WILDsound's The Film Podcast

film and television, Film Festival, Film of the Day, filmmaking, Independent FilmMatthew ToffoloMay 23, 2024Melanie Munt (DISCHORDANT), screeenwriter, screenplay contest, female film festival, Matthew Toffolo

EP. 1233 - Filmmaker Jax Deerman Kinlaw (WEREWOLF MARGARITA)

WEREWOLF MARGARITA, 10min., USA
Directed by Jax Deerman Kinlaw
A young woman is stalked by a werewolf.

Get to know the filmmaker:

I originally wrote Werewolf Margarita as an assignment in a college screenwriting class. The assignment: pick a random song lyric out of a hat and write a 5-10 page screenplay inspired by the song lyric. I got the lyric, “I saw a Werewolf drinking a Pina Colada” and it started from there. When we did a class reading of the script, i got great responses from both my classmates and teachers so I knew I wanted to make it into a film at some point. Once I graduated, I wanted to continue moving forward in the industry ao I picked up my favorite script from filmschool and pressed go!

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Film of the Day, filmmaking, Horror, Independent FilmMatthew ToffoloMay 23, 2024Jax Deerman Kinlaw (WEREWOLF MARGARITA), Matthew Toffolo, filmmaker, horror

EP. 1232 - Filmmaker Stephanie Williams (MY ROCKSTAR)

MY ROCKSTAR, 13min,. USA

Directed by Stephanie Williams, Graham Nothrup

"My Rockstar" is a compelling and emotional short film that follows the journey of Amanda (aka “Eva” of the band Eva Under Fire”), a determined young Latina woman who dreams of becoming a rockstar while navigating the challenges of her father's opiate addiction. The story delves into the complexities of familial relationships, self-discovery, and the power of resilience. The film aims to evoke strong emotional responses from the audience while conveying a powerful message about the profound impact of addiction on familial relationships. It explores themes of hope, resilience, and the pursuit of dreams, leaving viewers inspired and moved by Amanda's journey.

Read movie review of the film: https://festivalreviews.org/2024/05/21/short-film-review-my-rockstar-directed-by-stephanie-williams-graham-nothrup/

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film and television, Film Festival, Film of the Day, Independent FilmMatthew ToffoloMay 23, 2024Stephanie Williams (MY ROCKSTAR), Matthew Toffolo, filmmaker

EP. 1230 - Filmmaker Michael DiBasio-Ornelas (THE YORKIE WEREWOLF)

THE YORKIE WEREWOLF, 74min., USA
Directed by Michael DiBiasio-Ornelas
A rebellious teen witch is turned into a tiny werewolf and thrown into the middle of a decades-old war between one small town’s creatures of the night — and the local mafia.

https://www.instagram.com/michaeldibiasio/
https://twitter.com/MichaelDiBiasio

Get to know the filmmaker:

Fun. The goal of this film was to do something absurd, to enjoy the process of that, and to make something that would hopefully make a lot of people laugh. I first got the idea nine years ago, and then forgot about it. It occurred to me again — “what if someone got turned into a werewolf, but instead it was a Yorkie” — and this time I pitched it to someone while looking for my next film to line up. The pitch went well enough that they said “if you write the script, I can try to help you get some financing at a low budget.” Ultimately, that opportunity didn’t pan out but I pretty quickly got a private investor on board based on the strength of the concept.

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film and television, Film Festival, Film of the Day, filmmaking, Independent FilmMatthew ToffoloMay 23, 2024Michael DiBasio-Ornelas, filmmaker, Matthew Toffolo, THE YORKIE WEREWOLF

EP. 1229 - Filmmaker Elisabetta Zavoli (THE FISHERMAN, THE ALIEN, THE SEA)

THE FISHERMAN, THE ALIEN, THE SEA, 9min,. Italy
Directed by Elisabetta Zavoli
In June 2023, the population of blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) boomed unexpectedly in the Goro lagoon, Delta of Po River, Italy. Here, amidst the alarmed but inactive shouting of the entire community, a young fourth-generation fisherman, Alessio Tagliati, leader of a small cooperative of clams farmers that has lost all their production to the blue crabs’ voracity, faces this new environmental challenge by reviving a traditional sustainable fishing technique his grandfather taught him and by following what the sea taught him: being ready to adapt to an environment that continuously change, thus showing a tremendous spirit of resilience in the face of the collapsing of his world.

http://www.elisabettazavoli.com/
https://www.facebook.com/elisabetta.zavoli
https://twitter.com/elizavola
https://www.instagram.com/elizavola/

Get to know the filmmaker:
I’m a freelance documentary photographer and filmmaker. In 2023, I investigated the invasion of alien species Atlantic blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) in the Mediterranean Sea thanks to the support of the National Geographic Society – Storytelling Grant. One of the outputs was a short film telling the impacts of the blue crabs invasion.

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Documentary Film, Environmental, film and television, filmmaking, Independent Film, Matthew ToffoloMatthew ToffoloMay 23, 2024THE FISHERMAN, THE ALIEN, THE SEA, Elisabetta Zavoli, filmmaker

EP. 1227 - Filmmaker Tor Kristoffersen (DIRECT ACTION)

DIRECT ACTION, 13min., UK
Directed by Tor Kristoffersen
A teenage environmentalist leads a protest
against a coal mine, setting her on a collision course
with her father, the police and courts.

https://www.instagram.com/torkistoffersen/

Get to know the filmmaker:

A few things – the first is obviously the climate crisis, which is pretty much the backdrop (in some way) for all the scripts I write – having this unprecedented and existential issue staring us in the face, which we’re not really dealing with has always motivated me to try and tackle it in some small way and I think fictional stories are a very important way of doing that. In England we’ve got a government which after making some good noises about Net Zero has started giving the green light for more coal mines and oil fields, while at the same time introducing some draconian laws making peaceful protest virtually illegal and giving some pretty hefty sentences to climate protesters which is pretty alarming. Most climate protesters don’t want to go out and start marching down streets (you can trust me on that) but they’re pretty well informed on the science – indeed the ones I know are some of the most educated people in our society such as doctors and scientists so it’s quite alarming when we start locking these people up for trying to raise awareness of the subject. I totally appreciate that their tactics can divide the room but the reason they’re doing this is because we’re ignoring the problem.

The other main issue I was interested in was how a lot of young females were being dealt with (particularly by the press in the UK) for taking part in these protests — basically how they were being branded as ‘fanatical’ and that reminded me of the suffragette movement. We look back on that with selective amnesia in the UK, Emily Pankhurst and the woman who fought for their rights are now rightly celebrated but at the time they were horribly vilified and they had to use some pretty hard core tactics which are never mentioned. A lot of women were imprisoned for simply wanting rights and I found there to be an interesting parallel here. So out of that (and a few women I have met) Emily Phliips was born – I then really liked the idea that her mum had played a role in activism but her dad saw work opportunities in the mine – this enabled me to bring the other side I wanted to explore as well – which is the struggle a lot of people have with paying the bills and how lack of political leadership makes the transition away from fossil fuels very real and economically scary for a lot of people. These are themes I was able to explore more in the feature but they’re touched on very lightly here.

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film and television, Film Festival, Film of the Day, filmmaking, Independent FilmMatthew ToffoloMay 22, 2024Tor Kristoffersen (DIRECT ACTION), Matthew Toffolo, filmmaker, drama

EP. 1226 - Filmmaker Roberta Pia De Angelis (THE TWO SPINSTERS)

THE TWO SPINSTERS, 9min., Italy
Directed by Ugo Lanzotti, Roberta Pia De Angelis
Two ladies have been living together for many years. One of them, Maria, has to face an old family hostility for having chosen to live love…

https://www.instagram.com/roberta_de_angelis

Get to know filmmaker Roberta Pia De Angelis:

This film was born as a final project at our university last year. What we wanted to tell was a homosexual story but in a different way. What motivated us to write this story, as it has been written, was to show how love has no age or gender. However, as in most cases, it is not always easy to follow your heart and feelings, especially when the people you loved most during your life did not support you in your choices.

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https://www.instagram.com/funnybonepictures

Film Festival, Film of the Day, filmmaking, Independent FilmMatthew ToffoloMay 22, 2024Roberta Pia De Angelis, Matthew Toffolo, filmmaker, THE TWO SPINSTERS, filmmakers

EP. 1225 - Filmmaker Maziyar Khatam (THE SWEATER)

THE SWEATER, 9min., Canada
Directed by Maziyar Khatam
Pressured into giving away his clothes, an emasculated young man obsessively attempts to reclaim his cherished sweater before it vanishes into the donation abyss.

Get to know the filmmaker:

This idea has been bouncing around in my head since 2017: a guy donates his sweater at his girlfriend’s request, but his male friends make him feel inferior, so he decides to steal it back at all costs to prove his manhood. Firstly, it’s a comedy, but it was also important for the story to feel personal, delving into masculinity, self-worth, and the struggle for validation.

At the time, executing this film didn’t seem feasible from a budgetary perspective, especially with one of the key scenes being set at a donation center/thrift store. Our team had no finances to shut down an entire store, hire background extras, and shoot such a scene.

Years later, we had been discussing another idea that would utilize a more guerrilla shooting style. It occurred to us that we could shoot The Sweater this way as a proof of concept for our other more expansive project.

So we used hidden cameras and snuck into locations, which gave the film a voyeuristic and personal feel. The result was a bizarre hybrid of real people and actors fusing into a single narrative.

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Comedy, Film Festival, film and television, filmmaking, Independent FilmMatthew ToffoloMay 22, 2024Maziyar Khatam, filmmaker, THE SWEATER short film, Matthew Toffolo, docu drama, mockumentary

EP. 1221 - Filmmaker David Babasiev (STRUGGLE)

STRUGGLE, 5min., Armenia
Directed by David Babasiev
In the remote mountains a family facing intense challenges as the mother and their prized cow approach childbirth simultaneously.

Get to know the filmmaker:
I’ve always wanted to showcase the reality of the struggle that many face. This film is a reflection of that desire, aiming to shed light on the raw, often unseen challenges people endure. How people are capable of facing two challenges at the same time and going through that.

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film and television, Film Festival, Film of the Day, filmmaking, Matthew Toffolo, Independent FilmMatthew ToffoloMay 22, 2024David Babasiev (STRUGGLE), filmmaker, Matthew Toffolo, wildsound

EP. 1220 - Filmmaker Cory Wexler Grant (SCREAMS FROM THE TOWER)

SCREAMS FROM THE TOWER, 2 hours, USA
Directed by Cory Wexler Grant
SCREAMS FROM THE TOWER is a gay, coming-of-age comedy that follows Julien Rosdahl, his best friend Cary, and their outcast friends through high school in the 1990’s. The only thing Julien dreams of is having a show on the high school radio station, but his brand of comedy is very… weird.

http://www.screamsfromthetower.com/

Get to know the filmmaker:

After finishing my first feature, PAINTER, which is a dark, brooding, psychosexual drama, making a coming-of-age comedy about a couple of closeted gay boys growing up in the 90’s, felt like nice change of pace. And I’d never seen a gay film quite like SCREAMS. It’s also a love letter to an old friend, who formed me, and shaped the way I saw the world.

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film and television, Film Festival, Film of the Day, filmmaking, Independent FilmMatthew ToffoloMay 22, 2024SCREAMS FROM THE TOWER, Cory Wexler Grant, Matthew Toffolo, filmmaker

EP. 1219 - Filmmaker Britt Dallyn (MOB FAMILY TIES)

MOB FAMILY TIES, 9min., Canada
Directed by Britt Dallyn
After grandpa Michael begins to unintentionally rat on old associates due to his mental decline, the Leslie’s, a mob family, face a moral dilemma whether they need to whack grandpa or not as they host his possible final meal in this send up of traditional TV sitcoms.

Get to know the filmmaker:

I made this at Vancouver Film School for what they call “demo shoots”. Meaning after we had filmed our higher budget, 2-3 day shoots throughout the year, we were given an opportunity to film one more project before the year ended to add to our demo reels. Unlike the shoots earlier in the year however, these projects had no budget and had to be filmed within the school for 1 day only. Everybody had to write a 6 page script and pitch it to the teachers as an assignment where the teachers would pick 6 to actually be filmed. So with those parameters I thought about what I had access to for free within the school. Then I thought “hey, that one pre-built set kinda looks like a sitcom set. I’ve always appreciated a good sitcom, so what if I made one of my own but with a dark kind of humour that you wouldn’t typically see in a show like this.” I found the contrast of all the cheery dressings of a sitcom mixed with a story about murder to be promising for a comedy. In short, like many solutions in film, it all came together out of necessity.

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