Ellen Goosenberg Kent: Anastasia, Afghan Dreamers

Episode #37 - Ellen Goosenberg Kent is an Oscar winning documentarian who knows how to produce a compelling story first and foremost. She is always interested in the price paid by common people going against difficult odds, often fighting government systems often unintentionally. She is incredible in her long and varied work. We had the pleasure to talk with her at Nitehawk Cinema - Williamsburg in front of a live studio audience while we screened the documentary.

For her short, Ellen brought MTV short Anastasia. Activist Anastasia Shevchenko was accused of being a threat to Russian state. She was kept under house arrest for two years. Sarah McCarthy’s short documentary tells the story of a civil rights advocate and single mother who longs to see her children grow up in a free society in a deeply personal account of her family and the sometimes unseen cost of activism. The movie is a deeply humanizing tale of the price paid by a woman struggling for freedom and her family’s safety and peace of mind.

Host Justin Joseph Hall and Ellen Goosenberg Kent - Photo by Piper Werle

The feature Ellen chose is her latest, Afghan Dreamers also courtesy of MTV. During the screening Nitehawk’s chefs served a mouthwatering combination: Sheer Chai, an Afghani Salad, and Kabuli Palaw.

Through the story of a robotics team in Afghanistan, Afghan Dreamers recounts the advancements of women in the country since the American invasion and the effects of the Taliban taking over after the Americans left. Using various stock footage of government officials, the story of these high school students is a rollercoaster of joy, pain, hard work, and the country’s struggle for women’s rights in a conservative society.

See Afghan Dreamers on Paramount + in 2023.

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Editor - Billie Joe Laitenin

Sound Mixer - Brian Trahan

Sound Mixing Assistant - Hans Bilger

Lead Marketing Agent - Isabel Restrepo

Event Space - Nitehawk Cinema - Williamsburg

Photographer - Piper Werle

Sponsors: Documentarian Emanuele Mengotti & the documentary Stranger at the Gate by Joshua Seftel.

The theme song of Season 6 is Getting It Done by Kevin MacLeod.

Shirley Venard: The Railroad Lady, Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter

Episode #36 - Shirley Venard is an incredible Minneapolis-based actress who uses her life experiences to embody a character. She’s kind, thoughtful, and a teacher. She loves to tell stories which is why we love her.

Shirley brought Oscar-winning short movie The Railroad Lady (La Femme et la TGV). The first tale of a lonely woman in this pairing. Shirley looked at the great actresses of the 1900’s to find her short and her and Justin talk of Jane’s fake orgasm that made her famous.

The feature Shirley chose is the Zellner Brother’s Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter. The Japanese, Texas made movie that was largely shot in Minnesota. It was a Sundance Film Festival favorite, making Minnesota & Japan look beautiful on the silver screen.

See Shirley Venard’s work in our short movie Prologue. In the forecast to look forward to please check out the award-winning series Marcellus Hall an Artist in New York City which is playing around the world in 2022.

Shirley Venard at the Question & Answer with host Justin Joseph Hall

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Editor - Billie Joe Laitenin

Sound Mixer - Brian Trahan

Sound Mixing Assistant - Hans Bilger

Lead Marketing Agent - Isabel Restrepo

Event Space - The Woman’s Club in Minneapolis

Photographers - Dakota & Dorie Hall

The theme song of Season 6 is Getting It Done by Kevin MacLeod.

Ilaria Polsonetti: Dulce, Black South Rising: Inside Charlotte's Mostly Black and Brown Government

Episode #33 - Ilaria Polsonetti is an Emmy nominated Editor of documentary films. She creates smooth edits in her edits and enjoys creativity in her work. She is kind and collaborative in her process which she goes through today in our episode.

Ilaria brought the New York Times OpDoc Dulce. It’s an ideal documentary for Ilaria that has patience, fantastic locations and subjects, and great sound. It’s an example of the documentaries she would always love to work on in a Direct Cinema style slice of life.

The feature Ilaria chose is VICE’s Black South Rising: Inside Charlotte's Mostly Black and Brown Government. Ilaria and her VICE team put together the time after the killing of Keith Lamont Scott by the police in Charlotte, North Carolina documenting the change in the government as more people of color ran for office. It was an emotional screening that shows what it is like when new people take place of old governments.

Learn more about Ilaria Polsonetti and her work on her website. In the forecast to look forward to please check out host Justin Joseph Hall on With Nothing to Say chatting about his entry into film and how he shaped his career.

Credits for podcast:

Production Company - Fourwind Films

Appointed Contributor - Ilaria Polsonetti

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Sound Mixer & Additional Music - Brian Trahan

Line Producer - Laura Davi

The theme song of Season 5 is This Monster by Sun Nectar

Rebecca Stern: Snowy, The Thin Blue Line

Episode #32 - Meet Rebecca Stern, a director and producer of documentary films. She has absolutely soared in her career since one of her first jobs as a Production Coordinator on the Oscar-nominated feature documentary Cartel Land. Her directorial debut Well Groomed is now streaming on HBO. Rebecca, or Becky, is open, humble, and a delight to talk with.

Our appointed contributors for Feature & a short are asked to choose one short and one feature, and they have to have been involved with one of them but not the other. Rebecca brings the sleeper success Snowy. This documentary short about a pet turtle named Snowy whose owner embarks on a journey to find what would make him happy got into Sundance after a cold submission. We discuss what it’s like to get into Sundance, funding short films, and what Rebeca thinks needs to evolve in that process.

The feature is The Thin Blue Line, a film Becky had never seen — though she has worked on films about the legal system and incarceration in the US.

Learn more about Rebecca Stern and her work on her website.

And keep an eye on a Fourwind Films short-form documentary series coming soon: Marcellus Hall: An Artist in New York City.

Appointed contributor, Rebecca Stern.

Credits for podcast:

Production Company - Fourwind Films

Appointed Contributor - Rebecca Stern

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Sound Mixer & Additional Music - Brian Trahan

Line Producer - Laura Davi

The theme song of Season 5 is This Monster by Sun Nectar

Megan Masur: We're All Alright, Short Term 12

Episode #29 - Meet Megan Masur, a Brooklyn-based Director of Photography and Steadicam operator. She’s an incredible utility person with a ton of technical experience having worked in animation, as a DIT, and as a camera assistant while building towards her career as a cinematographer. Fourwind Films has had the pleasure of hiring Megan for a number of projects, including as a Camera Op for Prologue.

Megan chose a short film she shot called We’re All Alright, which she fell in love with as soon as she finished reading the script. She talks about the film’s central themes of depression and female friendship, what it was like working with a majority female team, and the challenges of filming on a fire escape.

For the feature film, Megan stuck to the theme of mental health with Short Term 12, about young staff members working at a foster care facility. It’s an independent film that continues to find fans years after its release (2013) and is also known for its phenomenal ensemble of now critically acclaimed actors including Lakeith Stanfield, Brie Larson, Kaitlyn Dever, John Gallagher Jr., and Rami Malek.

Megan’s advocacy for films and open discussion about mental health is evident in her curation for this podcast. We appreciate her coming on for this episode during a time where so many people can benefit from viewing and discussing these kinds of stories. Follow Megan’s work on Instagram, and by watching Prologue at the IndieBOOM festival from Dec. 21 - Jan. 3, 2021.

Megan Masur at the fully-masked, limited capacity, Feature & a short podcast recording. If voices sound a tad muffled, now you know why!

Credits for podcast:

Production Company - Fourwind Films

Appointed Contributor - Megan Masur

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Sound Mixer & Additional Music - Brian Trahan

The theme song of Season 4 is Loopster by Kevin MacLeod.

Justin Joseph Hall: Prologue, The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Episode #28 - There’s a connection between 70’s cult classic “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and Justin Joseph Hall’s directorial debut, “Prologue,” which he gets into this episode of Feature & a short. After watching the two films, Justin answers audience questions. He shares what it was like collaborating with writer Piper Werle on Prologue’s script, how locations are characters in themselves, the casting process, and horror movies that explore the fear of having children.

Prologue is a multiple award-winning short film charged with secrets and terrible communication skills. It follows Julie, a young Italian immigrant living in Northern California who is perfectly happy in her marriage until she stops being able to go along with what her husband wants. With the unexpected help of an elderly stranger who thinks Julie is someone she is not, the young newlywed navigates how to live her truth.

Starring - Claudia de Candia, Shawn Thomas Diefenbach, Shirley Venard, Ariel Woodiwiss

Screenwriter - Piper Werle

Assistant Director - Kate Branom

Assistant Producer, Set Photographer - Daria Huxley

Producer - Ricky Rosario

Cinematographer - Gary Jaquez

Director, Editor, Colorist - Justin Joseph Hall

Justin Joseph Hall is an award-winning, multilingual Director and founder of Fourwind Films and Quatre-Vents.  His work has been acquired by major television networks such as HBO and he’s worked as a lead creative on projects that received awards at The Emmys, TriBeCa Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, and more.

His many years in the industry allowed him to guide audiences through unforgettable thought and emotional experiences working primarily as a Director and Editor.  He has held positions as Editor for networks such as HBO, NBCUniversal, and PBS.  At Downtown Community Television he helped pitch and develop the show Axios (2018-2021), the Emmy-winning documentary series.  Abuela’s Luck (2018) was picked up by all HBO’s streaming platforms and slated to be adapted into a full-length feature movie.   His mastery of post-production and the visual arts has awarded him opportunities to work with Major League Baseball, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, National Geographic, Discovery, and BMW, to name a few.

Justin’s work as a Director has procured awards.  Prologue (2020) is a superb, surreal exploration of relationships and miscommunication winning Best of Awards at Manhattan Film Festival and Worldfest Houston International Film Festival.  His docu-series on creative careers, Artist & the City (2021) won 6 awards including the Audience Award for Best Series at YoFiFest.

Justin believes in two things: diverse perspectives help solve complex problems and that first rate execution of an idea matters more than the idea itself.  That’s why since he hit the ground running into his career in 2008 and he has directed and managed a talented workforce from New York to Paris to Tokyo.  

Since 2014 under Justin’s direction, Fourwind Films creates high fidelity media exploring statistically underrepresented perspectives.  It’s sister company, Quatre-Vents was created in 2022 to help create a greater Post-Production industry in his home state of Minnesota.  He disrupts the redundant motion picture industry with relevant, fresh perspectives, including his own.

Justin Joseph Hall, owner of Fourwind Films and this episode’s contributor, dressed for a viewing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Host - Laura Davi

Sound - Brian Trahan

Theme song of Season 4 is Loopster by Kevin MacLeod.

Piper Werle: Veronica, The Last Unicorn

Episode #19 - Piper Werle is a writer and producer who loves the genre of fantasy in films. Her script’s dialogue always tickles your ribs and catches you off-guard. She uses the themes of fantasy and integrates them with accessible progressive ideas.

Piper’s short she contributed was her first film she had written and produced for the silver screen after many years writing for the stage. The short is called Veronica after the lead character’s name. It’s about the descendants of the mythical Greek Sirens. Piper uses practical effects and movie magic to bring the audience into the fantasy realm. The story is about dating a topic nearly anyone can relate to.

The Last Unicorn, the feature Piper brought, has a star studded cast including Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury, Jeff Bridges, & Alan Arkin. It follows the story of a unicorn alone in the world who travels through the forest and to different kingdoms. It is also a fantastical story and has lots of hints at being created in the 1980’s. The animation style really has beautiful depictions of nature and its script includes funny names and silly quotes throughout the entirety of the movie.

Piper’s laugh is contagious so enjoy! Check out more of her work in our upcoming short Prologue, which she also wrote and worked as the Production Designer.

Piper Werle - Writer/Producer

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Sound Mix & Additional Music - Brian Trahan

Theme song of Season 4 is Johnny's Tune In Waltz by Salitros’ Ridin’ Rainbow.

Inga Moren: Luz Marina, I'm So Excited!

Episode #15 - Inga Moren is a joy to have in the edit studio. She’s a vibrant character who knows how to articulate her thoughts and feelings on any subject. She works as an editor, writes, and directs experimental film. She’s also worked on camera crews, post-production processing, and so much more. Originally from Colombia, she currently makes money from Universal Studios.

Inga brought her new film Luz Marina an experimental short that explores the cults of modern day and the popularity of reality television that we have lived with since the turn of the century. The film moves through spaces and ideas rapidly presenting scenes that bridge the audience from idea to idea, almost like a dream in fast-forward.

Afterwards we were pleasured with the viewing experience of a Pedro Aldomovar film, I’m So Excited! A silly, colorful, and melodramatic film. It recounts several characters on a plane voyage. The story jumps in-between from pilots in the cabin, to the stewards, and the passengers. The film is filled with drinking and bold characters.

Inga’s knowledge of film history and unique vision on what the medium can be helped make this episode especially introspective, not only on the films she presented, but also of the possibilities of using film as a storytelling device itself.

Episode hosted by Justin Joseph Hall.

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Production Company & Location - Fourwind Films

Olga Loginova: Volte, Sacred Leaves

Episode #14 - Olga Loginova is an incredible collaborator  and artist who speaks poetically and with no filter. She is a director, producer, and cinematographer who recently graduated from Columbia where she learned to make scientific documentaries. Originally from Belarus with Russian roots, she has chiseled her vision of a storyteller through rigorous training in Germany, China, and the U.S.A., as well as by traveling and reporting across continents.

She chose the stunning short film Volte, a 10 minute coming of age documentary from Poland. Olga talks about how she resonates with the film because “as a child  I danced, and very soon I became too tall. I was lagging behind because I was too big, too big, too big.” This film is made in the Slavic school of teaching “where every shot is perfect.” Olga describes this film as “the difference between trying to document something and art. This is art.” This eastern European documentary that was picked up by the New York Times Op-Docs.

Olga also brought her feature Sacred Leaves The documentary is about the wonders of the Amazon rainforest and the constant destruction it faces for human profit. Olga talks about how her interest in the Amazon grew from how climate change in Brazil changes people’s lives as it does in her own ancestral lands of Siberia. There are countless adventure stories from her seventeen days of shooting, which she covers in addition to discussing characters who come “once in a century,” and what surprised her most. She shot the film before the wildfires hit, and offers insight into the many sources of deforestation that led to the rainforest’s current state. She plans to return to Brazil in the winter to show the film.

Olga herself is a character who comes once in a lifetime, and we were thrilled to have her international talents. Enjoy the episode.

Episode hosted by Justin Joseph Hall.

Olga Loginova - Director/Cinematographer

Credits:
Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Production Company & Location - Fourwind Films

Andi Obarski: Overslept, Thelma

Episode #13 - Andi Obarski is a cinematographer who brings a great mixture of lightheartedness and practical insight to us not only on this podcast, but also on set. She is a hard worker and a team player more knowledgeable than most.

For her short film Andi chose “Overslept” which is part of an internet series called “Countdown.” The unifying element between each short in Countdown is a character dealing with a serious time constraint. Andi describes the series as “scrappy, Brooklyn indie filmmaking at its finest.” She chose this 4 ½ minute short because there is no dialogue which created a welcome challenge for her as the film's cinematographer. The audience talk with Andi about the type of lighting used, bystanders who didn’t know they were on a film set, Andi’s feelings about what ended up on the cutting room floor, and more.

The feature film is Thelma, an LGBTQ supernatural thriller directed by Joachim Trier. Andi chose the film for its stunning cinematography, and also because “it’s kinda gay. I like that. I like gay things.” We do too, Andi. We do too.

RSVP or inquire at info@fourwindfilms.com about hosting Feature & a short or attending one of our podcast viewing parties. 

Episode hosted by Justin Joseph Hall.

Andi Obarski - Cinematographer

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Production Company & Location - Fourwind Films

Shonali Bhowmik: The Hike, Valley Girl

Episode #11 - Nashville native Shonali Bhowmik graces us with her humor and interesting stories as the appointed contributor. As an Actress, Director and Producer, she’s one of the most charismatic people you will ever meet and is always working on various artistic endeavors. She’s incredibly thoughtful. She also has an incredible network of friends and collaborators that surround her at all times. 

She’s a frequent collaborator with us for the live podcast she hosts with Christian Felix called We Don’t Even Know, and is the director, lead actor, writer and producer of Sardines Out of a Can, a short movie Fourwind helped create before Fourwind was even a company. 

Shonali is also well known in the internet comedy world for the group Variety SHAC which began as a comedic quartet consisting of Shonali, Heather Lawless, Andrea Rosen, and Chelsea Peretti. Our screening took place in Bushwick at Fourwind Films’ headquarters where for her short picture, Shonali presented the SHAC’s latest release, The Hike (2018), which explores the SHAC members meeting up to go on a hike after not seeing each other in a while. During the discussion Shonali celebrates women in film, and sheds light on Variety SHAC’s influences on various comedians in the industry.

For the feature, Shonali presented the Martha Coolidge film Valley Girl (1983). She discusses the casting process for the film that lead to Nicolas Cage playing the lead male. During the film, we had American food which included hot dogs, corn dogs, sushi with peanut butter, and we topped it all off with some prom punch. The episode is a laugh riot and full of references to movie inspired snacks.

Episode hosted by Justin Joseph Hall.

Shonali Bhowmik - Actress/Director/Producer

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Location & Production Company - Fourwind Films

Soundtrack - Salitros Ridin’ Rainbow

Transcript:

00;00;07;25 - 00;01;02;28

Justin Joseph Hall:

Welcome to Season 3 of Feature & a short, where an appointed contributor presents their chosen feature motion picture and a short movie. There's only one condition for the screening, presenter must have been directly involved with one picture, but not the other. This is Justin Joseph Hall, owner of Fourwind Films. 

To kick the season off, our presenter is Shonali Bhowmik, someone who Fourwind Films works with a lot, specifically on the other podcast that we're involved with called We Don’t Even Know that we also have done monthly and for a much longer time. Listeners here, if you guys enjoy this, you should definitely check that out. 

On top of that, before Fourwind was a company, Shonali created a movie that she happily let us be a part of called Sardines Out Of A Can. So we were overjoyed to have her here to talk about some of her other amazing accomplishments, including Variety SHAC for her short picture. And so she decided to present The Hike.

00;01;03;01 - 00;01;38;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

You guys, this is a short film by my comedy group. The SHAC is Shonali, Heather, Andrea, Chelsea. Shonali Bhowmik, Heather Lawless, Andrea Rosen, Chelsea Peretti. The three of them are amazing stand-ups and talents in their own right. Together, we are Variety SHAC. I mean a few years after I moved to New York City, I remember noticing that they always would have one-woman show which is actually good by today's standards even. But I noticed there wasn't a gathering where women were leading the evening, and we used to actually just dance together at the end of the night. It started as a dance group, actually.

00;01;38;00 - 00;01;40;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;01;38;00 - 00;02;15;26

Shonali Bhowmik:

And then, we just started to make short films. 

In the New York City comedy scene, we did really well. We won like a Village Voice award, we were in Time Out and we eventually got some TV pilots. But they live in California, in L.A. I live here. So this past November, after like 5 or 6 years of not making shorts, we got together because we realized we missed each other and still to this day, we don't feel like anyone's making what we made. And um, um, but the main reason I'm sharing this film is because I want to encourage everyone to, to make films on your own.  And this was like very DIY,

00;02;15;26 - 00;03;00;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

we got friends to shoot, friends to edit. Um, another thing that I think is important about this group and it needs to be made clear, these are four women that have now been doing comedy and music and film for a long time. But I think one of the biggest and most important things about sharing our work is that we still keep continuously honoring men and their talent, and there is no part of me that believes there weren't amazing women throughout history that were also leaders in all of these movements of art, and we need to start celebrating these women. So I'm celebrating even though I'm, I'm a member, I'm going to celebrate Variety SHAC with you guys. That's a big reason why I wanted to bring this to you. Yeah. Go ladies!

00;03;00;00 - 00;03;02;00

Audience:

(claps and cheers)

00;03;03;05 - 00;03;08;00

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

After watching The Hike, which easily got the most laughs of any showing

00;03;08;00 - 00;03;11;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;03;09;00 - 00;03;13;29

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

that we've had here on Feature & a short, we had a quick discussion about it.

00;03;14;04 - 00;03;19;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

This only took, really only took an hour and a half.

00;03;20;00

Audience:

Wow. 

00;03;20;00 - 00;03;26;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

To me, that's what's crazy is just like the headspace of like, oh, we're just going to go and get it done and whatever happens, happens.

00;03;27;00

Audience:

Yeah.

00;03;27;00 - 00;03;40;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

And that in a way, lack of pressure is why it's so fun, you know? You're not overthinking. We stop and we evaluate what we just did. And then we, we might do it over to get reaction shots or whatever, right?

00;03;40;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

Okay.

00;03;40;00 - 00;03;51;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

But there's a lot of jump cuts and, like, obvious, like, moments where Heather took off her jacket and, like, she has on a different ja- that’s like, who care- like, it's not about continuity and being perfect

00;03;51;00

Audience:

Yeah.

00;03;51;00 - 00;03;55;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

where the placement of, it's about having fun with your friends.

00;03;54;00

Audience:

Yeah.

00;03;56;00 - 00;04;00;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

The editing process is tough, but it's only, like most of our shorts were six minutes.

00;04;01;04 - 00;04;03;00

Audience:

Sorry, how did the four of you edit it together? 

00;04;03;00 - 00;05;19;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

So there's such a learning curve with this. When it first started, we all four would be in a room with an editor, and that was so intense to have four, five editors? Like, I can't believe now that the editors let us do that. Then, then, then we started getting one lead person from us to sit with the editor and that person would pick clips that were the best and then the other three would come in, and then finally it was each one of us would take turns, then we would write notes.  You know, and, and at the time we were making a short a month and we would share a new short at every one of our live shows at the UCB. 

So we were not just having a live show we had to prepare for, we were also doing this. I mean, that's a lot. We wouldn't even write a script, we would just do beats. But the thing that's so beautiful about working with them is we know each other so well, who precisely is not going to be comfortable, who's going to be angry, who's- it just happens. Even though we're all very uniquely different, we do come from the same place of silliness, absurdist, sort of take, and also like, real talk. So, that's what I'm so proud of, uh, the Variety SHAC for.

00;05;19;00 - 00;05;26;00

Maggie Adeleye:

Uh, you mentioned Fred Armisen and part of some of the like, like y’all’s deadpan and how that, it would like just drop really quickly, really reminded me of Portlandia (chuckles)

00;05;27;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Yeah!

00;05;27;00

Audience:

So (laughs).

00;05;28;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Yes!

00;05;28;00 - 00;05;29;00

Audience:

I really, I really liked that.

00;05;29;00 - 00;06;13;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Thank you. And he, he literally uh texted me months ago and said, you know I'm binge- I'm binge-watching Variety SHAC videos this weekend and I realize how much your work is influenced Portlandia. And I'm like, yeah!  Um, and then Michael Luciano, he’s put this on Twitter recently. He's like, I just wish everyone could see this DVD.

He goes, I was a kid. I think he was a teenager at that time. And he said, I would go to their shows and they really taught me everything about how to make art and to do comedy shows. I started doing it with my friends and now he has an animated show on HBO called Animals. 

00;06;14;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Paul…

00;06;14;00

Audience:

Paul Scheer?

00;06;15;00 - 00;06;16;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Paul Scheer.

00;06;16;00

Audience:

Yeah.

00;06;16;26 - 00;06;25;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

So Paul Scheer, I just found an email from Paul Scheer, uh, trying to buy Variety SHAC V- DVD, VD, DVD

00;06;25;00

Audience:

Oh, really?

00;06;26;00 - 00;06;28;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

like, five times and I didn't see it.

00;06;28;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;06;29;00 - 00;06;30;00

Audience:

Oh, really?

00;06;30;00 - 00;06;36;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

And I, he had to get his money back, I felt so bad. I haven't talked- I mean, this is years. Like, I just noticed this now.

00;06;35;00 - 00;06;36;00

Audience:

Oh, wow.

00;06;36;00 - 00;06;39;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

He tried to purchase it like five years ago.

00;06;39;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;06;39;25 - 00;06;42;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

And I kept seeing, that's Paul Scheer! He’s trying to buy…

00;06;43;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

He really needs…

00;06;43;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Variety-

00;06;43;00 - 00;06;44;00

Justin Joseph Hall:

He really needs the money back.

00;06;44;00 - 00;06;45;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

SHAC DVD.

00;06;45;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;06;46;00 - 00;06;53;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

He got his money back, like they’ll instantly give it to you like, he never got it. But I was like, oh my god we're not even, not even able to, like, sell DVDs

00;06;52;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;06;53;00 - 00;07;19;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

to like famous comedians and movie stars. But um there's only a few people today that, that will celebrate us to the world out like John Early, Kate Berlant, they always, they will say to the world, you guys are our influences. And, and the thing is we don't, you know, we just put it on YouTube and that's the beauty of social media. Like right away, it was like, oh my god, you're back! Thank God,

00;07;19;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;07;19;00 - 00;07;44;25

Shonali Bhowmik:

this is my best day. This is my- the SHAC is back! You know, it was like, so beautiful to see this build of a fanbase that hasn't seen us do something new in five years, you know? That's the beauty of, of making films on your own, of being around good people that have good energy that want to make something.  It's, that’s what's beautiful about art. It’s so beautiful. Guys, I'm gonna cry.

00;07;44;28 - 00;07;49;25

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

After, we got to watch Valley Girl, a romantic comedy from 1983.

00;07;49;29 - 00;07;57;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

I'm so excited to watch this with you guys. This is one of my favorite movies and if you don't like it, just don't tell me. Um,

00;07;57;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;07;58;00 - 00;08;01;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

because I seem to only like people that like this movie.

00;08;01;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;08;02;00 - 00;09;29;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Um, this is done in 1983 and at the time Frank Zappa had just released his song with his daughter called Valley Girl. And this script came into the hands of this director, Martha Coolidge. So she is a female director who went to art school here in New York and this script was called Valley Girl and Frank Zappa did not want it to be produced without his approval, but it didn’t work out. Valley Girl got made. This movie also was the launching pad for Nicolas Cage’s career, and quick story about that because it's so cool, is that when she was casting this movie, she was like, I'm so tired of seeing all the pretty boys.

So she went to the rejection pile headshots. And side note is that Martha Coolidge had been for three years working with Francis Ford Coppola. Uh, he had a film production company called Zoe, Zoetrope, so she knew him well. She finds this one, it says Nic Cage, and she goes, we need somebody like this please, like just get him to come in. And so she says the minute she saw him, you know, she was like, oh my god, he's got to be it. When she asked him to be the lead of this movie, he said, no, I'm sorry, I can't do it, I'm doing this other film named Rumble Fish, I have this small part in this other film. And uh she, she was like, listen Nic, I'm going to make you a star.

00;09;30;03 - 00;09;55;00

You need to be the lead in my movie, I actually am friends with Francis Ford Coppola and I could call him. So she calls Francis Ford Coppola’s production company and she's saying, do you know that you have this guy, Nic Cage? I need to work out his schedule, I want him to be in my movie. She calls a casting person and he's like, we don't have a Nic Cage in Rumble Fish. And uh, and then finally the guy goes, well we have a Nicolas Coppola.

00;09;56;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;09;56;00 - 00;09;57;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

And she was like, what?

00;09;58;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;09;58;00 - 00;10;33;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

And she goes, oh that's Francis’s nephew, you didn't know that? So that was the first time he had sent out Nic Cage to just try to avoid being known as Francis Ford Coppola's nephew and so he got cast without that being known. And this is the launchpad for his career. But this is such a sweet movie. Captures the 80’s, like, so beautifully. And the music, I think, the reason Modern English’s I Melt With You is a song we all know it’s because of this movie. She had no budget, she had $300,000 and they made $18 million off of this movie.

00;10;33;00

Audience:

Wow.

00;10;34;00 - 00;10;37;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Ugh, the clothes, the music, young love, it's just like.

00;10;37;00 - 00;10;38;00

Audience:

Let’s we just watch it?

00;10;38;19 - 00;10;40;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Yes, let's watch it!

00;10;40;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;10;41;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Let’s watch it…

00;10;41;00 - 00;10;50;00

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

As we've been doing this, we are now on our 11th episode. And as we review the films beforehand, I've never seen a film with so much food in it.

00;10;51;00 - 00;10;56;00

Audience:

Did you watch the Valley Girl prepped with like a notepad and like, they take like food and snacks?

00;10;56;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Yeah. 

00;10;56;00 - 10;57;00

Audience:

That's amazing you did that!

00;10;58;00

Audience:

It was like a very…

00;10;58;00 - 00;10;59;00

Audience:

If you watched it

00;10;59;00

Audience

No, I just guessed.

00;11;00;00 - 00;11;01;00

Audience:

Yeah, but you watched it.

00;11;01;00

Audience:

Like.

00;11;01;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;11;03;10 - 00;11;15;00

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

So, we have a ton of American food. Hot dogs, corn dogs, sushi with peanut butter, and we topped it all off with some prom punch in order to imbibe a little bit during the screening.

00;11;15;00 - 00;11;18;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Even like the second round, I was like okay, that’s done, they’re done. And then you’re just like, wait…

00;11;19;00

Audience:

Yeah!

00;11;19;00 - 00;11;21;00

Audience:

I would never have noticed how much food they ate.

00;11;21;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;11;22;00 - 00;11;23;00

Audience:

Right in front of me at the same time-

11;23;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

I’m probably… I noticed…

00;11;25;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

In movies…

00;11;26;00 - 00;11;28;00

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

After, we talked a little bit more about Valley Girl. 

00;11;28;00 - 00;11;33;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Guys, thank you for this. This was amazing to realize there was all this food in this…

00;11;33;00

Audience:

Yeah, guys…

00;11;34;00 - 00;11;35;00

Audience:

I’ve never seen it.

00;11;35;10 - 00;11;36;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

Can you take a picture of this?

00;11;37;00 - 00;11;38;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

And we ate the sushi!

00;11;38;00 - 00;11;39;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

That was so awesome.

00;11;40;00 - 00;11;42;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

And now we need to spike this.

00;11;42;00

Audience:

(chatter)

00;11;43;00

Audience:

(laughter)

00;11;48;00 - 00;11;50;00

Shonali Bhowmik:

It’s so dumb, it’s so great.

00;11;50;25 - 00;12;13;08

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

So thanks again for listening to Feature & a short. If you want to attend or be a part of the podcast, please just go to our website and shoot us an email. Otherwise, follow us on social media and you can on any social media platform @fourwindfilms, that's at f-o-u-r-w-i-n-d-f-i-l-m-s. I'll talk to you soon. Peace!

Claudia de Candia: New York City Smells, Nights of Cabiria

Episode #10 - Italian-born Actress Claudia de Candia was the appointed contributor. Claudia de Candia is a theatre and film actress who will star in the upcoming short film, Prologue. She works in Milan and New York.

Our screening took place in Bushwick at Fourwind Films’ headquarters where for the first film, Claudia presented New York City Smells, an experimental short shot with an international cast and crew. Claudia shares her experience changing roles the day of the shoot and working with a director who does not speak her language. During this film, we served green apples just as Claudia’s character had in one of the first scenes of the film.

For the feature, Claudia presented The Nights of Cabiria (1957), a film by Federico Fellini, Italy’s most famous director and one of Claudia’s biggest influences. We discuss the work of Fellini and Italian actress Giulietta Masina, who married Fellini after starring in some of his radio plays, and continued to act in his films throughout her life. For this film, we had some rum and Coke, and some champagne. We also had some pasta and homemade red sauce, and some leftover stale bread that was fried and used for dipping.

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Location & Production Company - Fourwind Films

Claudia de Candia - Actress

Transcript:

Justin Joseph Hall:

Hi, welcome to Feature & a short, a monthly screening hosted by Fourwind Films, where an appointed contributor presents a feature motion picture and a short movie. There's only one condition for screening a selection. The presenter must have been directly involved with one picture, but not the other. My name is Justin Joseph Hall, director and editor and owner at Fourwind Films.

00;00;23;22 - 00;00;37;03

And this week we have Claudia de Candia, an actress who lives here in New York City who has worked with us on the upcoming movie, Prologue, and she has decided to present The Smell of New York.

00;00;37;05 - 00;00;44;08

Claudia de Candia:

So um, myself, I'm Claudia. I am Italian, as you probably can hear (laughs). From, from Greenpoint, but Italian (laughs).

Audience:

(laughter)

00;00;47;01 - 00;01;09;23

Claudia de Candia:

And uh, I didn't speak a word of English two years ago and I did this short movie. After five months, I was here. It's just the first movie, short movie I did here in New York. Actually, the reason of speaking is just a, a, a voiceover in the whole movie or in the beginning. And it’s about New York. It's about a, a love story. Two girls, love story. The, the, the name of the movie, the title is New York Smells and it's like three different stories about New York City.

Audience:

Oh, cool!

1:23 - 1:33

Claudia de Candia:

And, and just in one story of the three stories.  I just saw it complete. It was in a festival in this village, it was, ah, in a movie theater there.

Audience:

Nice.

Claudia de Candia:

For a festival and I, I saw the first time there. And actually, it was the only time that I saw it (laughs).

Audience:

Oh really?

Clauda de Candia:

Yes.

Audience:

When did you shoot it?

Clauda de Candia:

November… 2016.

1:46 - 1:47

Audience:

Was that in one day shoot? 

Claudia de Candia:

Yeah, one day from the morning to the, to the night. Yeah.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Any places in New York where you shot where you hadn't been before you?

Claudia de Candia:

Yeah, like in Dumbo. I haven't, I mean at that time it was the first time I was in that area. And actually, there are some spots that I don't even know where was it. Because you know (laughs),

Audience:

(laughter)

Claudia de Candia:

when I, when I was shooting it was the first time for me going there and now I don't even realize. But yes, because we took a lot of Uber going around…

2:17 - 2:41

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

Uh, in one of the first scenes, she eats some green apples. So we went and bought some, cut them up for everybody to enjoy during the film. This movie is available on Vimeo for free or you can buy it for, like, $99. Some unusual price. But anyway, after the screening of the film, we talked about Claudia's unique experience putting this film together, her preparation, and the people she shot the film with.

2:41 - 2:42

Justin Joseph Hall:

Yeah, do you just want to go through the story?

2:42 - 4:09

Claudia de Candia:

Yeah, okay (laughs). So uh, I was thinking for doing the, this short film on a backstage. You know, the website of casting. And so I didn't do a real audition for it. I, I knew a little bit about the plot but I didn't have any script. Nothing. So when I went there that morning, it was kind of weird because we met in front of a McDonald's.

We enter in the McDonald's and I met the other actresses for the first time. So we enter together in this McDonald's and we were supposed to change ourselves there and everything. So the director didn't speak a word of English because she's from China, I think. And she started to tell me that I wasn't supposed to do that part but the other one. So I was kind of confused because, of course, even if I didn't have a script, I was trying to imagine myself in a part. That morning she said, no, you're going to do the other one. I say, but you told me. Say, no, no, you’re going to… okay. 

So we went to the bathroom, we change, I, I don't even know who was the person who was helping us to change. And uh, so we say, okay, we started from the last scene. And I was like, uh okay, what's going on in the script though? Because I don't even know what, what's the story about, you know. They kind of explain it but it wasn't quite clear to me actually. So we started with this scene while I'm eating this apple and-

Daria Huxley:

(laughter)

Claudia de Candia:

I’m supposed to be (laughs)-

Daria Huxley:

(laughter) 

4:13 - 4:22

Claudia de Candia:

after the whole love story. And I was there, like, okay, just think something, you know? (laughs). Just (laughs)…

4:22

Audience:

Eat the apple.

4:22 - 4:28

Claudia de Candia:

(laughs) Just eating the apple and uh, think something, Claudia, think something doing it… (laughs).

Audience:

(laughter)

4:31 - 4:50

Claudia de Candia:

(laughs) So this is how it started. So it was pretty confusing. Like, I don't know if I was in Italy, probably I was getting mad for uh, this kind of, but then I have to say that I actually loved them. They were incredible. They have a beautiful energy. They were totally crazy (laughs).

Audience:

(laughter)

4:51 - 5:05

Claudia de Candia:

But I really enjoyed the time. And I say, okay, whatever, whatever is going to happen, I'm just going to have fun. And the best part was the voiceover which I actually didn’t understand what I’m saying so uh-

Audience:

(laughter)

5:05 - 5:15

Claudia de Candia:

(laughs) I’m sure that you didn’t as well (laughs). That’s, there is a reason why. At the end of the, we star… we finished uh shooting like at 8 p.m.

Audience:

Yeah. 

Claudia de Candia:

And they ask me, and I didn't know before, they ask me, oh okay, everyone goes home but you’re going to have a voiceover to record. But they didn't have a place to record it. So we tried to go in a bank. And it was, of course, not the right place to do it (laughs). So then in the street they found like a truck and they ask him if we could go into the truck to record.

Audience:

(laughter)

Claudia de Candia:

So this guy went out of the truck, we enter in the truck and I was just with another girl. And they send me the, the thing that I was supposed to say by text message. So I was reading that for the first time and even if I didn't speak English very well, I understood there were some grammar mistakes. So I was trying to, to (laughs)- Yes, to correct them (laughs). And I was speaking even worse than now so you can imagine (laughs). So that was crazy. And finally we, we, yeah it was kind of fine even though I’m telling again I don’t understand myself-

Audience:

(laughter)

Claudia de Candia:

like in a couple of words. To be honest, I thought it, it would be worse than this (laughs). So when I got like the email, they were doing it in the, in this film festival. I went to watch it and I, and I thought actually, the photography and it wasn't bad at all. I mean, it was just about try to find an intimacy with this girl. Um, as you can see at the beginning, I'm kind of the good girl, I would say, of someone that is very shy-

Audience:

Right.

Claudia de Candia:

She never experienced, like, going with another girl.

Audience:

Yeah.

Claudia de Candia:

And it's like there is this kind of transformation in the meeting. So the way I'm dressed, it’s a little bit different from the beginning. The end, uh, which is actually the first scene though.

Claudia de Candia:

Um, yeah.

7:21 - 7:24

Thomas Kelsey:

Yeah, it was just like watching for this, The Warmest Color, but it saved me three hours.

Audience:

(laughter)

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

For her feature film, Claudia brought Le notti di Cabiria or The Nights of Cabiria, a Fellini film. Fellini is one of the directors that most inspires Claudia. During the film, we had some rum and Coke, some champagne. But she doesn’t have a lot of money in the film, Cabiria, the main character. So we had some pasta and some homemade red sauce and some leftover stale bread that was fried and used for dipping. Afterwards, we had a discussion on Fellini, what he meant, and the relationship between storytelling in other countries and storytelling in the U.S.

8:04 - 8:06

Justin Joseph Hall:

Who’s all seen this film here?

Audience:

What’s it called?

Justin Joseph Hall:

Uh, Nights of Cabiria.

Audience:

That sounds-

Justin Joseph Hall:

Le notti di Cabiria-

Audience:

familiar.

Audience:

Oh.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Yeah, yeah. It’s a Fellini film.

Audience:

What's-

Justin Joseph Hall:

So-

8:14 - 8:15

Audience:

What's the other one you did with that actress? 

Audience:

Uh…

Claudia de Candia:

Oh, many. Um, but the other one is ah…

8:20 - 8:21

Audience:

Juliet of the Spirits.

Claudia de Candia:

That one but another one where she’s like, working the circus, right?

Justin Joseph Hall:

Yeah, that’s-

Claudia de Candia:

That’s the one that you-

Justin Joseph Hall:

…La Strada.

Audience:

Las what?

Claudia de Candia:

La Strada.

Audience:

I, I think I saw Nights of Cabiria-

Audience:

La Strada.

Audience:

I don’t even…

Audience:

(chatter)

Audience:

Giulietta Masina was his wife.

Claudia de Candia:

Yeah.

Audience:

She was in a lot of his movies.

Audience:

Yeah.

Audience:

Oh.

Audience:

That’s…

Audience:

I think that's…

8:37 - 8:40

Audience:

That’s when you did 8 and a half spot, right? I mean…

Audience:

Yeah. I don’t, that’s one of the few she’s not in, I think.

Audience:

Yeah, she’s not in it-

Audience:

Yeah.

Audience:

but I think it’s about her.

Audience:

Yeah, oh yeah.

Claudia de Candia:

Which one?

8:47 - 8:48

Justin Joseph Hall:

8 ½.

Claudia de Candia:

The little blonde.

Audience:

So-

Claudia de Candia:

His wife, Giulietta Masina.

Audience:

Oh, okay. Got it.

Audience:

So why did you pick that movie?

Claudia de Candia:

When I was in high school, I had this, this friend and he was dreaming about being a director and I was dreaming about being an actress. And we were watching all Fellini's movies together. We were spending, like, nights talking about them and imagine, yeah, we were, we loved Roma, and, we wanted really to live in Rome, which I don't anymore but at that time (laughs), I really wanted to.

9:25

Audience:

Have you been you there yet?

Claudia:

Yes. My father is from Rome, so (laughs). Um, and so it really brings me one of my favorite movies of Fellini’s, the Interview, which almost nobody knows.

9:38

Justin Joseph Hall:

I don’t really know.

Claudia de Candia:

Yeah, because it's the last one. And, it's kind of weird but there is this scene between Marcello Mastroianni and Anita Ekberg. Like, they're old and they're watching the, La Dolce Vita that they-

9:53 - 9:54

Audience:

Oh really?

Claudia de Candia:

that they made years later.

Audience:

Yeah.

Claudia de Candia:

earlier. And for me, it’s one of the more touching scene ever in, in the movies. So I was listening all, all the time the, the song of it and also the little scene between the two of them, the little dialogue. And so for me, Fellini, it’s really something. I don't know. It's really, when I, I was dreaming to be in a movie. Yeah. 

10:20 - 10:33

??? is also one of my favorite, but actually, I also love Giulietta Masina and, uh, and she's pretty funny. And I love also, the fact that she’s touching and funny at the same time. Yeah.

10:33 - 10:34

Audience:

… watch?

10:35 - 10:42

Justin Joseph Hall:

I was like, with Fellini she said that movies; the movie’s done when the money runs out.

Audience:

(laughter)

10:48 - 10:50

Justin Joseph Hall:

I feel like all his movies feel like that (laughs) sometimes.

10:51 - 10:57

Justin Joseph Hall:

Especially that…, that one that, like, it just like goes, it goes, it goes, it goes. And then you’re in, yeah.

Audience:

(laughter)

10:57 - 10:59

Justin Joseph Hall:

It’s just like… randomly.

Claudia de Candia:

Yeah, but I think-

Audience:

I enjoyed…

11:01 - 11:21

Inga Moren:

There is an element of magic realism. I think, like, the way that you tell stories here in the United States is very different how we, we tell stories anywhere else. Like I think here at least in the, like the American system, there's a very, you know, it's like a, a three-act structure and everybody kind of follows that. Like, if they divert, they don’t divert much.

11:22 - 11:46 

European movies at least. You know in Italy, there is a lot or in other places it’s more, it's a very different way of telling a story. I can, like, see from a lot of these other movies like, there's like the magic realism happening and I'm kind of just following these characters, like, through their everyday, like, life without thinking too much why but it's more like an emotional journey for the audience, I think…

Justin Joseph Hall:

Well, thank you very much for listening to Feature & a short. This is the last of the season. We want to say thank you to everyone who helped out with the podcast this year. Brian Trahan, who makes the majority of the podcast. Daria Huxley, our photographer. And special thanks to our host, Thomas Kelsey. Next year, we'll do ten more episodes and choose a new theme song. In the meantime, please write us on social media @fourwindfilms, that’s f-o-u-r-w-i-n-d-f-i-l-m-s. Talk to you next year. 

Gladys Mae Murphy: Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall, Pumping Iron

Episode #6 - Editor Gladys Mae Murphy was the appointed contributor. Gladys, who was a part of post-production teams on multiple Oscar-nominated documentary shorts, is an incredibly hard-working editor who dives into her projects for months. Much of her work, including Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall, are featured on HBO's streaming websites. To see the latest by her, check out her website. She is currently working in collaboration on another documentary in conjunction with DCTV and HBO.

Our screening took place in Bushwick at Fourwind Films’ headquarters where Gladys presented two films linked by her mentor, legendary editor Geof Bartz. For the first film, Gladys presented the 2013 documentary short Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall, directed by Edgar Barens. Prison Terminal was made by a small film team Gladys was a part of and was nominated for an Academy Award. In the episode, Gladys takes us through the director's toils of creating this film about how to handle death in prison. 

For the second film, Gladys presented the 1977 feature-length documentary Pumping Iron, directed by George Butler and Robert Fiore. Pumping Iron is a look into the unique world of bodybuilding and is a fun film centered around a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in his bodybuilding prime. During this film, we brought out some greens along with some Brooklyn-breaded chicken and some hotel-fried eggs and toast.

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall.

Location & Production Company - Fourwind Films

Gladys Mae Murphy - Editor, photo by Daria Huxley

Transcript:

00;00;00;11 - 00;00;21;05

Justin Joseph Hall:

Welcome to Feature & a short. Feature & a short is a monthly screening hosted by Fourwind Films, where an appointed contributor presents their chosen feature motion picture and short movie. The only condition for screening selection, presenter must have been directly involved with one picture, but not the other. I'm Justin Joseph Hall.

Gladys Mae Murphy is our guest and she works on HBO projects all the time. All of which are amazing. She was co-editor on the Oscar-winning Crisis Hotline, which won the Academy Award for Documentary Short several years ago. The movie that we watched was another Oscar-nominated film that she worked on with Geof Bartz called Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall.

00;00;45;08 - 00;01;12;02

Gladys Mae Murphy:

So Prison Terminal is a film that was shot over the course of six months by a director who wanted to experience what hospice was like in prisons where people are serving life sentences. Edgar Barens was the director. He got his certificate to be able to, you know, practice as a caretaker. He worked with the prisoners for a week just to get them used to his presence and then he brought out the camera and just followed everything for six months. 

He lived in the basement across the street. He had a very depressing time. And this movie is very, very depressing and, yeah. But it's, it's about a hospice, so I'm sorry if it, yeah, we all know what the ending is going to be.

00;01;29;28 - 00;01;40;27

Justin Joseph Hall:

So after the film, we had a short discussion and Gladys had a ton of insight, not only on her process, but also the effort that the director put into creating this film.

00;01;40;28 - 00;01;46;05

Justin Joseph Hall:

For those of you who don't know Geof Bartz, he’s a very famous documentary editor.

00;01;46;12 - 00;02;11;11

Gladys Mae Murphy:

20 years at HBO as a supervising editor. And so, when there's a film that it comes into HBO that's already been cut and needs a little help, they give it to Geof. Maybe almost a decade ago, I was hired to be his assistant, and after a year of hardcore assistant work, I escaped to the country Colombia and said I wasn't coming back for six months.

And he called me. He was like, I need you back. And I was like, I'm not coming back. And I said, I want to cut soon and he gave me a scene to cut in a different movie that was hard. It was about how they kill dogs in shelters. It was that scene, and I was so excited that I was even allowed to cut for anything for HBO and so I did it, and he kept me on and one of our next projects was this Prison Terminal. 

And we cut it over the winter. We both gained so much weight because it was just so depressing. And we both don't smoke cigarettes so our outlet was like, oh, let's go to the vending machine and we did that maybe like five times a day just watching the dailies. And there was one, it was shot on tape, many DVD’s, and we would watch just one tape a day, and it was a countdown to Christmas. And he said, oh, this is a tape where Jack Hall dies. Let's not start the Christmas season with this. I was like, great idea. And then so, like, I don't know, 2013, 2014 rolls in and the first tape we pop in is to watch Jack Hall die.

And, it wasn't that hard to cut. It was just hard to watch. And it's still hard to watch. I haven't seen it in years and it still brings back feelings. So, Geof Bartz cut the next film, Pumping Iron, about bodybuilding and helped Arnold Schwarzeneggerbecome a household name. And I watched that film when I was 18 in California and not knowing I was ever going to meet anyone from Pumping Iron and when I walked into Geof Bartz’s office, he had a poster Pumping Iron. I'm like, oh, that's cool. He said, yeah. And I didn't, I did not look at his entire history.

Audience:

Yeah.

(laughter)

Gladys Mae Murphy:

He has like 100 films and he's like, this is the film I cut. I said, what?

00;04;15;15 - 00;04;16;13

Justin Joseph Hall:

But you’ve already seen it?

00;04;16;20 - 00;04;44;28

Gladys Mae Murphy:

I've seen it when I was 18 and, like, a decade later, I meet Geof and he, he said. After that, like, after that film came out, there was so much buzz. He was so excited. He was a freelancer. He's like, oh, I'm now, I'm going to get the job offers. He got nothing for seven months. And his first job editing after seven months of unemployment was editing an industrial film on how to grow green beans. And he said he was so excited and… this is his inspiration. I was like, wow, you did Pumping Iron and no one hired you after that?

00;04;55;05 - 00;05;15;22

Justin Joseph Hall:

Yeah, yeah, it’s, it's cool. It, the other thing I was wondering is, like, when you got the footage, when you worked with Geof, especially on this film, there's like some of the least amount of credits I’ve seen in the film on that. It's pretty crazy. So what did Geof, if you, that you're putting this with him? Or how, what was your working relationship and how did you deal with the footage when you first got it? 

00;05;20;29 - 00;05;46;18

Gladys Mae Murphy:

When we first got the footage, it was over 300 hours and we knew it was a short and we said, we doubt everything that isn't related to Jack Hall, because he did shoot other people in the hospice who weren't as dynamic as Jack. And, he gave us maybe 80 hours of tapes to go through. And what Geof likes to do is to have everyone sit in a room and watch all 80 hours.

Audience:

Everyone...

Gladys Mae Murphy:

Me, the director and Geof, and the director was the only crew member. He was sound, and, and, I don't know if you noticed, but it has this weird tint on it because he never set his white balance. And at one point, we were like, oh no, we need to make this film black and white because the color is so bad.

But everything's just desaturated on purpose because of his color balance, which, but he, yeah, it was just a one man band. Like, I was a third credit. I'm like, great.

Audience:

(laughter)

Gladys Mae Murphy:

There's parts of Jack's story that's not, that doesn't line up with what he says, but I think he's just that old, and he's been telling himself the same story over and over that he believes it. Those guys who, who take care of Jack in the hospice, the reason why they're allowed to be volunteers is because they're in good standing. You know, their bars are usually open and they do a lot of crocheting and they make wallets and stuff, but they did some really bad, bad, bad things. But these guys were maybe, like, 20 when they did it and now they're 60. So they've been in prison for a while. I don't think they're ever going to leave that prison. 

Audience:

Who did Jack murder? 

Gladys Mae Murphy:

He, his son was addicted to drugs and ended up killing himself. And so Jack said he murdered the drug dealer and he, so he could no longer do it again. And he got caught because he told his older son that we meet, and his son turned him in. That's how he got caught. 

And our director, by the end of the six months he had gained, I don't, I don't, I don't want to say how many pounds, but all he was eating was like pizza and prisoner food. And he's like, I was just waiting for the right person. And he left after Jack left. He said, this is, this one's it. 

He shot that in 2006 and we didn't cut it until 2013, meaning no one would buy it. No one bought the film and someone at HBO saw it during one of those speed dating pitches. We're like, you have like three minutes to explain it to an exec at a network. And how many years later it was bought, turned into 40 minutes.

00;08;10;08 - 00;08;13;09

Audience:

I was just glad, glad, that, Where did the show actually go on? Was it…

Gladys Mae Murphy:

When HBO tries to get something shortlisted for an Academy Award, it has to be theatrical for a certain amount of time. Has to be reviewed by certain newspapers in order to qualify for the running. And, so it was theatrical for I think four weeks or two weeks, whatever the minimum is. But in, like, small, obscure, cheap theaters.

00;08;37;12 - 00;08;38;24

Audience:

Yeah.

00;08;38;26 - 00;08;59;13

Gladys Mae Murphy:

And it's 40 minutes. It's not a good, it's not like a Saturday movie you're going to want to take the family to, you know. It was hard to make a film about something that doesn't really benefit like us people who are free and these people are in prison. And so why would everyone else care about how they treat their, their dying and the sick. And I think that was the biggest challenge. 

Audience:

Do you know what the process was like for him in terms of getting access?

Gladys Mae Murphy:

He did a film about Angola?  Or he helped set up a hospice at that prison. And it was more like a how to do this. And it was spread amongst the other prisons. And he wrote a letter to Iowa and said, hey, you know, I did this film and I'd like to film the hospice that you guys have.

And they said, that's funny. We based it off of your film. And so he got in and he, he studied to become a hospice volunteer. So he was able to help out for a week and gain everyone's trust. So no one was ever, like, staring at the camera awkwardly. They were just comfortable around him. And these guys are, you know, they're pretty much the honor roll of all the prisoners and all dudes who have been best friends for decades.

He had a lot of, like, great bites. He was a sound bite machine. The first thing I ever saw was that intro where he's talking about, when you just first meet Jack and it's just his big face and he's talking to camera, and I heard, that's when I knew I was like, this is going to be a good film.

00;10;14;16 - 00;10;21;21

Audience:

So interesting what you said about the correction because that bleakness made it. 

Gladys Mae Murphy:

Yeah.

Audience:

You know, it really just enhanced the…

Gladys Mae Murphy:

That mood and, yeah. 

Audience:

Yeah, yeah. So interesting those mistakes that actually end up being the…

Gladys Mae Murphy:

And in some of those shots were like, honestly, they were green or orange. And we were, like, Edgar. He said, oh, I had it on automatic. But actually he's one of the best verité shooters I've ever edited with. He, he's so patient. I mean, to live somewhere for six months and just capture all those hours.

And he has, he's so patient. He just observes and watches. He's not really, like, asking anyone. You know, he walked through the door again or he's, he, I wouldn't be able to know where to move the camera after but he always knew that once he moved the camera to you guys and one of you would start talking and it was just, he was really patient.

00;11;13;20 - 00;11;35;20

Tom:

I said the pattern looks kind of a bit like he's not doin’ the white balance. Almost kind of adds to it because it gives it that, like, sickly, kind of otherworldly vibe, which is kind of what the patients, They give it a shot will be if we're not to, you know, $5 million Netflix staff and kind of lose somethin’, honest.

00;11;35;22 - 00;11;38;26

Gladys Mae Murphy:

Whenever the countdown happens with hospice, day one, I'm like.

Audience:

(laughter)

00;11;40;11 - 00;12;07;17

Gladys Mae Murphy:

Because I already know how many days.

Audience:

(laughter)

Gladys Mae Murphy:

But it used to be worse, like our first screening when we presented it to Sheila Nevins and we cut back to the clock ticking. She's like all right, all right. Like we know he's going to die. Hurry it up. Because it was just so depressing. I had a screening with my friends and they're like, I don't want to party anymore, Gladys. Like, I don’t want to do (laughs).

Audience:

(laughter)

Gladys Mae Murphy:

The cuffs when he was going into the ambulance.

00;12;13;24 - 00;12;18;26

Justin Joseph Hall:

Like, you got to be kidding me. That's just what it feels like. Every time that you see that.

00;12;18;29 - 00;12;21;17

Daria:

That's probably protocol. It’s.

Audience:

Yeah.

Audience:

You have to do it.

00;12;21;17 - 00;12;27;29

Justin Joseph Hall:

It is. It's just like sad. You know, that guy can't walk, he can't run away. He’s not going to do anything. It’s just stupid.

00;12;28;06 - 00;12;41;29

Gladys Mae Murphy:

I, I cut that scene. 

Audience:

(laughter)

Audience:

Oh yeah. His son said…

Gladys Mae Murphy:

Yeah, your eight wives are waiting for you. But he was a very interesting, charismatic character and.

00;12;42;01 - 00;12;50;19

Tom:

I was interested in five weeks, comforted by the thought, one punch of the Second World War and by basic math, it must be about time.

Gladys Mae Murphy:

It was filmed 2006.

Audience:

Yeah 2006…

Justin Joseph Hall:

I just watched War Torn.  The same thing with it. He mentioned here, it’s mentioned in that one where they come back and they teach you how to kill every day, and if they don't teach you how to turn it off afterwards, it's like the same thing.

00;13;05;17 - 00;13;28;27

Gladys Mae Murphy:

Oh yeah, Jack Hall, when he was in Italy, I think or, it was his job to kill at least one person a day. So he had killed, I can't even tell you how many people he killed, but like with a knife, guns. And so, how do you come back to, Iowa? People anger you. He was just set up for… 

Justin Joseph Hall:

Next, we ended up watching one of the most fun documentaries. A lighthearted, great time that is always a talking point after people have seen it. And it's entitled Pumping Iron. Pumping Iron was made in the 70s, and it is about bodybuilders with the one and only Arnold Schwarzenegger in his last run before he headed to Hollywood and became everything on the silver screen.

Schwarzenegger is not the only star in the film. There's also Lou Ferrigno, who ended up playing the Hulk in the 80s. It is incredibly enjoyable. You see a lot into Arthur's world and this unique world of bodybuilding with, like, an eclectic set of characters, including a character from Brooklyn. For eating, during this film, we brought out some greens along with some Brooklyn-breaded chicken, and soon after that we brought out the best that we could match, some hotel-fried eggs and toast.

00;14;23;12 - 00;14;43;13

Gladys Mae Murphy:

So when Arnold was running for governor.

(laughs)

Audience:

The whole time…

Gladys Mae Murphy:

I had to balance Prison Terminal with something.

…the closeup of her face (laughs)

Gladys Mae Murphy:

Like taking photos with one, oh!  Yes.  Yes.

Tom:

Oiling themselves up and thrusting their pecs.  

Audience:

And Grunting.

Tom:

Yeah! (chuckles)

00;14;49;06 - 00;15;11;13

Justin Joseph Hall:

We're taking a break next week. We're shooting our short film, Prologue. We're finishing up another short film by Ricky Rosario entitled Abuela’s Luck which is in color and sound right now. And we're going to have two short films for you from Fourwind Films in the near future.

So, check those out. Check our website, check our social media. If you have questions or comments about the show, please send an email to info@fourwindfilms.com. That's info at f-o-u-r-w-i-n-d-f-i-l-m-s. Thank you for listening. Talk to you soon.

Stephanie Gould: Dreaming, Mural Murals

Episode #5 - Post-Production Expert, Director, and Cinematographer Stephanie Gould was the appointed contributor. Originally from Australia, Stephanie does animation, coloring, and editing in a wide variety of films and has had much of her own visual work featured at film festivals and live events. She captures City Skins in photo formats as well. To see more of her visual work, visit her website.

Our screening took place in Bushwick at Fourwind Films’ headquarters where Stephanie presented her impressionistic, experimental short film which was shot in 8mm titled Dreaming (2015). This piece in its debut was projected alongside a live dance performance, but for the podcast Stephanie replaced the live dance piece with a song by Akiva Zamcheck who performed a live soundtrack on the guitar. 

For the second film of the event, Stephanie presented the 1981 feature-length documentary Mural Murals by Agnès Varda. For this film, we enjoyed some Mexican pastries to accompany its L.A. flavor and had some nice beers to wash it down. There was a Coors Light advertisement in the film, so we had those for refreshments.

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall.

Location & Production Company - Fourwind Films

Live Score - Akiva Zamcheck

Sound - Brian Trahan

Stephanie Gould - Director/Cinematographer, photo by Justin Joseph Hall

Transcript:

Justin Joseph Hall:

Welcome to Feature & a short. Feature & a short is a monthly screening hosted by Fourwind Films, where an appointed contributor presents their chosen feature motion picture and short movie. The only condition for screening selection. The presenter must have been directly involved with one picture, but not the other. I'm Justin Joseph Hall. Stephanie Gould was our presenter this week and she does almost everything in post-production, including editing, animating and color correction.

She presented her short film Dreaming, which was shot on film, originally accompanied by a modern dance. Tonight, however, since the film doesn't have any sound, we had a live score played along with the film. This was provided by composer Akiva Zamcheck.

Stephanie Gould:

This short that I made has my friend Brighid in it, and for my screening at that festival, I showed the film with her dancing with the projection of the film. The film I made in one of the eight millimeter workshop. It's silent, but Akiva is going to play a live score for us.

(guitar starts playing)

I shot it all so that I didn't have to do any editing, so I filmed everything, like, very specifically timed out in sequence. I didn't actually end up editing them at all.

Audience:

Cool.

Stephanie Gould:

Yeah. So this is just basically one reel of super eight film.

Justin Joseph Hall:

How did you do the kaleidoscope?

Stephanie Gould:

That’s through these crystal prism things that I got this sort of multifaceted clear glass. So for that, I was like holding them in front of the lens, rotating them to get that refracted image. I made the film with this song in mind that didn't end up putting them together after I had finished it, but it was a song by a friend’s spouse who had this band called Friend Roulette. It was a song called Garden’s Tidings.

Audience:

But you couldn't get the rights.

Stephanie Gould:

Couldn't get the rights. No, I don't know. It just, you know, I, it just turned out as this silent film. And I like having a film that has no fixed soundtrack that could be reinterpreted in different ways. So I like that it can stand alone. The story is just sort of restless sleep and frantic visions of dreams.

Audience:

Wow.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Did you do a lot of color with this or…?

Stephanie Gould:

No, I didn't do any.

Akiva Zamcheck:

I know that it fell off from out of nowhere and he seems to be accumulating gear.

Stephanie Gould:

Actually, yeah. They're building a lab in Brooklyn, and he got this huge piece of very expensive equipment from, like, the Scientology church in California. And he had to drive across the country to go pick it up, and he brought it back here. He's a great guy to know if you're interested in doing any work with 16 or 8 mil, especially. I wanted it to go from night to day so yeah, that's sort of how the lighting goes.

Audience:

And how would you spend making it, was it?

Stephanie Gould:

We filmed it over one night and then into the morning.

Audience:

And how did you get the cat to ah…?

Stephanie Gould:

That was just a very lucky shot that I got of her. She's not trained… at all.

Audience:

Did you actually film the protagonist in her sleep?

Stephanie Gould:

No, I didn’t. She was just acting. Maybe I should have done that, though. 

Justin Joseph Hall:

Yeah, that would have been hilarious. 

Stephanie Gould:

(laughing) Yeah.

Audience:

So, that girl who's dancing during the performance…

Stephanie Gould:

So when I did it for the screening, I had her, like, do a dance in front of the projection. So then it’s sort of in conversation with each other. I think I like images that have a lot of texture, and almost feel tactile in a way.

I always liked taking pictures on film because you can get those, you know, marks on it from handling the film or dust and scratches. And I always like that extra layer to the imagery. It's little, like, happy accidents.

Audience:

Do you think it's too silly to intentionally corrupt your digital imagery?

Stephanie Gould:

I have done it. Yeah, I think it's kind of silly, but I also find digital video to be too clean and flat. So for me, it feels nice to watch when there's a little bit of softness to it.

Audience:

So it's almost like looking back in that eight millimeter stuff has different connotations than it did in the 90’s.

Stephanie Gould:

At the time. Yeah, definitely. I think that with every new advance and technology, the era that is producing films in that medium always becomes iconic for that era.

Audience:

Right.

Stephanie Gould:

Like VHS or even like the first HD video.

Audience:

I'm running the same, the same idea with my current project. Wanted to use, like, a higher tech camera, but I want it to feel like it when you film. So I don't use like a mid-level camera.

Audience:

Can you tell the difference though between?

Audience:

Yeah.

Audience:

Really? 

Audience:

Oh, definitely. There's just more grain. The nicer camera you have, the cleaner it is just off the bat.

Audience:

Even the mid-grade ones lens? 

Audience:

Yeah, cause a lot of the darker tones have a lot more stuff. And also the color profiles aren't quite as even all the time.

Stephanie Gould:

Yeah, usually. And with higher end cameras, you get more latitude and color space. So you tend not to get overexposed whites and underexposed blacks. And they have much, much greater range.

Audience:

Yeah.

Stephanie Gould:

Yeah, it’s just a different effect.

Audience:

Oh wait. If you're a mid-level camera looking for today's look, what is the high level camera supposed to signify then?

Stephanie Gould:

The future.

Audience:

Didn’t you say also that you wanted it to look like an indie film, not like a-

Audience:

Yeah, not a Hollywood. 

Stephanie Gould:

Not like a blockbuster, yeah.

Justin Joseph Hall:

So maybe. Yeah, maybe Hollywood films right now. That's what you'd want to use it for…

Justin Joseph Hall (as narrator):

For Steph’s second film, since it's Oscar month, she chose a film by one of this year's Oscar nominees, Agnès Varda, called Mural Murals or Mur Murs, which is a film of the famous Agnès Varda coming to the United States and doing a documentary in Los Angeles about murals and different paintings that live in the city.

Stephanie Gould:

I started watching her film several years ago. She's 89, French woman, and was very influential to the French New Wave cinema and has done a lot of documentaries and fiction films. I especially like her documentaries because she's very much a character in them as well. And I just think that her vision and way of presenting her films is really beautiful and interesting.

And this film is a documentary set in LA and, and she goes around the city and films all these various murals around LA in the 70s and talks to the artists and other people in the communities.

Justin Joseph Hall:

With this film, which focused a lot on the Chicanos of Los Angeles. We ended up picking out some pastries at a Mexican bakery and accompanied it with some nice beers to wash it down. There was a Coors Light advertisement in the film, so we had those for refreshments. After the film, we had a discussion on Agnès Varda and her style of film. We couldn't quite finish off the baked goods, but we sat around and talked for a while.

Akiva Zamcheck:

So ominous and prescient about this film, especially with the final scene and the very dramatic soundtrack, is it ends at the cusp of gentrification. Like, which it hints on this development happening, but that word doesn't exist in America yet. And, uh, the concept is beginning to become real to them in L.A. 

Audience:

And the real estate is mentioned?

Akiva Zamcheck:

Yeah and they’re starting to talk about it. They don't know what's about to happen, but cause, you know, the 90’s haven't happened yet and they’ll still be some time before the people can even imagine how cities will be devastated by this. But just with that really dramatic soundtrack, 

Stephanie Gould:

Yeah.

Akiva Zamcheck:

it seems like there's an indication that this dream will be truly washed away. And she kind of sees it coming from afar.  It’s really quite beautiful.

Stephanie Gould:

Yeah, I think that that was one of the reasons that I chose it was that it’s, when I saw it which was only a couple of years ago, it still felt, like, very relevant.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Yeah. It's also very interesting seeing film, because we don't, especially in the U.S., it doesn't happen as much, I feel like. It's having a foreign filmmaker, especially with somebody who's respected, come and see what they find interesting in American culture. And it's interesting because we do that all the time. But it doesn't happen here as much.

Akiva Zamcheck:

Um, there are a few great examples of Werner Herzog. Did his great study of the American bro in the early 2000s. My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done. That takes place in Northern California. And it's actually the most accurate depiction of his American prototype. 

Audience:

Except for Borat, right?

Audience:

You know it. 

Stephanie Gould:

Borat, yeah!

Akiva Zamcheck:

It's very powerful having this French lady perform a little study…

Stephanie Gould:

Yeah, I like her, especially though, because she just seems interested in people and what they're doing with their lives. So she doesn't project anything of her own ideas of how things should be onto them.  She's just more, like, curious about what they're doing.

Audience:

Except for with her visuals. And it's not, Yes.  So it’s not the characters. But like, her style is so much like, “Oh, I look.  This was fun to look at,” and it's, like, constantly like that. Or this is what the music rhythm is like with the visuals or something.

Audience:

You’re just in that party that was being planned, or there's a group that put on these temporary warehouse occupations and through, like, some performance pieces, that little moment where they were painting like a mural over the course of the weekend and having different performances. It reminded me of like early New York uh, examples that have enough Brooklyn, Cat's Head and other dominant occupations in the waterfront that became Rubelade and other famous permanent parties.

Audience:

I love watching documentaries from before the time that people grew up watching documentaries. So the people that speak, they don't, they don't know how one should speak on a documentary. So they come across very strange to us.

Stephanie Gould:

Non-actors. Yeah, just regular people,

Audience:

Yeah. 

Stephanie Gould:

who agreed to be part of it. But yeah, she obviously just had a way of making people feel comfortable

Audience:

Yeah. 

Stephanie Gould:

on camera. The other films of hers that I’ve seen that seem to have a similar feeling to them. And to me, it seems like she's just a very approachable, interested person, and she wants to know about these different people.

Audience:

You, you see her a lot in Faces Places.

Akiva Zamcheck:

I wonder what Agnès Varda’s relationship was with, with the darkness like.

Justin Joseph Hall:

If you watch Faces Places you’ll find out.

(audience laughs)

Stephanie Gould:

With Godard?

Justin Joseph Hall:

Yeah.

Stephanie Gould:

Oh, in all her documentaries. You don't really. You don't see her on screen a lot, but she's narrating them.

Audience:

That was her, right?

Stephanie Gould:

Yeah, it was her narrating. She's very much a part of that. 

Audience:

Yeah.

Akiva Zamcheck:

Great film choice. It was a lot of fun.

Justin Joseph Hall:

It was a pleasure to have you all listening again to Feature & a short. We hope that you have seen or will see some of the films that we talk about. Please leave a comment on iTunes or wherever you find the podcast or shout out to us on social media. We are always @fourwindfilms. That is f-o-u-r-w-i-n-d-f-i-l-m-s. Thank you very much and we'll see you next month.

Uta Seibicke: Last Christmas, Good Bye, Lenin!

Episode #3 - East German born Director, Writer and Casting Director Uta Seibicke was the appointed contributor. Uta has many credits as a casting director in feature films in Germany and has since moved to New York City in the United States. She has a deep connection to her home, the city of Berlin and its history of separation.  It’s something that she feels and understands in a way only a German could.

Our screening took place in Bushwick at Fourwind Films’ headquarters where Uta presented her short film Last Christmas (2013) she wrote and directed. Last Christmas takes place in Berlin and is about a terminally-ill woman and a special relationship she has. Uta went into detail about her casting and relations of working with the cast. Since she’s a casting director, it was strange, even to herself, that she did not go through a casting process to shoot this short holiday story about an insomnia disease that leads to death. 

For this event, we had Glühwein that Uta brought and cooked, which is mulled wine and a specialty around Christmastime in Germany. And we also enjoyed a German breakfast prepared by Thomas Kelsey as we watched Good Bye, Lenin!

For the second film of the event, Uta presented the 2003 feature Good Bye, Lenin! directed by Wolfgang Becker. It’s a film that takes place in 1990, revolving around a mother who wakes up from a long coma. In order to protect her from a shocking truth, her son keeps her from discovering that her nation East Germany has disappeared.

Credits:
Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Location & Production Company - Fourwind Films

To watch Uta's film check out it on YouTube here.

Uta Seibicke - Wrtier/Director, photo by Daria Huxley

Transcript:

Justin Joseph Hall:

I am Justin Joseph Hall. Welcome to Feature & a short, which is a monthly screening hosted by Fourwind Films, where an appointed contributor presents their chosen feature motion picture and a short movie. There is only one condition for screening. The presenter must have been directly involved with one picture, but not the other. Today we have Uta Seibicke who has many credits as a casting director in feature films in Germany and has since moved to the US.

The first movie she presented was a Christmas film entitled Last Christmas that she wrote and directed. So we ended up watching that. And before she arrived, Uta made Glühwein, which is mulled wine. And it is a specialty around Christmas in Germany. So, we had that along with some other drinks after the first film we had a quick discussion and Thomas Kelsey began to prepare our German breakfast that we would eat during the second film.

Audience:

Yeah, this is pretty. I like the color correction.

Uta Seibicke:

Thank you. Thank you. I had professional people working on that. I didn't do it. I have nothing to do with it. But I, I was fortunate enough, yeah, to have people who helped me without getting paid.

Audience:

(laughs)

Yeah. That is like a big advantage to make films about how many people can, people can afford to do that that could help you, like, even, you know, they're working people. They, like, they work in films and like, the camera person who did the camera on this film. He's worked in films for, like, 20 years. And he did that for me as a favor. He didn't get paid, so.

Audience:

What were you looking for in the actors?

Uta Seibicke:

That, that’s a cool question because I was actually really, I didn't cast my actors. Like, I didn't have auditions. I just cast them.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Because you already knew them all or?

Uta Seibicke:

But, yeah, but I didn't know that I was going to do that. I had one audition with two people, and after that I just realized, I don't want to do this. Yeah, it was just really weird. I just knew I wanted them to be in the film and, like, even the girl who's playing the woman, originally I had thought of much, much older person to do that.

Audience:

Yeah.

Uta Seibicke:

But I just wanted her to be this person and work. And the taxi driver, I mean, that guy, he's like really well-established actor in Germany. And I really think that that performance there is the best I've ever seen him in. That’s, like, really strange but he's just so, I think, I mean, from I don't know what you think, but for me he's just, he's a taxi driver. He's not an actor at all.

Audience:

Yeah.

Audience:

It was in Berlin.

Uta Seibicke:

Yes. Yes. Yes. I don't know, I mean, did you get the, the East German kind of thing in it cause that's kind of, like, that's the connection to the film that we are showing after this, the, the, Goodbye, Lenin. Cause I am East German and I did actually, like, my, my sister is ten years older than me, and she studied in Berlin when I was still East Berlin and the wall was up. 

So she lived on Ackerstraße. So she was never able to go to the end of the street. So Ackerstraße’s one of the streets that were divided by the wall. So you had an East German part of the Ackerstraße on the West German part. So it really was like that. You could walk until you hit the wall, basically, but you could never go into the end of your street.

Audience:

So what was the site they visited?

Uta Seibicke:

That is now, it's a memorial for the, like a wall memorial kind of thing or whatever you want to call it.

Audience:

So it was one of the last standing portions of the wall?

Uta Seibicke:

Yes. And it's actually one of those towers where the policemen were, like, standing and watching. 

Audience:

How do you come up with a story that’s, it’s like, so sad for when everybody’s so happy during Christmas?

Uta Seibicke:

Do you think it's so sad? I don't know cause I, actually I wanted to make a long version and I just wanted this to be a trailer. But in the end, it ended up being like the perfect short film for me. When I done it, I was like okay, I'm done with it. This is, like, I can't tell anymore.

That's, like, the backstory. Of course, I have all this in my mind, but, like, I wouldn't make a film about that. And that's how it started. I wanted to do a long film and I was trying to think of, like, the part that's most important about the long story that I want to tell and how to make it into, like, a teaser so people would get interested in producing the long film.

Audience:

But where'd you get that idea? Was it from, like, something that happened to somebody? Do you know, or?

Uta Seibicke:

I was thinking about death a lot in that time and I did an interview with a friend of mine who interviewed people at graves. And she was interviewing people what graves mean to them. And, so it's all about this, kind of, how do we deal with death? Like, what's so, what's so scary about death? And, you know, and so it just all kind of came together to have this person who totally accepts that she's going to die.

She knows she's going to die. So why not, like, make it into a happening and, you know, say goodbye to whatever was important to you before she basically goes to die. And I, of course, I wanted her to leave some kind of imprint, you know, to make someone at least, like, a little happy before she goes. And that's what she does with the grumpy taxi driver.

And I think that's also, like, a Christmas spirit is, like, you hate it or you love it. There's no in-between. So this is kind of, like, the version where someone who loves it helps someone who hates it to get a little bit, you know, less grumpy or maybe think about it, like, do I really have to be so anti-Christmas or can I just see something nice in it? You know, or make my girlfriend happy if she loves Christmas. Why don't I just, you know, get a fucking Christmas tree and decorate it for her? You know, what’s, you know, what's the big deal if you can make someone smile? So, so that kind of, like, came together in a longer period of time was things that happened in my life. And was also trying to think of something that I could do with the film stills and make them, you know.

Audience:

It's nice this all came together.

Uta Seibicke:

And then Lilia, my daughter, she's in it and she really wanted to be in it. So she’s the middle version of the actress. And that's also, like, an East German thing that this very small girl, the very blonde one, she's wearing a pioneer blouse. We went to school, the first five years we were so-called young pioneers. So we had, like, the white blouse and the blue kind of thing that we put around our necks.

I think you were in Russia, you had similar stuff. Then, the next period from 5 to 7 or something, we had a red scarf and then was the one with the dark blue blouse that the second girl was wearing. So. 

Audience:

You had to wear that too? 

Uta Seibicke:

Yeah. 

Audience:

Wow.

Uta Seibicke: 

That was mine, actually. I went back to my parents’ house. My mother has this, kind of, huge closet and, you know, in our house, and we all have old clothes. So this were exactly the ones that I was wearing when I was young.

Audience:

So you'd already written the featured version of this?

Uta Seibicke:

No.

Audience:

You hadn’t.

Uta Seibicke:

No.

Audience:

So you had it conceived.

Uta Seibicke:

Yeah, I had the idea and then, yeah. No…

Daria Huxley:

So you're not going to the, you're not going to do anything else…? 

Uta Seibicke:

No, this is really finished for me.

Audience:

And with that version never revealed what she was dying from?

Uta Seibicke:

No, I think that would have always been the backstory.

Audience:

Mystery.

Audience:

Yeah. 

Audience:

Wait, you're talking the Christmas story, reminded me of A Christmas Carol. Dickens.

Uta Seibicke:

Yeah.  

Audience:

A Christmas Carol. And so I was thinking, because at one point, watching, I was thinking she could be a ghost. Like she, she has this quality about her.

Uta Seibicke:

I like that, I like that. 

Audience:

It’s very ethereal.

Uta Seibicke:

And I could go with that. The thing was, one of the reasons people go to an hospice is it has to be like an illness that's not curable. Otherwise, you don't go to an hospice. And I didn't want to have the usual cancer person. Well yeah, cause she has so much hair and I was like, oh I don't want, you know, to put her in this kind of like.

Audience:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uta Seibicke:

So the thing is, I found out that there is an illness that people can't sleep anymore. It's like, yeah, insomnia or whatever. I don't know what the, like their brain at some point just burns because they don't get to relax anymore. 

Audience:

Yeah.

Uta Seibicke:

And there's nothing you can do about it.

Audience:

Can do a medication?

Uta Seibicke:

No, nothing. So the only thing, yeah, the only thing you can do is to go to an hospice and they can put you under high painkillers and everything to make it less bad that you die. But at some point you just die because your brain can't, you know, your brain needs to relax. And these people have this illness and it doesn't. They don't, they'll never shut off. And so, that's also why she's in the graveyard because her mother died of it. 

And that's also why she learned to deal with her, her own dying because she knew, you know, what, it was going to happen at some point of her life. She'd always been, like, the graveyard was always her place where she would be happy and by herself and reading and stuff like that. So.

Audience:

So did you direct the actress with that in mind?

Uta Seibicke:

Yes. 

Audience: 

Okay.

Uta Seibicke:

She definitely, yeah, I mean, I think her part was really difficult cause all, like, everything that her character has is in her backstory. So, of course I had to provide her with the full backstory.

Audience:

Yeah.

Uta Seibicke:

Otherwise, that's, like, impossible to act. It's like, I think, I mean, I don't know, but yeah.

Audience:

I mean, you communicate a lot in the story nonverbally through, through visuals. Did you storyboard it out? Because there were some very key shots there. You know, where information is delivered, you know.

Audience:

For example, like the headlight shot.

Audience:

The headlight, exactly. Kind of the hospice care. Also her, like, the dark circles under her eyes. It's like a lot of the most important information is not spoken.

Uta Seibicke:

Yes. 

Audience:

Yeah.

Uta Seibicke:

I totally do believe in that. I think, was it Hitchcock or something who said, like, everything that’s said and not shown is wasted? So I totally believe in that. Yes. Dialogue should just be fun but not, it shouldn't tell anything about the story. Yeah.

Justin Joseph Hall:

What do you think about, like, Woody Allen films or directors that are more?

Uta Seibicke:

I like watching Woody Allen films, but it's, that's not how I do it not because I don't like it, just because I don't think I can. And yeah, I guess I am a more visual person than, like.

Justin Joseph Hall:

What brought you into casting number one and then obviously directing and writing rather than being in front of the camera?

Uta Seibicke:

I actually never thought about being in front of the camera.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Yeah. What drew you to being a casting director originally?

Uta Seibicke:

I guess I like to tell people what to do rather than being told what to do. Maybe it's as easy as that, you know, like.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Uta presented Good Bye, Lenin!, a film from 2003 for her second feature. After the last film, some people stuck around a while and we ended up talking about socialism, communism and the perceptions from different countries. 

Audience:

Well, no. Uta, do you want to explain?

Uta Seibicke:

Well, not really explain, but yeah. And so, I basically chose it because it has the, the East German, West German topic too, the one that I mentioned. I have this in this moment that she goes back to the place where she could never go to the end of her street. 

And also, I haven't watched this in a very, very, very long time, but when I saw it I really related to it cause, well, I grew up in East Germany. My mother was not in a coma but she was also, like, she had a brain tumor when I was very young. So a lot of what he does for his mother and this film really moved me. And so I thought I'd watch it again with you and then see how I react now, ten years later.

Justin Joseph Hall:

Thank you so much for tuning in. This again was brought to you by Fourwind Films. If you want to check out anything by Uta, check out Last Christmas which is free on YouTube and you can Google that. Thank you and talk to you soon. Happy holidays!