Uptown Radio

Listen to the full piece: 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

You can listen to Rafer and Kristen’s Academy Award special, Oscar…Totally Naked, on WNYC here.

Seth MacFarlane arrives at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009, in Los Angeles. (Matt Sayles/AP Photo)

Listen to the full piece: 

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

HOST: Finding the right host for the Oscars ceremony has been a challenge in recent years. This year, Seth Macfarlane gets his shot. And while some people aren’t applauding the choice, comics everywhere will be rooting. No matter what happens.

Tony Maglio reports. (0:18)

NARR: Comedian and big-band crooner Seth Macfarlane is either the perfect choice for Oscar host, or a dangerous one.

MacFarlane looks like the boy next door, but his biting satire on “Family Guy” is the material of a much darker mind. His humor has offended a number of celebrities and critics. It’s also made him one of the most popular and panned people in Hollywood.

Recently, MacFarlane got in trouble from jokes he made on the Oscars nomination show. After naming the best supporting actress nominees, MacFarlane said this:
(0:28)

MACFARLANE: “Congratulations, you five ladies no longer have to pretend to be attracted to Harvey Weinstein” (0:05)

NARR: But that shot at the super-producer is tame by Macfarlane’s standards. What people truly worry about from the director of “Ted,” are jokes like this one: (0:08)

MACFARLANE: “I read Amour was co-produced in Austria and Germany, right? The last time Austria and Germany got together and co-produced something it was Hitler – but this is much better (much better, highly recommended, so much better).” (0:15)

Some people didn’t find that funny. In response to his critics, Macfarlane tweeted: “Lotta flap over that Adolf joke. Look, Amour was a great film, so how about this: Austria, we’ll give you the Oscar if you take back Arnold.” (0:15)

Ray Ellin is a comedian and host of the web-based talk show, “LateNet.” He believes that some of the criticism of Macfarlane’s jokes is a little overblown. (0:09)

ELLIN: “When you say the word Hitler, people get on edge. You say the word Jesus, a lot of people get on edge. And I get it; those are sort of red flags for people. But you know, the joke itself wasn’t that harsh just in its content.” (0:16)

NARR: After all, even that joke doesn’t compare to those Macfarlane tells in another venue where he’s made a name for himself. Here’s Macfarlane reading a future obituary he prepared for the Comedy Central Roast of Charlie Sheen. (0:12)

MACFARLANE: “’Charlie Sheen, who became a tabloid fixture due to his problems with drugs and alcohol, was found dead in his apartment.’ You know what, I actually just kind of copied Amy Winehouse’s obituary. I only had to change three things: the sex of the deceased, the location of the body and the part that says ‘a talent that will be missed.’ (0:21)

ELLIN: “On Comedy Central when they do roasts, they just go for the jugular. It’s the harshest thing you can say about somebody. But there’s a way of making fun of somebody or making funny of a movie without
being that sinister.” (0:10)

NARR: Ellin and comics around the country are eagerly waiting to see which route MacFarlane will choose on Sunday. It will be then when we see how this animated host handles his highly anticipated real life role.

Tony Maglio, Columbia Radio News. (0:14)

Photo By Associated Press

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

The 84th annual Academy Awards will take place this Sunday in Los Angeles. The broadcast attracts millions of viewers each year, and the nominees and winners stand to make more money at the box office. Village Voice film critic Aaron Hillis has been covering the Oscars for years. He doesn’t think the awards represent the best in film. Sometimes he has a favorite, but not this year.
BY ANNIE RUSSELL

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

One of the least talked about categories at the Oscars is the one set aside for foreign language films. But in a year where two of the nominated films are from countries on the brink of war, maybe we should pay it a bit more attention.

BY RUSS FINKELSTEIN

Yesterday, Israeli President Shimon Peres said that his government has left all options on the table in order to defend itself from nuclear threats.  This all comes three weeks after US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said that he believed Israel is likely to attack Iran in April, May or June.

It’s easy in this sort of media landscape to lose sight of what is actually at stake here.  A war between Israel and Iran could be devastating for the millions of people who live in those countries.

A couple of films nominated for this year’s Academy Awards could give audiences intimate glimpses into the humanity behind the brinkmanship.

The Iranian entry for best foreign language film is called A Separation.  Many critics have penciled it in as a favorite.  A Separation is a fast-paced modern drama that depicts a family coming undone.  Iran has a rich cinematic history, though filmmakers there tend to avoid sensitive subjects like politics and religion to get their productions past government censorship.  A Separation does a superb job of just that.  It intimately depicts a heated feud between two families on either side of the economic and religious spectrum in modern-day Tehran.

It’s Israeli counterpart is titled Footnote.  It’s a black comedy that also depicts a family in crisis.  The plot focuses on the idea of legacy as it relates to a father and his son, both of whom are Jewish theological scholars.  When a major Academic honor intended for the film’s protagonist Uriel is mistakenly given to his father, an existential and familial dilemma ensues.

Israel has been nominated for more Oscars than any other country in the Middle-East, though a good number of the country’s acclaimed films deal in some way or another with the Israeli-Arab conflict.  Footnote does not.

In fact, neither of these films deals directly with the issues that have their countries in the headlines.

Americans seem to prefer movies like Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part Two, which earned about $381 million last year at American box offices.  That’s a lot, especially when you consider that the highest grossing foreign language film last year brought in under $8 million.  That film was Sarah’s Key from France, and you probably never heard of it.  I hadn’t.

Both A Separation and Footnote have limited releases around the Oscars.  A Separation is in theaters now, and Footnote will be released in the U.S. March 9th.  Go see them.  It will give you a better sense of what Iran and Israel are like far beyond what you will ever read in the newspaper.  These films will be in theaters for a limited time only, Go see them before it’s too late.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Barbara Rick is a documentary filmmaker based in New York City. Photo Courtesy of Stefan Falke

In 2010, Kathryn Bigelow made history as the first woman ever to win an Oscar for Best Director for the film ‘The Hurt Locker.’ This year no woman will win the directing prize— that’s because none have been nominated. Women directed only seven percent of the top grossing films in America and female filmmakers say they want that to change.

When Deborah Kampmeier set out to make her movie Hounddog, the financing fell through four times. It took her twelve years to get the film made. When she finally finished, it was nominated a top prize at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. But Kampmeier says success hasn’t made things any easier. “I thought “Here it goes! And now I can make my next film, I’m not an unknown filmmaker,” which was always part of the problem was I’d never made a film before. ‘No, now I’m an award winning film maker.’ Nah. Didn’t make a bit of difference. I still couldn’t get an agent.”

The director’s chair isn’t the only place where women are underrepresented. Women represent only about one in six producers, writers, cinematographers and editors on top grossing films. And those who do have jobs on big-budget features tend to work in very specific genres.

Melissa Silverstein says that “women have a harder time getting hired for a gig when it’s not a touchy feely chick flick or a romance. It’s like enough.” Silverstein is the founder and editor of the blog “Women and Hollywood.” She points to a report by the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film at San Diego State. It confirms that women are in fact more likely to work on romantic comedies and dramas, rather than say, horror or action movies. Of course Kathryn Bigelow, who won the best director award last year, got the prize for a hard-hitting war film. Silverstein wants more women to be able to make the kinds of films that Bigelow does. “I don’t want to go see a mediocre movie, I want to see good movies and I think women and men make good movies. And I want women to get more opportunities.”

The San Diego State report found that women are also more likely to work in documentary films. Barbara Rick founded and directs Out of the Blue Films, an independent documentary company. On a recent evening she was setting up a shoot at a lower Manhattan bookstore.

Rick discussed camera placement with her husband, a cinematographer, as bookstore employees dragged chairs out and set up a stage. Rick likened her job as director to being a conductor of sorts, “All these people know their jobs and do their jobs well, so its just a way of kind of like having an influence in kind of a gentle way to make sure that you get what you want.”

Earlier that day in her office, Rick said that as much as she likes making documentaries, she dreams of trying out a new genre. “I love cinema, and I love feature films and I would really like to write and direct my own feature films. But that just, it’s a big big hurdle. Young white men don’t have it easy either, it’s just that they’re more likely to be banked upon when it comes to making films.”

Rick and other women in film say its essential that Hollywood change. Margaret Nagle is a writer and producer whose first screenplay turned into an HBO film that won five Emmy awards. Nagle says the way for women to advance in Hollywood, is for each individual woman to stay focused on doing the best work she can. Nagel says that “There’s the part of me that knows all this exists and its not good. And then there’s that part of my brain that’s like ‘I have to do my work, I have to do what I love, my success will change things for other people, I hope. And when I don’t need to make money anymore, I’ll be this really ranting old lady, who is like absolutely on a soapbox saying this has to change. 

Whatever the strategy, director Deborah Kampmeier says she hopes that women and men can reach parity in the film industry, because film is so important to our culture. Kampmeier says that “films are the place in society that we really sit around the campfire and tell our stories and make our myths, and really create our future as a society. And 93 percent of those stories are being told by men and this is a chronic, very unhealthy balance.”

Though no women directors got Oscar nominations this year, The Kids Are Alright and Winter’s Bone are up for best picture. Both those films were directed by women.