Khalik Allah returns to the podcast He was last on Episode 261 in December of 2014 discussing his first feature non-fiction film, “Field Niggas”. He followed this with a contribution to Beyonce’s video album “Lemonade”. For his new feature “Black Mother”, Allah trains his eye on Jamaica, the land of his mother’s birth. Using a pregnancy’s progression as a structural outline, and shooting in both 16mm and HD, Allah ‘presents a mode of moving-image portraiture that feels singular in the context of contemporary film’ (Lydia Ogwang, Cinema Scope). Mysterious and sensual, rich and rhythmic, it’s a mesmerizing symphony of a film, embodying both the spiritual reverence and confrontational reality of the island nation. “Black Mother” opened at the Metrograph Cinema last week (which is where this interview took place) and continues to screen there for the coming week.
Filmmaker Joel Potrykus returns to the podcast for his 4th visit! He has been on past episodes discussing his films “Ape”, “Buzzard”, “The Alchemist Cookbook” and now “Relaxer“. Joel is being joined by two of his actors, the perennial Josh Burge (“The Revenant”), and Andre Hyland (“Funnel”). Doom and gloom are on the way. The Y2K apocalypse can’t be stopped. Abbie’s older brother issues him the ultimate challenge before it goes down: beat the infamous level 256 in Pac-Man and no getting up from the couch until he does so. Abbie’s survival story begins here; inside a rotting living room with no food or water, and a revolving door of numb-nut friends and acquaintances. It’s “The Exterminating Angel” by way of “Slacker”. “Relaxer” opens at the Village East Cinema in New York City on Friday, March 22nd and at the Grand Illusion Cinema in Seattle, Washington. Visit the website for more details. This conversation was conducted at SxSW 2018.
