WILDsound's The Film Podcast

Film of the Day, Film Festival, film and television, filmmaking, Matthew ToffoloMatthew ToffoloMay 22, 2024Zach Marks (A VALLEY REBORN), Matthew Toffolo, 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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https://www.instagram.com/funnybonepictures

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

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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https://www.instagram.com/lisa_drupsteen

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

EP. 1224 - Filmmaker Lisa Drupsteen (LIKE MOTHER)

LIKE MOTHER, 8min., Canada
Directed by Lisa Drupsteen
A young woman navigates her romantic life while trying her best to dodge her mother’s demons. Will she have the strength to break the cycle of manipulation? Or simply fall victim to the old adage: “Like Mother, Like Daughter”…

Get to know the filmmaker:

A short story I wrote while a student at The Second City Film School (formally the Harold Ramis Film School) featured a zany, narcissistic mother who named pets after loved ones. My peers were eager to learn more about this eccentric lady. I knew I had to explore the concept more deeply and bring it to life on the screen one day.

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https://www.wildkat-media.com/conserving-mountains
https://www.instagram.com/wildkat_media/

Film of the Day, film and television, filmmakingMatthew ToffoloMay 22, 2024Lisa Drupsteen (LIKE MOTHER), Matthew Toffolo, filmmaker, Female film festival

EP. 1223 - Filmmaker Kaitlyn Leach (CONSERVINNG MOUNTAINS)

CONSERVING MOUNTAINS, 10min., USA
Directed by Kaitlyn Leach
An educational short documentary discussing some of the wildlife conservation efforts happening around the state of West Virginia. Throughout the film you will listen to a local DNR Assistant Chief, Wildlife Biologist, and Park Rangers talk about West Virginia’s varying wildlife. The specialists will further talk about the local wildlife’s importance to our ecosystems, and the conservation projects they work on to help ensure their protection and educate the public about them.

Get to know the filmmaker:

I was motivated to make this film because I grew up in West Virginia and I wanted to share the beauty I grew up knowing with others. All together it took me five months to complete this film. The idea was pitched and approved in April. Everything was booked and planned out in May then the film was shot in June. Editing, foley production and music production all took place in July and August.

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filmmaking, Film of the Day, film and television, LGBTMatthew ToffoloMay 22, 2024Kaitlyn Leach, Matthew Toffolo, CONSERVINNG MOUNTAINS short film, filmmaker

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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