Affairs to Remember: Selections from AFI Fest 2017

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This year's slate of unique films on the festival circuits are works defined by individuals. Some follow how they define themselves to others—romantically or otherwise—while others follow their relationship to work, the state, and to their own being. Performers of dynamic and unique range create compelling faces and bodies to follow through spaces both familiar and alien, traversing time through aesthetic choices. Directors thus create tones through defining space and helping us see what is beyond the camera's gaze. In this report from the AFI Film Festival in Los Angeles, Peter invites on a cornucopia of wonderous guests to discuss some of the fall's most unique films. Works by Hong Sang-Soo, Claire Denis, Sergei Lonznista, Aaron Katz, and Valeska Grisebach explore the contemporary landscape with conviction, empathy, and pathos.

0:00-3:43 Opening
4:37-25:27 The Day After and Claire's Camera with Aret Frost
26:28-43:39 A Gentle Creature with Carson Lund
44:37-48:31 Sponsorship Section
50:10-1:03:31  Gemini with Gabriel Anderson
1:04:39-1:29:47 Western and Let the Sunshine In with Carman Tse

1:30:37-1:32:49 Close / Outtake

Life and Something More: Abbas Kiarostami Remembered

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Abbas Kiarostami, born in 1940 in Tehran, turned to filmmaking in 1970 when he helped set up the Institute for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults. He had made a half dozen shorts and one feature, The Report in 1977, before the Iranian Revolution changed the public face of his country. While many filmmakers moved away in search of more creative freedom, Kiarostami continued to direct. Around the early 1990s, his films suddenly found an international foothold at festivals via the Koker trilogy and his most famous work, Close-Up. In 1997, he won a Palm D’Or for Taste of Cherry, helping paint the way for Iranian filmmakers to find an audience abroad. His filmmaking only became more cryptic and complex, especially with his early adoption of digital cinema with Ten and the self-reflexive documentary, Ten on Ten. His final films, Certified Copy and Like Someone In Love, were his only made outside his native Iran. Kiarostami passed away on July 4, 2016. In this special episode of the podcast, Amir Soltani, Tina Hassania, and Carson Lund join the podcast to celebrate the life and work of one of the legendary filmmakers to emerge on the world cinema stage.

0:00-2:49 Opening
2:49-46:18 Abbas Kiarostami — Part 1

47:16-52:02 Sponsorship Section

52:48-1:32:07 Abbas Kiarostami — Part 2

1:32:10-1:33:22 Close 

Special Episode - The 51st New York Film Festival #1 (Carson Lund)

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Arguably the most excitingly and dynamically curated film festival in the world, Peter returns to the New York Film Festival, now in its 51st iteration, for his 8th (!) trip and he couldn't be more excited. Thus begins a series of podcasts dedicated to the various works being presented throughout the festival, now lead by its new head programmer Kent Jones. To help him work through many of the daunting works (in theme, aesthetic, and running time), Boston cinephile Carson Lund, a blogger covering the festival for In Review Online, joins Peter on a tour through violence in capitalist China, fascism in the Northern Philippines, cruising in France, alcoholism in South Korea, and melting ice cream in Nepal. If the rest of the films are as intriguing and exciting as those covered in this first podcast, NYFF51 might just be the best festival yet.  

0:00-2:17 Opening 

2:47-15:15 Zhangke's A Touch of Sin
15:39-26:27 Miyazaki's The Wind Rises
26:54-37:23 Guiraudie's Stranger By the Lake
37:36-39:48 Trivia Round
40:13-53:43 Diaz's Norte, End of History
54:54-1:06:28 Hong's Nobody's Daughter Haewon
1:07:16-1:20:30 MANAKAMANA

1:20:33-1:23:07 Close / Outtake

Visit Carson's blog, Are the Hills Going to March Off?, and his work on In Review Online, Mubi, Dig Boston, and Boston Viewfinder. 

Follow Carson on Twitter.