Carnegie Mellon Film Festival Podcast

We are pleased to present our interview with Oscar-nominated director, Jan Komasa. Jan is the director of Corpus Christi (Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2020 Academy Awards), The Hater, and Warsaw '44. In this episode, Jan talks about growing up in an artistic family, what he typically eats on set, video games, and the movies he has watched during quarantine. As always, to keep updated with the festival head to cmu.edu/faces.

In this episode, we interview the next filmmaker from our season, the director of Garbage, Jose Muniain. We talk about what inspired the project, the casting process of the film, setting a visual tone, and what Jose has been watching over quarantine. Garbage is streaming virtually from December 14th to December 20th. There will be a live discussion on Zoom, December 17th at 7pm. This screening is organized in conjunction with Row House Theater. Sponsored by Cause, Humanities Scholars Program, The Center for Diversity and Inclusion at CMU, The Department of Africana Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, and The Doc Salon. Hosted by Patrick Stanny. Produced by Abby Spira. Festival Website: https://www.cmu.edu/faces/index.html Jose Muniain: https://make-media.net/ CMU International Festival Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmuintlfilmfest/ About the CMU International Film Festival: Created in 2006, the Carnegie Mellon International “Faces” Film Festival is a project of the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), which has supported research and encouraged interest in the humanities for more than 14 years. The festival serves as a non-academic bridge to the greater Pittsburgh community, and opens its doors each year to the interests and passions of people across generations and cultures. The “Faces” Film Festival takes place every year in the spring and presents a wide spectrum of contemporary world cinema, focusing on a different annual theme that addresses a current social issue. The festival presents 14-18 international narrative features, documentaries, and shorts each year. As a community-building event, screenings are accompanied by supplementary components such as Q & A sessions with the films’ directors and local academics, artistic performances, and receptions with local ethnic cuisine. In this way, the events are more than just film premieres; they are cultural celebrations that allow audiences to observe, discuss, and experience international cultures. The “Faces” Film Festival prides itself in being the only international film festival in the world organized and run by university students from the numerous educational institutions across Pittsburgh, such as CMU and the University of Pittsburgh. The students build events around the festival’s rich variety of films from the U.S., Egypt, France, Australia, China, Iran, Peru, Poland, Japan, Germany, Belarus, Korea, and many other countries, hoping to reinforce Pittsburgh’s ethnic history and living culture.

In this episode, we interview filmmaker Idrissou Mora-Kpai about his new film screening virtually at the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival, America Street. America Street (2019) explores the daily struggles of an African-American community through the eyes of community leader, Joe Watson, as he navigates quickly gentrifying historical black neighborhoods in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, just after the 2015 Walter Scott killing. We discuss how Idrissou chose his subject for the film, his view on documentary vs. narrative filmmaking, and what films he’s been watching over quarantine. America Street is screening virtually from November 30th to December 6th. Join us for a virtual panel discussion on December 3rd, at 7pm. For more details visit: www.cmu.edu/faces Hosted by Patrick Stanny. Produced by Abby Spira. Festival Website: https://www.cmu.edu/faces/index.html CMU International Festival Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmuintlfilmfest/ About the CMU International Film Festival: Created in 2006, the Carnegie Mellon International “Faces” Film Festival is a project of the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), which has supported research and encouraged interest in the humanities for more than 14 years. The festival serves as a non-academic bridge to the greater Pittsburgh community, and opens its doors each year to the interests and passions of people across generations and cultures. The “Faces” Film Festival takes place every year in the spring and presents a wide spectrum of contemporary world cinema, focusing on a different annual theme that addresses a current social issue. The festival presents 14-18 international narrative features, documentaries, and shorts each year. As a community-building event, screenings are accompanied by supplementary components such as Q & A sessions with the films’ directors and local academics, artistic performances, and receptions with local ethnic cuisine. In this way, the events are more than just film premieres; they are cultural celebrations that allow audiences to observe, discuss, and experience international cultures. The “Faces” Film Festival prides itself in being the only international film festival in the world organized and run by university students from the numerous educational institutions across Pittsburgh, such as CMU and the University of Pittsburgh. The students build events around the festival’s rich variety of films from the U.S., Egypt, France, Australia, China, Iran, Peru, Poland, Japan, Germany, Belarus, Korea, and many other countries, hoping to reinforce Pittsburgh’s ethnic history and living culture.

In our inaugural episode, we interview acclaimed filmmaker Fredrik Gertten (Becoming Zlatan, Bikes vs. Cars, Bananas*!) about his new film about the housing crisis, Push, which was screened virtually for the CMU International Film Festival. We talk about how critical the ongoing housing crisis is, what power does sharing human stories possess, and why documentaries matter in 2020. Festival Website: https://www.cmu.edu/faces/index.html CMU International Festival Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmuintlfilmfest/ Fredrik's Podcast: https://pushbacktalks.buzzsprout.com/ About the CMU International Film Festival: Created in 2006, the Carnegie Mellon International “Faces” Film Festival is a project of the Humanities Center at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), which has supported research and encouraged interest in the humanities for more than 14 years. The festival serves as a non-academic bridge to the greater Pittsburgh community, and opens its doors each year to the interests and passions of people across generations and cultures. The “Faces” Film Festival takes place every year in the spring and presents a wide spectrum of contemporary world cinema, focusing on a different annual theme that addresses a current social issue. The festival presents 14-18 international narrative features, documentaries, and shorts each year. As a community-building event, screenings are accompanied by supplementary components such as Q & A sessions with the films’ directors and local academics, artistic performances, and receptions with local ethnic cuisine. In this way, the events are more than just film premieres; they are cultural celebrations that allow audiences to observe, discuss, and experience international cultures. The “Faces” Film Festival prides itself in being the only international film festival in the world organized and run by university students from the numerous educational institutions across Pittsburgh, such as CMU and the University of Pittsburgh. The students build events around the festival’s rich variety of films from the U.S., Egypt, France, Australia, China, Iran, Peru, Poland, Japan, Germany, Belarus, Korea, and many other countries, hoping to reinforce Pittsburgh’s ethnic history and living culture.