Justin Joseph Hall: Marcellus Hall an Artist in New York City, Fog of War

Episode #42 - Justin Joseph Hall is an award-winning, multilingual multimedia director and founder of Fourwind Films and Quatre-Vents. His work has been acquired by major television networks such as HBO and he’s worked as a lead creative on projects that received awards at The Emmys, TriBeCa Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, and more.

Justin Joseph Hall, photo by Laura Davi

Our screening resumed back at Fourwind Films’ headquarters.

For his short, Justin brought his short series, Marcellus Hall an Artist in New York City. The five episode season has won six awards and been nominated for many more around the world. The documentary is of New Yorker Illustrator Marcellus Hall who also wrote the song Life Is Still Sweet that inspired Float On performed by Modest Mouse.

We screened the entire series back to back and served white and yellow cheese with steak in conjunction with the series.

The feature Justin chose inspired his series with a one-on-one interview that endures the entire documentary. It was Errol Morris’ Oscar winning Fog of War where Robert McNamara goes through thought processes of military decisions during major wars of the United States of America. We served a juicy homemade Vietnamese Beef And Lettuce Curry during the screening.

To learn more about Justin Joseph Hall, sign up for Fourwind Films newsletter.

Credits:

Host - Laura Davi

Production & Event Space - Fourwind Films

Post-Production - Quatre-Vents

Editor - Billie Jo Laitinen

Sound Mixer - Hans Bilger

The theme song of Season 7 is New Tires by Silent Partner.

Ilaria Polsonetti: Dulce, Black South Rising: Inside Charlotte's Mostly Black and Brown Government

Episode #33 - Ilaria Polsonetti is an Emmy nominated Editor of documentary films. She creates smooth edits in her edits and enjoys creativity in her work. She is kind and collaborative in her process which she goes through today in our episode.

Ilaria brought the New York Times OpDoc Dulce. It’s an ideal documentary for Ilaria that has patience, fantastic locations and subjects, and great sound. It’s an example of the documentaries she would always love to work on in a Direct Cinema style slice of life.

The feature Ilaria chose is VICE’s Black South Rising: Inside Charlotte's Mostly Black and Brown Government. Ilaria and her VICE team put together the time after the killing of Keith Lamont Scott by the police in Charlotte, North Carolina documenting the change in the government as more people of color ran for office. It was an emotional screening that shows what it is like when new people take place of old governments.

Learn more about Ilaria Polsonetti and her work on her website. In the forecast to look forward to please check out host Justin Joseph Hall on With Nothing to Say chatting about his entry into film and how he shaped his career.

Credits for podcast:

Production Company - Fourwind Films

Appointed Contributor - Ilaria Polsonetti

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Sound Mixer & Additional Music - Brian Trahan

Line Producer - Laura Davi

The theme song of Season 5 is This Monster by Sun Nectar

Jon Alpert: When Life Hands You Lemons, Papa

Episode #21 - This episode features Jon Alpert, Oscar-nominated and Emmy-award winning documentary journalist. Prestigious award ceremonies aside, Alpert has been making films for over forty years and has stories for DAYS. Highlights include the story of how he was chosen as the director for the first Sundance film by Robert Redford, and another dives into how he and his partner Keiko Tsuno managed to get breaking footage in Vietnam during the war. As a co-founder of DCTV he shares how the Chinatown documentary incubator offered film equipment to anyone who wanted to tell stories about the community. Alpert’s career was birthed out of supporting his community, and he continues to prioritize doing so to this day.

The films he curated for the episode are both extremely personal. The short film by Jasmine Barclay is called, “When Life Hands You Lemons.” It tells the story of how she was houseless for all of high school without most people in her life having any idea. For the feature, Jon chooses his most personal documentary, “Papa.” Jon also shares how this film got made by working with documentary legend Sheila Nevins

Jasmine was part of the DCTV program “ProTV.” The free school teaches underprivileged high schoolers how to make film. Link to donate.

Credits:
Photography - Justin Joseph Hall, Piper Werle, Laura Davi

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Location - Downtown Community Television Center

Production Assistant - Laura Davi

Production Company - Fourwind Films

Jay Giampietro: the thing that kills me the most!, Private Practices: The Story of a Sex Surrogate

Episode #18 - Jay Giampietro is a director and editor who is a huge fan of films and sports. He is super easy to talk to and it seems always maintains a positive vibe towards anything unique. His unique lens really focuses on New York awkward single males and we think it’s safe to call him a true auteur. He is prolific and makes a short film at least once a year. We’ve shown Hernia at our annual Holiday Mixer several years ago.

This time for the short Jay presented his most recent film the thing that kills me the most! Sticking to odd New York area male characters. It is a very pretty experimental film that uses light in a unique way and takes documentary audio and montages it for new experience in motion picture.

Private Practices: The Story of a Sex Surrogate is a very 1980’s documentary with minimal soundtrack and tons of intrigue. Jay being a student of film history and the odd that is out there in the world chose to bring this film that captures one’s attention watching nervous men have sex with a young sex therapist for money.

Check out more of Jay’s work through is production company Magic Square Films.

Episode hosted by Justin Joseph Hall.

Jay Giampietro - Director/Editor

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Sound Mix & Additional Music - Brian Trahan

Theme song of Season 4 is Johnny's Tune In Waltz by Salitros’ Ridin’ Rainbow.

Justin Joseph Hall: Wasp, Rock & a Hard Place

Episode #17 - Justin Joseph Hall our owner from Minnesota has been working hard in post-production at DCTV this year. For this episode that was recorded on his birthday he decided to share how vérité documentaries can be made and aspects of using documentary style camera work can be used in narrative filmmaking.

Justin started with Andrea Arnold’s famous short film Wasp. It is entirely shot in handheld form with little or no music. It follows a family in real time evoking well-known vérité cinema techniques brought forth to documentary filmmaking by folks like the Maysles brothers in the 1960’s and beyond. It is a short intense drama about family responsibilities colliding with personal freedoms.

The feature Justin brought forth was Downtown Community Television’s Rock and a Hard Place that they made for HBO Documentaries in conjunction with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. The film is a vérité documentary by the legendary modern vérité directors Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill and was the first documentary Justin Joseph Hall had worked on with DCTV. He began as an assistant editor and many of the montages in the film for editor David Meneses.

To learn more about Justin’s work in conjunction with DCTV, please check out FRONTLINE: Life on Parole and the new series Axios on HBO.

Episode hosted by Daria Huxley.

Justin Joseph Hall - Assistant Editor

Host - Daria Huxley

Sound Mix & Additional Music - Brian Trahan

Theme song of Season 4 is Johnny's Tune In Waltz by Salitros’ Ridin’ Rainbow.

Mack Williams: Freddie Gibbs - "Michael Jackson's Return to Gary, IN," What About Bob?

Episode #12 - Georgia native Mack Williams makes everyone laugh for hours with his stories and film choices. Mack is a graceful director and animator who makes working feel like play. His versatility in the commercial world as well as on creative content is always a notch above the rest. He works on a creative level with a fine knowledge for quality post-production on lower budgets. On top of that, Mack makes an incredible drinking partner. Even if you disagree with his tastes, you can’t help but want to listen to what he has to say. He graces us with his knowledge of animation workflow as well as stories of creating various cartoons for Cartoon Network, Pitchfork, and Showtime.

Mack chooses a short animated documentary that he directed called “Michael Jackson’s Return to Gary, IN.” It’s based off a true story told by Freddie Gibbs for the series FRAMES. For the feature he presents “What About Bob?” Mack discusses Richard Dreyfuss’ role in the film and why he makes it great. For more info on Mack, check out the Facebook page for his company Pig Apple. Additional music credits to Sun Nectar. Theme music by Salitros’ Riding Rainbow.

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Location & Production Company - Fourwind Films

Mack Williams Director/Animator & Simon

Gladys Mae Murphy: Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall, Pumping Iron

Episode #6 - An editor who was a part of post-production teams on multiple Oscar nominated documentary shorts, Gladys Mae Murphy, takes us through 2 films linked by her mentor, legendary editor Geof Bartz.  Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall was the first film she presented, which was made by a small film team she was a part of and was nominated for an Academy Award.  Gladys takes us through the director's toils of creating this film about how to handle death in prison.  We then lightened the mood with Pumping Iron, a look into the unique world of body building, a fun film centered around a young Arnold Schwarzenegger in his body building prime.

Gladys is an incredibly hard working editor who dives into her projects for months.  Much of her work, including Prison Terminal, are featured on HBO's streaming websites.  To see the latest by her check out her website.  She is currently working in collaboration on another documentary in conjunction with DCTV and HBO.

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall.

Location & Production Company - Fourwind Films

Gladys Mae Murphy - Editor, photo by Daria Huxley

Michael Fequiere: Kojo, Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father →

Episode #4 - Michael Fequiere, a Brooklyn based filmmaker and photographer presented this month. The first presentation was Kojo: A Short Documentary directed by Michael about the gifted 12-year-old jazz drummer Kojo Odu Roney. The feature presentation was 2008 Documentary Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father. Because the feature presentation was a Canadian production, the audience paired the film with shortbread cookies and Canadian beer.

Michael's short films have screened in numerous festivals both domestic (L.E.S. Film Festival, Big Apple Film Festival) and worldwide (Toronto International Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival: Short Film Corner). To learn more about his work, visit his website at http://www.michaelfequiere.com/. 

Credits:

Host - Justin Joseph Hall

Location & Production Company - Fourwind Films

Michael Fequiere - Director/Editor, photo by Daria Huxley