Episode #45 - Welcome to the sixth Fresh Air Award! Four cinephiles continue a Fourwind Films tradition of awarding a film that pushed cinema forward the most as an artform during a particular decade. To be nominated, a motion picture has to have advanced cinema in some way and made a lasting impression on how movies are made. This episode delves into the decade frought with the greatest war ever known to humanity, World War II.

To start the episode, our host, Justin Joseph Hall goes through a quick history lesson on what was happening in cinema business during the decade.

The four cinephiles who select the nominees in this panel are cinephiles Kevin Cecil, Justin Joseph Hall, John Robert Hammerer, and Kevin Hinman. Any moving images that came out in the appropriate decade is eligible for nomination. Nominations spanned documentaries, shorts, animated films, and feature films. They featured cinema with thoughtful use of the first green screen, Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome patients, and maybe the most immediately influential film in all of cinema’s history.

Here is the link to all the nominations: 1940’s Fresh Air Award Nominees - Letterboxd list

There were several overlaps, but here are the main nominations made by each panelist:

Kevin Cecil’s nominations

Citizen Kane (1941)

The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Hellzapoppin’ (1941)

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Justin Joseph Hall’s nominations

Thief of Bagdad (1940)

Bicycle Thieves (1948)

Von Gogh (1948)

It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Begone Dull Care (1949)

John Robert Hammerer’s nominations

Citizen Kane (1941)

Cat People (1942)

Fantasia (1940)

Fireworks (1947)

Rome, Open City (1945)

Black and white portrait of Kevin Hinman with a moustache and groomed facial hair — Kevin Hinman

Kevin Hinman’s nominations

Citizen Kane (1941)

Children of Paradise (1945)

Let There be Light (1946)

Fireworks (1947)

The Red Shoes (1948)

We hope you enjoy this episode! Share with us your own lists, comments, arguments, and films that we left out via social media @fourwindfilms. We’re on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

Thank you to our cinephiles who did joined this out of their passion. To hear more from them, visit links below:

Kevin Cecil

Movie Trivia Nite

Justin Joseph Hall

Fourwind Films

John Robert Hammerer

Credits for podcast:

Production Company - Fourwind Films

Fresh Air Award Contributors for 1940’s Decade - Kevin Cecil, Justin Joseph Hall, John Robert Hammerer, & Kevin Hinman

Host, Producer - Justin Joseph Hall

Sound Mixer - Hans Bilger

Intern - Olaf Jiménez

Special Thanks - Laura Davi

The theme song of Season 6 is New Tires by Silent Partner.

Additional Music - One Machine at a Time & Driving Nowhere by Shonali.

Episode #22 - Christian Felix is an actor from Chicago now based in New York City. He now regularly does a specific kind of acting in diversity training, which is one of the coolest jobs you’ve never heard of previously. No matter what you say about Christian, he is definitely a professional storyteller. On top of him expressively recounting amazing adventures , he’s a spectacular listener. This is what makes him successful throughout his years and his willingness to be professional in all setting yet still have fun. The exact person you want on any filmset.

Christian’s theme for the episode is how film sets can be fun and funny or incredibly contentious and still create great works of art. The short film Book Club by VARIETY SHAC Christian brought is a film where he was a background actor with hilarious comedians (Chelsea Peretti and Fred Armisen to name a couple) where his main job was not to laugh. He talks about other television sets such as the show Blacklist that were more stressful and lead us directly into his feature choice Blue Collar.

Blue Collar had three lead actors who were in a tif during the time of shooting. Richard Pryor, Harvey Keitel, and Yaphet Kotto were all told they were the lead and drugs and feuds lead to a rough set life as Christian explains in descriptive detail. The story centers around worker’s unions and the fight of the worker against the larger system is a story that continues to be retold and relived throughout the test of time.

If you want to hear more of Christian, please check out our podcast We Don’t Even Know where he co-hosts with Shonali Bhowmik.

Credits for podcast:

Produced by Fourwind Films

Brian Trahan - Sound Mixer, extra music

Theme song of Season 4 is Loopster by Kevin MacLeod.