necessity: the money that Amin sends to Senegal provides for several people. One day, Amin meets Gabrielle and a relationship starts between them. At first, Amin is reserved. There is the language barrier, his modesty. So far, separated from his wife, he has led a life devoted to duty and knew he had to remain vigilant. Cinema can express things in a way no other art form can. Subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast to hear our LFF filmmaker interviews. You can also catch up on all our coverage from the London Film Festival here .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN363: Sara Colangelo Tracks a Destructive Spiral of Obsession in Feature Thriller ‘The Kindergarten Teacher’

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During our time at the London Film Festival DN took the opportunity to speak to Director Sara Colangelo about her adaptation of Nadav Lapid’s critically acclaimed 2014 feature The Kindergarten Teacher , starring Maggie Gyllenhaal in what has been heralded by many as a career-best performance. In the following interview, Sara discusses the advantages of a Netflix release, how she deployed thriller stylistic traits to convey the inner psychology of her troubled lead and why directing is less being an onset dictator and more about facilitating conditions which enable cast and crew to perform at their peak. The Kindergarten Teacher (2018) When a Staten Island kindergarten teacher discovers what may be a gifted five-year-old student in her class, she becomes fascinated with the child – spiralling downward on a dangerous and desperate path in order to nurture his talent. I don’t think I would have taken on an adaptation had I felt that I couldn’t give something unique to it. Subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast to hear our LFF filmmaker interviews. You can catch up on all our coverage from the London Film Festival here .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN362: A Troubled Imposter Tries to Find Her Way Home in Christina Choe’s Psychodrama ‘Nancy’

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DN heads back to the London Film Festival for an interview we recorded with Director Christina Choe whose feature debut, the psychodrama Nancy , picked up the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance earlier this year. In our interview we speak to Christina about the difficulties of securing financing for films led by complex female protagonists, gathering a more than enviable cast of well respected actors her first time out and how her documentary films inform her fiction work. Nancy (2018) Nancy is a provocative psychological thriller about love, intimacy, and trust – and what happens when lies become truth. Craving connection with others, Nancy creates elaborate identities and hoaxes under pseudonyms on the internet. When she meets a couple whose daughter went missing thirty years ago, fact and fiction begin to blur in Nancy’s mind, and she becomes increasingly convinced these strangers are her real parents. As their bond deepens, reasonable doubts give way to willful belief – and the power of emotion threatens to overcome all rationality. Nancy is available on DVD & digital download now. The character was messy and morally ambiguous and challenging. Subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast to hear our LFF filmmaker interviews. You can also catch up on all our coverage from the London Film Festival here .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN361: Erik Poppe Forces Us to Experience Norway’s Terror Attack First Hand in One-Shot Feature ‘Utøya – July 22’

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A rightfully grueling and all-encompassing viewing experience, Erik Poppe’s Utøya: July 22 depicts in real time the violent tragedy of the 2011 Utøya summer camp massacre in Norway, which saw a heavily armed right-wing extremist take the lives of 69 youths over the course of a relentless 72 minutes. We spoke to Erik at the London Film Festival about why it was important to tell this story from the perspective of the victims and survivors, and how his desire to represent the weight of time for those trapped on the island as a tangible element of the film led him to capture the events of that day in a single unbroken take. Utøya – July 22 (2018) A teenage girl struggles to survive and to find her younger sister during the July 2011 terrorist mass murder at a political summer camp on the Norwegian island of Utøya. I wanted it to be as truthful as possible. Subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast to hear our LFF filmmaker interviews. You can also catch up on all our coverage from the London Film Festival here .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN360: London Film Festival 2018 – Female Filmmaker Panel

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LFF Female Filmmaker Panel (left to right) Jessica Hynes, Sara Blecher, Arantxa Echevarria, Dyana Winkler, Soudade Kadaan & Sam Baker Today on the podcast we bring you audio from the London Film Festival’s Female Filmmaker Panel chaired by The Pool founder Sam Baker and comprising filmmakers Arantxa Echevarria (Carmen and Lola), Sara Blecher (Mayfair), Dyana Winkler (United Skates), Soudade Kadaan (The Day I Lost My Shadow) and Jessica Hynes (The Fight). This inspiring panel spoke candidly about their experiences as women filmmakers from both narrative and documentary disciplines. As well as discussing the various impediments they’ve had to surmount due to their gender to get their films made, the panel also identifies strategies which everyone in the film industry can employ to help level the playing field for all. Men get production grants but women get post-production grants because they’ll only give you the money once they see you are capable of doing it! Thanks to the London Film Festival for granting us permission to share this audio. Subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast to hear our LFF filmmaker interviews. You can also catch up on all our coverage from the London Film Festival here .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN359: Matthew Jones Charts the Rise, Fall & Redemption of James Lavelle in ‘The Man from Mo’Wax’

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10 years in the making and spanning three decades in the life and career of underground DJ, music producer and record label owner James Lavelle, feature documentary The Man from Mo’Wax provides a compelling look at the foundation and implosion of one of the 90s most influential record labels and the driven man behind it who made careers, hits and a fair amount of enemies along the way. I sat down with first time feature director Matthew Jones to discuss the many hurdles he surmounted to bring James Lavelle’s warts and all story to screen. The Man from Mo’Wax (2016) The Man from Mo’Wax is the story of one teenager’s ambition to passionately pursue creating quality music at any cost and the friendships, fall outs, successes and failures that come with it. Spanning three decades with exclusive access to personal home footage, we get the rare opportunity to watch a boy become a man in the world of music. Witnessing him experience a whirlwind journey of personal and professional highs and lows. From the rapid rise of his record label Mo’Wax, to becoming a millionaire by the age of 21 and forming the super band UNKLE, with DJ Shadow. This is a profile of one man’s constant battle between art and commerce and how to survive as he continually strives for more. How do you follow that level of success? How do you top that notoriety when you’ve had probably the biggest thing that could happen to anyone at such a young age? The Man from Mo’Wax hits UK cinemas tomorrow and you can pre-order the film and soundtrack here .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN358: Luca Dipierro Animates the Death of a Band in ‘Rising. A Requiem For Father Murphy’

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Rising. A Requiem For Father Murphy heralds the final curtain call for experimental music duo Father Murphy . Right there with them for a large portion of that journey has been Portland-based, Italian artist (and multiple DN alum ) Luca Dipierro , in a circular creative relationship which has seen Luca provide visuals for Father Murphy’s songs and the Italian two-some score Luca’s film work. Today, Luca and Father Murphy’s Chiara Lee & Freddie Murphy join us on the Directors Notes podcast to look back at the origins of their fruitful collaboration and reveal details of their largest project to date, a feature animation film called The Cadence . Rising. A Requiem For Father Murphy (2018) Animating a medley of pieces from the album Rising. A Requiem For Father Murphy, this is the fifth and final chapter in a pentalogy of films created by Artist Luca Dipierro for Italian duo Father Murphy. When you are in a corner you have to come up with something, I think creativity works that way.…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN357: James Erskine Documents the Awe-Inspiring Artistic, Athletic & Societal Struggle of ‘The Ice King’

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Today we bring you an interview with emmy-nominated filmmaker James Erskine who’s feature documentary The Ice King hits UK cinemas and VOD today and tells the captivating story of John Curry, a man who not only redefined the sport of figure skating whilst being the first openly gay Olympian at a time when homosexuality was far from accepted but also elevated ice skating into an exalted art form in its own right. John shares how he crafted a story about artistic, athletic and societal struggle and reveals why The Ice King is only the first in a multi-step plan to celebrate the rebellious brilliance of John Curry on screen. The Ice King (2018) The greatest ice skater of all time, John Curry transformed ice skating from a dated sport into an exalted art form. Coming out on the night of his Olympic win in 1976, he became the first openly gay Olympian in a time when homosexuality was not even fully legal. Toxic yet charming; rebellious yet elitist; emotionally aloof yet spectacularly needy; ferociously ambitious yet bent on self-destruction, this is a man forever on the run: from his father’s ghost, his country, and even his own self. Above all, an artist and an athlete whose body time and time again –sometimes against his will– becomes a political battlefield. I’m using sport as the stage upon which the human dramas play out.…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN356: Dustin Guy Defa Weaves a Whimsical Tapestry of New York Stories in Ensemble Feature ‘Person to Person’

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If we crossed paths in 2011 it’s more likely than not I chewed your ear off about how taken I was with Dustin Guy Defa’s debut feature Bad Fever , a film that topped my list of favourites for that year . Needless to say, I’ve been eagerly awaiting Dustin’s follow up which made its appearance at the London Film Festival this year. I took the opportunity to catch up with Dustin to discuss film formats, his changing perspectives on life and filmmaking, and how he continued to hone his skills and directorial voice between features by constantly making shorts – one of which became the well received precursor to his new feature Person to Person . Person to Person (2017) A record collector hustles for a big score while his heartbroken roommate tries to erase a terrible mistake, a teenager bears witness to her best friend’s new relationship, and a rookie reporter, alongside her demanding supervisor, chases the clues of a murder case involving a life-weary clock shop owner. I’m lighter than I was when I made Bad Fever. For more, be sure to check out DN’s full 2017 London Film Festival coverage .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN355: A Prima Ballerina Fights for Relevance & Perfection in Birgitte Stærmose’s Psycho Thriller ‘Darling’

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DN returns to our London Film Festival coverage where we got to spend time with award winning Danish Director Birgitte Stærmose to discuss Darling , her intense story of pain and perfection which unfolds in the demanding world of professional ballet. In our interview Birgitte describes how her decision to take a naturalistic and inventive approach to filming, which avoided repetition in shot setups across takes, infused the edit with a wealth of dynamic material. Darling (2017) Darling is a world-famous Danish ballerina. After a long absence, she and her husband Frans return to the Royal Danish Ballet in Copenhagen to perform the classic ballet “Giselle”. She will dance the title role with Frans as choreographer. During a rehearsal, Darling collapses in pain. Try as she may to deny it, the prognosis is clear: her hip is irreparably damaged. She will never dance again. Her professional life, her world, is in ruins. But Darling refuses to let go. She decides to train her replacement, a young ballerina named Polly, to make Polly the Giselle she can no longer be. But as Polly becomes the center of attention, of Frans’ attention, Darling’s emotional stability begins to unravel. I don’t think that artistic achievement comes without a price and I don’t think it should! For more, be sure to check out DN’s full 2017 London Film Festival coverage .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN354: An English Boxer Fights to Survive a Brutal Thai Prison in Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s ‘A Prayer Before Dawn’

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I first spoke to Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire at the London Film Festival back in 2012 about his troubled teenage angst feature Punk and had the pleasure of catching up with the French Director once again at this year’s festival to discuss A Prayer Before Dawn – his latest skirmish into the world of violence, which recounts the harrowing true story of Billy Moore, an English boxer incarcerated for three years in one of Thailand’s most notorious prisons. A Prayer Before Dawn (2017) The remarkable true story of Billy Moore, a young English boxer incarcerated for 3 years in one of Thailand’s most notorious prisons. He is quickly thrown into a world of drugs and gang violence, but when the prison authorities allow him to take part in the Muay Thai boxing tournaments, Billy realizes that this is his only hope for survival. I immediately fell in love with this guy because he’s violent in a certain way but really sensitive and vulnerable also. For more, be sure to check out DN’s full 2017 London Film Festival coverage .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN353: Rob Curry & Tim Plester Herald the Rebirth of a Folk Legend in ‘The Ballad of Shirley Collins’

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Seeing that DN alumni Rob Curry and Tim Plester (who previously joined us on the podcast to discuss Tempest and Way of the Morris respectively) were premiering their new film at the London Film Festival , I jumped at the opportunity to finally get them in a room together to talk about their fruitful co-directorial work. And so, we take a deep dive into the creation of their new feature, The Ballad of Shirley Collins , a lyrical documentary about the 20th century’s most important singer of English traditional song and her battle to rise again from long silent ashes after losing the ability to sing in the prime of her career over 40 years ago. The Ballad of Shirley Collins (2017) A lyrical response to the life-and-work of folk music icon Shirley Collins, the High Queene of English Folk. A Singer and Song-Collector. Silent for almost 40 years. Ready to reclaim her voice. We decided pretty much from the get go that we didn’t want to make a traditional biopic or a ‘folkumentary’. For more, be sure to check out DN’s full 2017 London Film Festival coverage .…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN352: In Conversation with Legendary Filmmaker Chris Shepherd

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Even though we deeply love the work of every filmmaker we feature here on Directors Notes, it’s a rare honour to get to talk to someone responsible for shaping and expanding our collective outlook as to the creative possibilities of the cinematic form. Multi-award winning Director Chris Shepherd firmly fits in that category – first transfixing us with the eye watering comedy of Big Train’s 43rd World Stare-out Championship Finals and then terrifying us with the senseless violence of 2003’s groundbreaking combined animation/live action short Dad’s Dead . During my time at last month’s Encounters festival I had the pleasure of sitting down with Chris to reflect on his celebrated career, a return to violence in Dad’s Dead sequel Johnno’s Dead , his massively collaborative project Yours Faithfully, Edna Welthorpe (Mrs) and hope for a return to the World Stare-out Championships . Johnno’s Dead (2017) Serving twelve years behind bars for a crime you didn’t comit focuses the mind. Everything becomes crystal clear. All of the injustice poisons the soul and there’s nothing left but to settle old scores. I always wanted to sell out but nobody would have me.…

Independent Film Podcast Interviews

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DN351: Future Shock! Paul Goodwin & Sean Hogan Unearth the Untold Story of Anarchic Comic 2000AD

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Whether you’re a lifelong reader of seminal British weekly comic 2000AD or have never heard of it, chances are that its anarchic sensibilities run through the DNA of much of the media you consume on a daily basis. 2000AD is title which nurtured the early talents of comic titans such as Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Neil Gaiman, to name a few, whose work then went on to influence generations of creators across numerous fields. Made with heart and a desire to set the far reaching influence of 2000AD on the record, Paul Goodwin and Sean Hogan’s feature documentary Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD , takes a deep dive into the unruly history of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic. With a new feature packed BluRay edition of the film out this week, I sat down with Paul and Sean to discuss how they brought this untold story to screen. Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD (2014) Future Shock! tells the story of 2000AD: a UK science-fiction comic that changed the face of the comics industry. First published in 1977, it was violent, anti-authoritarian, blackly funny and above all, idiosyncratically British. Future Shock! offers an comprehensive overview of the magazine’s history: a warts and all look at the various highs and lows, a peek inside the creative process of some of its most famous creators, and a funny, moving and passionate chronicle of how a band of talented eccentrics came together to create a visionary and extraordinary comic that is still a game-changer 40 years on. We wanted to do something that we gave a shit about ourselves. Subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast in iTunes , Stitcher or by searching for us in your favourite podcasting app.…

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