Takaharu Saito is a filmmaker residing in Sendai, Japan. His works include A Memory (2001), Portrait of a Day (2003) and ONE/S (2004). In the following interview, he talks about his latest film, Pre/sense (2006).

From Pre/sense

Mr. Saito has been kind enough to allow us to host his movie. Please take the opportunity to download and watch the movie by clicking here.

If you have trouble watching the film, please download Quicktime 7.

Interview follows.

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Gabe Weisert is the director and co-writer of the two classic independent films Fishing with Gandhi (1998) and Cow Monkey (2001). For anyone interested in film, both works are must-owns and for low-budget filmmakers, they are mandatory viewing. Shot in relatively short amounts of time (each film was shot in 9 days or less) and with limited locations, the films demonstrate just what one can do with zero-budget, inventive story telling, dedication and talent: make damn fine art.

Weisert’s directorial debut, Fishing with Gandhi, is a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Fishing with Gandhi is one of those rare films that balances profundity with side-splitting laughs and presently remains criminally under-appreciated. Its story follows Danno, played by Dan Klein, who has just returned from the wedding of his mother and uncle. Now traveling to see his too-cool-for-school friends Stephen, played by Weisert, and Giles, played by William Birdthistle, Danno hitches a ride with brothers Roy and Gil, played by James Reichmuth and John Reichmuth respectively.

Weisert, the Reichmuth brothers and Klein followed Fishing with Gandhi with another film truly after my own heart, Cow Monkey. Cow Monkey returns to characters Roy and Gil as they go on a quest to avenge the murder of their dog, Wanda II, by Bigfoot, or the mythical ape-beast the “cow monkey”. When Roy and Gil arrive at the Bigfoot site, they meet the woodsy Grover, played by Klein, and an anthropological student named Sydney, played by Bridget Schwartz. What ensues is 88 minutes that, like Fishing with Gandhi, is as funny as it is philosophical.

For more information on Gabe Weisert, visit his photography site. For more information on John and James Reichmuth and Dan Klein, visit their website of their extremely funny comedy troupe, Kasper Hauser, and check out their new book Sky Maul.

To purchase and view the films, visit Film Baby, which currently offers a signed double DVD package of the films, both which have extremely illuminating commentaries and are full of great outakes, cartoons, and Kasper Hauser troupe standup.

In the following interview, Weisert talks about the two films.

Interview follows.

I’m shocked that Fishing with Gandhi isn’t a better known film. It’s well written, well acted, extremely funny and quite touching. When it was released, did it get a lot of attention?

Thanks for the kind words! When it came out in ’98, FWG [Fishing with Gandhi] bounced around some of the smaller film festivals then got picked up by Hollywood Video. We got a nice write-up in Variety, and some great local press, and good word of mouth around the hip indie film fest circles, but by no means was it on any kind of grand national Entertainment Weekly type scale. But honestly I was pleasantly surprised — it’s more of a student film than anything else, so I was happy to see the small but very favorable attention that it received.

John Reichmuth as Gil and James Reichmuth as Roy

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Gary Gustin is an actor who works in the Pennsylvania area. In the following interview, Gustin talks about his experiences as an actor. His most recent film is Sean McKnight’s Disturbing Images (2006).

Interview follows.

I am familiar with your work from Sean McKnight’s film Disturbing Images where you played the character of Byron Lloyd. How did you come to be involved with the film?

I learned of Disturbing Images after Director Sean McKnight started casting notices. At that time he was being assisted by Dave Von Roehm of Ningun Films. I met Dave when I worked on a trailer for the film Two of One Heart. You know working on Independent films is a pretty small universe, seems like everyone knows everyone.

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Disturbing Images: The Story of Helmut K. (2006), directed by Sean McKnight, paints the portrait of the artist who is questionably consumed by fires his art ignites. Previously a schlock filmmaker, Helmut K. turns to the world of photography in search of his muse. When some of Helmut K.’s photos of scantily clad young men and religious imagery come under attack from a right wing religious group led by Byron Lloyd, rather than shy away, Helmut meets the challenge by adorning his best ring-leading hat. “Be, like the monkey,” chants Helmut K. throughout the circus that boils around him. And it is such a hypnotic circus that Helmut’s art takes back seat to his outrageous performance.

Disturbing Images: The Story of Helmut K. balances artiness with comedy and philosophy for one entertaining ride. In the following interview, the film’s director, Sean McKnight, gives some of his insights into the film and the making of it.

For more information on Disturbing Images: The Story of Helmut K. visit the Cinema Alliance website.

Interview follows.

In the opening shot of Disturbing Images: The Story of Helmut K. the viewer can see a microphone and the back of the head belonging to someone who is presumably a crew member, if not a person meant to represent the filmmaker him/herself. Throughout the film, similar acknowledgments of the artifice of the fiction of the film occur. Was this something that was in the screenplay, or something that you chose to do as director?

McKnight: The film crew is mentioned briefly in the script but I wanted to emphasize and expand that concept a bit more as a way of telling the story. I think one thing that’s important from a director’s standpoint is to place a lot of emphasis on how you tell the story. While reading the script for DI, a documentary approach to it just made sense.

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Recently I conducted an email interview with Mark Tapio Kines, director of Claustrophobia (2003) and Foriegn Correspondents (1999) (to our female readership over at the Wheaton-club on Theology Girl and The Result of a Sleepless Night, Foreign Correspondents stars Wil).

While the interview touched on a number of topics ranging from Kine’s experiences as a director to his current work, it also cleared the water on Claustrophobia (2003), a film that I feel has not received the critical attention it deserves due to its marketing by Lions Gate Home Entertainment.

Claustrophobia tells the story of three women who are held hostage in a house by a killer with a crossbow. A suspense film with a nod to Hitchcock, unfortunately it was released by its distributor, Lions Gate Home Entertainment, as a slasher flick. This meant changing the name of the film to Serial Slayer (a truly awful name) and coming up with misleading cover art. In my mind, the result of these decisions has been the prevention of the film from reaching its intended audience.

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