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 tagged wildsound
EP. 1393: Filmmaker Pat Mitchell (REMEDY)

REMEDY, 30min., USA
Directed by Pat Mitchell
An intelligence agent must relive his past to remedy a mistake he once made.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2147487/

Get to know the filmmaker:


I love Sci-fi Films. Not just any sci-fi films but the surreal ones. The films that blur the lines of reality and fiction.

Films with heavy degrees of realism are my kind of films. Science fiction by definition is the belief that using science can explain what we can’t explain.


I have always been intrigued by how far reality can be pushed before becoming fantasy. Once you can’t explain your story grounded in science, your film is fantasy.

Don’t get me wrong. Fantasy can be intriguing but it comes at face value at times. Basically any existing nature leaves unexplained like fully industridalized extraterrestrial planets, Middle Earth, magical beings.
But nothing tops an imaginative story with its limits bound to what is right outside your window. Star Wars vs Star Trek debates always come to mind.


There is a major disconnect between the real world and Star Wars. As much as I love those movies, I prefer the rooted reality of Star Trek.

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EP. 1390 - Writer/Producer/Actor Mia Bible (HONORABLE)

HONORABLE, 16min., USA
Directed by Zachary Scott Clark, Mariah L. Richardson
Two months after he denounces the Nation of Islam and nine months before his assassination, MALCOLM X SHABAZZ has a chance encounter with his estranged brother and mentee MUHAMMAD ALI.

https://linktr.ee/Honorablefilm
https://www.facebook.com/Honorablefilm
https://www.instagram.com/honorablefilm/

Get to know writer/producer/actor Mia Bible:

What motivated you to make this film?

My need to create for creation’s sake and grief. The idea of “Honorable” began as a 3-minute scene where Ali & Malcolm X would simply have a conversation. The plan was for me to write it and Jason Little who plays Malcolm X in the film and Zach Clark who portrays Muhammad Ali to star in it. All three of us just worked together on a play called “The Meeting,” and it was super successful so I was condent in what they could do. However, in the same year I was dreaming this up, I was also processing the death of my friend, who was also an actor, my first producing partner, and 27 when he passed. I knew nothing about Ali and Malcolm’s brotherhood, but once I began researching it, I came across Ali’s quote in his autobiography and it triggered deep sorrow and and a desire for Asa to have a second chance at life. I wrote to get it out.

What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your lm in the feedback video?

I stopped breathing. I cried then I thanked God.

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EP. 1367 - Filmmakers Marta Renzi, Daniel Wolff (CATHY & HARRY)

CATHY & HARRY, 40min., USA
Directed by Marta Renzi, Daniel Wolff
A revealing and humorous double-portrait of Catherine Murphy and Harry Roseman whose work is in collections from the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Metropolitan Transit Authority. “Cathy & Harry” documents how their lives revolve in joyous, dizzying intensity around work, food, friends, and each other.

Get to know the filmmakers:

What motivated you to make this film?
We thought these two were special people, whose work and relationship should be documented.

What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
We were pleased that the message came across – and a little surprised that the message seemed to be so much about their relationship.

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EP. 1351 - Filmmakers Suzanne Baird & Julie Tondreau (GIN RUMMY)

GIN RUMMY, 17min., USA
Directed by Suzanne Baird
I’m excited to share our project made from love and friendship..
Three best friends have been playing Gin Rummy every week for over 50 years. On this Gin Rummy night they have made other plans as a final bonding of the trio.

Get to know the filmmaker Suzanne Baird:

What motivated you to make this film?

There were several motivators. The biggest was that my mother was dying from Dementia. It was an illness that she had for about 10 years and was in the final phases. At the same time, Roe V. Wade was repealed, and this required an examination of the question of choice on many levels. Do we have dominion over our bodies, male or female, to make choices about our health and existence.

What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

I was really gratified! They were so positive and thoughtful. It was a great
feature of your festival. So appreciated!!

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EP. 1347 - Filmmaker Cyril Durand-Gasselin (MIHI: At the center of our gaze)

MIHI: At the center of our gaze, 15min., France
Directed by Cyril Durand-Gasselin
Introspection is a mental activity which can be described metaphorically as the act of “looking inside” oneself, through a form of attention paid to one’s own sensations, states or thoughts. In psychology, this is the inner knowledge we have of our perceptions, actions, emotions and knowledge, which is different from that which an outside observer might have.

https://facebook.com/Compagnienos
https://instagram.com/compagnie_nos

Get to know the filmmaker:

What motivated you to make this film?

I wanted to show how important introspection has been for me in my life, and still is. It helped me grow so much. By giving this work to the world, I hope it will reminds everyone how important it is to take time to listen to yourself and to learn as much as you can from everything you can find inside.

What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?


Honestly, I’ve got really touched and smiled all the way through the video. The comments were so nice and good but mostly really interesting. And it is really satisfying to hear comments from people that you don’t know that are coming from another country.

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EP. 1346 - Filmmaker Alexander Miguel (THE BRIDES OF DRACULA)

THE BRIDES OF DRACULA, 5min,. UK
Directed by Alexander Miguel
Introducing a new breed of vampires – More alternative, more sensual, more dangerous. Loosely based on the legends of Draculas wives, the good, bad and the evil bride inhabit an old misty graveyard set in the high mountains, waiting for their beloved master to be resurrected once more. Inspired by original costumes and props by Derby-based designer Liam Brandon Murray, this is a unique film showcasing the finest in Wearable Art for the designer’s cinematic debut.

https://www.instagram.com/alezmigz/

Get to know the filmmaker:

What motivated you to make this film?

I had long wanted to do a fashion film based around vampires. I had initially envisioned a very dark classic victorian look, but when I found designer Liam Brandon Murray, a whole new world opened up to me. This was the most unconventional and bizarre kind of fashion I had ever seen the likes of. So intricate, so luxurious, yet so macabre and puzzling in it’s grandness. I knew that I had found something entirely unique and had access to a kind of innovative fashion that nobody else did. I thought to myself, I’ll be a real fool if I don’t jump on this opportunity! Liam and I clicked from the get-go, and it was clear that this would just be the start of many creative collaborations to come. I was able to pick and choose all my favourite pieces from his collection of work. We needed to piece together 4 complete looks and additionally threw in a few more items to showcase as much of Liam’s work as possible. His outfits carry heavy influences of otherworldly flair, his inspiration drawn from mythology, aliens and religious figures into a seamless blend.

What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

It is such an unreal feeling to have strangers speak about my work, they don’t know me or my team, so their perceptions and notions of the work are completely unbiased, raw and organic. People loved the surprising elements of lavish colour, which I think is rather unusual in the gothic genre. The fashion of course, gains a lot of wow-factor, and the fact it is put together like a music video, driven by sound and music rather than dialogue.

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EP. 1343 - Filmmaker/Animator Kenja Chen (WHEN I'M WITH YOU)

WHEN I’M WITH YOU, 4min., Canada
Directed by Kanja Chen
An emotional tale of how the enduring love between a young boy and his grandfather bridges the gap between generations.

https://www.instagram.com/kanjachen/

Kanja has directed several award-winning short films that have been showcased at numerous film festivals. This animated short marks his directorial debut in the genre, allowing him to focus on a deeply personal story.

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EP. 1338 - Filmmaker Emir Cakaroz (AMERICANS SMELL GOOD)

AMERICANS SMELL GOOD, 66min,. USA
Directed by Emir Cakaroz
The film combines the filmmaker’s story in the U.S.A. with people from different social, racial, and ethnic backgrounds that he wouldn’t have met if he hadn’t come to this country. It explores the experience of being in between many cultures when living in a foreign land.

Get to know the filmmaker:

What motivated you to make this film?
Immigration, a sense of belonging, connection, and isolation were always occurring themes in my films. However, I was mostly focusing on my family’s immigration from Bulgaria to Turkey and its long-term effects in my previous films. This time, I realized I had enough experience to make a film about my immigration from Turkey to the USA and I made it!

What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?
It was amazing! It was a great feeling to see people understand what you wanted to do, and they actually enjoyed the film. It was also great to see how the audience made personal connection with the film.

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EP. 1323 (WILDsound Actors Podcast #5) Actor/Dancer Mary Kate Sheehan (Prohairesis)

PROHAIRESIS, 13min., USA

Directed by Rebecca Arends

A 13 minute dance film featuring four female dancers filmed in four international locations and an all-female string quartet filmed in Chicago. The dance is based on Stoic philosopher Epictetus's concepts surrounding the faculty of choice, moral character and volition.

Hannah Ehman chats with dancer/actor Mary Kate Sheehan about her career and working on the short film PROHAIRESIS.

http://www.mksheehan.com/

Follow Interviewer Hannah Ehman on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ehmanhannah/

Watch Hannah’s national commercial spots: https://www.ispot.tv/topic/actor-actress/bP8/hannah-ehman

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EP. 1305 - Filmmaker Jana Sturmheit (MITOTE – SMOKEY MIRROR)

MITOTE – SMOKEY MIRROR, 9min,. South Korea
Directed by Jana Sturmheit
In today’s world us humans have developed a complex social system of rules and expectations. Children are taught from the day they are born on how they are expected to behave. They are told what is right and wrong, what is possible and what not. That is, by the standards of the children’s parents and other people in their surroundings, in other words the society they grow up in.

https://instagram.com/jaystorm24.mov

Get to know the filmmaker:
It was not a graduate requirement to make a film in my department of video content design, but I felt like it would be the perfect opportunity to create my first work as director and choreographer. I have choreographed stage performances before but never a video and I wanted to portray the vision that I had inspired by the opening excerpt from the book “The Four Agreements” by Miguel Ruiz talking about Mitote – the smokey mirror.
When I have a dance vision, it plays like a movie in my head, rather than a stage performance. Often I find dance visuals intensely focused on the movement rather than the cinematic aesthetics and depth that different camera angles, movement and shot size and cuts add on the final film. I find one of the decisive factors are the intimate closeness that you can create through a camera that is impossible in a stage performance. A second factor is that the camera can move in between the dancers, which a spectator of a stage performance can’t either in most cases.

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EP. 1304 - Filmmaker Rita Hencke (SALT IN THEIR VEINS)

SALT IN THEIR VEINS, 16min,. Australia
Directed by Rita Hencke
East Indonesia. Communities of sea people live a life that ties them closely to the marine environment. They are known as Bajo, descendants of former sea nomads who were once roaming the ocean to fish and trade.

https://www.ritahencke.com/film

Get to know the filmmaker:

The inspiration for “Salt in their Veins” came from my passion for freediving. I was captivated by the extraordinary diving and spearfishing skills of the Bajo sea people. During my visit to one of their remote communities in Indonesia a few years ago, I saw how their lives are being transformed by modern influences. This experience motivated me to capture the contrast between their traditional and modern fishing practices.

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EP. 1298 - Filmmaker Chris Durr (OTHERS)

OTHERS, 19min., USA
Directed by Chris Durr
In a midwest suburb, an aging radio enthusiast becomes suspicious that a lonely hispanic teenager is a response to his interstellar transmissions. As misunderstanding and coincidence collide, Mateo perceives Frank as a potential threat, while Frank becomes convinced Mateo is a response to his message that he transmits to the skies. Their misperceptions are flipped over when they are interrupted by a close encounter with an unexpected guest.

http://chrisdurr.com/

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

Get to know the filmmaker:

The polarization I’ve been experiencing in my country over the past decade has had me pondering what on Earth could drive humanity together…not saying “Others” is the answer, but I wanted to tell a story about two very different people misperceiving one another while experiencing the same isolation or loneliness. The sci fi alien stuff came from an experience I had in 2009 that left me very open minded, so I thought that might be a fun way to get us there in the film.

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EP. 1284 - Filmmaker William Thibodeau (MORNING ROUTINE)

MORNING ROUTINE, 2min., Canada
Directed by William Thibodeau
Inspired by the epic true story. After sleeping in, Jack must go through his morning routine before it’s too late…

Get to know the filmmaker:

I wanted to turn something seemingly boring into something exciting. We are all in a rush during our morning routine and I wanted to depict it in the most epic way possible.

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EP. 1283 - Actor/Producer/Writer Oliver de la Harpe (PARROT)

PARROT, 24min,. Canada
Directed by Cameron Faulkner
After forcibly being sold a parrot, Ollie is thrust into a surprise birthday party hosted by his roommates. The night spirals into chaos as he tries to regain control and sort his life out. Based on an unbelievable true story.

https://www.instagram.com/parrotfilmofficial/

Get to know Oliver de la Harpe:

Covid is the short answer. Charles (co-writer) and I were isolated across continents and in many FaceTime conversations we finally started to commit to a film project we had been talking about for a few years. It lived mainly as a script we would work on until Charles showed it to our director Cameron for notes. To which he signed on immediately and said he wanted to shoot. From there the only question was when.

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EP. 1282 - Actor/Creators Marco Labate & Gica Pucca (PROJECT 405: LOST AT SEA)

PROJECT 405: LOST AT SEA, 12min,. USA
Directed by Josie Hull
Aspiring artist Alexia, grieves the loss of a loved one and struggles to finish her painting. The-o, her personal AI assistant, who has little understanding of human emotions, tries everything in his power to feed her longing soul.

https://www.fenderbenderfilms.com/
https://www.instagram.com/fenderbenderfilms/

Get to know actors & creators Marco Labate and Gica Pucca

M: Coming from pretty intense personal journeys, we wanted to work with the idea of fantasy vs. reality, and we chose to use grief as a vehicle. At the end of the day, you can always make the choice to either acknowledge or ignore what you feel, but the latter can lead to confusion, and reality always catches up to you.

G: We liked exploring the concept of artificial intelligence and the modern world, conflicting with art and human emotion.

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EP. 1281 - Filmmaker Kalyn Elizabeth Wood (SCREAMING SILENCE)

SCREAMING SILENCE, 17min., UK
Directed by Kalyn Elizabeth Wood, Hal Waghorn
In the hauntingly enigmatic and dialogue-free short film, ‘Screaming Silence’, Elizabeth, a young woman in the aftermath of a traumatic event, navigates her world through a haunting soundscape of everyday noises, which ‘peoples’ her world and forces her to face her reality of circumstances and her fear of reaching out for help. As the audience intimately experiences her journey, Elizabeth’s silence becomes a bittersweet force, echoing the profound emotional depth that empowers her to move forward in an altruistic twist of an ending.

https://www.screamingsilencefilm.com/

Get to know filmmaker Kalyn Elizabeth Wood:

This film first started out as my dissertation project for my masters program in London. I was the only one in my class who was doing a digital piece. I knew when beginning to write my piece that I wanted to examine women’s relationships, mainly womens relationship to trauma, sexual assault, loss, isolation and also to dive a little into the mother-daughter relationship dynamic. The film’s first iteration was completely different from its final iteration that it is today and to be quite honest I am glad I went the route that the film is now rather than what it was ‘supposed’ to be. It challenged me and pushed me to places I had never been before as a performer intrinsically, technically, and emotionally. What started out as a quest to fulfill or rather rewrite my story as a gift to my mom and it then became something in singularity. From women, to women. A singular and multifaceted relationship with trauma, the aftermath, loss, isolation and more importantly silence. I investigated the notion of: the power of female silence in films through the lens of trauma. I want anyone who watches this film to feel as though they are allowed in Elizabeth’s world to experience and observe her life in that present moment. I want people to be inspired by the lack of Elizabeth’s voice to find their own voice. To open up and out and maybe even scream.

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EP. 1280 - Writer/Producer Ken Barrett (BRAINLAND - Opera Film)

Conversation with writer/producer Ken Barrett about the Opera Film “BRAINLAND”

In 1935 Egas Moniz, renowned Portuguese neurologist, visit psychiatrist Sobral Cid in order to persuade him allow his patients to be act as subjects for Moniz's experiemntal treatment - frontal leucotomy. After some resistance Cid agrees. The first such operation is staged, but Moniz's exhaltation is cut short by an attempt on his life. This self-contained chamber opera is actually scene 7 from a longer opera of the same name that tells three stories from the history of 20th century brain science (rather than a screenplay we worked with a libretto). it was filmed very quickly with little resources and involved professional and non-professional cast & crew. The music is by Stephen Brown. Directed by Chiara D’Anna


https://www.brainlandtheopera.co.uk/

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EP. 1279 - Filmmaker William Quinn Dover (CIAO, BELLA)

CIAO, BELLA, 8min., USA
Directed by William Quinn Dover
In this modern film noir romance, a young stalker can’t seem to get over his ex lover, until finding out the double meaning of "Ciao Bella".

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C4oPE1juDqh/?igsh=MXh4anVtMTFrMGM4dA%3D%3D

Get to know the filmmaker:
As much as it sucks to say, I caught somebody I was seeing on a date with another guy. I didn't take it in a bad way though. Seeing that just sparked the idea, I'm glad it happened. I was also watching "A Boy Meets Girl", a french noir movie that is absolutely stunning, and got directly inspired by that.

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EP. 1278 - Screenwriter Susannah Roberts (DEPRAVED)

Watch the Screenplay Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ4sVMUQHho

Depraved is a slasher that takes place at a college campus. A serial killer stalks the campus mutilating their victims while two detectives work tirelessly to try and identify the culprit. More and more bodies mount up until we end with a shocking twist that no one will see coming.

Get to know the writer:

Depraved should be produced because it is different to other slasher movies out there. The film moves away from the stereotypical ‘serial killer identity’ and takes us in a new direction that is rarely seen in the horror genre. It explores themes that while present in the real world are rarely shown on screen. It also breaks a number of the trends and clichés seen in most slashers. Depraved is a fresh new take on the genre and will appeal to lovers of horrors as well as being more inclusive of groups who seldom have pivotal roles within the slasher genre. The script has already garnered interest within the industry with people reaching out to me about it.

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EP. 1276 - Screenwriter Sami Garcia (LIGHT EM’ UP)

Watch the Screenplay Reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzIUindvgrg

Based on the best-selling book about Officer Sam Harris, a bomb squad leader, and her team of experts as they race against the clock to save innocent live from a serial bomber, including their own. Our lead also happens to be a lesbian , navigating her way through a male dominant culture, inspired by the author’s real life experience as a lesbian in law enforcement.


https://srichey147387.wixsite.com/inspirationaldreamer
https://www.facebook.com/garcia.lightemup.9
https://mobile.twitter.com/samkat429
https://www.instagram.com/samkat429/

Get to know the writer:

This one- hour serialized action thriller, based on the bestselling book, Light ‘Em Up, Officer Sam Harris, a bomb squad leader, and her team of expert’s race against the clock to save innocent lives from a serial bomber, including their own. Our lead also happens to be a lesbian, navigating her way through a male dominant culture, inspired by the author’s real life experience as a lesbian in law enforcement.

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