Category
Interviews
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09.23.10Video Interview with Chris Hegedus and DA PennebakerKings of Pastry is one of my favourite documentaries of the last year, a film which draws you into the passion and heartache of a group of pastry chefs trying to reach the pinnacle of their careers as part of the Meilleurs Ouvriers de France competition. Any story that includes cake, competition and craft is a perfect combination, especially when directed by legendary filmmakers Chris Hegedus (Al Franken: God Spoke, The War Room) and DA Pennebaker (Monterey Pop, The War Room, Don’t Look Back). During the film's festival tour I was lucky enough to have some time to talk to them about the film, their ...
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09.13.10TIFF interview with Lynn Hershman, director of !Women Art RevolutionWhen I first heard about ! Women Art Revolution - A Secret History, I thought that a film had been made about the Guerrilla Girls and that era and was thrilled as it was a period of history crying out for a documentary. The film starts out quite ambiguously, introducing some of the characters, and then asks women through vox pops to name female artists - and my reaction as a viewer, and someone who went to art school, was of shock that people weren't listing the likes of Jenny Saville, Sam Taylor-Wood, Gillian ...
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05.26.10Interview with Marcus Lindeen, director of RegrettersMikael and Orlando were born as men but decided to change gender to become women. Now in their 60s, the two men share their unique experience of having had a sex change and realising it was a mistake. Based in a studio setting, Orlando and Mikael take us through their journey by interviewing one another and discussing the experience through slide-shows and archive footage. Orlando was one of Sweden's first sex change patients in the sixties, whereas Mikael changed gender mid-way through his fifties. Mikael is desperate to return to being the man he once was while Orlando has now defined ...
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05.08.10Interview with Nicolas Rossier, co-director of American RadicalAmerican Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein is one of those great films that really frustrates you as it forces you to change your opinion constantly throughout, never really being able to tell how you feel about this controversial character. I came into this documentary with no knowledge of Norman Finkelstein as a figure and left having seen one of my favourite documentaries of the year. Finkelstein is fascinating and the filmmakers allow you to see beyond his public persona and take the story beyond the politics to his experience of speaking his mind about a very volatile subject matter ...
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05.02.10Hot Docs Interview with Liz Mermin, director of HorsesI have to be completely honest and say first of all I'm a huge fan of Liz Mermin's films, especially The Beauty Academy of Kabul, Office Tigers and Team Qatar, the last of which is one of the best competition-style documentaries I've seen. Before writing this I looked up Liz's bio and couldn't help but be a little intimidated, with a BA from Harvard and a Masters from New York University, never mind numerous fellowships and articles in published journals (the list goes on). Liz has made 6 feature documentaries since 2001, all of which are incredibly different from the ...
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12.16.09Interview with Greg Barker, Director of SergioWhen the Oscar shortlist was announced there was one film in particular I instantly scanned the list for. Sergio has had an extremely successful festival run over the last year but hasn’t seen the fanfare that others on the shortlist have enjoyed. That, however, is sure to change when this incredible story is finally broadcast to a wider audience. The last few years have seen more campaign-driven documentaries than ever but we’ve also seen the rejuvenation of genre-styles being brought back into documentary filmmaking, Man on Wire and The Cove being two examples. Sergio bridges both of these categories as it ...
