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Sowing the Seeds of Love, 18min., USA Directed by Riley Young Sowing the Seeds of Love explores the obscure and peculiar sex lives of animals through the eyes of Hulk Hogan (1980's WWE wrestler icon), Joyce DeWitt (Janet Wood from the popular 1970's sitcom Three's Company), and Robert Picardo (known for his character as the Holographic Doctor on the 1990's Star Trek: Voyager series). Their role in this film is to satire their popularity to make the subject of animal sexuality more digestible to those without a scientific background. https://www.rileyoung.com/new-page-1 Get to know the filmmaker: What was your motivation to make this film? My true motivation for making this film was to find an engaging and accessible way to communicate science to a broad audience. With a background in Marine Science, I experienced firsthand during my capstone research project how challenging it can be to make scientific concepts exciting and understandable for those without a science background. That realization led me to pursue documentary filmmaking as a way to bridge that gap—bringing science to life in a way that is fun, accurate, and captivating for viewers of all backgrounds. Two major inspirations shaped this film. The first was Jean Painlevé, a French filmmaker and pioneer of underwater cinema. His films explored the mysteries of marine life while blending science with humor, making complex topics engaging and accessible. The second was Isabella Rossellini's Green Porno series, where she playfully reenacts animal mating behaviors in surreal, theatrical settings. Her bold, unconventional approach to documentary filmmaking opened my eyes to new ways of presenting science—ways that are visually striking, thought-provoking, and deeply entertaining. Both of these influences challenged traditional documentary styles, incorporating themes of sexual identity, gender norms, and finding beauty in the unexpected—ideas that became a driving force behind my own film. Drawing from these inspirations, I wanted to create something fresh, quirky, and exciting while still staying true to scientific accuracy. That's how Sowing the Seeds of Love was born. My film follows a trio of celebrity hosts who use humor, animation, and their star power to educate audiences about unconventional animal mating science—while drawing thought-provoking parallels to societal conversations around sexual identities. My goal is to reach people who might not typically watch documentaries—because let's face it, the word "documentary" alone can turn some people away. I want to change that by proving that science can be just as entertaining as it is enlightening. Subscribe to the podcast: https://twitter.com/wildsoundpod https://www.instagram.com/wildsoundpod/ https://www.facebook.com/wildsoundpod
This week, we're talking about 'La chimera', directed by Alice Rohrwacher and starring Josh O'Connor and Isabella Rossellini. The film follows a band of graverobbers on a quest for Etruscan treasures. But there's also a darker, more melancholy plot that makes you question what's real and what's symbolism. The FT's global head of audio Cheryl Brumley and audience engagement journalist Marianna Giusti join guest host Katya Kumkova to hash out what it all means.-------We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. We're on X @lifeandartpod and on email at lifeandart@ft.com. We are grateful for reviews on Apple and Spotify. And please share this episode with your friends!-------Links (all FT links get you past the paywall): – The FT's four-star review of La chimera, by Danny Leigh: https://on.ft.com/3UZLo6z – An interview with filmmaker Alice Rohrwacher, by Simran Hans: https://on.ft.com/3WEiUk3 – For more Italian summer content, check out Mari Giusti's ‘Postcard from Sicily': https://on.ft.com/3K8TZgM – Cheryl Brumley is on X @cherylbrumley. Marianna Giusti is @maupippa. More or Less:– Cheryl wants more Eurovision – Katya wants to see more smell art. Check out this piece on The Met exhibition ‘Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion': https://on.ft.com/3wu62lY – Mari wants more Isabella Rossellini, and recommends ‘Green Porno'. Here's Rossellini's Lunch with the FT from 2018: https://on.ft.com/4bERe2D -------Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart-------Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner and Sam GiovincoRead a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In this final episode of Season 5, Sarah, Mark, and James discuss the last chapters from Lucy Cooke's book Bitch: On the female of the species. Sarah described the sex lives of barnacles and encouraged us to watch the Green Porno episode that illustrates the impressive size of a barnacle penis. Image from https://bodegahead.blogspot.com/2017/06/a-long-reach.htmlThe conversation considered why Charles Darwin did not include barnacles in his Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Sarah suggested it would not fit nicely in his narrative on male and female roles in sexual selection. We then discussed how clown fish, which can shift their sexual identity from male to female, challenge the notions of sexual identity. Photo: Amanda Cotton/Coral Reef Image BankMark recounted Lucy Cooke's biologically accurate retelling of Finding Nemo which results in a story that would not get a G rating. James questions if the term Gender is only relevant to humans, since we seem consumed with identity, and in the animal world, gender is meaningless as are terms like masculine and feminine. We then speculated how a modern Charles Darwin would integrate these diverse views of sexual identity and sexual strategies into a more inclusive theory of sexual selection.
Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.“Don't you think maybe they are the same thing? Love and attention?"–Lady Bird, written and directed by Greta Gerwig "I really love that line in the script. It's an incredible script that Greta Gerwig wrote. It's not obvious, that sentiment that she says. I think that's why she has to point it out to the Lady Bird character, but I think if we're lucky in our lives, we can choose the path that we want to go down, whether it's something creative or in the arts or something else. And I think if you're lucky, you can spend your life or your career following something you really love or spending time following the path, whether it's a hobby or your career. And spending that time paying the attention that the craft or the hobby or the creative pursuit wants."https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
“Don't you think maybe they are the same thing? Love and attention?"–Lady Bird, written and directed by Greta Gerwig "I really love that line in the script. It's an incredible script that Greta Gerwig wrote. It's not obvious, that sentiment that she says. I think that's why she has to point it out to the Lady Bird character, but I think if we're lucky in our lives, we can choose the path that we want to go down, whether it's something creative or in the arts or something else. And I think if you're lucky, you can spend your life or your career following something you really love or spending time following the path, whether it's a hobby or your career. And spending that time paying the attention that the craft or the hobby or the creative pursuit wants."Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
“Every movie is different. Every story is different. We've been talking about Lady Bird, and you mentioned Francis Ha. So we made Francis Ha first, and there's an interesting relationship between her and her best friend that is almost like a romance, but it's not actually romantic, but the way the story is told, it's like two lovers, but they get into arguments and there's a lot of conflict. And then Ladybird, there's a lot of conflict between the mother and the daughter. And in some sense, I remember thinking, Well, I've made things before and with Greta where there's conflict and maybe there's some overlap here, but there wasn't. It's just every time you start from scratch, and you might think, Well, if we use a certain camera or if we use certain tools, maybe that will help. But that's really the last step. And then I think, you have to have a more, a sort of less practical approach in the initial discussions.I find it helpful to speak with the director and all the collaborators on the project and just to have what I'd call a more dreamy conversation when you get together in a cafe or in the office and just talk through more emotional aspects of the story. There's these very earthly concerns that making a film requires, and you have to really leave all that stuff for later. All the stuff is important, just like in any creative process or business where there's a finite amount of resources. But how do you show certain relationships? The fact is you just have to talk about them first and figure out what they are. It's really important to understand specifically what the emotional notes are of the story. And then, little by little, we just figure out the technique of like the brush strokes, if it were painting, or the notes, if it were music. In cinematography, it's a visual medium, so eventually, we're moving towards: What is in the frame or what isn't in the frame? And how will these frames transition to each other?”Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.“Every movie is different. Every story is different. We've been talking about Lady Bird, and you mentioned Francis Ha. So we made Francis Ha first, and there's an interesting relationship between her and her best friend that is almost like a romance, but it's not actually romantic, but the way the story is told, it's like two lovers, but they get into arguments and there's a lot of conflict. And then Ladybird, there's a lot of conflict between the mother and the daughter. And in some sense, I remember thinking, Well, I've made things before and with Greta where there's conflict and maybe there's some overlap here, but there wasn't. It's just every time you start from scratch, and you might think, Well, if we use a certain camera or if we use certain tools, maybe that will help. But that's really the last step. And then I think, you have to have a more, a sort of less practical approach in the initial discussions.I find it helpful to speak with the director and all the collaborators on the project and just to have what I'd call a more dreamy conversation when you get together in a cafe or in the office and just talk through more emotional aspects of the story. There's these very earthly concerns that making a film requires, and you have to really leave all that stuff for later. All the stuff is important, just like in any creative process or business where there's a finite amount of resources. But how do you show certain relationships? The fact is you just have to talk about them first and figure out what they are. It's really important to understand specifically what the emotional notes are of the story. And then, little by little, we just figure out the technique of like the brush strokes, if it were painting, or the notes, if it were music. In cinematography, it's a visual medium, so eventually, we're moving towards: What is in the frame or what isn't in the frame? And how will these frames transition to each other?”https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
“Don't you think maybe they are the same thing? Love and attention?"–Lady Bird, written and directed by Greta Gerwig "I really love that line in the script. It's an incredible script that Greta Gerwig wrote. It's not obvious, that sentiment that she says. I think that's why she has to point it out to the Lady Bird character, but I think if we're lucky in our lives, we can choose the path that we want to go down, whether it's something creative or in the arts or something else. And I think if you're lucky, you can spend your life or your career following something you really love or spending time following the path, whether it's a hobby or your career. And spending that time paying the attention that the craft or the hobby or the creative pursuit wants."Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.“Don't you think maybe they are the same thing? Love and attention?"–Lady Bird, written and directed by Greta Gerwig "I really love that line in the script. It's an incredible script that Greta Gerwig wrote. It's not obvious, that sentiment that she says. I think that's why she has to point it out to the Lady Bird character, but I think if we're lucky in our lives, we can choose the path that we want to go down, whether it's something creative or in the arts or something else. And I think if you're lucky, you can spend your life or your career following something you really love or spending time following the path, whether it's a hobby or your career. And spending that time paying the attention that the craft or the hobby or the creative pursuit wants."https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me."I think one of the things in Lady Bird that's interesting is she is incredibly vulnerable, especially in relationship to her mom, and then she starts to come out of her shell and becomes more and more empowered and less and less vulnerable, in a sense. And so how do you convey that on screen? And a lot of it is just wanting that sense to be there. Every movie is different. Every story is different. We've been talking about Ladybird, and you mentioned Francis Ha. So we made Francis Ha first, and there's an interesting relationship between her and her best friend that is almost like a romance, but it's not actually romantic, but the way the story is told, it's like two lovers, but they get into arguments and there's a lot of conflict. And then Ladybird, there's a lot of conflict between the mother and the daughter. I was very lucky to have a wonderful mom who's an attorney. And growing up, my mom worked very long hours, and my father was a musician who did most of the cooking. And I think just having a strong mother with a career and a very distinctive point of view has something to do with all of this. Like I'm looking for my mom in some of these projects. Someone who really shaped my worldview. That her relationship with her friends or possibly with her mom, and I think it just feels very familiar and fun. I was lucky to have a great relationship with my mom, who is all of those things, and who also would feel very guilty working long hours. And I always loved that. I loved that it was my dad who would cook, and my mom had this interesting career, and still does."https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
"I think one of the things in Lady Bird that's interesting is she is incredibly vulnerable, especially in relationship to her mom, and then she starts to come out of her shell and becomes more and more empowered and less and less vulnerable, in a sense. And so how do you convey that on screen? And a lot of it is just wanting that sense to be there. Every movie is different. Every story is different. We've been talking about Ladybird, and Francis Ha. So we made Francis Ha first, and there's an interesting relationship between her and her best friend that is almost like a romance, but it's not actually romantic, but the way the story is told, it's like two lovers, but they get into arguments and there's a lot of conflict. And then Ladybird, there's a lot of conflict between the mother and the daughter. I was very lucky to have a wonderful mom who's an attorney. And growing up, my mom worked very long hours, and my father was a musician who did most of the cooking. And I think just having a strong mother with a career and a very distinctive point of view has something to do with all of this. Like I'm looking for my mom in some of these projects. Someone who really shaped my worldview. That her relationship with her friends or possibly with her mom, and I think it just feels very familiar and fun. I was lucky to have a great relationship with my mom, who is all of those things, and who also would feel very guilty working long hours. And I always loved that. I loved that it was my dad who would cook, and my mom had this interesting career, and still does."Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me."I've always thought that filmmaking rhymes with classical music, the process of making classical music that I observed as a child. When I discovered filmmaking, I thought these things, they're very similar. They rhyme with each other. I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but what operating a camera does resemble the physicality of conducting an orchestra. I was in a certain proximity to my father's orchestra playing on Stephen Spielberg's and Clint Eastwood's soundtracks, and I grew up playing the cello.My favorite conductor that I ever got to see was Seiji Ozawa, who was the musical director of the Boston Symphony and the Tokyo Symphony. But he was my father's orchestra was the Boston Symphony, and he was musical director for 35 years or something like that. And this was like, he was like a dancer, really beautiful, elegant movements. And I watched him rehearse and perform for so many hours when I was a child. And I think subconsciously as a camera operator, that it informed my sensibility, and maybe if I'm able to pull off like an elegant, smooth camera move, like on Noah Baumbach's Mistress America movie we did a lot of big flourishy movements all in one shot. And I think Seiji was a huge influence on me in terms of movement. And even if, Confess, Fletch, I didn't operate the camera, but I had an amazing operator named Julian Delacruz. And just being able to communicate like what the movement should be and just speak that language, I think getting to watch Seiji as a kid really helped that for me.”https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
"I've always thought that filmmaking rhymes with classical music, the process of making classical music that I observed as a child. When I discovered filmmaking, I thought these things, they're very similar. They rhyme with each other. I hope this doesn't sound pretentious, but what operating a camera does resemble the physicality of conducting an orchestra. I was in a certain proximity to my father's orchestra playing on Stephen Spielberg's and Clint Eastwood's soundtracks, and I grew up playing the cello.My favorite conductor that I ever got to see was Seiji Ozawa, who was the musical director of the Boston Symphony and the Tokyo Symphony. But he was my father's orchestra was the Boston Symphony, and he was musical director for 35 years or something like that. And this was like, he was like a dancer, really beautiful, elegant movements. And I watched him rehearse and perform for so many hours when I was a child. And I think subconsciously as a camera operator, that it informed my sensibility, and maybe if I'm able to pull off like an elegant, smooth camera move, like on Noah Baumbach's Mistress America movie we did a lot of big flourishy movements all in one shot. And I think Seiji was a huge influence on me in terms of movement. And even if, Confess, Fletch, I didn't operate the camera, but I had an amazing operator named Julian Delacruz. And just being able to communicate like what the movement should be and just speak that language, I think getting to watch Seiji as a kid really helped that for me.”Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
The Creative Process in 10 minutes or less · Arts, Culture & Society
“Don't you think maybe they are the same thing? Love and attention?"–Lady Bird, written and directed by Greta Gerwig "I really love that line in the script. It's an incredible script that Greta Gerwig wrote. It's not obvious, that sentiment that she says. I think that's why she has to point it out to the Lady Bird character, but I think if we're lucky in our lives, we can choose the path that we want to go down, whether it's something creative or in the arts or something else. And I think if you're lucky, you can spend your life or your career following something you really love or spending time following the path, whether it's a hobby or your career. And spending that time paying the attention that the craft or the hobby or the creative pursuit wants."Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
“I studied for a year under Eric Rohmer at The University of Paris-Michelet, and his class was called Cinematography with Eric Rohmer, but we didn't shoot anything. We just watched films, mostly his films, and he would turn the sound off and just talk. It was fantastic. And then we would write papers and discuss. And he talked a lot about his cinematographer Néstor Almendros who shot My Night at Maud's, Pauline at the Beach, Claire's Knee, most of his better-known films.I think the big thing that I got from studying with Rohmer was just his movies are extremely dialogue-heavy, but they're very cinematic. And the way that he would talk about shooting scenes and n a film like My Night at Maud's, that's like largely in one apartment, dialogue spoken between two people, and how to shoot a story that's told through dialogue, but not have it feel like television.And that came in handy later when I did meet Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. Noah's a huge, huge Rohmer fan, so we talked about him a lot. And I think that helped me a lot to have confidence that if a film has a lot of dialogue, for it to feel cinematic and interesting, you don't just need many different angles for the scene to play well. You can kind of show some restraint and even have a scene unfold in one shot and be dynamic, even if people are talking a lot."Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
Sam Levy studied film in Paris with French New Wave director Eric Rohmer and began his career as an apprentice to legendary cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam first gained recognition as a cinematographer when he photographed Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt - voted “One of the Best 25 Films of the 21st Century” by The New York Times. He went on to shoot Frances Ha, Mistress America and While We're Young for director Noah Baumbach, Changers and Frank Ocean's Blonded for Spike Jonze, Sermon on The Mount for Jerrod Carmichael, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller and Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini. Sam also photographed Lady Bird for writer/director Greta Gerwig - nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and winner of The Golden Globe for Best Picture. Other new films include Mayday, which he also produced, Confess, Fletch, and She Came to Me.“I studied for a year under Eric Rohmer at The University of Paris-Michelet, and his class was called Cinematography with Eric Rohmer, but we didn't shoot anything. We just watched films, mostly his films, and he would turn the sound off and just talk. It was fantastic. And then we would write papers and discuss. And he talked a lot about his cinematographer Néstor Almendros who shot My Night at Maud's, Pauline at the Beach, Claire's Knee, most of his better-known films.I think the big thing that I got from studying with Rohmer was just his movies are extremely dialogue-heavy, but they're very cinematic. And the way that he would talk about shooting scenes and n a film like My Night at Maud's, that's like largely in one apartment, dialogue spoken between two people, and how to shoot a story that's told through dialogue, but not have it feel like television.And that came in handy later when I did meet Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig. Noah's a huge, huge Rohmer fan, so we talked about him a lot. And I think that helped me a lot to have confidence that if a film has a lot of dialogue, for it to feel cinematic and interesting, you don't just need many different angles for the scene to play well. You can kind of show some restraint and even have a scene unfold in one shot and be dynamic, even if people are talking a lot."https://samlevydp.comwww.imdb.com/name/nm1240085/ www.instagram.com/samlevydp/ www.creativeprocess.info www.oneplanetpodcast.org Instagram @creativeprocesspodcast
In this episode we dive into Chapter 8 from Darwin's Descent of Man. James incorrectly attributed this chapter to the end of Volume I of the two volume set but it is actually the first chapter of Volume II, which makes more sense given its dramatic shift in focus and topic. Sarah tried to get us to differentiate between adaptive traits that come about from sexual selection with those that come about from natural selection. Photo from https://rollingharbour.com/2017/02/14/bluehead-wrasse-private-life-laid-bare/We spent some time discussing the difference between sex-linked traits, like calico cat color, and sexually selected traits like the giant antlers on the extinct Irish Elk. James presented just a few hypothesis that have been proposed to explain female choice of traits and why those traits that females seem to prefer are often opposed by natural selection. It is hard to be a red male cardinal in the dead of winter. Sarah suggested interested listeners read The Evolution of Beauty by Richard O. Prum to learn how to differentiate the products of sexual and natural selection. We had a robust discussion about sex and gender and what Darwin knew at the time and what he should have acknowledged about the lack of binary distinction in the sexes. Mark realized he misspoke when he said that the rate of disorders of sexual development are around 10%. Data suggests that it occurs more like (1:2500–5000 live births) whereas gender dysphoria is reported to occur around 0.002-0.014%. The bluehead wrasse is a wonderful organism that challenges the simple-minded view that your sex is determined at birth. https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-northern-ireland-45449128Sarah also encouraged us to watch some Green Porno to learn more details about the sex lives of non-human animals. You can see it hereThe opening theme to Discovering Darwin is "May" by Jared C. Balogh. http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Balogh/Revitalized_Eyes/MAY Interlude music is Alberta Hunter singing My handy man ain't handy no more from her Amtrak Blues album.
In this week's episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Shelie Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. Miller describes her recent research, which investigates whether reusable products like straws and coffee cups are really more sustainable than their single-use counterparts. In part because manufacturing these products and then keeping them clean over their lifetimes can be water intensive, Miller says that consumers need to reuse alternatives to plastics many times if they want to minimize their environmental impacts. Today's episode is very much news-you-can-use when you're trying to decide whether you should buy that reusable sandwich wrapper or straw, or take home that canvas bag from the latest conference you've attended. References and recommendations: “Environmental payback periods of reusable alternatives to single-use plastic kitchenware products” by Hannah Fetner and Shelie A. Miller; https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/environmental-payback-periods-of-reusable-alternatives-to-single/19334396 “Five Misperceptions Surrounding the Environmental Impacts of Single-Use Plastic” by Shelie A. Miller; https://css.umich.edu/sites/default/files/publication/CSS20-33.pdf “Green Porno” with Isabella Rossellini; https://www.sundancetv.com/shows/green-porno--1001041
Isabella Rossellini is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, filmmaker and model. She is the daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian film director Roberto Rossellini. A Golden Globe and Emmy award nominee, she started out her career as a successful model, appearing on the covers of numerous magazines such as Elle, Harper's Bazaar, Vogue, and Vanity Fair. She is also noted for her successful tenure as a Lancôme model and spokesperson. Isabella has worked as an actress in films directed by extraordinary talents such as Robert Zemeckis, David O’Russell, and David Lynch, to name a few. Some of her most notable American films include Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, White Nights, Cousins, Death Becomes Her, Fearless, Big Night, Crime of the Century (for which she received a Golden Globe nomination), and most recently, Joy. She has also appeared Off Broadway in many performances. Isabella holds a masters degree in animal behavior and conservation, which has lent itself to her many award winning short films about animals and sex. Her latest project, Sex and Consequences, follows suit as a one-of-a-kind, 40-minute comedy about biodiversity and the multiple ways animals reproduce, which will be live-streamed from her farm 60 miles outside New York City beginning October 16th. During our conversation, Isabella gives us an in depth look on how her hit series Green Porno came about. Robert Redford had been re-inspired by short films, and reached out to a series of people in his universe about creating films focused on the environment for the Sundance channel. She remembers having a light bulb moment - she could make a “very comical” film by transforming herself into different animals and showing how they mate. Thus, Green Porno, a series of short films on animal sexual behavior, was born. She credits her time studying costume design with giving her the ability to envision the costumes for each animal. And her newest show, Sex and Consequences, will explore similar ideas. With in person live performances limited due to COVID, Isabella is hoping to reconnect with audiences through her live-streamed Zoom performance, a method that many singers and musicians have found success with during this time. Although Isabella’s family is Hollywood royalty, to her her parents are still “Mama’ and “Father.” And towards the end of our conversation, Isabella reflects on the gift they gave to her and her siblings - “If our parents gave us a gift it was to always try to do what was interesting to us… It was always try to, follow your curiosity, follow your interest… They did and we’re doing it too. In this episode, we talk about: How an interest in short films, and the advent of YouTube, provided an opening for Green Porno The reason she enjoys exploring sexuality in her work The makings of Sex and Consequences What appeals to her about storytelling How her parents, Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini, met and fell in love, and the way Hollywood reacted Celebrity in Europe versus America Her thoughts on working for, being let go by, and being re-hired by Lancôme How the ideas of self expression and beauty have changed over the years Connect with Isabella: IG: @isabellarossellini Get tickets for SEX AND CONSEQUENCES Connect with The Theatre Podcast: Support us on Patreon: Patreon.com/TheTheatrePodcast Twitter & Instagram: @theatre_podcast Facebook.com/OfficialTheatrePodcast TheTheatrePodcast.com Alan's personal Instagram: @alanseales Email me at feedback@thetheatrepodcast.com. I want to know what you think. A very special thanks to our patrons who help make this podcast possible! Cheryl Hodges-Selden, Paul Seales, David Seales If you would like to see your name in this show notes or get a shout out on the pod itself, visit ttp.fm/patreon to become a member and show your support! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Isabella Rossellini joins Paul Holdengräber on episode 083 of The Quarantine Tapes to chat chickens, film, and Darwin. Isabella tells Paul about spending these past few months at home at her farm in Long Island since quarantine forced her to take a break from her usual nomadic lifestyle. Then, they chat about Isabella’s participation in the Onassis Foundation’s ENTER project and her enjoyment of the art of make-do. In this episode, Isabella celebrates nature, creativity, and being free to do what you always wanted to do as a child in a conversation that ranges from discussing the personalities of chickens to determining what Isabella would ask Darwin if she were given the chance.Isabella Rossellini grew up in Paris and Rome. When she was 19, she moved to New York City, working as a translator and journalist for RAI-Italian Television. She began a modeling career at the relatively advanced age of 28, appearing on numerous covers of magazines such as Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair. An enduring style icon, Ms. Rossellini began a 14-year run in 1982 as the exclusive spokesperson for Lancome. When she turned 40 years old, an age considered too advanced to represent the beauty industry, her contract was not renewed . Isabella launched her own cosmetics brand Manifesto but in 2016 Lancome hired her again as a spokesperson with the specific intent to promote inclusiveness and fight against "ageism”. Ms. Rossellini made her cinematic debut as an actress in 1979 in the Taviani brothers’ film Il Prato (The Meadow) and has appeared in numerous other films, including the American features Blue Velvet, White Nights, Rodger Dodger, Cousins, Death Becomes Her, Fearless, Big Night and more recently in Joy . She worked with many different directors - Taviani brothers, Saverio Costanzo, Robert Zemeckis, David O. Russell. David Lynch, Robert Wilson. Taylor Hackford, Marjane Satrapi and Guy Maddin. She is also a successful television actress and filmmaker, with a keen interest in animals and wildlife conservation. Her award-winning series of shorts, Green Porno, Seduce Me and Mammas offers comical and scientifically insightful studies of animal behaviors. She toured in 50 different cities with a monologue based on her shorts written with Academy Award winner Jean Claude Carriere. Recently she toured her new theatrical show, Link Link Circus that deals with animal behavior and cognition. Isabella has a master degree on Animal behavior and Conservation from Hunter college in NY and obtained a PhD honoris causa from the Science faculty at UQAM ( University of Quebec at Montreal)Isabella also runs an organic farm in Brookhaven in association with the Peconic Land Trust. Her book about raising heritage chickens entitled My Chickens and I is published in the USA by ABRAMS BOOKS.Ms. Rossellini’s other philanthropic interests embrace preservation of her family’s extraordinary cinematic heritage, including the films directed by her father, Roberto Rossellini and those featuring her mother, Ingrid Bergman.Ms. Rossellini is a mother of two and resides in Bellport, Long Island.
My friend Elizabeth Bannister sits down with me — virtually, of course — to talk about what was cool in music, technology, and vinyl at the end of the 20th century as well as who the real hero of The Matrix (1999) was. And just in case you think I was lying about Isabella Rossellini narrating — and pantomiming! — the mating habits of insects, I present to you the glory of Green Porno: https://youtu.be/TKyg7pYEAoY Liz used her “minute of plug” to support the SF Bay Area Coronavirus Support Fund, and she even got their URL right: https://getusppe.org. Please stay safe and give whatever help you can.
This week the legendary actress, model and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini joins co-hosts Kate and Medaya to discuss her new theatrical production, Link Link Circus, her studies into animal behavior, and her long career in film and TV. Isabella also discusses her most recent book, My Chickens and I; as well as her previous one, Green Porno, a hugely successful multi-media project that helped revive interest in one of Isabella's other loves, the short film form. Also, Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown, returns to recommend Lisa Damour's Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood.
This week the legendary actress, model and filmmaker Isabella Rossellini joins co-hosts Kate and Medaya to discuss her new theatrical production, Link Link Circus, her studies into animal behavior, and her long career in film and TV. Isabella also discusses her most recent book, My Chickens and I; as well as her previous one, Green Porno, a hugely successful multi-media project that helped revive interest in one of Isabella's other loves, the short film form. Also, Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown, returns to recommend Lisa Damour's Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood.
Michelle and Mark are together again this week to talk with John Bohannon about AI startup, Primer. His goal is to build systems that continuously read documents and write about what they discover. He discusses his recent work building a self-updating knowledge base and the research his team just published. Perhaps most interesting is the circuitous path he took to get to Primer. Hear about his adventures along the way to becoming a data scientist specializing in natural language processing. How does a microbiologist who developed a pregnancy test for fish get distracted by Python? What does contemporary dance have to do with establishing AI policy? Join us as he weaves a common thread along his career path: encountering interesting problems and discovering creative ways to solve them. John Bohannon John Bohannon is the Director of Science at Primer, an AI startup in San Francisco. Until 2017 he was an investigative journalist and data scientist writing mainly for Science magazine and Wired. He spent the first half of his career as a foreign correspondent, including as a Fulbright scholar in Berlin. His reporting from Gaza won the Reuters-IUCN Media Award for Excellence in Environmental Reporting from Europe. While embedded with military forces in Afghanistan he engineered the first voluntary release of civilian casualty data by NATO and the United Nations. As a visiting scholar in the Program in Ethics and Health at Harvard University he focused on the involvement of doctors and social scientists in the US government’s torture program. He was also the scientific advisor to Isabella Rosselini for “Green Porno” (winner of 4 Webby awards) and “Animals Distract Me” (official selection, 2011 Sundance Film Festival). He is the author of a peer-reviewed study of people’s inability to distinguish pet food from paté, which inspired Stephen Colbert to eat cat food on television. He has a PhD in molecular biology from the University of Oxford. Cool things of the week Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone book Next ‘19 Recap video I/O ‘19 Recap video All I/O Sessions videos Michelle’s Favorites: Session: Taylor Wilson interviewing Michio Kaku on the future of humanity video Sandbox: AI on the Edge by Gabe Weiss, Noah Negrey, Yu-Han Liu, and Luiz Gustavo Martins TensorFlow Lite site OSS site Codelab: AI on a microcontroller with TFLite and SparkFun Edge site Interview Primer site Primer Blog blog Headline Generation: Learning from Decomposable Document Titles paper BERT site Ngram Viewer site Google Books site Dance Your PhD 2018 WINNER - Superconductivity: The Musical! video Kinetech Arts site John Bohannon’s Website site Question of the week How can we be like John? Where can you find us next? Michelle will be at Kubecon Europe and CERN. Mark Mirchandani will be hanging around the bay area. Mark Mandel is in Tokyo. Gabi is in France. John is in NYC. Brian will be in Boulder, Colorado.
Isabella Rossellini is a legendary actress, iconic model, filmmaker, writer, and now - if that's not enough - she's working on her master's degree in Animal Behavior. In this wildly fun conversation, Alan Alda talks with Isabella about how how animals communicate with one another and with us. And how Isabella communicates with us about the sometimes bizarre sex lives of animals — in her popular video series called "Green Porno." Support the show.
Welcome to our Magnet Fan club podcast. Magnet 4 life! Also we visit The 1973 Christoper Lee classic movie "The Wicker Man." Plus: Danny learns what Green Porno is and we consult the bones about the amazing Willow.
Sam studied filmmaking at Brown University, and The University of Paris-Michelet, before apprenticing with acclaimed Cinematographer Harris Savides. Sam has worked on commercials and music videos for such directors as Spike Jonze, Mark Romanek, and Stacy Wall. His film projects include, Wendy and Lucy for director Kelly Reichardt, Maggie's Plan for Rebecca Miller, Green Porno for Isabella Rossellini, and Frances Ha for director Noah Baumbach. Sam's most recent feature film is the acclaimed semi-autobiographical Oscar nominated coming of age tale Lady Bird, written and directed by Greta Gerwig.
With Kirsty Lang David Bailey is one of the best known British photographers. He is perhaps most celebrated for his distinctive 1960s portraits but he has also worked in fashion, music and documentary in a career that has spanned five decades. A new exhibition of his work at the National Portrait Gallery, Bailey's Stardust, explores Bailey's diverse work from photographs taken in the East End in the 1960s, a self-portrait with Salvador Dali, to a series taken in the Naga Hills in Southern India. Charlotte Mullins reviews. Hanif Kureishi, celebrated for both his novels and screenplays, speaks to Kirsty about his latest book The Last Word. It follows the relationship between an elderly writer and his young biographer, who is commissioned to tell the story of the former's life. Having just sold his own diaries and manuscripts to the British museum, Kureishi talks about the complexities of looking back on one's life, collaborating on his latest film Le Weekend, and whether this new novel will indeed be his own last word. Mark Eccleston reviews The Patrol, the first British feature film about the war in Afghanistan, written and directed by ex-Army officer Tom Petch. Actress and model Isabella Rossellini is best known for films such as Blue Velvet but she is now writing, staring and directing a series of award winning short films, about the sex lives of insects and marine animals. The success of these films has led to the "Green Porno" stage show. Rossellini discusses the show, becoming a student again and how her admiration for David Attenborough affected her work. Producer Claire Bartleet.
Doing what’s right can be difficult when the world is offering you easy rewards for doing the wrong thing. This week Sam and Simon remember Nelson Mandela in their discussion of sticking to your guns, turning enemies into partners and just plain doing the right thing.Stuff mentioned in this episode:Al Jazeera English – online news streaming with no strings attached.Nelson Mandela. Our mascot for doing what’s right.We mentioned Jarred Diamond. Again. For writing The World Until Yesterday.The Fox and the Flies by Charles van Onselen.Bjork’s explanation of how television works.Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno.GTA V.Summoner Wars. So good. And Richard Mulholland for introducing us to it.Fortune and Glory.King of Tokyo and Richard Garfield.
This Sunday marks a year since last Mother's Day, and while many of us say thanks in the form of a card, a text or a bunch of flowers, celebrated actress, model and environmental activist Isabella Rossellini says thanks through a short film series called “Mammas.” After writing and directing the Webby-award winning Sundance series “Green Porno” and “Green Porno Seduce Me," which celebrates the mating rituals and sex lives of animal. Rossellini turns her attention to exploring creatures' rites of passage into motherhood.
Episode 41 of Emergency Pants has us loving LOTS of things. How much do we love How Much Do We Love? So. Much. Green Porno is sublime Rose sends us goodies and is awesome Tara took and sent us the Ultimate Wacky Neighbor video Needle felting is fun! Get a kit from Tobiah Mundt today! How to … Continue reading »
HMDWL 105! Tonight we are excited about the start of the CSA season. Then we love Isabella Rossellini’s Green Porno, Running in Heels, the first sounds of spring, and L’Oreal Double Extend Beauty Tubes Mascara. Follow us on Twitter and join our Facebook group!
Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet, Big Night, Fearless) discusses her directorial debut: the experimental Green Porno, a series of short films she also conceived, wrote, and appears in.
Isabella Rossellini (Blue Velvet, Big Night, Fearless) discusses her directorial debut: the experimental Green Porno, a series of short films she also conceived, wrote, and appears in.