Interviews
Carol Channing (Carol Channing: Larger Than Life) | Interview
Friday, February 3rd, 2012The life story of legendary performer and Carol Channing (“Hello Dolly”) is as colorful as the lipstick on her big, bright smile. CAROL CHANNING: LARGER THAN LIFE captures the magic and vivacity of the 90-year-old icon—both onstage and off…past and present. The film is both an intimate love story and a rarefied journey inside Broadway’s most glamorous era. It is, above all, a look at an inspiring, incomparable and always entertaining American legend. Directed and co-written by Dori Berinstein (ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway, Gotta Dance), a three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer. Starring Carol Channing, Harry Kullijian, Loni Anderson, Mary Jo Catlett, Marge Champion, Tyne Daly, Phyllis Diller, Betty Garrett, Tippi Hedren, Jerry Herman, Angela Lansbury, Rich Little, Bob Mackie, Jimmy Nederlander Sr., Debbie Reynolds, Chita Rivera, Harvey Sabinson, George Schlatter, Richard Skipper, Lily Tomlin, Tommy Tune, Bruce Vilanch, Barbara Walters and JoAnne Worley. Carol Channing is also a beloved San Francisco institution, having grown up and first introduced to the stage in the City. -Entertainment One US
Carol was recently kind enough to sit down and answer a few questions about her experiences below.
Eric Schaeffer (After Fall, Winter) | Interview
Wednesday, February 1st, 2012It seems as though films that portray characters who do not abide by vanilla heterosexual behavior in favorable and sympathetic perspectives are a dime a dozen these days. All of these films share a very similar message — we need to be honest about our sexuality, first and foremost with our lovers. Writer-director Eric Schaeffer’s [...]
Keith Miller (Welcome to Pine Hill) | Slamdance 2012 Interview
Sunday, January 29th, 2012The winner of the Grand Jury Sparky Award for Feature Narrative at Slamdance 2012, Welcome to Pine Hill is the most naturally positive portrayal of a black character that I have ever seen dedicated to film — and I am incredibly embarrassed to say that if I knew that a white guy directed Welcome to [...]
Matthew Bate (Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure) | Interview
Thursday, January 19th, 2012A series of tapes featuring two bickering San Francisco men with a penchant for profanity so flamboyantly profane that even Jack Rebney (Winnebago Man) might blush at the sound of it were recorded in the late 1980s by two young punks, Mitch Deprey and Eddie Lee Sausage. The unaware neighbors of the audio misadventures, Peter [...]
Clio Barnard (The Arbor) | Interview
Monday, January 2nd, 2012Andrea Dunbar — the West Yorkshire author of three gritty social-realist plays who died in 1990 of a brain hemorrhage at the ripe young age of 29 — is the hapless subject of writer-director Clio Barnard’s latest genre-blurring film, The Arbor. The dialogue in The Arbor is derived directly from interviews conducted by Barnard of [...]
Jay & Mark Duplass (Jeff Who Lives at Home) | AFF 2011 Video Interview
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011“At first I was a bit surprised by the tearjerker ending of Jeff Who Lives at Home, mainly because it seemed like such a blatantly Hollywoodesque attempt to tug at the audience’s heartstrings. But as time passed, it dawned on me that Jeff Who Lives at Home is essentially commenting on the concept of writers and directors playing god, albeit with significantly more subtlety than The Truman Show and Stranger Than Fiction. As the Duplass brothers toy with Jeff, they simultaneously play with the viewers’ emotions, thus reminding us of the highly manipulative powers of filmmakers.” -Don Simpson
Be sure to check out our interview below with Jay and Mark Duplass in support of their upcoming film Jeff Who Lives at Home, from the 2011 Austin Film Festival in Austin, Texas:
Alison Bagnall (The Dish & the Spoon) | Video Interview
Wednesday, August 24th, 2011Every other Sunday in Austin, TX from May 29th – Sept 4th, Cinema East is hosting outdoor film screenings at the French Legation Museum. On August 7th we had the pleasure of speaking with Alison Bagnall about her film The Dish & the Spoon.
“Bagnall (who co-wrote Buffalo ‘66 with Vincent Gallo) takes a fairly extreme risk allowing Gerwig to portray Rose’s turmoil and anguish with intense sincerity during some scenes while playing the same emotions for comedic affect in other scenes. Bagnall also reveals a real (or reel) knack for never allowing The Dish & the Spoon to veer too far into the realm of overly precious tweeness. Recalling Blue Valentine, an all-so-cute song and dance scene is one of the lighthearted highlights of an otherwise emotionally emancipating film. The Dish & the Spoon is incredibly sincere and brutally honest in its portrayal of the highs and lows of relationships — especially in its representation of the rage and sadness that are closely associated with romance.” – Don Simpson
Clay Liford (Wuss) | Video Interview
Tuesday, May 31st, 2011“Wuss is a masterful work of sound and vision, clearly exceeding the production values of most independent cinema. Liford’s uniquely desaturated, nearly monochromatic aesthetic visually binds his two features together, while clearly separating himself from most other filmmakers. I bet if Wuss was produced in Hollywood, it would certainly include bright, cheery and over-saturated cinematography and a Billboard Top 40 soundtrack, but judging solely from Earthling and Wuss, that is not how Liford sees (or hears) the world.”
Below is our conversation with Clay Liford in downtown Austin, TX, for SXSW Film 2011:
Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega (BETTER THIS WORLD) | Video Interview
Sunday, May 29th, 2011“Co-directors Kelly Duane de la Vega and Katie Galloway do a much better job than I could ever do in retelling this amazing story of idealism, loyalty, lies and betrayal. In constructing their narrative, de la Vega and Galloway must first re-create for the audience what happened prior to the commencement of their production, so they rely on archival footage and talking head interviews recollecting the events. De la Vega and Galloway allow everyone, including the FBI, to tell their version of the story and surprisingly enough, they all seem to be on the same page (or at least the same chapter), except for the actions of the FBI informant.
The unfolding of the events is spine-tingling (at least for someone of my political persuasion). Better This World represents how conservative America’s post-9/11 War on Terror went terribly awry, ripping away the civil liberties of American citizens and instantly squashing any form of political dissent.”
Below is our conversation with Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega in downtown Austin, TX, for SXSW Film 2011:
Heather Courtney (WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM) | Video Interview
Wednesday, March 30th, 2011It is extremely rare that I commit to doing an interview with a director prior to watching their film, but Heather Courtney proved to be an exception to that rule. There are also very few directors whose work would prompt me to stay up until 3:30 AM on the opening night of SXSW just to watch a DVD screener of their newest film, but Courtney proved to be an exception to that rule as well. I based these decisions on my respect for Courtney’s previous work (Letters from the Other Side, Los Trabajadores) and the fact that she enlisted other talented local Austin filmmakers (producer Megan Gilbride, editor Kyle Henry) to work on Where Soldiers Come From with her.
Smells Like Screen Spirit’s chat with Courtney at the Austin Convention Center during SXSW 2011 could have very easily turned into a very uncomfortable affair if Where Soldiers Come From did not live up to its expectations — but instead it blew any preconceived notions out of the water. Our discussion with Courtney about Where Soldiers Come From (which won the Best Editing award at SXSW 2011) could have very easily continued on for hours because there is just so damn much to talk about, therefore the most difficult part about this interview was self-editing our conversation to keep the video at a manageable length.
Where Soldiers Come From will premiere on the PBS series P.O.V. in the Fall of 2011.
« Previous Entries |