Bond on Cinema

Interview with Rev. Paul Rasmussen and the Oscar-Qualified Film Documentary INTO THE SPOTLIGHT

Rev. Paul Rasmussen, who is the Senior Minister at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas, and the producer of the Oscar-qualified film documentary Into the Spotlight.
 INTO THE SPOTLIGHT shares the backstories and journeys of adults with differing disabilities from the first call, offering them the part to stepping on stage. The film highlights the unique challenges and triumphs of the Spotlight Musical Theater program’s participants and provides an inspiring look at the power of the performing arts to bring people together, create meaningful connections, and inspire a community. 
 A heartfelt story of how a script, a stage, and a theater program composed of adults with disabilities celebrate their creativity, explore life’s complexities, and empower a community, in their own words and their own way.
Rev. Paul Rasmussen envisioned sharing the story of the Belong Disability programs from the perspective of the amazing teens and adults who are creating a newly inspired performance each year.
Let’s welcome our esteemed guest today, senior minister and film producer the Rev. Paul Rasmussen and their Oscar-qualified film Into The Spotlight to the show.
#filmmaker #filmmaking #filmdocumentary #documentary #specialneeds #disabilities #theater #ministry #filmdirector #oscars #cinema #cinmeatography #bondoncinema #screenwriting #actor 

Interview with Film Director Ary Zara: Oscar-Qualified Short An Avocado Pit

Writer/Director Ary Zara is an activist and he is transgender. He studied Cinema in Lisbon and Austin.
His debut short film AN AVOCADO PIT won the OSCAR-qualifying awards at both Outfest and Guadalajara International Film Festival.
The Grand Jury Special Mention for Best Lead Acting at the AFI Festival. Alongside both the Best Queer Short Award and International Student Prize at Festival du Court Métrage de Clermont Ferrand France.
AN AVOCADO PIT has become a multi-award winning short film. This incredible work and recognition has led to Ary being selected as a writer for Torino Film Lab 2023, where he will be developing his first feature film.
#filmmaker #filmmaking #filmdirector #oscars #filmfestivals #screenwriter #Portugal #cinema #movies #shortfilm #shortfilms #transgender #LGBTQ 

Interview with Turkish Film Director Turan Haste and his Oscar-Qualified Short RUTUBET (The Moisture)

Director and co-producer Turan Haste is based in Istanbul, Turkey. He made his debut as a director in 2016 with the movie HARVEST ZAMANI. He produced the films NAFTALIN, AT A RIVERSIDE and achieved successful results both nationally and internationally.
He directed his current short film THE MOISTURE in 2022. THE MOISTURE had its World Premiere at the 79th Venice International Film Festival.
THE MOISTURE follows a teacher serving in Anatolia who is struggling to balance his professional and personal life, he is in the middle of a messy custody battle whilst also dealing with a troublesome student who has a horrifying truth himself.
This incredibly thought-provoking film has qualified to be considered for a 2024 Academy Award after winning the OSCAR-qualifying award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. 
#filmmaker #filmmaking #oscars #shortfilm #shortfilms #filmdirector #Turkey #cinema #cinematography #BondonCinema #screenwriting #screenwriter #actor 

Interview with Producer Nicky Bentham of Netflix’s Short THE AFTER: Starring David Oyelowo

Our guest today is Nicky Bentham, who has over twenty year’s experience in the film industry, having studied film production in her native Australia before taking on freelance production roles that eventually led her to producing her own projects and establishing Neon Films in London. 
Recently she produced the thriller LOCKED IN directed by Nour Wazzi. In 2020, saw the release of THE DUKE, starring Academy Award winners Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren, which launched at Venice and then Telluride, as well as the music feature documentary WHO KILLED THE KLF? 
We are here today, to talk about her Oscar-qualified short film THE AFTER. This film has been creating quite the Oscar buzz and it was listed on Variety magazine’s top 5 for a possible Academy Award nomination.
The After is a gut-wrenching story about a man who grieves and who can’t seem to get over a tragic event that happened in his life.
#netflix #oscars #filmmaker #filmmaking #filmproducer #filmdirector #screenwriting #screenwriter #movielover #filmlover #cinematography #academyawards 

Legendary Actor Robert Davi: Actor/Singer of DieHard, Goonies, License to Kill & over 140 films

Robert Davi is an award-winning actor, screenwriter, director, producer and jazz vocalist.
From his portrayal of the opera singing bad guy in "The Goonies" and one of the most popular James Bond villains in "Licence to Kill" to FBI Special Agent Big Johnson in" Die Hard" to most recently Leo Marks in "The Iceman”.
Robert Davi is one of the film industry's most recognized tough guys.
He has also starred on the small screen in hit shows like Profiler, Stargate Atlantis, Criminal Minds and CSI.
With over 140 film and TV credits he has frightened us, romanced us, made us cry or split our seams laughing.
He is also one of the top vocalists of our day in interpreting the Great American Songbook, thrilling audiences by playing top venues like the Venetian in Las Vegas where he headlines or for 10,000 people at the Harry Chapin Theater in East Meadow, Long Island or the Orleans in Vegas where he gave 3 sellout shows with Don Rickles.
His debut album Davi Sings Sinatra- On the Road to Romance produced by Phil Ramone shot to number 6 for more than several weeks on Billboard's Jazz Charts.
#diehard #brucewillis #thegoonies #goonies #film #licensetokill #jamesbond #timothydalton #profiler #paperempire #CSI #jazzmusic #jazzsinger #franksinatra #marlonbrando #cinema #actor #stellaadler #leestrasburg 

Interview with the Founder of the American Film Institute / Co-Creator of Kennedy Center Honors

Oscar winning film director George Stevens, Sr once said, “Life is a journey, and it’s most interesting when you’re not sure where you’re going.” Today, we have the founder of the American Film Institute. The Co-Creator and in my mind the creator and founder of the Kennedy Center Honors, George Stevens, Jr. His resume and life’s accomplishments are so long, one would need to write a book to fit them all in, and he did just that. Mr. Stevens memoir, My Place in the Sun: Life in the Golden Age of Hollywood and Washington is like walking through the passage of time, from the days of vaudeville to silent movies to talkies, and into the world of Technicolor. And even working with seven United States presidents in ways you’ve never seen them before. The Stevens name is associated with us seeing American troops storm the beaches of Normandy. The atrocities of the concentration camps of World War II, but to be delighted with timeless film classics such as “A Place in the Sun”, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “Giant”, ”Shane”, “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told”, just to name a few. His book is a name droppers delight and will make you ooo and ahh, as you read every page.
#Hollywood #eliazabethtaylor #jamesdaen #porsche550 #jamesdeandeath #film #americanfilminstitute #KennedyCenterHonors #cinematography #filmmaker #filmmaking #filmdirector #screenwriter #JohnFKennedyJr #PresidentKennedy #filmarchiving #classicmovies #giant #nataliewood

A Front Row Seat with Film Legend Nancy Olson Livingston

From her idyllic childhood in the American Midwest, to her Oscar-nominated performance in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and the social circles of New York and Los Angeles, actress Nancy Olson Livingston has lived abundantly.
In her memoir, A Front Row Seat, Nancy Olson Livingston treats readers to an intimate, charming chronicle of her life as an actress, wife, and mother, and her memories of many of the most notable figures and moments of her time.
Entertaining and engrossing, A Front Row Seat deftly interweaves Livingston's life with her observations of the artists, celebrities, and luminaries with whom she came in contact – a shoutout to the twentieth century and a treasure for readers charmed with the Golden Era of Hollywood.  #sunsetboulevard #hollywood #academyawards #actress #goldenageofhollywood #disney #capitolrecords #myfairlady

An Interview with Afghan Director Elham Ehsas - Oscar-Qualified Short Film YELLOW

With us today is Afghan writer/director Elham Essas. After hearing the sad news that the Taliban were forcing women in Afghanistan to wear the Chadari (the blue full body veil), he wrote and created the short film, YELLOW.
Born in Kabul, Afghanistan, Actor, Writer and Director, Elham Essas fled the Taliban and came to the UK when he was a young boy. He likes to make films inspired by stories from his home country, Afghanistan.
His debut short film, OUR KIND OF LOVE, was BAFTA long-listed in 2019. His short film YOUR HAND FOUND MINE, which he made in collaboration with the BFI and BAFTA, premiered at the House of Lords and won Best Drama at Berlin Flash Festival.
His newest short film, YELLOW
Through his film YELLOW, he hopes to raise awareness and inspire change, bringing the struggles and experiences of Afghan women to the forefront of the global conversation and I truly believe he has done just that.
The film is a call to action, a plea for the world not to forget about Afghanistan and the women who live there.
On August 15th, 2021, Afghanistan fell to the Taliban. By December 2022, girls were forbidden from going to school and women have been banned going to university. The Taliban also decreed all women must wear the mandated Hijab or Chadari in public and be accompanied by a make guardian when going outside.
Once again, Afghan women and girls face an uncertain future.
In Taliban controlled Afghanistan, Laili walks into a Chadari store in Kabul to buy her first full body veil from a Talib shopkeeper, and face a new future.
#shortfilm #oscars #filmmaking #filmmaker #filmdirector #humanrights #freedom #womensrights #womenempowerment #unitednations #filmfestival 

An Interview with Jordanian Director Ahmad Alyaseer - Oscar-qualified Short OUR MALES & OUR FEMALES

Ahmad Alyaseer is a Jordanian director, producer and writer.
He recently directed the Emmy Award nominated kids show (Ahlan Simsim - Sesame Workshop). His Sci-Fi experimental feature (When Time Becomes a Woman, 2012) was screened at various film festivals including Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival.
Additionally, Ahmad has more than nine years of experience directing and producing TV series for regional platforms including Shahid, VIU and MBC.
Ahmad Alyaseer’s new short film, the Oscar-qualified Our Males and Our Females is a grippingly thought-provoking tale.
A father and mother are faced with the painful task of washing and shrouding their transgender daughter.
Shrouding is an Islamic religious practice that is deemed mandatory to carry out upon death. But when no one agrees to wash her and shame falls onto the family, how far is the father willing to go to make sure his "son" is washed?
#filmmaker #filmmaking #filmdirector #cinema #oscars #cinemtography #jordan #jordanian #lgbtq #filmlover #filmdirector #screenwriter #screenwriting #filmproduction 
 

An Interview with Director Lloyd Lee Choi - Oscar-Qualified Short CLOSING DYNASTY

Lloyd Lee Choi is a Korean-Canadian writer/director who is passionate about representation in front and behind the camera, Lloyd is deeply driven to highlight the minority and immigrant experience, one rich with new and compelling stories to tell. Stories that reflect the real world around us. 
Lloyd's recent short film, Closing Dynasty, was supported through the Future Gold Film Fellowship, being 1 of 3 filmmakers selected by Netflix, Tribeca, and Gold House.
Closing Dynasty has been Oscar-qualified for the 2024 Academy Awards, and so without further a due, let’s welcome visionary filmmaker and storyteller Lloyd Lee Choi to the show.
#filmmaker #filmmaking #shortfilm #cinema #filmdirector #screenwriter #screenwriting #oscars #movies #filmlover #asianfilm #korean #canadian #filmfestival