Category: popular-interviews

By Michele Diomà

You can make art with any tool. There are no tools for making art and tools with which it’s impossible to make art. If you are an artist, truly an artist, the simpler your tools for expression, the freer you will be to share your perspective on the Universe. This is a concept David Lynch left us with! The greatest artist in American cinema, created a YouTube channel. A channel where he even shared the weather forecast. And what’s artistic about weather forecasts? Nothing! But in the hands of an artist, even videos dedicated to the weather become Art! It was a great artistic statement by David Lynch! And today is a historic day for the WILD FILMMAKER Community, because we welcome into our beautiful global community of free artists, Sabrina Sutherland! Sabrina was David Lynch’s producer for many years. She worked on Twin Peaks, Inland Empire, and also collaborated on David Lynch’s YouTube channel. Starting today, Sabrina Sutherland is on WILD FILMMAKER with an exclusive interview.

-Who is Sabrina S. Sutherland?

I am someone who always wanted to work on films and have been lucky enough to meet and collaborate with David Lynch along the way.  I went to film school and couldn’t have dreamed of a better director with whom to work.  

-Your collaboration with David Lynch makes you a direct witness to the development of one of the most important chapters in the History of Cinema. Could you share an anecdote about your professional and personal relationship with the Maestro?

My job as a producer with David was making sure all of his ideas were able to make their way onto the screen.  It was my job to provide a safe and experimental set so that he had the ability to explore any and all ideas he wanted to pursue.  I suppose one of the best ways I did this at the start of the production was to sit down with him and go through each scene, listening to him explain everything he wanted to see and do.  We would also time it by me acting out the parts while he pictured the scene in his “mind’s eye.”

-In my opinion, there is only one director who can be compared to Federico Fellini in terms of originality and personal cinematic vision, and that is David Lynch. What do you think are the points in common between these two great artists?

It’s true that they both had their own unique visions, and they had their own personal experiences that seemed to form their ideas.  They both used surreal imagery to illustrate  – especially ordinary life.  They also had interesting characters that have their own personalties.  I don’t think quirky is the right word, but maybe unique?  Also, the sound design for both creates that surreal mood somehow or at least compliments and is a main part of their films.  David always reminded me that the visuals are only half of the movie and the sound is equally as important.  I am sure if someone did a dissertation comparing these two there would be much more than my simple observations above of course.

-What does “intuition” mean to you in a director?

I equate “intuition” with “ideas” a director has.  With David, he would get an idea and stay true to that idea.  He never would deviate from that idea.  If production somehow limited the visual/auditory image he had, he would be able to imagine other ways he could achieve the idea he wanted to capture.  He innately knew what would work or not work for that idea.   

-One of David Lynch’s latest ventures that I admired was his YouTube weather reports. An idea that, while seemingly non-artistic, becomes Art in the hands of an artist. Do you know how that idea came about?

David originally had this idea back during his davidlynch.com days.  However, during the latest Covid shutdown we two talked and decided to have a YouTube site where we could post videos and keep working on our own while our Netflix project was put on hold.  David suggested he do the Weather Report while I suggested he be filmed doing his ordinary daily work or something else fun.  We ended up doing all of it.  He loved the weather and loved doing the reports.  We both loved the audience responses.

-What projects are you currently working on?

I am currently working with the Twin Peaks group and traveling around with the”Twin Peaks: Conversation with the Stars” tour.  It’s been great so far to meet so many Twin Peaks and David Lynch fans.

-Would you be interested in acting in a film? If so, what kind of role or project would appeal to you?

I have enjoyed working as an actor in several small projects as well as Twin Peaks: The Return.  I am not much an actor, but I do enjoy it immensely!  I like working with friends and people who are nice to be around.  That’s appealing to me – no screamers or unpleasant folks.

-Who is Eva Coen?

I am a costume designer. I was born and raised in Rome, Italy, but spent my formative years in Paris. I studied art history and the history of costume design as a way to grow as a filmmaker. I had the good fortune of getting started early, so that by the time I hit 20, I was already working on a set. Just like any other work that you do with your hands, it is essential first to understand how to deal with daily occurrences as the shooting progresses. But I have never abandoned my interests as scholar and researcher: being a costume designer allows me to pursue them as I explore the lives of others. What I truly love about this line of work is that, as we learn about the historical and social context of the stories that we tell on film, we do not have the obligation to be authentic and philological. Instead, we get to create and conceive looks that often strengthen the narrative vision.

–From now on, you’ll be able to vote for the Oscars. What criteria will you use to determine your choices?

I am thrilled to be part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. First of all, I will get to watch many, many new movies, and share my thoughts with members from all over the world, representing 17 professional categories. Voting at the Awards is just one of the many important activities members engage in. There are ongoing opportunities to go deeper, and many interesting meetings, in person and online. For the upcoming 98^th ceremony in 2026, there are interesting rule changes, including stipulations against the use of AI and, most importantly, as well as protections of authorship in the international category, which now also includes refugees and asylum seekers.

In voting for my category, my guidelines are to award works on the basis of the visual consistency of each costume design project, which I believe only ends up working out when it does not put itself forward. Costumes must be a functional part of the overall creative project: they must serve the actors wearing them, as well as the story being told.

When voting for best picture, I believe I will try to aim for movies that bring together stories I feel need to be told with excellence in the creative process.

-As a costume designer, who inspires you the most?

Living in Italy, my major source of inspiration is the artistic heritage we are all immersed in here. I am particularly obsessed with the chromatic choices of some artists: the way in which Giotto and Raffaello, but also Rothko and Klee, associate colors is at the core of my own creative drive. Working as a costume designer, I am also very lucky that I can draw inspiration from the wonderful creations of my colleagues, past and present, in the theater and cinema workshops where the costumes worn by actors who literally made film history are now preserved.

–WILD FILMMAKER supports independent cinema. What are your thoughts on arthouse film production?

Long live independent cinema, along with all of you at Wild Filmaker who tell about it with so much passion!

Arthouse films are the most alive form of the seventh art. The experimental nature of this kind of filmmaking is a big part of who I am as a professional. I find that, sometimes, a smaller budget allows a story to be told with more intensity. My cinematic culture is built on Andrè Bazin’s pages, and the Cahiers du Cinéma. But I have also watched a lot of art films, from the Surrealists and Dada to the video art of Bill Viola, Laurie Anderson, Vanessa Beecroft, and Sharin Neshat… I love working on debut projects with emerging directors, and on “difficult movies,” and I tend to balance those with TV series, among which I am partial to biopics, such as the one I did on the life of Oriana Fallaci for Paramount Plus and Minerva.

-What projects are you currently working on?

I am currently shooting a Netflix series based on a true story, directed by Claudio Cupellini with a fantastic cast. Lately, I have also enjoyed being invited to speak about my work at academic institutions and on film festival panels. I particularly like sharing my ideas about the relationship between costume design and the fashion industry, and talking about our profession. The next event will be at NYU in New York City in December, where I will be speaking about the costumes worn by the divas of silent film.

But my favorite project is, always, the next one on the horizon.

By Michele Diomà

It’s very difficult for me to write the introduction to this interview because it feels like a dream come true and sometimes, sharing one’s happiness can feel almost too personal. But WILD FILMMAKER is, above all, an international community of people who love cinema, and being able to welcome an artist like Paul Haggis into our Community today is a major milestone for our entire movement.
I have studied and admired Paul Haggis for over 20 years, and I consider him one of the most versatile artists cinema has ever known.
Dear friends of WILD FILMMAKER, starting today, enjoy this exclusive interview with a true master of the Seventh Art!

-Who is Paul Haggis today?

Good question. I think I am the same person I’ve always been, someone who struggles daily to find a good story and tell it well, only to realizes that I haven’t and rewrite it dozens of times. At some point I hopefully shoot it, and if I am successful, live regretting that I didn’t rewrite it more, or direct it well, so i choose not to watch it until i’ve totally forgotten it and can maybe appreciate it.  

-When I was a film student in Rome, I wanted to study the screenplay of Million Dollar Baby in every detail, but the internet was still in its early days, and I couldn’t find it anywhere in Italy.
So I had a strange idea: I decided to transcribe the entire screenplay by hand into a notebook.
To accomplish this, I watched the film at least 200 times.
Where did that masterpiece of pain and poetry come from?

What a great way to do it. Reading a script is okay, but by writing it out you come to understand it intimately, in the act of creation, as paradoxically in mimicry we learn how to create something original. It is something I always suggest and no one does. Million Dollar Baby came from a book of short stories that I found by FX Toole, a former fight trainer.  After getting the rights, I struggled for a year to write the screenplay, combining characters from multiple stories and creating what i could not unearth. After that year and many drafts I realized I had failed, so I gave the screenplay to my great friend Bobby Moresco and he told me I was just trying to use too much and as a result was diluting its power. He sat with me and gave suggestions as I stripped it down and focused on Maggie and Frankie, taking Scrap from another story and creating that relationship in order to allow us to get into Frankie’s mind, and to use him as a narrator. Every decision for technique has to have an emotional reason, you cannot just use something like narration as a crutch. When I came upon the idea that Scrap was actually writing a letter to Frankie’s estranged daughter, a letter he knew she would likely never read, I found my emotional reason, which gave the narration a purpose, depth and meaning.

-What was your relationship with Clint Eastwood like during the making of Million Dollar Baby?

Clint was the perfect collaborator. He read the draft I sent him and wanted no changes – a very rare thing.  He shot exactly what i wrote. I visited the set, being a producer, to watch him. I learned so much from that experience, lessons I use every time I direct myself. I learned to embrace the mistakes, because the mistakes make it human.

-Before you started directing films, you wrote many screenplays — which ones are you most attached to?

I had one terrible experience with a film I co-wrote and directed called Red Hot. What I learned was sadly that you should only work with producers you trust, as they butchered the film in editing and I never watched it after a first viewing. My second screenplay was Crash, which I directed. Next was Million Dollar Baby, a terrific experience. i have since written for other directors, like Casino Royale, and there I had the happy experience working with Martin Campbell, who didn’t change a word of my script.  The next Bond script i wrote was a very different experience, as the director decided to rewrite it himself. It was during the Writers strike, so hard to blame him, but as a result Quantum of Solace turned into a hodgepodge when it started out as a very good screenplay, just not one i think he understood, or perhaps it just took too many risks. In general i would say i like directing what i write. if someone is going to screw it up, it should be me, so I have no one else to blame.

-Crash triumphed at the Oscars despite being an independent film — a result that echoes the recent success of Anora by Sean Baker. Do you think the Hollywood film industry today is more open to recognizing and rewarding independent works compared to 20 years ago?

No. Sadly the industry always believes that wonderful independant films like Anora are an anomaly, and the only trust tried-and-true formulas, no matter how often they are proven wrong.

-In recent years, you’ve often been in Italy — what do you think about the history of Italian cinema?

I grew up on Italian cinema and the French new wave, and I adored both. I can revisit those films from the masters time and time again and always learn something new and see something that I did not realize was hidden within them. Sadly usually something that was obvious to others.

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

As people, we are selfish, short-sighted and generally damn stupid, and I count myself among them. I only wish we had more compassion and refused to marginalize those we don’t understand. I was raised Catholic, but since a young boy have always wondered why Christians pay no attention to the words of Christ. RIght now we are living in a world of extremes and extremists of any flag only like to hear that they are right in their thinking. Questioning is everything, most especially questioning ourselves, but something we rarely do. Curiosity about why someone would disagree with you is also not in vogue. What is in vogue is identifying with a group, whatever that is, and moving in lockstep with them, agreeing with whatever they post on social media. Truly independent thought is as rare today as it has ever been in history.

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

Remind me to answer that in a hundred years and i will have a much better idea.

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

I am looking forward to discovering more about it.

By Michele Diomà

Alejandro Jodorowsky once said: “When you doubt between acting or staying still, choose the desire to act – create your path, one step at a time.”

Inspired by this quote from the great Chilean poet and filmmaker, WILD FILMMAKER was born five years ago with the mission to give visibility to independent artists around the world.
In the beginning, WILD FILMMAKER was just a magazine, but my dream was to create a platform where filmmakers and screenwriters could participate in events judged by one single criterion: MERITOCRACY.

I never imagined that this revolutionary dream would bring me, in June 2025, to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, to organize two events that saw a record-breaking turnout of over 35,000 independent artists from across the globe.

(San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge)

Reaching California—the heart of both the past and present film industry—and becoming the leading platform for indie cinema is an unprecedented victory for the entire WILD FILMMAKER community.
When I say “past and present,” I mean that California is home to both Hollywood and Netflix. WILD FILMMAKER positions itself somewhere in between these two worlds: with the mission to use the classic cinematic storytelling style—yet through the web.

Today, WILD FILMMAKER is the most globally recognized independent film brand. Just a few days ago, we hosted The New York Times on our pages with an exclusive interview with Glenn Kenny, one of their top film critics. Over the past year, we’ve also appeared in Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, and Cinecittà News.

(Academy Award winner Martin Scorsese alongside New York Times film critic Glenn Kenny)

This victory is dedicated to all those who believed—and continue to believe—in the WILD FILMMAKER project.
Our mission is not to ask permission to enter the traditional film circuit, but to create a new way to tell and distribute cinema, and we’re making it happen!

A special thank you to the artists who participated in this PRESS RELEASE dedicated to the San Francisco Film Achievement Awards:

Lesley Ann Albiston – Fractures In Time
BEST ARTHOUSE FEATURE SCRIPT 2025 & BEST ORIGINAL IDEA

Janja Rakuš – Soularis
BEST INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM 2025 & BEST EUROPEAN DIRECTOR

Emilio Mercanti – Tic Tac
BEST EUROPEAN NARRATIVE SHORT & BEST INTERNATIONAL FILMMAKER & BEST SCREENPLAY SHORT (Category: Arthouse Short Film)

Roger Paradiso – The Lost Village
BEST AMERICAN PRODUCER & BEST INDIE DIRECTOR

Hugo Teugels – Cassandra Venice
BEST INTERNATIONAL ARTHOUSE FILMMAKER & BEST EUROPEAN PRODUCER

Monte Albers de Leon – Mecca
BEST LGBTQ SCRIPT 2025 & BEST AMERICAN ORIGINAL SCREENWRITER

AnayaMusic Kunst – Sanctuary
BEST MUSIC VIDEO 2025 & BEST ARTHOUSE SINGER

Jamie Sutliff – Black Wolf
BEST FILMMAKER & BEST SCREENWRITER (Category: Indie Short Film)

Mattia Paone – Flashes of Light (Bagliori)
BEST EUROPEAN SCREENPLAY 2025 (Category: Narrative Short), BEST ORIGINAL INDIE DIRECTOR & BEST EUROPEAN CINEMATOGRAPHER

Vicentini Gomez – Doctor Hypotheses 2 – The Breakdown
BEST INTERNATIONAL COMEDY SCRIPT 2025 & BEST SCREENWRITER (Category: Comedy)

Andronica Marquis – Medea
BEST INTERNATIONAL DIRECTOR (Category: Narrative Short), BEST SCREENPLAY SHORT, BEST CAST, BEST ORIGINAL EDITING & BEST CASTING DIRECTOR

Chris Ross Leong – NeverWere: a Lycan Love Story
BEST ORIGINAL FEATURE SCRIPT & BEST INTERNATIONAL ARTHOUSE WRITER 2025

Jonathan Fisher – In a Whole New Way
BEST SOCIAL SCREENPLAY, BEST HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT & BEST EDUCATIONAL FILM 2025

Carla Di Bonito – Nossos Caminhos (Our Paths)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY & BEST INTERNATIONAL WRITING STYLE

Michał Kucharski – Heat and Love
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM 2025, BEST FILMMAKER & BEST ARTHOUSE PRODUCER

C. Arnold Curry – The Duchess
BEST AMERICAN SCREENPLAY 2025 & BEST INTERNATIONAL DRAMA

Susan Downs – Something Ain’t Right
BEST DIRECTOR & BEST ORIGINAL DOCUMENTARY 2025

Christopher Pennington – Virulence
BEST ARTHOUSE SCREENWRITER & BEST INTERNATIONAL INDIE FEATURE SCRIPT

Pamela PerryGoulardt – The Girl Made of Earth and Water
BEST SUPER SHORT FILM, BEST EDITING & BEST FILMMAKER

Dean Morgan – Sheldon Mashugana Gets Stooged
BEST AMERICAN ACTOR 2025 & BEST SCREENPLAY (Category: Comedy)

Kai Fischer – Lambada The Dance Of Fate
BEST BIOGRAPHICAL SCRIPT & BEST EUROPEAN SCREENWRITER 2025

John Martinez – The Days of Knight: Chapter 1
BEST AMERICAN NARRATIVE SHORT 2025, BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER, BEST INDIE DIRECTOR, BEST CASTING DIRECTOR & BEST PRODUCTION COMPANY.

R.Scott MacLeay – Noise
BEST DIRECTOR, BEST EDITING & BEST ORIGINAL CINEMATOGRAPHY (Category: Experimental Film)

Don Pasquale Ferone – Credo
BEST SONG 2025, BEST EUROPEAN SONG WRITER & BEST SPIRITUAL MUSIC VIDEO

Russell Emanuel – Routine
BEST DIRECTOR 2025, BEST PRODUCER, BEST ORIGINAL IDEA & BEST NARRATIVE SHORT 2025

– The Assassin’s Apprentice 2: Silbadores of the Canary Islands
BEST INTERNATIONAL ARTHOUSE SHORT FILM, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST SCREENPLAY SHORT & BEST ACTING (Category: International Indie Narrative Short Film)

Brooke Wolff – Eye of the Storm
BEST BIOGRAPHICAL DOCUMENTARY 2025, BEST DIRECTOR, BEST PRODUCER, BEST STORYTTELING & BEST ORIGINAL EDITING (Category: Documentary Feature)

Lena Mattsson – Not Without Gloves
BEST POETRY FILM, BEST FILMMAKER & BEST CAMERA OPERATOR (Category: Experimental)

– The Rorschach Test
BEST INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENTAL FILM & BEST SOUND DESIGN

Vincenzo Amoruso – The Arcangel Of Death
BEST EUROPEAN ACTOR 2025 & BEST EXPERIMENTAL CINEMATOGRAPHY (Category: Indie Short Film)

Lynn Elliott – Ghost Town, N.M.
BEST AMERICAN FEATURE SCRIPT 2025

– Alta California
BEST WRITING STYLE (Category: Feature Script)

– Borderline Justice
BEST ORIGINAL FEATURE SCRIPT & BEST INTERNATIONAL INDIE SCREENWRITER

Larry Gene Fortin – The Call Center
BEST INTERNATIONAL TELEVISION SCRIPT & BEST PILOT TV

– Sky Walker
BEST INTERNATIONAL DRAMA SCRIPT 2025

Sean Gregory Tansey – The Stones of Rome
BEST ARTHOUSE ACTOR, BEST INDIE EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM & BEST ORIGINAL EDITING

– The Pathos of Hamlet
BEST HISTORICAL SHORT FILM & BEST ACTING

Suzanne Lutas – The Dead Ringer
BEST WRITER OF THE YEAR (Category: Original Feature Script)

Uniqueness Heiress & Azia – Omnipotent Resolution
BEST ARTHOUSE SHORT FILM, BEST SOUNDTRACK, BEST SOUND DESIGN, BEST INDIE MUSICAL & BEST INTERNATIONAL CHOREOGRAPHY

Phoebe von Satis – Hummel
BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT SCRIPT 2025, BEST WRITING STYLE & BEST AMERICAN SCREENWRITER

– K Bender (The Bloody Benders)
BEST ARTHOUSE SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR

– The Insomnia Experiment
BEST ORIGINAL WRITER OF THE YEAR (Category: Short Script)

– The Hallmark Couple
BEST ARTHOUSE FEATURE SCRIPT & BEST ORIGINAL IDEA

– Only in Malibu
BEST AMERICAN FEATURE SCRIPT 2025

– Gold, Glory & Nobility
BEST INTERNATIONAL BOOK 2025

Ugrin Vuckovic – Fishbowl
BEST INDIE SUPER SHORT FILM 2025

By Michele Diomà

It was February 2019 when I met Glenn Kenny while I was preparing a film to be shot in New York. I wanted to meet in person the author of one of the cinema books I had loved the most: Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas, featuring exclusive interviews with Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. I had been deeply fascinated by Glenn’s ability to recount the context in which the masterpiece directed by the great Italian-American filmmaker was born.

I believe that to truly understand a film, it is essential to know the social and cultural reasons that led the producer and director to make it. There’s no point in having a student read Socrates without first telling them about Ancient Greece, and in the same way, I believe it is essential today to explain to audiences the world in which certain films were born—otherwise, they simply won’t be understood.

We often complain that younger generations are increasingly less interested in Cinema. But this happens because, for example, showing The Kid by Charlie Chaplin to a teenager today without first explaining what the Great Depression of 1929 was, is like handing them a book written in a language they don’t know.

That’s why I consider the work of film critics like Glenn Kenny a necessary mission to help save Cinema.
It is a great honor to welcome Glenn Kenny today into the WILD FILMMAKER Community.

-Who is Glenn Kenny?

Glenn Kenny is a New York based film historian and critic who contributes reviews to the New York Times and RogerEbert.com. He is the author of “Anatomy of an Actor: Robert De Niro” (Cahiers du Cinema, 2014), “Made Men: The Story of ‘Goodfellas'” (Hanover Square Press, 2021), “The World is Yours: The Story of Scarface'” ( Hanover Square, 2024) and the editor of “A Galaxy Not So Far Away: Writers and Artists on 25 Years of ‘Star Wars'” (Henry Holt 2002).

-When did your collaboration as a film critic for The New York Times begin?

In 2015 my friend Manohla Dargis approached me and asked if I would be willing to write a review of “Hotel Transylvania 2.” Having seen the first “HT” movie I was aptly prepared, so I agreed. The piece turned out sufficiently well that I was asked to contribute more. And there you are.

-What inspired your book MADE MEN – THE STORY OF GOODFELLAS?

I needed a summer job. I am an instructor at a well-known arts college but I don’t teach summers. So there was that. Also: “Goodfellas” was a movie I’d seen many times and felt rather close to. I met its director while he was editing it, so I felt a special attachment to it. When he signaled that he would cooperate with the assembly of the book (which he did, most generously), I felt I could proceed with some confidence.

-Do you think that today, independent cinema is still a place where the most innovative stylistic approaches can be found?

Not necessarily. I think, as good as the films at major festivals tend to be, maybe one out of thirty shows an unusual/innovative formal bent. 

-In the past, film festivals played a key role in discovering new talented directors. Nowadays, they often seem to favor already well-known filmmakers. Why do you think that is?

Like every other sector of film, festivals are infected by business. That’s the simplest answer and I think the most accurate.

By Michele Diomà

In these years, WILD FILMMAKER has become a large International Community of Artists, but every story has an origin, which is the equivalent of the first note a composer writes on a musical score.
The first note from which the journey of WILD FILMMAKER began was written in Manhattan, when I participated in the screening of my film ‘Sweet Democracy’ with Nobel Prize-winning playwright Dario Fo.
The screening took place at New York University; I was a young independent filmmaker. I never imagined that just a few days after that screening, I would meet the great Oscar-winning director James Ivory.

James Ivory for me was the beginning of the American dream!
I’ve shared this brief story because today I have the honor of interviewing Stephen Soucy, who directed an excellent documentary ‘Merchant Ivory,’ dedicated to the extraordinary collaboration between producer Ismail Merchant and director and screenwriter James Ivory

-Who is Stephen Soucy? 

Stephen Soucy is a filmmaker and theater producer from upstate New York, based in California. He has his masters degree in screenwriting from the University of Southern California and started making films in 2011. MERCHANT IVORY (2024) is his first feature documentary film.

-)How did your amazing documentary “Merchant Ivory” come about? 

My Merchant Ivory journey started when I met James Ivory through a mutual friend, the writer, Peter Cameron. I told Jim I wanted to make a short documentary film, RICH ATMOSPHERE: THE MUSIC IN MERCHANT IVORY FILMS to highlight the vast contribution of composer Richard Robbins to the Merchant Ivory catalog and experience. Jim provided the narration for that film, which became a 5-min short animated film, which you can see here. When I’d completed the short, Jim absolutely fell in love with it. I pitched my making the feature documentary film, MERCHANT IVORY, and he agreed to support the endeavor, and became my executive producer on the film. Once the the film was finished, I was able to sell it to Cohen Media Group and we played at 40 film festivals starting with DOC NYC and Palm Springs International Film Festival.

-James Ivory, Ismail Merchant, and Ruth Prawer Jhabvala revolutionized independent cinema. Do you think it would be possible to create a masterpiece like “A Room with a View” in the contemporary film industry? 

Yes! A ROOM WITH A VIEW was an independent production made on a very small budget. The source material was a strong match for film and the casting was extraordinary. This could absolutely be made in today’s environment, but I would think it would have to originate as an independent production and be sold to a distributor after completion. Hard to say if a company like NETFLIX or a SONY Pictures Classics would want to make this kind of film today.

-A few years ago, I told James Ivory that I had been at a high school in Manhattan for a Q&A dedicated to the history of cinema, and I discovered that none of the students there knew who Orson Welles was.
Those kids had never heard of “Citizen Kane.” James Ivory told me he was aware of this lack of attention to cinema history and was very concerned about it. Do you think the film industry today is doing enough to educate young people about the history of cinema?

I think young people seek out film and educate themselves, and find ways to make films that express their views and what they want to communicate to audiences. I think film programs in colleges and universities do a good job, but the general population doesn’t get that content. Students of film seek it out and create their own art.

-Can cinema still deeply reflect the world, like Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” or is it impossible with streaming platforms now dominating? 

Cinema can still deeply reflect the world. Just look at all the films at film festivals across the globe and all the content being created, a lot of which, unfortunately, does not get distribution. Film is a passion for many artists. I think we’re in good shape, content-wise, not so much on the business side of things, and making a living as filmmakers. That’s more the issue. I have a friend in LA who said the other day that only 1% of the film industry gets to make their projects. So much has to happen independently now; believing in your project and raising your own capital, finding distribution later, etc.). As someone says in my doc, Ismail Merchant was the first of the purely independent producers. There’s a lot to be inspired by, the way he worked and the incredible body of work Merchant Ivory created. As you learn from my film, Merchant Ivory made 1-2 films a year in the 1990’s and early-2000’s. That’s unbelievably impressive. They made 43 feature films from the early 1960’s, from THE HOUSEHOLDER through to THE CITY OF YOUR FINAL DESTINATION (2009).

-There are few filmmakers today, both in Europe and the United States, who choose to self-finance their films. To me, they are heroes and the only ones who can truly call themselves “Independent.”
What is your definition of independent cinema? 

Independent cinema is when a filmmaker and a producer or producing team make a film with no traditional assistance. All aspects of the prodcution, including raising the capital to make the film, bringing the film to market, etc. is handled by the team that had the vision and drive to make the film project a reality.

-What project are you currently working on? 

An update of A ROOM WITH A VIEW. I’m also working to secure the rights to do a feature adatation of the novel, GRIEF, by Andrew Holleran. On the theater side, I’m co-lead producer of ROMY AND MICHELE THE MUSICAL, which we hope to open Off-Broadway in 2025 at New World Stages.

by Michele Diomà

Sleeper, Annie Hall—for which he won an Oscar—but above all, Manhattan are just some of the screenplays Marshall Brickman co-wrote with Woody Allen.

Just a few hours ago, Marshall transitioned to another dimension. I imagine him already in deep conversation with Federico Fellini about Juliet of the Spirits, much like the iconic scene in Annie Hall, where Diane Keaton and Woody Allen’s characters discuss art while waiting in line for the cinema.

Screenwriters are often an underappreciated category, despite Alfred Hitchcock’s famous statement: “To make a great film, you need three things: the script, the script, and the script.”

Today, we at the WILD FILMMAKER Community wish to honor a remarkable screenwriter, fully aware that we live in a world where the most important things are often misunderstood, and truth turn into lies—like in a George Orwell novel. For me, the screenplay of Manhattan, written by Marshall Brickman, inspired a pivotal decision: in 2018, I chose to produce a film in New York.

For some, it was a self-destructive folly to leave Rome and attempt to create a film in Manhattan, titled Dance Again with Me Heywood!, a tribute to the most Chaplinesque contemporary artist.

I arrived in the U.S. for the American premiere of my first film, Sweet Democracy, which featured the late Nobel laureate actor and playwright Dario Fo. I also came to Manhattan to deliver a masterclass on independent filmmaking at New York University.

What was meant to be a two-week stay turned into two months. I vividly recall the first time I saw 6th Avenue. Walking silently among the towering skyscrapers, I kept repeating to myself: “I love this place; I never want to leave.” It was a cold November evening. Back in my hotel room, I rewatched Manhattan on my computer, and in that moment, I decided my next film would be made in New York. I brought that vision to life the following year, even securing James Ivory as a special guest—who, incidentally, won an Oscar that year for Best Screenplay. It was a dream come true for a small Italian producer deeply in love with New York.

This love, ignited by Marshall Brickman’s creativity, has only grown over time. My most recent film shot in New York, O – the fiSRt mOvie by aN alien, brought me the immense honor and joy of working with Academy Award-nominated actress Mariel Hemingway, the co-star of Manhattan.

Marshall Brickman will forever remain a source of inspiration for anyone creating projects with WILD FILMMAKER. True cinema, after all, never dies.

Ciao, Marshall. Grazie !!

The Wild Filmmaker production meeting in collaboration with the 8 & Halfilm Awards will occur in Cannes from the 16th of May till the 20th. With over 3000 registered projects from more than 40 countries, it promises to be one of the most significant events of the year dedicated to the independent cinema on a global scale. 

Among the projects selected by the 8 & Halfilm Awards: “Forty Winks” directed by William Atticus Parker with actress Academy Award-Winner Susan Sarandon and John Turturro;

Among other made-in-USA projects also: “Old Time Radio: Your Move” directed by the Academy Award-Winner Joel Harlow, make-up Artist for “Star Trek” and “Alice in Wonderland”;

“The Walk” directed by Daniel Adams, in the cast: Malcolm McDowell, the legendary protagonist of “A Clockwork Orange” directed by Stanley Kubrick;

 “She Dreamt Alone” directed by Nina McNeely, also choreographer (projects with Björk, Gaspar Noé, The Weeknd, Rihanna, Foo Fighters, Sam Smith, Alicia Keys…);

“Numb” directed by Ivan Mbakop, who starred in Netflix’s “Red Notice” and played Detective Caudle in Marvel’s “Hawkeye” mini-series;

Among the projects Made in the UK: “I wish for you’ with Academy Award-Winner Jeremy Irons, directed by Stuart Rideout;

and “Connie Lynn” directed by Lee Westwick, an experimental movie written by Elon Musk’s Artificial Intelligence. 

Among the Europeans, we remember “King Max” directed by French director Adèle Vincenti-Carson.

For the East, we remember: “Vertigo” directed by the Japanese Haruo Inoue with special guest Jonas Mekas.

Wild Filmmaker is a Community detached from all the others existing film realities, and the film product’s free dissemination on the web is its own strength. In addition, the Wild Filmmaker series is currently in the works. “eleveN fiftY” is set in New York, directed by Darius Rubin

and produced by Michele Diomà.

The Wild Filmmaker project was born from the need to make cinema a free art form and aims to allow the Filmmakers to be the actual Deus ex Machina of a project.

by Michele Diomà

Over the past two years, more than 20,000 artists have chosen to participate in the 8 & Halfilm Awards. Two thousand eight hundred sixty projects registered from all over the world.

Four hundred forty-three positive reviews on the official Filmfreeway website in the last two years. It is the only Festival to organize events in several cities: Rome, Dubai, Berlin, and next: the 8 & Halfilm Awards will have an extraordinary event in France during the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.

Yes, the 8 & Halfilm Awards will bring their Community to the Croisette in May!

A legendary place where Federico Fellini has been the protagonist several times over the years, to whom we dedicate the 8 & Halfilm Awards! “https://filmfreeway.com/8andhalfilmawards”

These are record-breaking results for a festival dedicated to those who consider cinema a free art!

Thanks to all of you! Your creativity is a gift from nature, like the tree from which beautiful apples are born. We are all against wars and social injustices, but unfortunately, the world still makes the same mistakes today in 2023.

Only Poetry and Art will save us.

-Who is Urszula Nawrot?

I am a director, photographer and cinematographer. For 15 years I was engaged in dancing, I achieved an international master class in ballroom dancing. To this day, dance is present in my films and even in photography. I am looking for rhythm, harmony and movement in a cinema. Film editing must flow like a dance too. Movement is extremely important to me. In film scenes, I pay a lot of attention to the body language and choreography. The body can say much more than words.

I always wanted to paint, but life turned out differently. I graduated with a Master’s degree in International Relations. Back then, I wanted to get so-called normal job. However, art won. After graduating from film school, I became an actress first, while developing my sensitivity as a photographer and director. I do not regret that my path to filmmaking was not easy, because I once heard that a director should first know something about life, get to know it from different perspectives. The technical skills can be learned later, and the best way to do it is to learn from a film master. So I did.

I was taught directing by Jack Gold, a British film director, and Andrzej Bartkowiak ( cinematographer Speed, The Devil’s Advocate) gave me cinematography advice. I couldn’t get better masters. Although I often do the work of a cinematographer, I do not consider myself a real cinematographer. I’m a director who can do cinematography. However, in the very act of creation, I value freedom. That is why I wanted to pursue film education in all departments. So it doesn’t matter to me if I have a big budget or not. If I want to shoot something, I just go and do it. As it was with Wing Tsun Flashback, where I had an idea, but no money. I found the right location, observe the light on the location to see what I can get from the natural lightening, made some tests, than filmed it with an iPhone ProRes 4k, edited and did the post production of the film by myself. Honestly, I just wanted to see, where can I go with that? It turned out great.

-What inspired you to become a filmmaker?

I was born in Poland, where film has a long tradition. I grew up on films such as “The Saragossa Manuscript” by Wojciech Jerzy Has (one of Martin Scorsese’s favorite films), films by Kieślowski, Majewski… I have always been fascinated by the image and what it can convey in emotions expressed beyond words. A word can create an image, an image will not create a word, but it will build a symbol, unsaid, constantly alive, constantly bringing new meanings. Precisely because in Poland, filmmakers often moved on the plane of dreams, symbols and unconsciousness, which inspired me to create my own films. For me, cinema is art, created by people like Bergman, Pasolini. I have always been interested in the inner world, Jungian psychology.

In high school, I became familiar with Jerzy Grotowski’s theatre and Grotowski Institute. For me, what was inside was more important than what was visible on the outside. In this spirit, “Umbra” was created, telling the story of the inner world of trauma and a woman who was sexually abused in childhood.

Wing Tsun Flashback is about touching the past by practicing old forms of martial arts. This image is not realistic. It is definitely some kind of movie dream. It is a teaser of something that I may create in a more complete form in the future. I think what’s inside us, our dreams says a lot more about us than what we see on the outside. Like this we can touch somebody’s soul.

-Do you think the cinema can bring a change in the society?

I strongly believe that cinema can bring a change in the society. However, it is not the cinema that is based on scandal, fuels fears or gives people cheap entertainment or propaganda, tells the audience what to think, how to judge others. I am interested in cinema that asks questions, encourages the viewer to search internally, does not show easy solutions, but different perspectives, looking for the truth. Cinema has an extraordinary impact, it shapes our sensitivity and imagination. What we see when we are young builds us up as adults. I am very happy that I grew up on Kieślowski and Has. As a member of the Polish Filmmakers Association, I feel obliged to continue their ambitious vision of cinema in this commercialized world.

-What would you change in the world?

I believe that the biggest problem is the effects of traumatic experiences that we carry inside. Trauma is not what happens to you, is what happens inside of you as a result of what happened to you in the past . And even we can carry fears of our parents and grandparents as well. As a result of trauma, people lose contact with themselves, lose their self-esteem, which they then look for outside, they lose the natural, internal compass that allows them to distinguish good from evil. If someone experienced harm, evil in childhood and it was ignored by the environment, then as an adult often repeats these pathological behaviors without even knowing that is hurting someone. If I could change anything, it would be to free people from the devastating consequences of trauma. And that’s what I try to do in my photographic and film work. Umbra is the first such film and has been recognized by outstanding specialists in the field of psychiatry and psychotherapy both in Poland and abroad. I am currently working on a new feature-length film with a similar theme. I would like people to stop looking outside for confirmation of their own worth, stop comparing and chasing each other. I wish the media wouldn’t promote a culture of achievement and a celebrity lifestyle. Well, that’s a pretty utopian dream.

-Where do you see the film industry going in the next 100 years?

It is difficult to assess today, because we are usually convinced that the world is moving forward, while it can take a step back even in issues that would seem as obvious today as personal freedom and democracy, which we are convinced by subsequent events on the world’s political scene. Cinema is a means of expression that can tell trivial things or even lie, but it can also be used to create art and show the truth. I hope that the cinema will look for the truth, which is difficult in the case of high-budget projects, because there is some business at stake, a question of risk, sales, earnings, etc… I have the impression that the art of film has been raped by commercialism. The origins of the film were in art circles. Then the value of cinema was recognized and the film slowly moved towards entertainment. Making the film was too expensive and too complicated, making it inaccessible to many artists. However, today technologies have developed a lot and a pretty good picture can be created even with a mobile phone, and the so-called non budget projects can get quite decent quality. For this, it is enough to have a YouTube channel and you can promote your work. I think these tools will continue to be refined, and filmmaking will become much more affordable, which will give artists more creative freedom, because no one behind the desk will decide whether something will be made or not. This should result in a variety of film forms, genres, which is already happening. We will no longer stick rigidly to the so-called movie formats. This should resemble the revolution in painting at the turn of the 20th century. Young people today are increasingly watching short videos on YouTube. Recently, I became interested in the work of AI myself. Today I can generate a photo based on entering the appropriate parameters. I think that in a future, I will be able to make a film like this as well. So this freedom of expression should be the future of film, but if we find ourselves in a system where this freedom is limited, even a technological revolution will not help here.