Directors Notes

No matter where you are in the film festival landscape – from eager first timer to seasoned award winning pro, or on the other side of the equation, organising your first screening for the local community or a mammoth A-lister like Sundance or TIFF setting the cinematic agenda for this film festival season to come, then one platform alone looms large above all others, FilmFreeway. Evolving from a scrappy four-person upstart in 2014, FilmFreeway inarguably dominates festival submissions across the globe, yet over the years has been less than forthcoming in responding to interview requests, suggestions or complaints generated by filmmakers and festival directors alike. After chasing the company for several years, the appointment of new General Manager Matt Toigo, who joins us on the podcast today, has finally opened up the opportunity to get answers to many of the burning questions the film community has about FilmFreeway – from what they’re doing to combat scam festivals to advice for maximising your success on the platform as a filmmaker or film festival.[Watch/Read the full interview – includes reference links to the various discussion points] Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.Find us at:DN newsletterYouTubeInstagram https://archive.org/download/dn398filmfreewaymatttoigo/DN398FilmFreewayMattToigo.mp3

This week we’re joined by BAFTA winning filmmaker Victoria Mapplebeck to discuss her feature documentary Motherboard which transforms 20 years of solo parenting her son Jim into a groundbreaking work of cinematic self-portraiture as it charts two decades of life—from the shock of an unplanned pregnancy to the joys and challenges of raising a child alone, navigating cancer treatment, and weathering the storms of adolescence. In our interview, we get into the ethics of filming family and the need for clear informed consent, using smartphones to democratise filmmaking when funding remains elusive and structuring the film to prioritise emotional truth over tidy linear narratives.[Watch/Read the full interview] Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.Find us at:DN newsletterYouTubeInstagram https://archive.org/download/dn397motherboardvictoriamapplebeck/DN397MotherboardVictoriaMapplebeck.mp3

We recently sat down with Anna Smith – broadcaster, film critic and co-founder of the Girls on Film podcast and awards. Known for her feminist film criticism and advocacy, Anna has spent her career carving out space for women’s voices. In our interview, we cover the breadth of her career and the shifting dynamics of modern film criticism.[Watch/Read the full interview] Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.Find us at:DN newsletterYouTubeInstagram https://archive.org/download/dn396girlsonfilmannasmith/DN396GirlsOnFilmAnnaSmith.mp3

DN first had the pleasure of speaking to filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari back in 2011, following the SXSW screening of Attenberg, a film which cemented her position as a linchpin of the Greek New Wave. A couple weeks ago, ahead of its UK cinema release, we sat down together once again to discuss her latest feature Harvest, an adaptation of Jim Crace’s Booker Prize-nominated novel, which stars actor Caleb Landry Jones, was shot on 16mm by cinematographer (and director in his own right) Sean Price Williams and is a film about an idyllic community torn apart over seven hallucinatory days by the relentless economic forces of capitalism.[Watch/Read the full interview] Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.Find us at:DN newsletterYouTubeInstagram https://archive.org/download/dn395harvestathinaracheltsangari/DN395HarvestAthinaRachelTsangari.mp3

This week we’re bringing you Nimi’s interview with writer/director Rohan Parashuram Kanawade, whose debut feature Cactus Pears – a tender, life-affirming portrait of grief and queer love unfolding in a rural Indian village – won Sundance’s World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic back in January, the first indian film to ever do so, and a couple of days after this interview was recorded added the prize for Best Feature Film at the inaugural edition of SXSW London to its fast growing list of plaudits.[Watch/Read the full interview] Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.Find us at:DN newsletterYouTubeInstagram https://archive.org/download/dn394cactuspearsrohanparashuramkanawade/DN394CactusPearsRohanParashuramKanawade.mp3

Last Monday saw the British TV Broadcaster Channel 4 release Beth – a project billed as its first ever digital original drama, which was not only broadcast traditionally on linear TV as well as on Channel 4 Streaming, but also arrived for audiences first on Channel 4’s YouTube. Ahead of that, DN friend Nimi Raja sat down with Beth writer/director Uzo Oleh and producer Yaw Basoah for a chat about formats and the rich subtext peppered throughout their sci-fi mystery meets IVF relationship drama. [Note: This conversation contains spoilers but you can watch Beth at this link] Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.Find us at:DN newsletterYouTubeInstagram https://archive.org/download/dn-393-beth-uzo-oleh-yaw-basoah/DN393BethUzoOlehYawBasoah.mp3

In this episode we’re joined by Daisy-May Hudson whom we last spoke to as part of our London Film Festival coverage alongside co-director Sophie Compton for their feature documentary Holloway. Today, Daisy-May returns as the writer-director of feature drama Lollipop, which stars a captivating Posy Sterling as a young woman newly released from prison after serving four months, who is forced to struggle against a not fit for purpose child protection system to regain custody of her children. With Lollipop arriving on cinema screens this week as part of its Q&A tour, before being released nationwide on the 13th June, Sarah caught up with Daisy-May to learn all about how she made the move from documentary to narrative features.[Watch/Read the full interview] Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcastFind us at:DN newsletterYouTubeInstagram https://archive.org/download/dn392lollipopdaisymayhudson/DN392LollipopDaisyMayHudson.mp3

Back in October, we headed to the Bolton Film Festival (a favourite, regular stop for us on the UK film festival circuit) to sit on the jury as one of the partners for the inaugural Slick Films Fund live pitch event. Of the five Filmmakers pitching their projects in the hopes of walking away with the £10K Grand Prize, it was Bradford-based filmmaker Jordon Scott Kennedy’s estate-set, kitchen-sink science fiction comedy Rocket Fuel, that won the room for the live audience and jury alike. Soon after his Slick Films Fund win, the BBC came calling! Having presided over the live pitch event and with Rocket Fuel recently premiering on BBC Three and now available for all to watch on iPlayer, Sarah caught up with Jordan for a chat about getting Rocket Fuel off the ground and on to the screens of a major broadcaster.[Watch/Read the full interview] Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.Find us at:DN newsletterYouTubeInstagram https://archive.org/download/dn391rocketfueljordonscottkennedy/DN391RocketFuelJordonScottKennedy.mp3

Self-funded with a minuscule budget of just £150,000 and shot on 16mm in Laos with non-actors and a skeleton crew who had to contend with snakes, poisoned well water and a mid-production camera break down due to the heat, writer/director Joshua Trigg’s feature debut Satu – Year of the Rabbit is pretty much the epitome of independent filmmaking. With Satu about to finish up its UK cinema tour, which began with a special IMAX preview screening of the film to open the BFI Future Film Festival and concludes on the 28th of April at Exeter Phoenix cinema, we bring you our chat with Josh where we discuss the determined pursuit of a creative calling which is echoed both on screen and in the production of the film itself.[Watch/Read the full interview] Get your tickets for the WeAreDN Awards! Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.Find us at:DN newsletterYouTubeInstagram https://archive.org/download/dn390satuyearoftherabbitjoshuatrigg/DN390SatuYearOfTheRabbitJoshuaTrigg.mp3

This episode marks the last of our Oscar winning short film director interviews and features Sarah chat with Molly O’Brien, who joined DN a couple weeks before the Academy Awards to take us inside her move from producer to director for her Netflix acquired documentary short The Only Girl in the Orchestra, which follows the trailblazing career of musician Orin O’Brien and her beloved double basses as the first female musician in the New York Philharmonic orchestra.[Watch/Read the full interview] Get your tickets for the WeAreDN Awards! Head to Directors Notes for more filmmaker interviews and to watch our daily selection of new short films. If you’d like your film featured on DN, submit it here. If you’re not already, you should definitely subscribe to the Directors Notes podcast.Find us at:DN newsletterYouTubeInstagram https://archive.org/download/dn389theonlygirlintheorchestramollyobrien/DN389TheOnlyGirlInTheOrchestraMollyOBrien.mp3