The Gallery

Episode 16 – Adele Pham: Nailed It

Welcome back, everyone! I’m very excited to share with you an interview with one of my personal heroes, New York and Portland-based filmmaker and activist Adele Pham. On this episode, we bonded over being daughters of immigrants, and we also discussed her hit documentary Nailed It, class and cultural identity, the influence of multi-cultural stories in film, and what it’s like to live as a person of color with a hyphenated American identity in this country. Adele’s work has screened at over 20 film festivals, The Smithsonian, and HBO. She is a woman of many talents, devoting her time to multiple projects while freelancing as a cinematographer and editor. Her clients include HBO, PBS, BBH, Newsweek and New York Magazine. Her documentary, Nailed It, premiered on PBS in May 2019 and is the highest streamed film of the America Reframed series. Her next feature, State of Oregon, uses the 2016 murder of Larnell Bruce Jr. by a white supremacist in Gresham, Oregon as a touchstone to the state’s founding as a separatist white homeland a century and a half earlier. A short film by the same name was released by Field Of Vision in 2017: https://www.fieldofvision.org/state-of-oregon [https://www.fieldofvision.org/state-of-oregon].  About NAILED IT “In virtually every city, state and strip mall across the U.S., women get their nails done in salons likely owned by Vietnamese entrepreneurs. How did this community come to dominate an $8 billion dollar nail economy? Nailed It takes viewers from Los Angeles to the Bronx to meet the diverse people and relationships behind this booming and enigmatic trade. Nailed It premiered on PBS in May 2019, and is the highest streamed film of the America Reframed series [https://worldchannel.org/episode/arf-nailed-it/]. Uncover the real history of the Vietnamese nail salon!” – naileditdoc.com [https://www.naileditdoc.com/] A special thanks to Adele Pham’s team, GIVERNY Lab [https://givernylab.com/], and Houston Cinema Arts Society for making this interview possible. Listen to the episode: The post Episode 16 – Adele Pham: Nailed It [http://thegallerypodcast.com/index.php/2021/01/29/episode-16-adele-pham-nailed-it/] appeared first on The Gallery Podcast [http://thegallerypodcast.com].

Episode 15 – Michael Witnes Zapata: For Art’s Sake

When this podcast was launched in 2017, the mission was to feature Houston and its artists in all their beautiful, energetic, and sometimes complicated glory. No one embodies Houston’s dynamic artistic culture better than Ben DeSoto, the subject of directors Michael Witnes Zapata and Andrew Benavides’ latest documentary Ben DeSoto: For Art’s Sake. During this Hispanic Heritage Month, it seems only fitting to bring you the story of a latino Houston legend like DeSoto who captured fellow icons in the midst of an underground music revolution. In this episode, director Michael Witnes Zapata and Claudia discuss the unlikely origin of the documentary, the impact DeSoto’s work has on Houston history, the stories behind some of our local iconic venues, being a part of the Houston Latinx community, and advocating for Houston’s underground culture. About BEN DESOTO: FOR ART’S SAKE Directors Michael Witnes Zapata and Andrew Benavides bring you the incredible story of local legend Ben DeSoto, a Houston photographer who worked as a photojournalist for the Houston Chronicle and the Houston Post for 30 years. Throughout the eighties and nineties, he documented the rise of the Houston underground punk and hip-hop scenes as well as the evolution of our city’s culture through his camera lens. A special thanks to Michael Witnes Zapata’s team, GIVERNY Lab [https://givernylab.com/], and Houston Cinema Arts Society for making this interview possible. Listen to the interview: The post Episode 15 – Michael Witnes Zapata: For Art’s Sake [http://thegallerypodcast.com/index.php/2020/10/16/episode-15-michael-witnes-zapata-for-arts-sake/] appeared first on The Gallery Podcast [http://thegallerypodcast.com].

Episode 14 – Kimberly Rivers-Roberts: Fear No Gumbo

This season, the Gallery Podcast is bringing you a full lineup of filmmaker artist interviews, including some masters and legends, along with the Houston Cinema Arts Society [https://www.cinemahtx.org/] at the 2019 Houston Cinema Arts Festival [https://www.cinemahtx.org/hcaf/]. On this episode, Claudia got to catch up with Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker and rap artist Kimberly Rivers-Roberts. They talked about the injustices faced by the people living in the 9th Ward of New Orleans, Kimberly’s journey to become a powerful voice for her community, holding city leaders accountable, and the impact her film, Fear No Gumbo, is having on the preservation of her home and culture. Kimberly Rivers-Roberts is a rap artist, filmmaker, and community activist who first gained prominence for her documentary Trouble the Water, which won the Grand Jury Prize: Documentary at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for best documentary feature at the 2009 Academy Awards. She releases music under the name Queen Black Kold Madina through her own record label, Born Hustler Records. About FEAR NO GUMBO An exploration of the 9th Ward in New Orleans, Fear No Gumbo focuses on the efforts of people in the community as they rebuild their lives 14 years after Hurricane Katrina. A follow-up to the 2009 Academy Award–nominated documentary Trouble the Water, this sequel follows the neighborhood’s residents as they attempt to preserve their distinct, rich culture by staving off systemic racism, government corruption, and the appearance of “culture vultures” who swooped in during Katrina’s aftermath. A special thanks to Kimberly Rivers-Roberts’ team, GIVERNY Lab [https://givernylab.com/], and Houston Cinema Arts Society for making this interview possible. Listen to the interview: The post Episode 14 – Kimberly Rivers-Roberts: Fear No Gumbo [http://thegallerypodcast.com/index.php/2020/07/17/episode-14-kimberly-rivers-roberts-fear-no-gumbo/] appeared first on The Gallery Podcast [http://thegallerypodcast.com].

Episode 13 – Euzhan Palcy: A Legendary Filmmaker

This season, the Gallery Podcast is bringing you a full lineup of filmmaker artist interviews, including some masters and legends, along with the Houston Cinema Arts Society [https://www.cinemahtx.org/] at the 2019 Houston Cinema Arts Festival [https://www.cinemahtx.org/hcaf/]. In this interview, Claudia sat down with a living legend, filmmaker Euzhan Palcy. They discussed what it has been like for her to carry the weight of all her firsts throughout her career, the current state of Hollywood, breaking away from referring to films with black leads as “black movies”, and her first film Sugar Cane Alley (1983). Ms. Palcy is a native of Martinique in the French West Indies. She is notable for being the first black woman director of a film produced by a major Hollywood studio (MGM) for A Dry White Season (1989), as well as being the first black director (male or female) to direct an actor to an Oscar nomination and the first black director to win a César Award. She is also the first black director to win a Venice Film Festival Award (Silver Lion). Ms. Palcy grew up studying the films of Fritz Lang, Alfred Hitchcock, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles. She left for Paris in 1975 to earn a master’s degree in French literature, in theater, at the Sorbonne, a D.E.A. in Art and Archeology, and a film degree (specializing in cinematography) from renowned Louis Lumière College. It was in Paris, with the encouragement of her “French Godfather”, François Truffaut, that she was able to put together her first feature, Sugar Cane Alley. About SUGAR CANE ALLEY (French title: La Rue Cases-Nègres). Set in Martinique in the 1930s, Sugar Cane Alley paints a rich impasto of native life under French colonial rule, filtered through the coming-of-age of a bright, sweetly, opportunistic black boy learning to reconcile the value of his shanty-town roots with the educational opportunities that beckon him to the big city.  A special thanks to Euzhan Palcy’s team, GIVERNY Lab [https://givernylab.com/], and Houston Cinema Arts Society for making this interview possible. Listen to the interview: The post Episode 13 – Euzhan Palcy: A Legendary Filmmaker [http://thegallerypodcast.com/index.php/2020/03/27/episode-13-euzhan-palcy-a-legendary-filmmaker/] appeared first on The Gallery Podcast [http://thegallerypodcast.com].

Episode 12 – Making WAVES: HCAF Interview with Director Trey Edward Shults

Welcome back, everyone! The Gallery Podcast is bringing you a full lineup of filmmaker artist interviews, including some masters and legends. Claudia teamed up again with Houston Cinema Arts Society [https://www.cinemahtx.org/] to interview guest artists at the 2019 Houston Cinema Arts Festival [https://www.cinemahtx.org/hcaf/]. Her first interview at the festival was with the visionary writer and director, Trey Edward Shults. The two sat down to discuss his third feature film, WAVES, a heart-wrenching exploration of a family’s encounter with the pressures of race, masculinity, tragedy, and grief. Shults, a native Houstonian, made his directorial debut in 2010 with the short film Mother and Son. Since then, he has gone on to write, produce, direct, and edit the 2015 film Krisha and the 2017 film It Comes at Night starring Joel Edgerton. About WAVES This A24 film [https://a24films.com/films/waves] is set against the vibrant landscape of South Florida, and featuring an astonishing ensemble of award-winning actors and breakouts alike, Waves traces the epic emotional journey of a suburban African-American family—led by a well-intentioned but domineering father—as they navigate love, forgiveness and coming together in the aftermath of a loss. A special thanks to A24 Films [https://a24films.com/], GIVERNY Lab [https://givernylab.com/], and Houston Cinema Arts Society for making this interview possible. Watch the promo: https://www.instagram.com/p/B7bmMy0pUtd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link Listen to the interview: The post Episode 12 – Making WAVES: HCAF Interview with Director Trey Edward Shults [http://thegallerypodcast.com/index.php/2020/01/17/episode-12-making-waves-hcaf-interview-with-director-trey-edward-shults/] appeared first on The Gallery Podcast [http://thegallerypodcast.com].