Telling stories through film and conversation.
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WILDsound's The Film Podcast

In each episode, the C.E.O. of WILDsound, Matthew Toffolo, chats about all things storytelling and film. Conversations with talented individual from all around the world.

Posts in film and television
EP. 1152 - Filmmaker Naomi Silver-Vézina & Vincent Blain (SPACEBOY (A FILM IN SEVEN SONGS))

SPACEBOY (A FILM IN SEVEN SONGS), 27min., Canada
Directed by Naomi Silver-Vézina
Naomi Silver-Vézina weaves the Montreal artist’s L’INDICE seventh album through a short film. At the top of a church tower, a man wakes up weakened and disoriented. He must find the strength to cross this strange place in order to find an exit. SPACEBOY explores loss of autonomy, loneliness and isolation through a quest towards self-acceptance and grief.

https://lindice.ca/

Get to know the filmmaker:

I’ve known Vincent, the film’s composer and star, for a few years since filming a podcast in his studio. When the podcast ended, I approached him about recording music in his studio, and he mentioned he wanted to make a film featuring his latest music project (which became the film’s soundtrack). He told me a little about the music’s inspiration, but left me a lot of space to come back to him with my own impressions and ideas for a concept. I was excited to have the creative space to explore a storyline that wasn’t too closely based on the lyrics, and to integrate different visual concepts throughout the film. We wanted the whole to feel cohesive, but for each song to feel like a tableau, each with its own mood and aesthetic.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1151 - Sonja Grace (SPIRIT TRAVELER: Looking into the Past for a Better Future)

Mystic Sonja Grace looks at the breaking point of two ancient cultures on opposite sides of the world and how their history can help us today. Her ability to Spirit Travel back in time gives a new perspective on the Hopi Indians from Northern Arizona and the Celtic people of England, Ireland, and Scotland. She examines why circular chambers like kivas and stone circles such as Stonehenge were built, the portals that are marked by these sites and the Demi Gods and aliens who influenced them. From the ancient past Sonja brings back hope for the future.

https://sonjagrace.com/
https://www.facebook.com/spiritualpsychicsonjagrace
https://twitter.com/sonjagraceguide
https://instagram.com/therealsonjagrace

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1149 - Filmmaker Melissa Hubert (BEATINGS ARE IN THE BODY)

BEATINGS ARE IN THE BODY, 16min., Canada
Directed by Melissa Hubert
Beatings Are in the Body is an artful exploration of how memories, pain, and a spectrum of emotions are stored in and continue to be carried by our physical bodies. Borrowing the project’s name from a work by Canadian poet Meaghan McAneeley, Beatings Are in the Body is a bracingly beautiful music collaboration between Montreal’s Erika Angell (Thus Owls) on voice/electronics, Róisín Adams (Hildegard’s Ghost) on piano/wurlitzer/voice, and acclaimed Vancouver cellist Peggy Lee. Together with multimedia visual artist Melissa Hubert, they represent an abstract narrative through four selections from their debut album premiering in the Spring 2023. Melissa Hubert is often mixing a variety of analog and digital mediums and her work encompasses a strong emphasis on the visual connection in combination with music, exploring unconventional methods of digital animation using organic materials to create a feeling of ‘supernatural awe’ within a digital landscape.

https://linktr.ee/beatingsareinthebody
https://instagram.com/beatingsareinthebody

Get to know the filmmaker:
When I was approached by the group ‘Beatings Are in the Body’ to create the visuals to their new self titled album, I was thrilled to work with multiple tracks. I now had an abundance of screen time to work with and was inspired to expand upon an earlier concept established in our first collaboration for the music video “No Not This No” which was the beginning of this idea of an abstracted internal pill-cam experience. Having more time, I was able to add to the story of what came before the internal portrait, a more elaborate view of the emotional and mental reach of this imagined tech, and to then show it was all just a dream – I was driven to make a ‘Wizard of Oz’ dream like experience of traversing the inner body, and waking with a new perspective.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1147 - Filmmaker Mark Schoen (STIGMA)

STIGMA, 3min., USA
Directed by Mark Schoen
The three-minute film STIGMA demonstrates that no matter what your race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity all human beings ae basically the same.
The three-minute film STIGMA demonstrates that no matter what your race, ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity all human beings ae basically the same.



https://www.sexsmartfilms.com/company/

Get to know the filmmaker:

The motivation for this film came from a telephone conversation I had with Liana Zhou, Head of Collections at The Kinsey Institute. We were talking about discrimination and how so many people are stigmatized because of superficial factors when we both agreed that basically all people are the same!

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1145 - Filmmakers J Brooke & Beatrice Alda (ROOMMATES)

ROOMMATES, 9min., USA
Directed by J Brooke, Beatrice Alda
After completing lengthy prison terms (for murder and arson, respectively), two women forge a strong bond within a nursing home catering to the formerly incarcerated. Creating a positive present tense in the wake of complicated pasts, these survivors cling to simplicity, routine, and each other.

Get to know the filmmakers:

I (Beatrice) have a strong interest in prison reform. I had read a local CT article about this nursing home that serves the formerly incarcerated – and they are the only ones in the country doing so- filling an enormous whole in the realm of post-incarceration issues.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1137 - Filmmaker Alejandro Pedemonte (LOOP (It’s a matter of time))

LOOP (It’s a matter of time), 15min., USA
Directed by Alejandro Pedemonte
Fausto wakes up in the middle of the night, with the news about his father dying. However, he refuses to go to him. Overtaken by his own rage, his decision causes a time loop that will eventually give him the opportunity to face his own forgiveness, loss, and life itself.

https://www.instagram.com/loopshort.film/

Get to know the filmmaker:

My motivation for making this film was the need to acquire experience while writing my feature film. Understanding the language of cinema from the conception of the idea to every step of the process to reach the final product was crucial. Additionally, it was very important for me to understand the artistic direction of actors in a film production, after having worked for many years as a director and producer in theater.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1136 - Screenwriter Denis Crampton (NO 3 Hollythorne Cottage)

Watch the Horror Screenplay Best Scene Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik3-Lji9zPY

When a remote cottage is invaded by three young women and their psychopathic hostage takers, it’s malevolent spirit is unwittingly awakened with tragic consequences.

https://www.threeinonepictures.com/


You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1135 - Filmmaker Allen Cheng (WHAT A DAY)

WHAT A DAY, 5min., Thailand
Directed by Allen Cheng
Our world is busy, lonely, and exhausting. It is so common for us to go through a rough day, come home and lay on our bed with tears and sweats, then simply complain to ourselves, “ugh, what a day”.

https://www.instagram.com/allenuknowwhatimsaying/

Get to know the filmmaker:

The topic is something I can resonate with, and I’m sure most people do too. Just the idea of finding purpose(s) in a mundane life, because if everyday ends up being a “what a day”, then it eventually stacks up to “what a life”. I don’t like the sound of that, so I figured I would make something that portrays that.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1134 - Filmmaker Alex Alexander (BAPTISM)

BAPTISM, 8min, USA
Directed by Alex Alexander
The relief, the rest that comes from truth.

https://www.instagram.com/alexx.alexxander/

Get to know the filmmaker:

The inspiration and the motivation were very separate things.

The desire to be seen and known is intrinsic to the human experience, to be held in your truest most authentic form and understood in that moment, and I too am human. This is a self exploration, aided by the love and attendance and patience of a partner. The patience and gentleness of my partner, the way they often bathed me, the way they support whoever I am and guided me without ever forcing.

This was my first attempt at making a film, I wanted to do something close to my heart that I understood innately to iliminate any complications with foreign subject matter. This is actually a nugget of an idea for a much more complicated story.

The actual motivation was that the locations and team were going to become unavailable at the end of summer and I knew it was time to start moving on this idea!.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1133 - Igor Hnes (A MOMENT OF MOMENTS)

A MOMENT OF MOMENTS, 3min., Ukraine
Directed by Igor Hnes
Every family has numerous special, personal, and interesting moments that happen every day in which we can see love, and this is one of those.

Get to know the filmmaker:

Budget: I shot my first short film with a decent budget, having everything I wanted. So, I wanted to challenge myself with a low-budget story to see if I could pull it off. The result: $4 for the entire film and already 14 awards at various festivals.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1131 - John-Carlos Estrada & Zak Zeh (BARBETTE + FONTAINE)

BARBETTE + FONTAINE, 14min., USA
Directed by John-Carlos Estrada, Zak Zeh
A century apart, two Texas icons unite through art, resilience, and a shared legacy of self-expression and freedom.

https://instagram.com/barbette.fontaine

Get to know filmmaker John-Carlos Estrada:
The idea for Barbette + Fontaine came from an award-winning TV news profile I reported on for CBS Austin. After the broadcast story aired in June 2022… I was Inspired by a dream where the legendary Texas drag icon Barbette urged me to tell their story. We’re honored to provide Barbette with their final performance and take pride in doing so. Here’s the link to the CBS Austin story: bit.ly/3CeAXTG

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1130 - Producer Irene Pang (RE:BIRTH)

RE:BIRTH, 8min., Taiwan
Directed by Laticia Fan
A lost soul traumatized by her past and trapped in the confines of her own imagination. Unable to move forward with life until she was led to begin her journey of recovery and discovery by a sound healer, ultimately conquering her darkest memories, fears, and desires, and transcending the perpetual tug-of-war between attachment and letting go.

https://www.laticiafan.com/
https://instagram.com/sheng.shortfilm

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1129 - Grace Samson (CATS AND HUSBANDS)

CATS AND HUSBANDS, 7min., USA
Directed by Grace Samson, Barry Samson
We enter the story where two close friends, Fern and Marcie get together at a local coffee shop to celebrate a birthday. Fern has been going through two years of cycles of In Vitro, desperately trying to get pregnant but with no success. Her husband, Nick’s coping mechanism has been dressing up with the family Cat and taking silly pictures. Marcie jokingly suggests that Fern just book a vacation for herself and leave hubby with the cat. All this to help soften the reality that the birthday Fern celebrates today is that of a child she miscarried two years before.

https://instagram.com/catsandhusbands

Get to know filmmaker Grace Samson:
Being a thirty two year old woman, I started to see ads for freezing your eggs. I thought, wow I’m not ready for that yet, but interesting what a pressure it is to have babies as a woman at my age. I wanted to include a woman’s story that others who are in the same position could commiserate with and feel like they are not alone.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1126 - Clement Faure (CRAVATE)

CRAVATE, 11min., Canada
Directed by Clement Faure
When Mav wakes up from another mysterious nightmare, he decides not to take his medicine that day. Locked in a dark basement residence and haunted by his work, he wishes he would have a break. That morning, Mav doesn’t expect to face someone he might know.

http://fluxproduction.ca/
https://www.facebook.com/flux.production.ca
https://www.instagram.com/clement.faure.video/

Get to know the filmmaker:

I got the main idea for this film one morning 7 years ago. I woke up after a sleepless night and went to the bathroom to wash and dress. I started to look at myself in the mirror and as I was staring intensely at my reflection , I became aware of these two characters, these paradoxal life paths’s desires inside me. My conscious wanted something and my unconscious (reflection) was saying something else. That was also explaining why I was not sleeping, why I was so stressed and anxious in my life at that time: my two selves were not aligned.
Then I knew I wanted the story to take place in a dystopian universe, a near future but where the viewer would feel the underground confined environnement. This place is the metaphorical representation of the first character’s psyche obviously. Then the bathroom is the place where you wash yourself, you wash your sins maybe, you wash to make your mind cleaner, clearer. I knew I wanted these metaphorical aspects in the film that added another layer to the story.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1125 - Christine Sonvilla & Marc Graf (FLOWING – MY DREAM OF MORE FREEDOM)

FLOWING – MY DREAM OF MORE FREEDOM, 4min., Austria
Directed by Christine Sonvilla, Marc Graf
In “Flowing – My dream of more freedom” the river itself speaks to us about its dream of flowing wilder and freer again, thereby providing a home (again) to a diversity of species.

https://www.facebook.com/christine.sonvilla/
https://www.instagram.com/grafmarcphotography/

Get to know filmmakers Christine Sonvilla & Marc Graf:
Christine + Marc: The Dam Removal Initiative is an incredibly powerful tool in river conservation and restoration. However, it still needs more attention in the public and with decision-makers. That’s why we wanted to highlight how very much our rivers are craving for more freedom.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1120 - Petri Puroaho (EnaMOREd)

EnaMOREd, 11min., Finland
Directed by Petri Puroaho
”EnaMOREd” (2023) explores the relationship between reality and dreams. Film shows what is it like to live in parallel world at the same time while coping with the real life events. What we carry in our minds eye can be different than what society assumes from us and even tries to conform us to so called normality when dealing with a persons love-life and relationship.

https://kipikipiweb.wordpress.com/
https://www.facebook.com/PetriPuroahoFinland/
https://www.instagram.com/we.sock.pp

Get to know the filmmaker:

Awareness, therapeutic process and time-efficiency. Being myself in a relationship that this film`s theme deals with made it a personal journey, just like my other works of art before. Since the day I started doing music and films, I have always based and rooted all my artistic interpretations and visions from personal experiences or wishes, so I could bring a little bit of hope and enjoyment to the world. I found and got to meet the love of my life just before pandemic started (2019). Then we were torn apart because of restrictions and other things for a long time. So we created a full life online. And last year (2023) we got to meet again. So that time apart was a life-changing experience and made me rethink and re-create my understanding of relationships in a new way. That transformation was so powerful that I felt I wanted to bring a little bit more awareness of that to the world through my film.

And by creating the film it became even almost a therapeutic experience for myself, how to express this phenomenon that I had experienced and lived through (and still living) but this time in film through visuals, music and a story. I also wanted to prove to myself that I could make enough of an impactful story-line with time-efficient length with the film. I wanted to tell so many details and it would have taken hours to explain everything. So I wanted to tackle the theme of the film and get to the heart of it with a few main ideas, and give the audience the chance to fill out the rest of the story in their minds, and the final impact of my film to them would be through their (audience) own reflections.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1119 - Michele Stella (SCHERAZADE'S CLOAK)

SCHERAZADE'S CLOAK, 7min., Italy

Directed by Michele Stella

A prince called Kalendar falls in love with a prostitute, Scherazade, who's under the protection of an evil witch. Thanks to his friends and the help of a goddess, he frees Scherazade

https://www.datatalk.it/

Get to know the filmmaker:

The main reason was the possibility to collaborate with Florania, the emerging fashion brand that have produced the short film together with our agency Dalk. Me and Flora, the super talented mind behind Florania, were very connected since the first call we did: she wanted to promote her new collection inspired by sea fantasy voyages, i wanted to make a short film inspired by "One Thousand and One night", one of my favorite book.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1117 - Jeff Rones (DERECK FROM HINGE)

DERECK FROM HINGE, 7min., USA
Directed by Jeff Rones
Fresh off a breakup, a young millennial tries her luck on a popular dating app with a gen z.

Get to know the filmmaker:
As a single twenty-seven-year-old in 2024, I am no stranger to dating apps. Unfortunately, what dating apps promise is a far cry from what they achieve for the people on them. I wanted to channel my frustration into something relatable. Although studies on the impact of mental health and self-esteem from dating apps are out there, active dialogue on how these apps are affecting the users is few and far between. I hope that my film builds awareness on what we actually seek from swiping away our loneliness. Perhaps the commodification of building connection and romance is not actually in our best interest. My hope is that this film allows the audience to dig deeper and laugh at the ridiculousness that is dating apps.


Another aspect that I wanted to incorporate was the generational gap between millennials and generation z. As someone on the cusp of these generations, I find myself caught in the middle. I might frequently use “puppers” to describe cute dogs like Madison, or find myself caught up on TikTok like Dereck, although maybe not on a first date. There is much humor to be found in this dissonance. I believe there are deep issues that both generations find themselves in, but I know the film can only scrape the surface. These issues include a reckoning with the pervasiveness of social media, a worsening housing market, social isolation of a pandemic, and a rapidly changing climate. I hope that my film can start these conversations between generations to reach some common ground.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1116 - Evgeniy Matvienko (CHERUBIM)

CHERUBIM, 17min., Ukraine
Directed by Evgeniy Matvienko
«VARTA» is a series of documentary novellas about the Ukrainian military, created by the authorial team of filmmakers called NEUTRINO. Since the full-scale invasion of russia of Ukraine, the team has been documenting the military events and telling the stories of our soldiers.

Get to know the filmmaker:
There is a war in the country, people are dying every day, our military are dying. I am tired of hearing about heroes only after their deaths, and I decided to change this, namely to make a film about the inner world of our fighters, and show the whole world their brave look, deep soul and sincere desire to live in peace. To document real people who resist evil and protect us, civilians. We want people to be able to see heroes when they are alive, not when they die, so that over time our generations can see those who have kept peace in our homes.

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.

EP. 1115 - Dmitry Kulak & Rouman Kang (SHATTERED REMEDY)

SHATTERED REMEDY, 16min., USA/China

Directed by Dmitry Kulak

A police officer suffers from severe migraine right before his night shift. He decides to fight it with abnormal amount of medication. However, he does not realize that the side effects will soon cause him to lose his ability to understand reality and differentiate between his own experiences and those of others.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CmRa6OCKvGx/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

You can sign up for the 7 day free trial at www.wildsound.ca (available on your streaming services and APPS). There is a DAILY film festival to watch, plus a selection of award winning films on the platform. Then it’s only $3.99 per month.