Spoiler Alert Radio

On this episode, we talk with documentary filmmaker Carol Carimi Acutt of Safari Films . Carol is a native New Orleanian and has directed three documentaries about Louisiana musicians: Getting It Together featuring bebop pianist Willie Metcalf, Jr., My Story, My Music, My Life about renowned jazz composer and arranger Harold Battiste, Jr., and most recently Been Down That Muddy Road featuring Loui...

We speak with Jason Connell, president of Connell Creations , a video and film production company in Los Angeles. Jason Connell has recently directed a documentary film about the lives of Hollywood background actors (often somewhat inaccurately called "extras") called Strictly Background . He also founded the Tulsa Uncensored Film Festival , which spread to both New York and Los Angeles , underwen...

Greg Cahill is originally from Boston and graduated from NYU in 2004. His thesis film there was Wolves of Chechnya , a short film about a Russian soldier’s harrowing experiences in the Chechen War. He then moved to LA, where he produces and directs special features for the NBC TV series Medium . Greg Cahill has recently written, directed, and produced The Golden Voice , a short film about the Camb...

Boston native Andrew Filippone, Jr. attended Emerson college and worked on an unfinished project which has recently had new life breathed into it. Called Happy Monday , it is a unique experimental documentary, also referred to as a "documentary film object." It represents the tragedy of unfinished work, the stasis of images captured on negatives but never given life through projection on a film sc...

On this episode we speak with writer George Harrar . George Harrar’s works have appeared in a number of literary magazines, and his 1999 work The 5:22 was selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories 1999 , edited by Amy Tan.   We discuss storytelling from the writer’s point of view, and similarities between short film storytelling and its literary equivalent. We also discuss some of...

We speak with Montreal director Luc Beauchamp - writer, director, and producer of the film Arthur’s Paradise . Arthur’s Paradise is a unique film, a blend of documentary and fiction, with almost no dialog and music from opera to mariachi. At times beautiful, at times disturbing, it explores the solitary life of a farmer and his animals. Luc Beauchamp received a degree in music composition from the...

We are joined by Dana Dorian, founder and director at the Glasgow, Scotland–based studio Axis Animation , where he has directed several award-winning commercials and broadcast projects. Dana recently made his first short film Fetch , winner of the BAFTA Scotland award for best animation.

Our guest this week is Nicholas Mason, the founding director of the Manhattan Short Film Festival . The Manhattan Short Film Festival is a unique film festival which presents twelve short films from several countries, all screened during one week, in venues across the globe. Audiences at each venue then vote on their favorites, and the winner is determined at the end of the festival screenings.

Today’s guest is Alex Merkin. Alex Merkin is the president of Production and Development of FiveLion Films , a music video, commercial, and film production company in New York City. He is also the director, creator, and editor of the award-winning short suspense thriller Across The Hall .

Giovanna Chesler is an Assistant Professor in Communication at the University of California San Diego, and works professionally as a cinematographer and film/video curator and juror. She is the director and producer of internationally exhibited documentary and narrative films including BeauteouS: The Trilogy and hand-some . Her most recent film is Period: The End of Menstruation , a feature docume...

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. On this special episode of Spoiler Alert Radio, we talk with Barbara Silvestro . Barbara Silvestro is a 41 year old mother of three a who lost 65 pounds through diet and exercise, including using Leslie Sansone’s and other fitness DVDs. She was eventually invited to be a participant in the filming of an edition of the Sansone Walk Slim DVDs. We ta...

On Spoiler Alert Radio’s hour long Mother’s Day Special, we explore the theme of motherhood with Mary Mazzio of 50 Eggs Productions , who discusses her three documentary films: A Hero For Daisy , Apple Pie , and Lemonade Stories and her unique approach to documentary filmmaking. A Hero For Daisy is a film about Title IX pioneer and two-time Olympian Chris Ernst who through her protests for gender...

J.L. Aronson has written, directed, and produced Danielson: A Family Movie and discusses this and other documentary work of his. Danielson: A Family Movie follows Daniel Smith, an eccentric musician and visual artist, as he leads his four siblings and best friend Chris to indie-rock stardom, while mentoring a then-unknown Sufjan Stevens along the way. The film deals with a number of themes, includ...

We speak with actor, writer, and director David Dean Bottrell , who has recently written and directed an award winning comedy short film Available Men , representing his first effort as both writer and director. David Dean Bottrell has appeared on a number of television series, most recently with a recurring role as the creepy Lincoln Meyer on the hit show Boston Legal , and co-wrote the screenpla...

We speak with Montreal director Luc Beauchamp - writer, director, and producer of the film Arthur’s Paradise . Arthur’s Paradise is a unique film, a blend of documentary and fiction, with almost no dialog and music from opera to mariachi. At times beautiful, at times disturbing, it explores the solitary life of a farmer and his animals. Luc Beauchamp received a degree in music composition from the...

Craig Shapiro joins us to discuss his documentary film Ice Kings about an unparalleled hockey dynasty. This is the story of Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a school that won twenty-six consecutive state championships between 1978 and 2003. Craig also discusses his work in television sports features and plans for the future.

Director Skye Fitzgerald discusses his documentary Bombhunters and his work with his production company spinfilm . In 1969, the US launched secret bombing raids into Cambodia in pursuit of the Viet Cong during the Vietnam war. Until suspension as part of peace agreements in 1973, over one billion pounds of ordnance were dropped on Cambodia. Over thirty years later, much of that deadly ordnance is...

Valerie Weiss , filmmaker and BioPhysics PhD, discusses her AFI Women’s Fellowship, the Dudley Film program she created at Harvard, and her film projects Dance by Design, Transgressions, Losing Control, and more. Transgressions has been described as A Clockwork Orange meets Pleasantville .  It takes place in the not-so-distant future, in a society combining the worst elements of the nanny state an...

Part Two of the 2006 Academy Nominated Short Film discussions features the live-action short nominees. Films include The Saviour , Helmer and Son , One Too Many ( Eramos Pocos ), Binta and The Great Idea , and West Bank Story .

Part One of the 2006 Academy Nominated Short Film discussions features the Oscar Animated Short nominees as well as the "Short-listed" films which were almost nominated. Animated nominee films include The Danish Poet , Maestro , The Little Matchgirl , No Time For Nuts , and Lifted .

Writer, Director/Producer, Instructor, and Actor Chris Sparling joins us to discuss differences in marketing two completely distinct films and about the grassroots approach to filmmaking. He also discusses his experiences in LA as an actor to focusing on writing and producing back in Providence and beyond Providence.

The renowned experimental band Cul de Sac joins us to discuss their work on live film composition. This includes currently focusing on F.W. Murnau's Faust and starting an annual winter tradition of performing a live original score to Raymond Brigg’s The Snowman .

Casting Director Annie Mulhall of LDI Casting stops by Spoiler Alert Radio. She enlightens us on the casting process for major films in Southern New England and beyond.