FRED Film Radio - English Channel

Jonas Odell is one of the guests of Animation cinema: AnReal, the section at the 43° Bergamo Film Meeting dedicated to animated documentaries.

As in the last decade, the interest in animated non-fictional storytelling has become increasingly evident carving out an important space for itself even within sectoral festivals such as DOK Leipzig (for documentary cinema) or Annecy (for animated cinema), the 43°BFM decided to explore the new trends of animated cinema.

In particular, through Animation cinema: AnReal, the festival, taking place from March 8 to 16, will embark on a journey of discovery through animated documentaries.

Along with filmmaker Alexander Lahl who will also attend the Festival, Jonas Odell will not only present his remarkable “Tussilago” but will also hold a conversation on the development of animated documentary.

In “Tussilago”, Odell tells the story of “A”, arrested because she was the former partner of Norbert Kröcher, a West German terrorist who in 1977 was imprisoned on suspicion of planning the kidnapping of Swedish politician Anna-Greta Leijon.

In this case, animation fosters the need to hide the woman’s identity: remaining in service, yes, but simultaneously elevating the subject matter at hand.

The post Jonas Odell, interview with the protagonist of Animation cinema: AnReal at the 43° Bergamo Film Meeting appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

At the 43rd BFM FRED Film Radio interviewed Christian Petzold, a leading exponent of the “Berlin School”, featured in Europe, Now!, the section of the Bergamo Film Meeting dedicated to contemporary European cinema.

The role on cinema in a divided Europe

Christian Petzold is the son of emigrants from East Germany and in his first short films he told the story of the changes brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall. Today Europe is crossed by great divisions, what role does he think cinema can have? “Some days ago I had a panel in Berlin between an East German filmmaker and me as a West German filmmaker whose parents are immigrants. We talked about cinema and the perspective we have had on our own countries on the East and on the West side and how we wew thinking about the other side behind the wall.And I think this conversation was fantastic because we have one language, we are living in the same country, but we have totally different perspectives. Europe is something based on different perspectives and we have to be aware of these different perspectives and not to have just one”.

The contemporaneity of past history

History has always been present in Christian Petzold‘s movies. An element through which to reflect on our past and memory. “I don’t like historical movies so much when they try to make a reenactment of something from the past. I don’t like actors who are playing Napoleon or so”, says the director. “For me the things which have happened in the past are just in our contemporary times too. I think cinema is a little bit like a city. We have old houses, new houses, we have ruins and scares, and we have contemporary times with their utopian things and their desires. My historical movies are always contemporary movies. The people from the past and the ideas of the past are a little bit like ghosts who want to come to communicate with us”.

Women are survivors

Women often play a central role in his movies. What do they allow Christian Petzold to explore? “Some years ago, before Claude Chabrol died, I was in Venice and met him”, remember the director. “I watched an interview he had given in which they asked him why there were always female characters in his movies? He said: ‘Men are living and women are surviving. And cinema is always about surviving’. I think female characters are survivors and cinema is always interested in survivors”.

The lesson of Neorealism

One of the directors featured in Europe, Now! at the Bergamo Film Meeting, Christian Petzold is one of the leading ones of contemporary European cinema. But when he was an aspiring director, who were the ones who inspired him? “I had lived in Sesto San Giovanni, in Milan, when I was a young student”, remember the director. “In this time one of my favorite movies was ‘La Notte’ by Michelangelo Antonioni. And in this movie he is remembering himself to the times of Neorealism, a movement where Italy, after the fascism, tried to understand who we are, what we are, where we are living, why we are living. And cinema it’s the art to understand what is happening, what we are dreaming of, what is our desire, what we have done. Neo realism is for me the most important time of cinema”.

A new film

After “Afire”, Christian Petzold is back behind the camera for a new film that he has just finished shooting. “It’s about a young student and she is in a depression crisis. Then she has an accident with her boyfriend and he dies. And there was an older woman near this accident place. She is living in a house by her own and she takes this girl with her to her house and they are living together like a mother and daughter. But something is wrong with their relationship”.

The post Bergamo Film Meeting: interview with director Christian Petzold appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

Czech screenwriter and director Alice Nellis is Bergamo Film Meeting’s protagonist of Europe, Now!, the section dedicated to contemporary European auteur cinema.

Along with german Director Christian Petzold, Nellis will present, at the Festival, her complete filmography including her famous “Ene bene – Eeny Meeny”, 2000, “Tajnosti – Little Girl Blue”, 2007 and “Buko”, 2022.

Her feature debut, “Ene bene” (Eeny Meeny, 2000), a tragicomedy exploring family relationships in a small Czech community during local elections, won the Best Screenplay award at the FAMU Festival and the bronze Rosa Camuna ex-aequo at the 18th edition of Bergamo Film Meeting. This success marked Nellis as an emerging voice in European cinema.

About her comeback at the 43rd Bergamo Film Meeting she says: “BFM marked the start, back in 2000, of my professional international career so it’s an honor to be back”

Along her career she explored, through her films and TV Series, themes like the coming-of-age, parenthood, motherhood and dysfunctional families.

The director who recently returned to TV co-writing and co-directing with “Jiří Havelka” for the miniseries “Náhradníci”(Surrogates), comments on the challenges and developments of cinema narratives and TV narratives.

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PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla, director of An Insignificant Man from the 60th BFI London Film Festival.

Who is Arvind Kejriwal? In short, he was an outsider that successfully infiltrated Indian politics and went from being a whistleblower to a representative of the people in the Indian elections. Kejriwal, regarded a controversial and outspoken figure in Indian politics, is also the central subject of the documentary An Insignificant Man, directed and produced by Khushboo Ranka, Vinay Shukla, who we met with for an interview at the 60th BFI London Film Festival, where the film was screened in teh documentary competition.

They give us portrait of the man, who might be unfamiliar to international audiences, which is why we also ask them how they came to know that An Insignificant man would tell a story that could indeed be told to an international audience. We ask them about the filmmaking process, how they were able to get so close to Kejriwal and his party and whether they encountered any hostility during the filming.

AN INSIGNIFICANT MAN. This compelling documentary becomes a riveting political thriller as it delves deeper into the governmental machinations of India, the world’s largest democracy. The filmmakers were given unlimited access to the nascent political career of Arvind Kejriwal, from fiery activist calling for new anti-corruption laws to a controversial politician and the face of the latest force in Indian politics: The Common Man’s Party (AAP). Kejriwal is a charismatic but flawed hero, representing the public’s rage with the political elite as he reveals how inequality is engineered through back-door cronyism and neoliberal capitalism. It’s a classic David vs Goliath scenario, with Kejriwal’s appeal and the seemingly unstoppable trajectory of his populist bandwagon creating a power shake-up that brings him into conflict with India’s mighty political establishment. As tensions escalate and sinister elements enter the fray, the AAP become subject to increased pressure from all sides and finds itself fighting for survival.

The post Khushboo Ranka, Vinay Shukla – An Insignificant Man #LFF2016 appeared first on Fred Film Radio.

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Ed Lachman, jury president of the 34th Torino Film Festival.

To listen to the interview, click on the ► icon on the right, just above the picture

Ed Lachman is the President of the Jury at the 34th Torino Film Festival. To his work as cinematographer we owe the poetic realism of masterpieces like the greatest film directed by Todd Haynes: Far Away from Heaven, I’m not there, the miniseries Mildred Pierce and the melò Carol. Lachman defines the elements and aspects he looks for while watching a film and in Turin while judging it and reveals who are the colleague cinematographers that he appreciates the most: Luca Bigazzi ( in his partnership with Sorrentino), Vittorio Storaro, Dick Pope, the 2016 Gran Premio Torino Christopher Doyle and last but not least Gianni Di Venanzo, considered the father of italian cinematography.

Ed Lachman. President of the jury Edward Lachman – ASC (USA) is a revered and award-winning cinematographer who has collaborated with directors such as Todd Haynes, Steven Soderbergh, Robert Altman, Sofia Coppola, Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders, Volker Schlöndorff and Jean-Luc Godard, among others. He is also a visual artist who has exhibited in many museums and galleries throughout the world. His work in Far From Heaven (2002) and Carol (2015) garnered him two Academy Award nominations and he received an Emmy nomination for the HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce (2011). In addition to fiction films, he has also worked in documentaries and experimental genres.

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