The Curb

• Andy Johnston on the tenderness of male affection in Coming & Going

  Part of why Coming & Going feels like a quiet revolution of a film is the manner that Andy presents vulnerability, loneliness, and tenderness on screen. 'Baby, you are gonna miss that plane' is what Julie Delpy said to Ethan Hawke as she danced in the climax of Before Sunset, creating one of cinemas finest romantic moments. Andy pulls from the echo of that scene, creating the pivotal moment within Coming & Going with a scene that has Harry taking a guitar off the wall and playing a song for Julian, gifting his momentary boyfriend lyrics and a tune that will exist only in that moment and only for him. Moments. They're what memories are made out of. They're anchor points in time which we stare endlessly at as we walk backwards into the future, its impact having forever changed how we form new memories in our present.Part of why Coming & Going feels like a quiet revolution of a film is the manner that Andy presents vulnerability, loneliness, and tenderness on screen. 'Baby, you are gonna miss that plane' is what Julie Delpy said to Ethan Hawke as she danced in the climax of Before Sunset, creating one of cinemas finest romantic moments. Andy pulls from the echo of that scene, creating the pivotal moment within Coming & Going with a scene that has Harry taking a guitar off the wall and playing a song for Julian, gifting his momentary boyfriend lyrics and a tune that will exist only in that moment and only for him. Moments. They're what memories are made out of. They're anchor points in time which we stare endlessly at as we walk backwards into the future, its impact having forever changed how we form new memories in our present.This is a beautiful conversation, one that's fuelled with tenderness, love for the craft, and love for love. I'm grateful for Andy's time with this discussion, and I look forward to seeing his creative positivity flourish throughout his filmmaking career.Coming & Going screens in the 'I Know Who You Did Last Summer' shorts package on 29 May 2025 at the Inside Out Festival in Canada. A link is in the show notes for those eager to attend. Keep an eye on Andy's Instagram and his production company, Dandy Films, Instagram page, for future screening details.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.We'd also love it if you could rate and review us on the podcast player of your choice. Every review helps amplify the interviews and stories from storytellers to a wider audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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• The Cinema Within director Chad Freidrichs on Walter Murch and the power of editing

  Chad Freidrichs is a documentarian who has crafted a filmography built with a series of fringe stories that unveil fascinating narratives that exist just outside the periphery of normalcy. His first feature doc, Jandek on Corwood, sees a reclusive folk and blues musician gain a following, all the while he never truly engages with his followers fascination with his work. In 2011, Chad crafted the ethnographic documentary The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, which looks at the urban racism that existed in social housing in St Louis. Then, in 2017, with The Experimental City, Chad explores the rise and fall of societal ideas as witnessed with The Minnesota Experimental City, a grand vision that was never truly realised.Each of these stories have paved the way for his latest film, The Cinema Within, an exploration into the way editing works. Chad explores the language of cinema with Walter Murch, whose book In the Blink of an Eye equally explores the role blinking plays in editing, and also scholar David Bordwell who explores the impact of an edit on our psyche to understand the way it transforms our understanding of cinema. Murch and Bordwell play scene setters for the deeper narrative in The Cinema Within, which sees researcher Sermin Ildirar head to rural Turkey to find a group of people who have never seen a film before, creating the foundation to her research into the role of editing, perspective, and more, on our minds.The Cinema Within is a fascinating look into the impact of editing, and the notion of taking the language of cinema for granted. Like every language, it's one that needs to be learned and built on over time, and Chad's work invites that perspective of cinema. His films are invitations to see the world from a different perspective, and it's that notion that we explore in the following interview, which sees Chad talk about the notion of ideas, while I bring up my personal connection to Jandek on Corwood, a film that I saw back in 2004 at Perth's Revelation Film Festival, and that has stuck in my mind.The Cinema Within is now available to view on DVD, Amazon, Apple TV & Kanopy in America.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.We'd also love it if you could rate and review us on the podcast player of your choice. Every review helps amplify the interviews and stories from storytellers to a wider audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  57:12
• Director Matthew Rankin on the kindness that sits at the core of Universal Language

  Matthew Rankin is a Canadian filmmaker who hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba. His work, which includes the acclaimed award-winning 2019 feature The Twentieth Century, has often been called 'experimental' or a slice of 'absurdist comedy'. That's partially true, but I'd go a step further and say that there's a touch of humanist storytelling to his work, one that's crafted from a globalist perspective. That mindset is accentuated with Rankin's latest film, the tender and superb Universal Language, a Canadian film where characters speak in Persian rather than English or French, where a guide shows a group of bored tourists the banal sites of Winnipeg, where turkey shop owners wear pink cowboy hats, and where two young kids, Negin (played by Rojinia Esmaeili) and Nazgol (played by Saba Vahedyousefi), find money frozen in ice and seek a way to retrieve it so they can buy their classmate a new pair of glasses.This is our world knocked off its axis ever so slightly. It's a place which is familiar, yet distinctly different. It's a place where cemeteries sit in the desolate concrete islands that exist within a sea of swarming highways. It's a place that, for Matthew Rankin, is a version of home. The choice to present a Canadian story in Persian is not accidental, but instead it's one that's driven by Rankin's affection for the work of the Iranian masters and for their distinctly considered perspective of the world. That kindness that sits at the core of Universal Language is a reflection of the innocence and kindness within the world of filmmakers like Abbas Kiarostami, particularly in a noted work like 1987's Where Is the Friend's House?, which sees a young boy trying to return the book of his classmate who lives on the other side of the village.The foundation of kindness is one of the notions that is explored in the following conversation with Matthew, recorded ahead of Universal Language's national release in Australia on 22 May 2025. Throughout the interview, Matthew also talks about his journey into appreciating and valuing Iranian cinema, an affection which lead him to learn Farsi. Matthew also talks about the way his parents factor into Universal Language as a mirrored presence, before closing on the emotionality of bringing a version of their story to life on screen.Universal Language is a work of pure kindness and comedy. There's a sweetness to it that makes the film feel like an antidote to the times we are currently living through.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.We'd also love it if you could rate and review us on the podcast player of your choice. Every review helps amplify the interviews and stories from storytellers to a wider audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  29:27
• Conservationist Isabella Tree on the power of inviting nature back into your world as shown in the documentary Wilding

  Isabella Tree is a noted conservationist and the author of the acclaimed book Wilding, which tells the story of Isabella and her husband as they undertook the immense and impressive journey to rewild their failing four-hundred-year-old estate in England, bringing beavers and cranes back to the country for the first time in years.Wilding, alongside the work of fellow conservationist Derek Gow, author of such books as Birds, Beasts, and Bedlam and Bringing Back the Beaver, have become foundational texts for me, having guided my perspective as a wannabe conservationist, albeit with a minimalist perspective as someone trapped in the midst of suburbia and rental life. Wilding is a lovely film, green and grand with its ideas and vision. I was lucky to be able to speak with Isabella ahead of the films run in Australian cinemas from 22 May. The following interview kicks off with a nod to our respective stacked bookshelves which stood behind us in our Zoom windows to our lives and the importance of not just rewilding our environment, but also rewilding our minds too. Isabella then talks about reflecting on the years since her rewilding project kicked off, and how she has engaged with global rewilding, including nods to local conservationists and ecologists.Wilding is out in Australian cinemas for a limited run from 22 May 2025. Check your local cinema for screening details. To find out more about Isabella's work, visit IsabellaTree.com.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.We'd also love it if you could rate and review us on the podcast player of your choice. Every review helps amplify the interviews and stories from storytellers to a wider audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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  26:21
• Archie Lush, Alex Power & Mark Zanosov on building the simmering heat of their Freo-shot short Blunt

  Co-writer and actor Archie Lush, director Alex Power, and producer Mark Zanosov take us to the streets of Fremantle, Western Australia, where their short film Blunt pushes us into the simmering heat of the kitchen. Under the spatter of duck fat and the glint of sharp knives is the mounting pressure of being a top tier chef, a notion that's amplified by Archie Lush's emerging culinary creative need to try and save his fathers struggling restaurant. Shot with a vivid realisation from one of Australia's finest emerging talents, cinematographer James Dudfield, and edited with precision by Hamish Paterson, Blunt is a rapid fire short that immerses you in the world of fine dining in a way that'll scratch that itch between seasons of The Bear.In the following interview, Archie, Alex, and Mark talk about shooting in Freo, the importance of having stylistic and stunning food - as created by key food stylist Iara Arruda, and where they each see their creatives journeys going over the coming years. They also talk about the dedication and visual talent that exists within James Dudfield.Blunt is heading out on the festival circuit, so keep an eye out for it.Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky @thecurbau. We are a completely independent and ad free website that lives on the support of listeners and readers just like you. Visit Patreon.com/thecurbau, where you can support our work from as little as $1 a month. If you are unable to financially support us, then please consider sharing this interview with your podcast loving friends.We'd also love it if you could rate and review us on the podcast player of your choice. Every review helps amplify the interviews and stories from storytellers to a wider audience. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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