Josephine Mackerras debuted her first feature film, “Alice,” at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival. The story depicts how Alice, a wife and mother, reacts to her husband’s double life, leaving them in debt and on the brink of eviction. Where she turns is an unexpected […]
I spoke with actor, writer, and intimacy coordinator Michela Carattini about her film “Remote Access,” which she cowrote and coproduced with screenwriter Leanne Mangan. Penelope Berkemeier directed the film. Michela, the daughter of a Panamanian-American military intelligence officer and an Australian ballerina, grew up in Germany, where she developed an interest in languages, obscure autobiographies, and criminal behavior. Michela’s award-winning storytelling is driven by her search for world’s compassion and intelligence.
Never in recent memory has there been such a volatile time in politics than today and one man has added his own fuel to the fire—Steve Bannon. Director Alison Klayman has opened the doors into this man’s life with her new film “The Brink” (2019), giving viewers a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes action and the inner workings of politics like never seen before.
“Sometime during that process, Michael Radner, he’s my godfather, he told me that Lisa D’Apolito was making “Love, Gilda” (2018). Once I finally had a chance to meet Lisa, I was really relieved, because Gilda’s story was a lot more personal. It was my role to make sure that number one, Gilda’s portrayed in a positive light, and thinking of things as a friend. So I met her and saw the assembly cut and thought, she knows what she’s doing, and she cared about how Gilda was portrayed. She would ask herself with every decision how Gilda would have felt about it. And Lisa has a background in advertising and production, so she did know film, and made everything look and sound great.”
“This past season, GLAAD did their report, and there’s been an increase of trans actors in series, but a lot of that is because of “Pose” (2018). So it would be nice to see more trans actors taking on roles. But I’d like to see, not so much because of the story, but casting directors being like, “Hey, you don’t necessarily need to write this character as cis; it can be a trans person.” “The Sisters Brothers” (2018) and “Colette” (2018) both had trans actors playing cisgender characters.”
“Hail Satan?” (2019) is not only an eye-catching title, the content is eye-opening! The upbeat, energetic, and talented documentary filmmaker Penny Lane gave Sundance audiences food for thought in this hilarious new film that reveals the truth about The Satanic Temple and our own country’s issues with separation of Church and State.
We spoke with Nassim Abdi, Ph.D, on what inspired her to found Docademia and the power of using documentaries when teaching in classrooms. Docademia is a social initiative that uses independent documentaries to bring social justice discussions to life in classrooms.
We interviewed filmmakers Katy Osborn and Andrea Alberti about their documentary “Head to Head.” “Head is Head” is about the hair industry, women who struggle with hair loss, and how much hair ties into one’s sense of self. Learn more about their documentary at http://ameliastreetstudio.com/headtohead.
“My mentor (Mark Harris) was the director of this film, and I coproduced it with him and starred in the film. ‘Nothing Like Thanksgiving’ will air on Thanksgiving of this year on Urban Movie Channel.”
I first heard about filmmaker and actor Clare Cooney after her buzzworthy short film “Runner” (2017) showed at the Chicago Critics Film Festival in 2018. A few months later, I had the pleasure of meeting Clare at the Midwest Independent Film Festival. With her female-focused film and her activeness in the Chicago film community, I was so happy she took the time to share her story.
Michal Aviad’s newest film, “Working Woman,” premiered at TIFF and recently screened at the Chicago International Film Festival. “Working Woman” (2018) tells a remarkably timely tale of sexual harassment in the workplace and the effects upon a woman’s entire life and family.
I met film critic Pamela Powell through Twitter. She had taken a video of actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Q&A after the screening of her film “Fast Color” (directed by Julia Hart) at the Chicago Critics Film Festival. Her praise for Gugu drew me to her as a critic. I retweeted her post, and the rest is history. Months later, I’m so happy to get the opportunity to interview her and share her story.