Dan Persons says:

Ah, the romance of the outlaw -- dashing and fearless, living a life of danger and adventure. Except when they're greedy sociopaths leaving a trail of corpses in their wake.

NARCO CULTURA looks into the world of the Mexican drug cartels and how it has spawned a culture that romanticizes and celebrates the bloody exploits of the men behind it. Photojournalist and filmmaker Shaul Schwarz -- leveraging his experience working in such conflict zones as Haiti and the Gaza Strip -- focuses in both on the real-life horror witnessed by Richi Soto, a crime scene investigator in Juarez, Mexico, who has to deal with the terror, corruption, and intimidation spawned by the cartels, and on the cultural impact via the viewpoint of Edgar Quintero, a Los Angeles narcocorrido songwriter and singer, who's acquiring a growing fandom for his odes celebrating the cartels' violent lifestyle.

I was able to sit down with Schwarz for an in-depth glimpse into the motivations for this project and risks encountered in actually bringing it to the screen. Click on the player to hear the show.

WEBSITE LINK: http://narcoculture.com/

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Dan Persons says:

The comedy team of Etta Devine and Gabriel Diani already have a bit of notoriety attached to them: Their Kickstarter campaign for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Robotic Edition) — which proposed to publish an edition of the Mark Twain classic with all occurrences of the N-word replaced with the word “robot” — attracted no little attention and enough supporters to not only push them to their goal, but well beyond. With that success under their belt, they’ve embarked on a less unorthodox, but hopefully just as entertaining, Kickstarter campaign for a new end-of-the-world comedy, DIANI & DEVINE MEET THE APOCALYPSE. With a solid technical crew and a cast that includes DEEP SPACE NINE’s Armin Shimerman, BUFFY’s Harry Groener, and LEGEND OF KORRA’s Janet Varney, the project is already well-positioned to bring some mirth to unrestrained devastation, disease, and despair.

So since my sponsors for this ep are presently running a Kickstarter for their cool, RFID-blocking jacket, the Shield, and since I, myself, am running my own Kickstarter, I thought it would be worthwhile to reach out to Etta and Gabe to talk about the film, its inspirations and challenges, and also to get their thoughts on crowdfunding a creative project. Click on the player to hear the discussion.

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DIANI & DEVINE MEET THE APOCALYPSE
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Dan Persons says:

It's back to the border for John Sayles, who in films like LONE STAR has explored the distinctive tensions that brew in the towns that neighbor to Mexico. Now he's applying that worldview to the mystery thriller in GO FOR SISTERS, the story of a parole officer (LisaGay Hamilton) whose son may be in big trouble with human traffickers, and who, in order to track him down in Tijuana, recruits the help of a reformed drug addict (Yolanda Ross) and a not-so-reformed, and nearly blind, former LA cop (Edward James Olmos). Not exactly the kind of trip that they'll be tweeting snapshots from.

As expected, in our interview, Sayles demonstrates an intimate command of the issues that gives GO FOR SISTERS' thrills a real-world legitimacy. Meanwhile, Ross discusses what life is like on a Sayles indie project -- bottom line: look elsewhere for duplex dressing trailers. Click on the player to hear the show.

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Dan Persons says:

To list the films and filmmakers David V. Picker has been involved with in his careers as president of United Artists, Paramount, and Columbia borders on giving a comprehensive history of the medium in the latter half of the twentieth century. A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, PERSONA, THE JERK, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, TOM JONES, LAST TANGO IN PARIS, LENNY, the James Bond franchise; auteurs such as Ingmar Bergman, Bernardo Bertolucci, Mike Nichols, John Huston, Woody Allen, and on and on (and on) -- Picker, through a lifelong embrace of adventurous filmmaking, has had a hand in more than a few standout titles. (Also LEONARD PART 6 -- we're not dealing with gods here.)

Picker has now put his experience in the industry into handy print form in the new book, Musts, Maybes, and Nevers: A Book About the Movies, where he recalls his adventures, good and bad, getting classics and not-quite-classics to the screen, and provides numerous anecdotes of his encounters with the artists and insiders who made it happen. I was able to spend some time with Picker to talk about the industry as it was and as it is, and what it was like capturing all that on the page.

Comment on the episode here or write dan@mightymoviepodcast.com or call 888-866-9010. Take a moment to rate the episode by using our star system at the bottom of this entry.

Dan Persons says:

A guy who's been in every film from COOL HAND LUKE, REPO MAN, ALIEN and PARIS, TEXAS, and worked with everyone from John Huston, David Lynch, Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp has to have some stories to tell. And in HARRY DEAN STANTON: PARTLY FICTION, director Sophie Huber has found a way to get the famously reserved actor to reveal himself, through the medium of song. Both a career retrospect and an unusual performance film, PARTLY FICTION both follows Harry through his favorite haunts and in encounters with colleagues that include David Lynch, Kris Kristofferson, and Debbie Harry, and sits him down with a simple, guitar accompaniment to demonstrate his unique reads on such songs as Everybody's Talkin'.

Sponsor: Audible.com 30 Day Free Trial. Get John Badham on Directing at Audible.com.

I was able to meet up with Harry and Huber to talk about the film and about Harry's career, in possibly one of the most unique interviews I've conducted. Click on the player to hear the show.

OFFICIAL SITE: http://www.adoptfilms.com/harry

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Dan Persons says:

Name a genre, and John Badham can tell you tales about it. He mixed the musical with incisive social observation in SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER — arguably the only disco movie worthy of being watched as serious film — dealt in the worlds of speculative fiction with such cautionary tales as WARGAMES, and has notched his action creds with everything running from BLUE THUNDER all the way up to TV’s NIKITA. All through, he’s worked with stars ranging from John Travolta, Johnny Depp, Mel Gibson and Bridget Fonda. Bottom line: When the guy talks about the craft of filmmaking, you know it comes from experience.

Which is a good thing, because Badham has just released a new book, John Badham on Directing: Notes from the Sets of Saturday Night Fever, War Games, and More. In it, he draws on forty plus years in the industry to provide budding filmmakers with practical tips on working with actors, staging action scenes, and making sure that the film playing in their heads finds its way onto the screen as accurately as possible. At the same time, the book is so chock-full of anecdotes and insights — not just from Badham, but also from such colleagues as Steven Soderbergh and Oliver Stone — that even those not planning a career behind the lens will want to check it out for its compelling glimpse behind-the-scenes.

Sponsor: Audible.com 30 Day Free Trial. Get John Badham on Directing at Audible.com. 

Badham was kind enough to sit down with us, and we got his thoughts on some of his classic films, on taking advantage of the medium’s technical advances, on the difference between directing for feature films and for TV, and on the motivations for putting this book together. Click on the player to hear the show.

Comment on the episode here or write dan@mightymoviepodcast.com or call 888-866-9010. Take a moment to rate the episode by using our star system at the bottom of this entry.