Craig Shapiro joins us to discuss his documentary film Ice Kings about an unparalleled hockey dynasty.

This is the story of Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a school that won twenty-six consecutive state champisonships between 1978 and 2003.

The film is now available on DVD in time for the holidays after playing sold film festivals including winning the 2006 Audience Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival and playing for a large audience at the Woonsocket, RI Stadium Theatre in November 2007.

Craig also discusses his work in television sports features and plans for the future.

This episode was originally broadcast in Spring 2007.

We are joined by Greg Wilcox, director of a short short story documentary called Homage to a Catalonian Christmas, featuring an entertaining look at a featuring the cultural winter holiday traditions of the Tio and the caganer (the crapper) and the need for Catalonia to keep its own culture active.

He has also made an experimental political short called Fortunate Son, a music video that shows the irony of a CCR song used for a Wrangler jeans commerical in 2005.

Homage to a Catalonian Christmas has played a number of festivals including the Rhode Island International Film Festival. It also screened at the 2007 MergingArts Short Short Story Film Festival, where it won the Rammie Award for special recognition for overall short short storytelling.

Raiya Corsiglia is an actor, director, editor, and producer. She has worked on commercials, music videos, shorts, and has a fantasy feature planned as well. Her latest work is a short experimental film which she wrote, starred in, edited, and directed called Blue Dreams Downtown. It is a uniquely shot film about a down on his luck drifter and his relationship with a woman in a photograph.

Blue Dreams Downtown has played a number of festivals including the Dragon*Con Short Film Festival, where it won the award for Best Short Short Film. It screened at the 2007 MergingArts Short Short Story Film Festival, where it won the Thousand Words award for excellence in wordless presentation.

In 2002, he acted in Jerry Bruckheimer’s Veronica Guerin. He has written six features and is working on lucky #7. In 2005, The Irish Film Board awarded his short film Never Judge a Book funding; it premiered at the 4th Annual Dublin International Film Festival in 2006.

The film has screened in a variety of festivals worldwide, including the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival, Lucky Escape also screened at the 2007 MergingArts Short Short Story Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Soul of Wit award for exellence in clever wordplay.

Doug Lantz is director of the inspiring and uplifting marching band documentary From the 50 Yard Line, which had its World Premiere at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival, where it won the Viola M. Marshall Audience Choice Award Grand Prize.

Doug Lantz has worked in television broadcasting for the past 15 years and currently works at Blake House Media, a production company based in Los Angeles.  He has worked in audio engineering, videography, and producing. He has worked many programs including Good Morning America, Nightline, 20/20, Primetime, and World News Tonight.

As an alumnus of the Centerville Jazz band in 1985, his current passion includes documenting the life-changing effects of this unique high school marching band program in the film From the 50 Yard Line. In conjunction with the film, he has created a music education fundraising website March4Music.

Hailing from St. Petersburg, Russia, Writer/Director/Editor, Lidia Sheinin has made her first film Happily Ever After, unique short short story telling a sad romantic tale in four minutes using split screens. It won 1st Place for Best Experimental Film at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

The film was produced by Gary Cohen, who had brief career as a child actor, later working at KROQ-FM in LA, and eventually for Adobe Systems on their Photoshop and Photoshop Elements products.

Together, Gary and Lidia formed Scared Mouse Productions to produce Happily Ever After and other projects.

Matt Wittmer is a graduate of the Documentary Institute at the University of Florida and a former intern at the documentary production company, Kartemquin Films. 

He has recently directed the short documentary film The Regiment, which tells the unusual story of a group of Dominican youth from Providence, Rhode Island who take part in a civil war re-enactment in Olustee, Florida.

The 14th Rhode Island Reenactors Program helps Providence high school students recreate the history of the 14th Rhode Island Heavy Artillery Regiment. By being immersed in the life of the Black soldier of the Civil War, the students learn about the role of African Americans during the war and about the history of the war generally.  They are led by Robert Goldman, a veteran Civil War reenactor.

The Regiment had its World Premiere at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Nitzan Mager, is the writer and director of the short film I Am God which had its World Premiere recently at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival. She has also appeared as an actress in a number of films and theatre including Nobody Loves Alice and Hag Same’ach!.

I Am God is a powerful short film based on a Israeli poem about a man traveling in Israel who has lost himself. He meets a grieving mother, her orthodox neighbor, a soldier, and a young Palestinian in his travels and discovers that sometimes finding yourself is not enough.

We speak with the creators of the animated short film Voodoo Bayou, which won Second Prize for best animation at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival and screened at the eighth annual RIIFF Horror Film Festival.

Javier Gutierrez is the film’s writer and director and Susana Jacques is the executive producer of the film. They have used their artist’s eye from the world of advertising at Ciber Films to develop a dark and enchanting tale of a Voodoo doll that comes to life and tries to escape from his nemesis, the witch-doctor.

This short represents the first film of three planned chapters. The captivating original score, which won First Prize for best score at RIIFF, was composed by Rodrigo Barbera.

Filmmaker Stacy Dymalski and actress Billie Harsh speak with us about the comedic short film The Write Stuff which satirizes the hypocrisy of critics.

A stand-up comic and writer, Stacy is the founder of the independent video production company Saffire Systems. A member of the Writers Guild of America (WGA), she’s also written, directed and produced several successful commercials and short films.

Billie started performing at the age of three and has appeared in several musical productions across the country. She currently works with Stacy and three others at Crazy Parkite Productions, where she works managing production in addition to acting.

The interview was recorded live at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Chris Burgard is the director of the provocative documentary Border, which gives viewers a front row seat along the United States Border with Mexico. The film screened to much acclaim at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Chris has quite a varied background which includes having worked as a ballet dancer, stunt double, and actor - both on television roles in Tour of Duty and Growing Pains, and in numerous films including Pirates of the Caribbean and The Last Samurai, featuring his horsemanship. He even wrote and directed a Troma film cult classic, The Ruining.

Chris is touring the United States with his latest film Border aboard his "Big Blue Bus" in order to educate people on the situation on the southern border. Details on the tour dates can be found by visiting his website.

On this episode, we talk with Marcin Glowacki, director of the short film The Stewardess (Die Flugbegleiterin).

Born in Poland and living in Germany, Marcin is both an actor and director, as well as the founder of Jim Pansen Production, a Berlin-based film and television production company which focuses on the medical field.

The Stewardess is a black comedy short film which investigates over consumption and man’s relationship with nature. It is on the surreal side, both funny and gross, and ironically has a vegetarian edge to it.

In addition to the screening at the 11th annual RI International Film Festival, The Stewardess also screens at the 8th Annual RIIFF Horror Film Festival October 18-21, 2007.

Paula Christensen was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina before relocating with her parents to New York and eventually attending Amherst (MA) College studying Theater and Anthropology.

Her first full-length play In Vitro received a workshop reading at the Public Theater in New York in 2004 and has been optioned; she is transferring the story from stage to screen. She has several other projects in the works including a fantasy/adventure TV show and a political documentary.

Currently living in LA, she makes her film directorial debut with A Casa, the first part of Tres, three stories of intense emotional connection captured in a fleeting moment from three directors, inspired by the poetry of her grandfather, poet and filmmaker Carlos Hugo Christensen.

Rhode Island International Film Festival 2006 Screenplay Competition winner Jodi L. Johnson discusses her script Slidin’ Home, about how a young boy afflicted with chronic illness and his grandfather go on a cross-country adventure to fulfill his dream of meeting the Boston Red Sox, and her work behind the screen in the wardrobe industry as well.

She will be speaking at the Scriptbiz 2007 workshop later this Fall in Providence, RI.

On this episode, we talk with Kristian Söderström, director and writer of the short film Darkness Of Truth.

The film is a surreal psychological thriller about the secrets of a middle-aged actress and former ballet dancer in Berlin and her tenant, a young, attractive female student. They choose to communicate their anger via the former actress’ diary.

Kristian’s film was the winner of the International Discovery Award at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival. This interview was recorded live at the Film Festival.

Todd Robinson is a surgeon in Memphis, TN, who was inspired to document his mother’s "miracle" with his first forays into filmmaking, the feature-length Hidden Treasure and the short Sounds of A Miracle, both based on his mother’s story.

His mother, Earnestine Rodgers Robinson, received no formal music training, and with her faith and family, she rose from humble southern roots to become composer of sacred classical music that took her all the way to Carnegie Hall and to a world premiere in Prague.

Our conversation with the Robinsons was recorded live at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

On this episode, we speak with Emmanuel Jespers , writer and director of the short film Personal Spectator, which screened at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Emmanuel Jespers is an Institut des Arts de Diffusion (IAD) graduate and has been directing and films and commercials for over ten years. His films include the short film The Last Dream (2000) which won many awards including Un Certain Regard in the Cannes Film Festival, A Night to Remember (2002), and Nervous Breakdown (2002).

More recent work includes the 2007 films Two Sisters and a feature he wrote, directed, and produced called Artefacts.

His short films have been selected to more than 50 film festivals worldwide, and he has won more than two dozen prizes, including his 1st Place Best Screenplay award at RIIFF for Personal Spectator.

Phil Allocco is the writer and director of the short film Joseph Henry, which screened recently at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Allocco began his career as a musician in the bands Law and Order and Dogma. From there, he joined the company Media Jelly, producing and designing projects including Goosebumps, The Magic School Bus, and Fox’s Dr. Dolittle 2.

Allocco was also the creator of several original animated series including The Vanderfuls and Bratface and Waffle.

In 2005, Allocco joined Red Thread Productions working on many projects including producing and editing The Best of the GLAAD Awards for Logo. Earlier this year (2007), Allocco was one of fifty directors hand-picked by Steven Spielberg for the Fox TV series On The Lot.

More information on Phil Alloco is available at his company Make Things Work.

Christopher Martini, writer/director/producer of the film The Stone Child, joins us on this episode.

He has worked behind the scenes in production in a variety of films including editing The Chris Isaac Show and the documentary Gulf War Syndrome: Killing Our Own.

The Stone Child is about an 11-year-old boy, half Lakota Native-American and half caucasian, in rural South Dakota, and his relationship with his father after a painful divorce.

There is feature length version of the film in the works as well.

The film screened recently at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

JD Kelleher is an actor making his directorial debut with the short film One Last Drink Before Morning.

JD studied English at University College Cork and has an extensive acting background in both film and television throughout the UK.

His television and film credits include: Batman Begins, The Art of Flirting (an homage to Buster Keaton), and the BBC productions Little Britain, Murphy’s Law, and Ballykissangel. Most recently, he is starring in the Channel 4 production of City of Vice.

One Last Drink Before Morning deals with three characters who come to terms with the crooked twists and turns that have led them to their desperate positions in life, set in a noir-like smoky dive bar.

It won 2nd Place for Best Screenplay at the 2007 Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Ursula Burton is a Yale alumna who studied Theater and English Literature. Having done extensive theater work, she has more recently worked in television and film including The Office, The War at Home, and Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya-Sisterhood.

She founded Five Sisters Productions with her four other sisters. Together, they have produced three feature films in which she has also appeared: Just Friends, Temps, and Manna From Heaven.

Her most recent work is a comedy short which she wrote, directed, and acted in called The Happiest Day Of His Life, which won grand prize for best comedy short at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Our guest is filmmaker Yoav Segal, director of The Battle Of Cable Street.

In 1936, Oswald Mosley and his army of fascist Blackshirts planned to march through the East End. However, Segal’s grandfather, Ubby Cowan, and a host of others, including Jews, Irish, and dockworkers succeeded in stopping the march. This was a seminal event in British history as it loudly declared Britains refusal to accept fascism.

Blurring the line between live action and animation, The Battle Of Cable Street retells the event by presenting a young boy, Danny, who is taken inside the magical world of his own sketchbook by his grandfather and shown what it was like to live
through the events of 1936.

Danny learns, much as his granddad did, ‘Look up, see the world around you. Find a voice, express yourself.’

The film screened recently at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

On this episode, we talk with documentary filmmaker Carol Carimi Acutt of Safari Films.

Carol is a native New Orleanian and has directed three documentaries about Louisiana musicians: Getting It Together featuring bebop pianist Willie Metcalf, Jr., My Story, My Music, My Life about renowned jazz composer and arranger Harold Battiste, Jr., and most recently Been Down That Muddy Road featuring Louisiana Hall of Fame swamp pop legend Joe Barry.

Muddy Road had its world premiere at the 2007 Rhode Island International Film Festival where it won 1st Place for Best Documentary.

The 2007 Awards Ceremony for the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF), recorded live at the Federal Reserve Restaurant in Providence, RI.

The ceremony was hosted by Don Farias of RIIFF, Steve Feinberg of the RI Television & Film Office, and emceed by George Marshall of RIIFF.

The Rhode Island International Film Festival is the largest public film festival in New England, and is rated one of the top twelve film festivals in the United States. It is also a qualifying festival for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscars™).

The 2007 RIIFF festival featured over 320 films from 70 countries around the world.

We speak with Jason Connell, president of Connell Creations, a video and film production company in Los Angeles.

Jason Connell has recently directed a documentary film about the lives of Hollywood background actors (often somewhat inaccurately called "extras") called Strictly Background.

He also founded the Tulsa Uncensored Film Festival, which spread to both New York and Los Angeles, underwent a name change, and is now known as the United Film Festival.

Greg Cahill is originally from Boston and graduated from NYU in 2004. His thesis film there was Wolves of Chechnya, a short film about a Russian soldier’s harrowing experiences in the Chechen War. He then moved to LA, where he produces and directs special features for the NBC TV series Medium.

Greg Cahill has recently written, directed, and produced The Golden Voice, a short film about the Cambodian rock singer Ros Sereysothea, one of Cambodia’s biggest stars of the 60’s and early 70’s before the advent of the Khmer Rouge. It is a tragic yet inspiring film featuring some undiscovered gems of rock and roll music.

The Golden Voice screened recently at the 11th annual Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Boston native Andrew Filippone, Jr. attended Emerson college and worked on an unfinished project which has recently had new life breathed into it.

Called Happy Monday, it is a unique experimental documentary, also referred to as a "documentary film object." It represents the tragedy of unfinished work, the stasis of images captured on negatives but never given life through projection on a film screen.

Happy Monday had its World Premiere at the 2007 Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Andrew now lives and works in New York City, where he heads the production company Telling Story.

On this episode we speak with writer George Harrar. George Harrar’s works have appeared in a number of literary magazines, and his 1999 work The 5:22 was selected for inclusion in The Best American Short Stories 1999, edited by Amy Tan.

The film was recently made into a short film directed by Bernadette Demisay and had its world premiere at the 2007 Rhode Island International Film Festival where it won 2nd Place for Best Editing.

We discuss storytelling from the writer’s point of view, and similarities between short film storytelling and its literary equivalent. We also discuss some of George Harrar’s other past and upcoming works.

We speak with Montreal director Luc Beauchamp - writer, director, and producer of the film Arthur’s Paradise, which had its U.S. premiere at the 2007 Rhode Island International Film Festival where it won 2nd Place for Best Experimental film.

Arthur’s Paradise is a unique film, a blend of documentary and fiction, with almost no dialog and music from opera to mariachi. At times beautiful, at times disturbing, it explores the solitary life of a farmer and his animals.

Luc Beauchamp received a degree in music composition from the Université de Montréal before working on a number of short films including the award-winning The Lion & the Lamb.

We are joined by Dana Dorian, founder and director at the Glasgow, Scotland–based studio Axis Animation, where he has directed several award-winning commercials and broadcast projects.

Dana recently made his first short film Fetch, winner of the BAFTA Scotland award for best animation.

Fetch and another short film of Dana’s, Hip Hip Hurray!, both screened recently at the the 2007 Rhode Island International Film Festival.

Our guest this week is Nicholas Mason, the founding director of the Manhattan Short Film Festival.

The Manhattan Short Film Festival is a unique film festival which presents twelve short films from several countries, all screened during one week, in venues across the globe.

Audiences at each venue then vote on their favorites, and the winner is determined at the end of the festival screenings.

The 2007 festival will be held around the world between September 23rd and 30th.

Today’s guest is Alex Merkin.

Alex Merkin is the president of Production and Development of
FiveLion Films, a music video, commercial, and film production company in New York City.

He is also the director, creator, and editor of the award-winning short suspense thriller Across The Hall.

We speak with Giovanna Chesler.

Giovanna is an Assistant Professor in Communication at the University of California San Diego, and works professionally as a cinematographer and film/video curator and juror.

She is the director and producer of internationally exhibited documentary and narrative films including BeauteouS: The Trilogy and hand-some.

Her most recent film is Period: The End of Menstruation, a feature documentary film exploring trends in hormonal birth control which change the way we think of gender, health and the ‘natural’.

May is National Physical Fitness and Sports Month. On this special episode of Spoiler Alert Radio, we talk with Barbara Silvestro.

Barbara Silvestro is a 41 year old mother of three a who lost 65 pounds through diet and exercise, including using Leslie Sansone’s and other fitness DVDs.

She was eventually invited to be a participant in the filming of a new edition of Sansone Walk Slim DVDs. We talk about her experience.

On Spoiler Alert Radio’s hour long Mother’s Day Special, we explore the theme of motherhood with Mary Mazzio of 50 Eggs Productions, who discusses her three documentary films: A Hero For Daisy, Apple Pie, and Lemonade Stories and her unique approach to documentary filmmaking.

A Hero For Daisy is a film about Title IX pioneer and two-time Olympian Chris Ernst who through her protests for gender equity athletic facilities for women has opened the door to daughters everywhere. The film is dedicated to Daisy, Mary’s daughter.

Apple Pie is a film about professional athletes and their mothers from the aspect of their mother’s stories and the connections to their children’s lives.

Lemonade Stories is a film about renown entrepeneurs and their mothers, highlighting each mother’s impact on the entrepeneurial spirit and success of their sons and daughters.

J.L. Aronson has written, directed, and produced Danielson: A Family Movie and discusses this and other documentary work of his.

Danielson: A Family Movie follows Daniel Smith, an eccentric musician and visual artist, as he leads his four siblings and best friend Chris to indie-rock stardom, while mentoring a then-unknown Sufjan Stevens along the way.

The film deals with a number of themes, including the challenges of being a sincere Christian in the po-mo underground, balancing individual needs vs. commitment to family, and maintaining artistic integrity while reaching out to a wider audience.

We speak with actor, writer, and director David Dean Bottrell, who has recently written and directed an award winning comedy short film Available Men, representing his first effort as both writer and director.

David Dean Bottrell has appeared on a number of television series, most recently with a recurring role as the creepy Lincoln Meyer on the hit show Boston Legal, and co-wrote the screenplay for the film Kingdom Come.

We speak with Montreal director Luc Beauchamp - writer, director, and producer of the film Arthur’s Paradise, which had its U.S. premiere at the 2007 Rhode Island International Film Festival where it won 2nd Place for Best Experimental film.

Arthur’s Paradise is a unique film, a blend of documentary and fiction, with almost no dialog and music from opera to mariachi. At times beautiful, at times disturbing, it explores the solitary life of a farmer and his animals.

Luc Beauchamp received a degree in music composition from the Université de Montréal before working on a number of short films including the award-winning The Lion & the Lamb.

Craig Shapiro joins us to discuss his documentary film Ice Kings about an unparalleled hockey dynasty.

This is the story of Mount Saint Charles Academy in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a school that won twenty-six consecutive state championships between 1978 and 2003.

Craig also discusses his work in television sports features and plans for the future.

Director Skye Fitzgerald discusses his documentary Bombhunters and his work with his production company spinfilm.

In 1969, the US launched secret bombing raids into Cambodia in pursuit of the Viet Cong during the Vietnam war. Until suspension as part of peace agreements in 1973, over one billion pounds of ordnance were dropped on Cambodia.

Over thirty years later, much of that deadly ordnance is still scattered unexploded across the Cambodian countryside, where it is "harvested" by enterprising - and desperate - people.

Bombhunters is their story.

Valerie Weiss, filmmaker and BioPhysics PhD, discusses her AFI Women’s Fellowship, the Dudley Film program she created at Harvard, and her film projects Dance by Design, Transgressions, Losing Control, and more.

Transgressions has been described as A Clockwork Orange meets Pleasantville.  It takes place in the not-so-distant future, in a society combining the worst elements of the nanny state and reality TV.    Domestic strife with a darkly ironic twist. 

What does it take to make a movie in Rhode Island and why should a filmmaker ply their craft in the Ocean State?

These questions were discussed on March 9th at Borders in Cranston, RI. Recorded guests included:

• Jonathan Raben, Producer/Director of the documentary film Italian Americans and Federal Hill.
• George T. Marshall, Executive Director of the Rhode Island International Film Festival (RIIFF), one of the country’s premier festivals.
• Steven Feinberg, Executive Director of the Rhode Island Film and Television Office, the state liaison to the filmmaking industry.

We discuss the success and failures of filmmaker/crew member Luke Bittel behind the scenes in LA and his doc on a failed film Help Wanted called Some Assembly Required.

It is rare for a filmmaker to actually admit that their film is a failure – a poorly produced, written, and directed film.  Luke did this and is using it as learning tool and now can laugh at a project that made him miserable.  He uses Some Assembly Required to show others what not to do as a newbie filmmaker.

Part Two of the 2006 Academy Nominated Short Film discussions features the live-action short nominees.

Films include The Saviour, Helmer and Son, One Too Many (Eramos Pocos), Binta and The Great Idea, and West Bank Story.

Part One of the 2006 Academy Nominated Short Film discussions features the Oscar Animated Short nominees as well as the "Short-listed" films which were almost nominated.

Animated nominee films include The Danish Poet, Maestro, The Little Matchgirl, No Time For Nuts, and Lifted.

Publisher/founder Michele Meek joins us from nefilm.com to discuss its impact in the film community after approaching ten years of existence.

She also discusses her own short children’s film Red Sneakers, and the developements of the international educational and independent distribution site, BuyIndies.com, and coordinating the restoration of the historical film magazine The Independent with the Independent Media Publications group.

Writer, Director/Producer, Instructor, and Actor Chris Sparling joins us to discuss differences in marketing two completely distinct films and about the grassroots approach to filmmaking.

He also discusses his experiences in LA as an actor to focusing on writing and producing back in Providence.

The renowned experimental band Cul de Sac joins us to discuss their work on live film composition.

This includes currently focusing on F.W. Murnau's Faust and starting an annual winter tradition of performing a live original score to Raymond Brigg’s The Snowman.

Actor, Writer, Teacher, Counselor, philosopher, "renaissance man"...

T.J. Paolino travels from L.A. to Providence, RI and discusses the process of casting for the role of former Providence mayor and "renaissance man" Buddy Cianci for the upcoming film The Prince of Providence.

Casting Director Annie Mulhall of LDI Casting stops by Spoiler Alert Radio.

She enlightens us on the casting process for major films in Southern New England and beyond.