Episode #33 - Kent Jones (Spawn of the North)

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"There's a general problem with film culture of actually confronting a movie head-on."

Kent Jones is truly one of the most essential voices for Peter. His writings are reflective, intelligent, and complex in a way few writers come close to, and his other work—A Letter To Elia, the World Cinema Project, and the New York Film Festival—are key to Peter's continuing exposure to cinema. So Kent sits down with Peter to discuss his first exposure to cinema, his mentorship under Manny Farber and Martin Scorsese, his complicated process of writing, working on making films and using images, and the auteurs that continue to inspire him. The two then end with a conversation on the rarely seen Spawn of the North, a Henry Hathaway film with Henry Fonda that finds something very physical  in its Alaskan set border town.

0:00-1:20 Opening 

2:47-8:47 Establishing Shots - John Ford's Young Mr. Lincoln / Donations

9:32-1:16:20 Deep Focus - Kent Jones

1:17:28-1:36:48 Double Exposure - Spawn of the North (Henry Hathaway)

1:36:52-1:38:31 Close

Kent Jones's books include Physical Evidence: Selected Film Writings, L'Argent, and Olivier Assayas. His films include Val Lewton: The Man in Shadows and A Letter To Elia. You can often read him in Film Comment.

Episode #32 - Richard Peña (Memories of Underdevelopment)

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"What I do is use my position as a programmer is to try and educate in terms of those areas of film history that either need review or need discovery."

Without the help of Richard Peña, Peter would probably have never become interested in directors like István Szabó, Kim Ki-Young, or Souleymane Cisse, among countless others. As a professor at Columbia and the former programmer of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and the New York Film Festival, Richard used his years to expand the conversation of film history: as NYFF brought in directors from the cinemas of Iran, China, and Brazil, his yearly programming and classes expanded to search out those histories as well. Now a year out from his time at Lincoln Center, Richard sits down to recount his first curiosities toward cinema, his programming philosophies, and to lament the director he can never convince his students to love as much as he does. Finally, the two discuss Memories of Underdevelopment, a landmark film in Cuban film history, which provides a complex portrait of identity.

0:00-1:42 Opening 

2:48-6:50 Establishing Shots - Alain Guiraudie

8:42-51:03 Deep Focus - Richard Peña

51:58-1:08:09 Double Exposure - Memories of Underdevelopment (Tomás Gutiérrez Alea)

1:08:14-1:09:53 Close

Richard Pena's home page at Columbia, and an interview with him by Kent Jones on the New York Film Festival.

Episode #31 - Noah Isenberg (Ruthless)

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'This is the work of a magician or an alchemist as much as its the work of a director."

For the last decade, Noah Isenberg has dedicated his career to searching out the life of Edgar G. Ulmer, the director of Detour and the so-called "King of the Bs." His films included poverty row crime films, Italian epics made on the cheap, films for Yiddish and black communities, bizzaro science fiction works, and even a "nuddie" picture. To celebrate the release of Isenberg's fantastic new biography, Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker at the Margins, Peter brings on Noah to discuss how his original interest in German arts and cultures brought him to a search through one of the greatest alt-Hollywood directors to ever grace American shores.

0:00-1:34 Opening 

2:31-9:42 Establishing Shots - Los Angeles Plays Itself / Donations

10:27-1:17:13 Deep Focus - Noah Isenberg

1:18:12-1:36:35 Double Exposure - Ruthless (Edgar Ulmer)

1:36:38-1:38:41 Close / Outtake

Purchase Edgar G. Ulmer: A Filmmaker At the Margins from UCPress. Read an excerpt at the LA Review of Books. Visit Noah's website.

Follow Noah on Twitter.

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Special Episode - 2013 Episode (Part 2)

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A film does not become something more than a mechanical work of reproduction until it is viewed. It only becomes art when it is presented to an audience, as masterpieces are born through the interaction between cinema and cinephile. It is these films that lead Peter and Time Out New York critic Keith Uhlich to their list of the the best films of 2013. They are films about possibilities of imagination both delightful and threatening. They are comedies, thrillers, documentaries, and romances. They are sensuous yet biting, philosophical yet bawdy. Two of them feature characters removing their heads. All in all, another year of cinema. Plus, the two mention their favorite repertory discoveries of the year, and a number of former guests chime in with their own picks.

This is Part 2. Listen to Part 1 here.

0:00-1:34 Opening / Introduction

2:53-11:58 Favorite Repertory Picks

12:55-26:25 Picks for #5

28:33-1:05:20 Picks for #4-3

1:09:05-1:50:15 Picks for #2-1

1:50:20-1:51:59 Close

Follow Keith Uhlich on Letterboxd and Twitter, and read his work at Time Out New York.

Also heard in this episode: Gina Telaroli, James Hansen, Vadim Rizov, Robert Greene, and Dan Sallitt.

Special Episode - 2013 Favorites (Part 1)

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With another year wrapped up, it's time for another countdown, so once again Peter is joined by Time Out New York's Keith Uhlich to talk about some of the truly original and wondrous movies of the year. From the inner workings of drug cartels in China to the drug-fueled crooks of Wall Street, from films about performance by actors young and old to films that speak honestly about our ability to be "fuck ups" as well as truly decent, the two highlight the best in both American and world cinema. Plus, a number of Peter's former guests and friends call in with their own picks, and the two also name some of their favorite films that didn't make it to American theaters this year

Look for Part 2 on Monday January 6th. 

0:00-1:33 Opening / Introduction

2:04-33:11 Picks for #10-#9

35:00-1:07:49 Picks for #8-7

1:11:06-1:25:24 Picks for #6

1:25:25-1:37:01 Picks for Unreleased Films

1:38:00-1:39:40 Close

Follow Keith Uhlich on Letterboxd and Twitter, and read his work at Time Out New York.

Also heard in this episode: David Hudson, Andreas Stoher, Craig Simpson, Monica Castillo, and Carson Lund.

Epsiode #30 - Genevieve Yue (Café Lumière)

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"I'm interested in how this condition of how the marginal wraps its way back to the center. Experimental cinema is seen in many ways on the fringes of mainstream filmmaking...but at the same time is about practices, expections, and often the film experience itself."

Between experimental cinema and the mainstream, between academic writing and teaching and mainstream criticism, New School professor and writer Genevieve Yue enjoys crossing the boundaries between the normally concrete lines of contemporary cinema and cinephilia. So in the latest episode, she sits down with Peter to talk about coming to experimental cinema through poetry, finding ways to teach and think about the avant-garde, and the transitional moment of Asian cinema. Plus, the two dive into Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Café Lumière, a film that allows for a cinema set in the spaces "in between" and one filled with layers of the past, whether cinematically or through the film's own narrative secrets. 

0:00-1:34 Opening 

2:24-7:32 Establishing Shots - George Cukor and Sylvia Scarlett / Sponsor

8:17-59:15 Deep Focus - Genevieve Yue

1:00:24-1:19:48 Double Exposure - Café Lumière (Hou Hsiao-Hsien)

1:19:52-1:21:31 Close

Visit Genevieve's website for her writing, teaching, talks, and programming.

Follow Genevieve on Twitter.

Episode #29 - Nellie Killian (Five Year Diary)

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"The best type of programming is where there's no distinction between documentary, Classic Hollywood, experimental...They're all in conversation."

If repertory film culture is a slowly dying sect of cinephilia, then at least its final years will be lead by some of the most creative people possible, including BAMcinemtek's Nellie Killian. Nellie sits down with Peter to talk about growing up next to the Castro, finding an addiction to New York's repertory scene, and then becoming a programmer herself. The two then focus on Migrating Forms, an upcoming experimental film festival hosted at BAM December 11th-15th, which will feature audacious new works from the Harvard Sensory Ethnography Lab, a electronic arts show featuring Merce Cunningham's coreography, and Johnnie To comedies. The two will finally focus on a special project Nellie brought to the festival, Anne Charlotte Robertson's Five Year Diary project, and focus on how the film's portrayal of mental illness is unlike anything you've ever seen.

0:00-1:27 Opening 

2:27-6:55 Establishing Shots - Mauvais Sang / Donations

7:40-1:04:33 Deep Focus - Nellie Killian

1:06:01-1:22:28 Double Exposure - Five Year Diary (Anne Charlotte Robertson)

1:22:32-1:24:47 Close / Outtake

Read up on BAMCinemtek and Migrating Forms.

Follow Nellie on Twitter.