Haley Copes, Trish Clark, and Ryan Licwinko.
On today's episode of Deep Focus, host Tom Breen talks with 48 Hour Film Project New Haven Producer Trish Clark and with Ryan Licwinko and Haley Copes, two local filmmakers who participated in the 2018 competition during the final weekend of July. Licwinko's team, everyoneleavesnewhaven, made the martial arts movie, "The Warrior, The Guardian, and The Liar. Copes's team, Bounce Lounge Productions, made the comedy, "A Slice of Chaos."
On today's episode of Deep Focus, host Tom Breen talks with Trish Clark about this summer's 48 Hour Film Project New Haven, the eighth annual Elm City competition to make a 4 to 7 minute movie that follows an assortment of randomly assigned criteria over the course of one weekend. Breen and Clark also talk about the Nutmeg Institute, which Clark co-founded to help connect and inspire local filmmakers.
http://www.48hourfilm.com/new-haven-ct
On today's episode, host Tom Breen talks with Jim Barone, a Hamden native who stars in the new Adam Sandler Netflix comedy, THE WEEK OF. Barone lost both of his legs due to complications with diabetes a few years ago, but is now embarking on an acting career, and is calling one of the most famous comedians in the world a new friend and mentor.
Steve Hamm.
On today's episode, host Tom Breen talks with Steve Hamm, the director of THE VILLAGE, a new documentary and oral history of the Wooster Square neighborhood, which has served for over a century as the city's Little Italy.
On today's episode, host Tom Breen talks with local filmmaker Gorman Bechard about the fifith annual New Haven Documentary Film Festival, aka NHDocs.
PIZZA, A LOVE STORY director Gorman Bechard (center) and producers Colin Caplan (left) and Dean Falcone.
Today’s show is all about PIZZA, A LOVE STORY, a new documentary from local filmmaker Gorman Bechard and producers Colin Caplan and Dean Falcone that is all about just why, oh why, the small New England city we call home has three of the best pizza places in the world, all within a few blocks of one another. Host Tom Breen talks with them about about their research into Pepe’s, Sally’s and Modern, and about how America’s century-long love affair with pizza has been influenced by a small group of family-owned, Italian-American restaurants based out of New Haven.
Kickstarter page for PIZZA, A LOVE STORY: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gormanbechard/pizza-a-love-story-a-documentary-on-the-ultimate-s?ref=creator_nav
PIZZA, A LOVE STORY website: http://www.pizzaalovestory.com/
WNPR reporter Ryan Caron King (Thomas Breen photo)
On Wednesday, September 20, 2017, a Category 4 hurricane made landfall on the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Hurricane Maria completely destroyed the island’s power grid, leveled homes and schools, and was and continues to be a source of great humanitarian concern both for the 3.4 million people who live on Puerto Rico as well as for the upwards of 300,000 Puerto Ricans who live in the state of Connecticut.
On the first segment of today’s show, host Tom Breen talks with WNPR journalist and photographer Ryan Caron King about the Island Next Door, a reporting project undertaken by King and WNPR news director Jeff Cohen that documents the months-long fallout of Hurricane Maria, both on the island and in the Nutmeg State. They focus in on the videos and photographs that Ryan made over the course of several reporting trips to Puerto Rico in late 2017.
On the second segment of the show, Breen is joined by New Haven Independent staff writer Allan Appel for a review of PHANTOM THREAD, a new movie from director Paul Thomas Anderson that offers a biting critique of the myth of the domineering male artistic genius and his docile female muse, all set in the world of high fashion in post-World War II London, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Vicky Krieps, and Lesley Manville.
The Island Next Door: https://theislandnextdoor.wnpr.org/
CHARCOAL (2017)
On the first segment of today’s episode, host Tom Breen is joined by Bridgeport-based filmmaker Francesca Andre to talk about her new movie “Charcoal,” a short film about colorism and prejudices within and without the black community against dark skin. They talk about the origins of this movie, Andre’s background as a fashion and news photographer, and her own experiences with colorism in her native Haiti and here in the States.
On the second segment of the show, Breen joined by New Haven Independent reporter Allan Appel for a review of The Shape of Water, director Guillermo del Toro’s new sci-fi-horror-romance about a mute cleaning woman in early 60s Baltimore who falls in love with an amphibious man held captive at the secret US army research facility where she works.
http://www.francescaandrephotography.com/
Gorman Bechard at the WNHH studio.
On today's episode, host Tom Breen talks with prolific New Haven filmmaker Gorman Bechard about his latest rock documentary, Who Is Lydia Loveless? The movie follows a 24-year-old country rock musician as she tours the midwest in the early stages of her career, and dives deep on the challenges and joys of making art for a living.
What Were We Thinking Films website: http://whatwerewethinkingfilms.com/
On the first segment of today’s show, host Tom Breen talks with Allan Appel and Lucy Gellman about LOVING VINCENT, a new animated film from directors Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman that gives the Citizen Kane treatment to the life of Dutch post-impressionist painter Vincent Van Gogh: through a series of flashbacks and second-hand stories, we see the rise and fall of the troubled and inspired life of this eccentric painter, focusing in on the final days of his life in the rural French town of Auvers.
Unlike most animated movies, this story is composed of tens of thousands of hand-drawn oil paintings by over one hundred contributing artists, all simulating the heavy brushstrokes and ebullient style of the movie’s namesake.
On the second segment of the show, Breen is joined by Lucy McClure, Debbie Hesse, and Trish Clark to talk about the Nasty Women Film Event, a screening night of locally made feminist films that will be taking place at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art on Election day, next Tuesday, in honor of, or in defiance of, the anniversary of Donald Trump’s election as president.
Nasty Women Film Event Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1962381047383269/
Thursday, July 20, 2017 - Due to a technical error, we accidentally deleted the recording of today's interview with with Trish Clark and Patrick Whalen about the 48 Hour Film Project New Haven. Fortunately, we've had Trish on the show before to talk about the 48 HFP... all the way back on Episode 1! Listen to the interview linked above to hear about the 2015 competition, and click on any one of the links below to learn more about this year's competition.
Tony Conrad: Completely in the Present (2016)
Today's interview-only episode of the show is all about TONY CONRAD: COMPLETELY IN THE PRESENT, a new documentary about an influential, often overlooked New York artist who was a pioneer in musical minimalism in the late 1950s, in experimental underground filmmaking in the 1960s, in pushing the democratic bounds of public access television in the 1990s and 2000s, and in many other areas of anti-authority creativity besides.
Host Tom Breen is joined by director Tyler Hubby and local filmmaker Brendan Toller to talk about Hubby’s new movie, which Toller will be screening at Lyric Hall in Westville on Thursday, June 29th, at 7 p.m. as part of a new documentary series he’s putting together for that venue.
Tony Conrad movie website: http://www.tonyconradmovie.com/
Facebook event page for Tony Conrad screening at Lyric Hall: https://www.facebook.com/events/1411658772229151/
Danny Says website: http://dannysaysfilm.com/Danny_Says/Danny_Says.html
THE LIFE AND GARDENS OF BEATRIX FARRAND (2017) by Karyl Evans
On today's episode of Deep Focus, host Tom Breen talks with two Connecticut filmmakers who will be screening their new movies playing at this year's New Haven Documentary Festival.
On the first segment of the show, Breen is joined by six-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Karyl Evans to talk about her new movie The Life and Gardens of Beatrix Farrand, about a pioneering female landscape architect who lived and worked in New Haven for over a decade in the first half of the 20th century.
On the second segment, Breen talks with writer / producer Fred Cantor The High School that Rocked, a short documentary about how from 1966 - 1968 Staples High School in Westport, Connecticut hosted concerts by some of the biggest names in rock and roll, including The Doors, The Animals, Cream, The Rascals, and Sly & The Family Stone.
NHDocs: http://www.nhdocs.com/
The Life and Gardens of Beatrix Farrand trailer: https://vimeo.com/201694337
The Life and Gardens of Beatrix Farrand Website: http://www.beatrixfarranddocumentary.com/
The High School That Rocked Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TheHighSchoolThatRocked/
On the first segment of today’s show, host Tom Breen talks with Yale film studies professor Charles Musser about the 4th annual New Haven Documentary Film Festival, which runs from June 1 through June 11 at the Whitney Humanities Center and the Main Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library in downtown New Haven. Musser is a co-founder and co-director of the fest.
On the second segment of the show, Breen is joined by New Haven Independent staff writer Allan Appel for a review of Alien: Covenant, the latest installment in the four-decade-old sci-fi / horror series that finds a new ship, a new crew, and a new planet beset by the same old problems of merciless nature and technology, and big chomping mouths with rows upon rows of teeth.
On today's episode of Kitchen Sync, host Lucy Gellman is joined by Deep Focus host Tom Breen and local filmmaker Jim O'Connor to talk about Food Haven, O'Connor's new documentary that explores New Haven's rich and varied culinary scene.
David Sikora
On the first segment of today's show, host Tom Breen talks with local freelance cinematographer David Sikora about two films that have helped shape his love of cinema: Oliver Stone's 1994 blood-soaked satire Natural Born Killers and Darron Aronofsky's 2000 hallucinogenic drama Requiem for a Dream. For the second segment, Breen talks with Madison Art Cinemas director Arnold Gorlick about the new James Baldwin documentary, I Am Not Your Negro. For a complete archive of Deep Focus episodes, go to deepfocusradio.com.
CROW STORIES by Sean Kernan
On today's episode of Deep Focus, host Tom Breen talks with Branford photographer Sean Kernan about CROW STORIES, his new documentary that offers a glimpse into the life, landscape, and culture of the Crow People, a Native American tribe concentrated in southern Montana. For the second segment, he's joined by Inner City News editor Babz Rawls-Ivy for a review of the new movie HIDDEN FIGURES.
http://www.crow-stories.net/
http://www.seankernan.com/
http://www.bestvideo.com/film-screening-connecticut-photographer-sean-kernans-crow-stories-documentary-screens-mon-jan-30/
For the first segment of today's show, host Tom Breen talks with local rapper Joey A.X. and Boston-based filmmaker Sev One about their recent music video, "Love Hate Relationship," which explores Joey's ambivalent, affectionate perspective on the city in which he grew up: Elm City. Tom is joined by Lucy Gellman and Allan Appel during the second segment for a divisive review if La La Land, Damien Chazelle's new musical that stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN_10rZyBwk
http://www.killjoeyax.com/
Still from Emory Farb's short documentary Standing with Standing Rock
Today's interview-only episode of the show is all about student documentaries that explore the elusive and contentious nature of American identity. Host Tom Breen is joined in the studio by Rena Tobey, who teaches an Honors College-level course at Southern Connecticut State University called “Shaping the American Identity.” As the semester nears its conclusion, she has given her students the opportunity to satisfy their final project requirements by creating short documentaries that explore some of the themes covered in the course. We’ll talk with Rena and two of her student documentarians, Evie Jenkins and Emory Farb, about the scope of this course, some of the challenges of being a student filmmaker, and trying to use documentaries to better understand what it means to be an American.
Poster for I AM SHAKESPEARE
This episode of Deep Focus is all about I AM SHAKESPEARE, a new documentary from New Haven filmmaker Stephen Dest that tells the story of Henry Green, a young man from Newhalville struggling to reconcile the many different sides of himself in a city painfully divided by class, race, education, and violence. Breen talks with Dest and Green about the story behind this film, the power of committing so much of yourself to a work of art, and the prospect of better understanding yourself and your city through movies. For the second segment of the show, Tom is joined by Inner City News editor Babz Rawls-Ivy and New Haven Independent reporter Markeshia Ricks for a review of MOONLIGHT.
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/new_film_supports_new_art_for_new_haven/
http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/new_film_will_tell_henry_green_story/