Austin Film Festival's On Story

On this week's episode, writer/director Dan Gilroy discusses his latest film, Roman J. Israel, Esq. Later in our program, we look back on the 2017 Austin Film Festival with the iconic awardees Keenen Ivory Wayans, Kenneth Lonergan and Walter Hill followed by a conversation with Scott Frank on his latest western limited series, Godless, currently on Netflix.

Dan Gilroy (Director / Writer) made his feature directorial debut with Nightcrawler in 2014. The film, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo and Riz Ahmed, garnered an Academy Award® nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Gilroy also co-wrote the script, The Bourne Legacy, with his brother, director Tony Gilroy. His latest project, Roman J. Israel, Esq. is currently out in theaters. 

Writer-director Dan Gilroy teams with two-time Academy Award® winner Denzel Washington to create the portrait of a man whose spent his life fighting for others’ civil rights, at the cost of his own personal gain. I spoke with Gilroy at the Historic Paramount Theatre in Austin during the premiere of this film at the 24th Annual Austin Film Festival.

Clips copyright: Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment

This year we hosted three distinguished storytellers in the worlds of film and television, each with a unique perspective in their craft. Keenen Ivory Wayans is best known as the creator of the groundbreaking comedy series, In Living Color. Walter Hill is the filmmaker behind such classics as The Warriors, 48 hrs and Streets of Fire. Writer-Director Kenneth Lonergan most recently won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his film Manchester By The Sea. I spoke with them at the 24thAustin Film Festival.

We’re back with Keenen Ivory Wayans, Walter Hill and Kenneth Lonergan at the 24th Austin Film Festival.

Scott Frank is recognized as one of Hollywood’s go-to storytellers with critically celebrated credits like Dead Again, Out of Sight, Get Shorty, Minority Report, and the recent blockbuster Logan. Scott Frank’s latest project is the Neflix original western mini-series, Godless, which he wrote and directed. This portion of our program has been excerpted from a panel on the western genre that I moderated with Walter Hill and Scott Frank at the 24th Austin Film Festival. Clips in this segment copyright Netflix, Inc.

Direct download: GILLROY_AWARDEES_WESTERNS.mp3
Category:Film and Television -- posted at: 11:51am CDT

This week, Emmy-award winning writers Greg Daniels and Alan Yang look back on their respective journeys writing some of television’s greatest comedies. Daniels reflects on his writing career ranging from Saturday Night Live, to adapting the American version of The Office and co-creating Parks and RecreationMaster of None co-creator Alan Yang then discusses writing naturalistic comedy culled from personal experience, crafting cultural commentary, and the importance of representation in the media.

Greg Daniels began writing for the National Lampoon at Harvard University with fellow writer Conan O’Brien. His first television engagement was with the hit HBO show Not Necessarily the News, which soon became Saturday Night Live, where he won his first Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Variety Series.Daniels continued his career by joining The Simpsons as a writer and producer and after a long, successful stint on the show, moved onto co-create King of the Hill with Mike Judge.In 2005, Daniels went on to adapt The Office for American television and served as the show’s executive producer and showrunner. He then co-created and executive produced Parks and Recreation with Michael Schur in 2009. Daniels is the recipient of five Primetime Emmy awards. Greg Daniels spoke with Kelly Williams at the 15th annual Austin Film Festival in 2008.

Alan Yang is the co-creator and executive producer of the Netflix series Master of None, for which he received the 2016 Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Comedy Series. The show was nominated for four Emmys, including Best Comedy Series, and was the recipient of a Peabody Award, an AFI Award, and the Critics' Choice Award for Best Comedy. Previously, Yang was a writer and co-executive producer for Parks and Recreation, for which he was nominated for an Emmy in 2015. Alan Yang spoke with John Merriman at a 2017 Austin Film Festival Year-Round Event.

 

Direct download: OnStory_YangDaniels_051717_REFEED.mp3
Category:Film and Television -- posted at: 12:00pm CDT

On this week’s episode of On Story from Austin Film Festival and PRI, we bring you a look at new independent releases including Rob Reiner’s latest film, LBJ, Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut, Lady Bird and we bring you a look at how the classic 1970’s action thriller, The Seven-Ups influenced HBO’s hit series, The Deuce.

We start this episode of On Story with director, Rob Reiner and actor Woody Harrelson on their new film LBJ. Harrelson portrays the iconic president in the midst of the tumult in the wake of the assassination of JFK and the passage of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964. I spoke with Harrelson and Reiner ahead of the release of the film last month at a special conversation, held at the University of Texas Radio, Television and Film Dept. Clips in this segment copyright: Electric Entertainment & Castle Rock Entertainment. Here’s the film’s director Rob Reiner.

We continue our look at new independent film releases on this episode of On Story with actor Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut, Lady Bird.

Lady Bird stars Sersha Ronan as the title character Christine “Lady Bird” McPherson. The film is an instant classic mother-daughter comedy-drama that takes us through the familial chaos of adolescence with a young woman seeking her independence and realizing her sense of home. Lady Bird was the opening night film at the 24th Austin Film Festival. Austin Film Festival Senior Film Programmer Liz Mims spoke with Greta Gerwig after the screening at the historic Paramount Theater in Austin Texas.

Treme and The Wire co-creator George Pelecanos spoke with me at a special screening of the classic 70’s action film, The Seven-Ups at the historic Paramount Theater about the atmospheric influences of this era of cinema on his latest HBO series, The Deuce.

George Pelecanos is an independent film producer, screenwriter, the recipient of numerous international writing awards, and was a producer and writer on the HBO series The Wire, Treme, The Pacific, and the upcoming The Deuce.  He is the author of twenty novels set in and around Washington, D.C.   

We close this episode of On Story from Austin Film Festival and PRI with The Wire, Treme and The Deuce co-creator George Pelecanos at a special screening of the gritty 1970’s car chase classic The Seven-Ups. The film is often considered as part of a “holy trinity’ of car chase films along with 1971’s The French Connection and 1968’s Bullitt. George Pelecanos and David Simon who co-created HBO’s The Deuce which takes place around a very seedy Times Square in the early 1970’s, cite The Seven-Ups as a major influence on the look and style of their show.  We go to George Pelecanos, discussing some of the mythology behind The French Connection and The Seven Ups, and the prominence of 70’s muscle cars in these great films.

 

 

 

 

Direct download: LBJ_Lady_Bird_The_Seven_Ups.mp3
Category:Film and Television -- posted at: 1:19pm CDT

This week we mark Veteran’s Day with a look at the depiction of war on screen with the writers behind The Pacific, China Beach, We Were Soldiers and Six.

Bruce C. McKenna is an award-winning screenwriter and producer.  He wrote on four of the ten episodes of HBO’s Emmy Award-winning mini-series Band of Brothers, for which he garnered a WGA Award, a Christopher Award and was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize for his episode, Bastogne. He created, co-wrote and co-executive produced The Pacific, the Emmy Award-winning Miniseries for HBO, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks on the Pacific Theater of the Second World War.  In addition to winning a producing Emmy, McKenna was nominated for his second writing Emmy, was again a finalist for the Humanitas Prize, and garnered a Producer’s Guild Award, a Critic’s Choice Award, as well as the Marine Corp Heritage Foundation Bill Broyles Image Award.  

Bill Broyles grew up in Baytown, Texas, attended Rice University and Oxford University, worked in the civil rights movement, and finished out the Sixties as a Marine infantry lieutenant in Vietnam. As a journalist he was the founding editor of Texas Monthly and from 1982 to 1984 was editor-in-chief of Newsweek. He was the co-creator of the Emmy-Award -winning television series China Beach. He wrote the original screenplay for the movie Cast Away and the screenplay for Jarhead. He co-authored six other screenplays, including Apollo 13, Unfaithful, The Polar Express and Flags of Our Fathers. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his screenplay for Apollo 13, which won the Writers Guild award for best screenplay.  He has been involved with the Austin Film Festival from the beginning.

Randall Wallace is the Oscar®-nominated creative force behind the epic storytelling of such critical and box-office hits as Braveheart, We Were Soldiers, Pearl Harbor, Secretariat, and Heaven is for Real.

David Broyles grew up in California, New York, and on a dude ranch in Bandera, Texas. He attended the University of Texas and Columbia University, and served as a Pararescueman (PJ) in Iraq and Afghanistan. Following his enlistment, he was recognized by the Governor of Texas for exceptional volunteer work and advocacy for disabled veterans. He has sold several screenplays and most recently co-created Six, an upcoming dramatic series for the History Channel. David has been involved with the Austin Film Festival for many years as a writer, director, and volunteer.

 

 

 

Direct download: VETERANS_DAY_EPISODE.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:37pm CDT

The 24th Annual Austin Film Festival is a wrap! This week’s On Story takes you to the heart of the Austin Film Festival and Conference with Greta Gerwig, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Robert Townsend, the filmmakers behind HBO’s The Deuce, The Predator, The Warriors and more!

Direct download: BEST_OF_THE_FEST_24.mp3
Category:Film and Television -- posted at: 11:03am CDT

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