Welcome to the FIRST FILM CLUB Podcast.
Produced by Natalie Louise, and hosted by critic and author Hanna Flint, both founders of the FIRST FILM CLUB, this podcast is dedicated to filmmakers, casts and crew members talking about the first films they ever made. It is a companion project to the FIRST FILM CLUB event series that celebrates directorial debuts. We screen a debut short film from an emerging director alongside the feature debut of an established director followed by a Q&A with both filmmakers to discuss their craft, their inspiration and what the future holds. Past live show guests have included Mike Leigh’s “Bleak Moments” with Florence Roach-Keith’s “A Family Affair”, Amma Asante’s “A Way of Life” with Tracy Kyriango’s “Colour Blind” and Gurinder Chadha’s “Bhaji on the Beach” with Toby Fell-Holden’s “Balcony.”
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Genevieve Gaunt is a talented British actress whose career has traversed stage and screen. From Michael Winterbottom’s The Face of an Angel and American soap opera The Royals to playing Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme in a production of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins at Edinburgh Theatre Festival and voicing Lady Penelope in a recent Thunderbirds audiobook series, Gaunt boasts an eclectic array of credits. But her film career first kicked off as a child actor cast by Alfonso Cuaron in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Widely regarded as the best instalment in the fantasy franchise, Gaunt’s debut feature role was as Slytherin student Pansy Parkinson. Although her part was small, it was an impactful experience that she sat down with Hanna Flint to talk about…
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21 Feb 2022
Playground
Belgian filmmaker Laura Wandel knew from the get-go that if she was going to tell a visceral story about school dynamics and the first childhood relationships made away from the family home, she would need to tell it from the child’s point of view. That visual perspective is partly why Playground, her feature-length debut, has earned widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike ever since it debuted in Un Certain Regard at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.
We recorded today’s episode during London Film Festival, in a conference room at the Mayfair hotel, so while the audio quality might be a tad echoey, the answers Laura gives, with the help of a translator, are of the highest standard. So here, the filmmaker describes what went into corralling her inexperienced cast, including Maya Vanderbeque as seven-year-old lead Nora, and executing a stunning feat of filmmaking.
Playground is released in cinemas on April 22nd
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14 Feb 2022
Lilting
Award-winning casting director, Kharmel Cochrane has a reputation for championing new and diverse talent across film and television. As one of the few women of colour leading in the profession, her knack for finding the perfect cast has been utilised on the small screen in BAFTA-winning The End of the Fucking World, Sky One’s Intergalactic, and the Jodie Turner-Smith-led Anne Boleyn miniseries. In Film, she’s worked on John Wick: Chapter 4, Saint Maud and with Robert Eggers on all three of his feature films: The Witch, The Lighthouse and the upcoming The Northman.
Beginning in shorts and music videos, Kharmel’s first feature credit as Casting Director was on British-Cambodian director Hong Khaou’s debut feature Lilting. The 2014 film tells the story of a bereaved Cambodian-Chinese mother coming to terms with the untimely loss of her son as his English lover attempts to connect with her through their shared grief with the help of a translator. Starring Ben Whishaw, Cheng Pei Pei, Andrew Leung, Naomi Yang, Peter Bowles, and Morven Christie, Cochrane talks to Hanna Flint about bringing that cast together with the director…
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7 Feb 2022
Heathers
Michael Lehmann is one of the most in-demand and prolific television directors in the US. He’s worked on such critically acclaimed series as Dexter, Californication, True Blood and American Horror Story, and has a new series starring Kristen Bell, The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window, on Netflix right now. Some of his earlier film credits, including Airheads and Hudson Hawk, have earned welcome critical reappraisals in recent years but the greatness of his directorial debut Heathers is indisputable. Starring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater, the 1989 film is a biting high school satire that shocked adults more than it did teenagers for its nonchalance portrayal of teen suicide, bulimia and gun violence. Heathers has become a cult classic, finding its way to the stage with a musical adaptation and a TV adaptation. Michael Lehmann takes Hanna Flint on a journey back to its creation…
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31 Jan 2022
Boiling Point
Actress and Producer Hester Ruoff has been working in the entertainment business for over a decade. You might know her as Debbie the paramedic in the long-running British soap opera Eastenders before her producing career kicked off with short films in 2018. It was around the time she starred in gritty crime thriller Villain, the directorial debut of Philip Barantini which cemented their working relationship. Barantini was in the market for producing partners to turn his acclaimed short film Boiling Point into a feature and Hester knew she needed to be involved. Starring Stephen Graham as a head chef wrangling his team in the kitchen, behind the bar and on the floor on their busiest night of the year, the technical feat and performances of this single-take endeavour has been lauded by critics, at the British Independent Film Awards and by the restaurant industry for its honest portrayal of their profession.
Here Hanna Flint talks to Hester about transitioning to producing and what it took to get her first feature Boiling Point off the ground.
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24 Jan 2022
Mass
Fran Kranz has spent the last 20 years working as an actor across film, TV and stage. You might remember him from his role as Topher Brink in sci-fi series Dollhouse or as the final guy Marty in 2011 horror-comedy The Cabin in the Woods. Now the American actor has decided to get behind the camera to write, produce and direct his very first feature film.
Mass is a poignant drama about a pair of grieving parents who sit down to discuss the mass shooting they lost both their sons to. With the bulk of the film taking place in one room, there’s a theatre-like feel to the performances so it’s no wonder he cast some of the best stage actors around. Reed Birney and Ann Dowd play one couple while Jason Isaacs and Martha Plimpton play the other in this tense examination of grief, pain, anger associated with one of the most horrific subjects that continues to cast a shadow over American society.
Here critic and host Hanna Flint talks to Fran Kranz about making this his directorial debut.
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21 Jan 2022
The First Film Club Trailer
Welcome to The First Film Club a podcast series dedicated to established and emerging talent from the film industry and the first feature that launched their careers. We started The First Film Club back in 2018 as a Q&A screening series with the same premise and have been able to bring some of the most celebrated directors and their feature film debuts to cinemas across London to hear them reflect on the process, battles and triumphs associated with the art of moviemaking. Now, with Stripped Media, we are excited to expand the format to include talent both in front of and behind the camera, with each episode dedicated to a film, a guest and their behind-the-scenes stories, memories, and advice from their time on set.
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