From WXXI news.

This is Connections.

I'm Evan Dawson.

Our connection this hour was made for more than 700 days, when a man named David Cuneo wondered if he would ever see his family again.

David was one of the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7th during the attacks, and now his story is coming to Rochester as part of the upcoming and ongoing now Jewish film Festival.

Filmmaker Nancy Spielberg is part of the team that brought David's story to the world with a documentary called A Letter to David.

This hour, we'll discuss the film and its themes.

We're going to talk about two upcoming film festivals this hour.

First, the Jewish Film Festival, as mentioned later this hour, the Rochester Teen Film Festival.

Tell you about that.

Let me welcome our guests in studio.

Marci Wiseman is the director of the Jewish Film Festival.

Welcome to the program.

Nice to have you very much.

And Nancy Spielberg, president of Flameout Productions, is with us remotely.

Nancy, it's great to have you.

Thank you for making time for us.

Oh, I'm thrilled to be here.

Thank you.

Evan and Marci Wiseman, let me just start with you.

The festival has now launched an ongoing running July 26th through August the 2nd.

How many films this year?

We have 26 films.

And where can people find them?

They can find them at both the Dryden Theater, at the George Eastman Museum and also the JCC Hart Theater at the Jewish Community Center in Rochester and Edgewood Avenue.

Got a website you want to direct people to, as you can see, the schedule?

Yes.

That R.J.

Ford.

So we're going to talk with Nancy in a moment about this film and who David was and is and why this film was made the way it was before the program started.

Marci and I were talking briefly about the fact that there are a number of films, either about October 7th or about some of the aftermath, and there are choices that filmmakers have to make.

Are you going to show the footage of October 7th attacks are I'm going to show the aftermath, and in a moment we'll talk about why a letter to David, why the filmmakers chose not to.

But this is not the only film in your festival this year with some of these themes, right?

There's a little bit of a contrast you were telling me about.

Yes.

We are showing two films that deal with the events of October 7th.

The first one is a letter to David, and the second one is called The Road Between Us.

And we're screening that on Thursday, July 30th at the Dryden at 6 p.m.

and that one deals with, retired general who's the father of a family who is located in one of the kibbutzim that are attacked.

And while everybody is fleeing the scene, he and his wife jump into their jeep and rush toward the chaos in order to rescue not just his son and his grandchildren and their family, but also the people that are under attack at that moment.

And that does show a little bit more.

It's a very intense film.

It does show a little bit more of the, kind of aftermath footage that was on the news at the time.

Yeah.

So Nancy Spielberg, take us through a little bit of how you were first introduced to the story of of David and why you wanted to tell the story and film.

Right.

So first of all, on October 7th, I was in Israel.

My daughter had a baby.

She was in Tel Aviv.

The baby was three months old.

We have a home in Jerusalem.

That Saturday morning, my daughter called me and she just basically said, do you understand what's happening?

And which we didn't?

And she said, get a weapon and lock yourself in the safe room.

Terrorists have infiltrated the country.

They are breaking into homes and slaughtering people.

So it's a very, you know, the wake up call that none of us really know how to grasp.

We didn't know The Expanse, and we didn't know exactly where everything was just unfolding.

This was seven in the morning and, so that was really quite a jarring experience.

After several days, we moved from Jerusalem to be with my daughter because she had the baby and a dog and needed help.

And after that we were trying to come back to the United States.

And there were no flights.

So we were in this program to be evacuated.

It was it was all incredibly traumatizing.

And immediately the footage and the body cam footage that Hamas graciously provided us with was all over the news without any kind of censorship.

So you saw it before you realized what you were seeing, and then it stays and it it just changes your life, you know, because you can't imagine a person able to do this to another person.

So, soon after, maybe nine, ten days after October 7th, the news and the, the the atmosphere started to change.

What was being broadcast was not really so much the horrific things done to these Israelis, but the, damage the people dying in Gaza.

So I, like many filmmakers, felt we need to document what's happening.

This is it's it's the worst thing since the Holocaust to happen to Jews.

And we need these things documented.

So I was helping lots of filmmakers.

I'm telling a long story here.

But when we finally were evacuated back to the US, Jake Paul Joe contacted me and he said, I have a story for you.

And I knew that I could not sit in in an editing room with that horrific footage for two years.

It's just you watch something over and over again in an editing room in the process.

But this was a story told so much from humanistic angle with none of that footage.

It was this about this family, about these two brothers being, you know, ripped apart about them being wonderful, nice, sweet guys.

There were actors.

There were actors who actually played in a movie where they played Kidnapers, you know, 12 years before this event or 11 years before.

So I said, this is my.

This is this is definitely myself, you know, and, Nancy, you could have you and your team could have made the choice to show some of, as you say, the body cam footage, the aftermath.

Tell me about the choice of why you did not.

What was really interesting about the angle of this film is, first of all, you have the scripted film that the boys acted in called Youth, which premiered in the Berlinale Film Festival, huge festival.

So these two kibbutz boys, very simple, fun loving 20 something year olds whose it was wonderful life, included picking up an orange right off the tree and eating it.

And that was a pleasure.

They lived on kibbutz near Oz, which is basically, you know, the Land of Oz, where everything is wonderful, utopic life.

And in the making of that film, youth, these boys didn't know how to act.

They were cast on a whim because they needed to play two brothers that were very connected.

You know, like twins are.

And so there was an acting coach and they taught them how to act, and they filmed that.

In fact, Tom.

So while the director thought, maybe I'll make a documentary about these two boys, I took off the kibbutz and taught them how to act.

And it was Tom's first film as well.

And he also gave David a camera and said, show me what your life is like on kibbutz.

So all of that footage was thrown in a drawer in Tom Schwartz production office.

And after October 7th, Tom had this tremendous amount of guilt.

He was very close to the Kunis, and he said, I know what David's thinking.

He's in a tunnel in Gaza, and he must be rethinking.

When we taught him how to act like a terrorist, how to act like a kidnaper.

And then Tom remembered this footage.

So you see these 22 year olds in their wonderful life with all of their friends on kibbutz.

So many of them have been slaughtered.

You see them in the prime of their lives, hopeful, not married, all hanging out together.

Then you see them also the behind the scenes learning how to act.

So these three, this is like a film within a film.

There's all these elements.

So you really get to know who David is, what his relationship was and is with his twin brother Etan, who was not kidnaped, David, his wife, his three year old twins and his younger brother and other family members were all kidnaped.

Eight people from one family.

And and that was what we wanted to show.

We wanted to show the whole person, you know, that's the poster of David behind me.

That's how people knew the hostages from a poster of the kidnaped.

But he's so much more than that.

And that's why we want to show I appreciate you correcting my American does not merchandizing his name.

A letter to David, a letter to David.

And in the film, to your point about, having a twin brother, the humanization of of this hostage story, includes a family member, his brother, saying that, you know, first of all, he looks in the mirror, he sees David.

He understands that David's family might look at him and and see David and feel almost.

I mean, the kids might be confused at times, and some of that anguish over more than 700 days is really, really captured.

And I would just put kind of harrowing and difficult ways.

And so, Nancy, what you and the filmmakers have done is given a very human portrait, a real story of the hostages.

My perspective, watching the hostage situation play out over a couple of years was there was a lot of absolutely and understandably sincere efforts and movements to get the hostages freed.

They were also politicized in certain ways and became sort of pawns as sort of an inevitably happens in politics.

Do you think that there was more humanization needed to help the world see that whatever you're thinking about this story, these are still individual human beings with real families, 100%.

And that was lost so early on because when and when the this the energy and the it's not just the pro-Palestinian movements because that, you know, it's people need to fight for rights for everybody.

But it was weaponizing every Israeli as if they were Ben-Gvir or Bibi Netanyahu.

They were the government in the same way that everyone who's an American would be seen as a Trump.

So people lost the ability to empathize.

And of all things, more important is film is the empathy machine.

If you can step out of all of that, that crap that's floating into the Instagram and all of the the lies and the non truths or the twisting of reality and connect to a person who you could imagine being friends with, you know, like I went and lived on a kibbutz when I was 21 years old.

I hung out with people like David.

So, you know, that was the fun.

There was this energy.

There's this innocence.

I mean, David, when the when he was acting, they taught him how to act, to tie up a girl.

And in the film youth, they were yelling the the director's yelling at them, saying, you're not violent enough.

And there was one line that I think was cut out of the film where David says, look, it's not coming to me like he couldn't act violent.

He couldn't even play act it.

And then this most violent thing happened to him and seven other members of his family and many, many other people.

At least 25% of the people on his kibbutz alone were either slaughtered or kidnaped, and I think we need we needed human touch.

Well, and I think you're making such an important point that, I the way you framed it, I think is really important when you say it, when you ask Americans, whatever you think about this president, do you want the world to think that the president represents you?

The president is you.

That is your views in the same way that people may be disgusted by Smotrich and Ben-Gvir or others, and they may not, but they may.

And if they are, the question is, do you ascribe those ideas to all Israelis, frankly, to all Jews?

And.

Right.

And I, I understand the emotion that comes with it.

And I also have to imagine, Nancy, that making a film like this probably makes you the target of some folks who would say, well, this is just propaganda.

This is another hostage film.

I mean, have you had that criticism?

And what would you say to people who are or would make those claims?

You know, it's interesting because this film, also premiered in Berlinale and, the head of the festival set the right tone because we were warned you are going to be attacked and you need like, crisis management, you need security.

And brace yourself for this in, in, Berlin.

But Tricia set the head of the festival, set the tone because opening night on the red carpet, she literally held up the poster of David and other hostages.

And so every screening we had at the festival was actually trouble free, packed and kind, which was amazing.

There were other situations, our film was accepted, but, you know, into another festival in Europe.

And then shortly after we received a letter that we were uninvited because they were afraid that they would be blacklisted by other festivals, that their people wouldn't be safe.

And and so, you know, either was that canceling?

There was and still is, every Israeli filmmakers and creatives, not just filmmakers being boycotted.

So here you are in what is supposed to be a safe space of documentary filmmaking, sharing ideas.

When the door was slammed on anybody Israeli and the film festival canceled us, said one of the other reasons was that we were in Israeli production.

I said, I'm an American.

I have an American production company.

This isn't an Israeli production.

They said, even so, and they canceled us.

So yes, that happens.

There's others that just wouldn't touch it.

They wouldn't touch a lot of films.

But even if it's not about this October 7th, if it was an Israeli artist, it it sounded door slammed in its face.

I think that just was trying to come out with some films and filmmakers are eating in Tribeca had some films.

I think Sundance had a couple films.

So where I, I think changing, I'm not sure because the rise in anti Israel, you know, hate the hate and anti-Semitism is peaking.

I don't even know if it's peaking.

It's still going up.

So I'm not sure.

When things will calm down.

I just have to pray they will.

Do you think the world needs films about the suffering of people in Gaza?

Yes.

And there are films, and those films were the first ones to be accepted.

So we need to understand suffering on all sides.

That's.

And we're not.

We're people just don't care.

I don't look at the Ukraine war.

We were all there and now nobody is blinking.

What is happening in Darfur?

What's happening in Africa, in all these countries?

Nobody's talking about what happened in Iran with thousands of people being murdered.

That seems to pass quickly.

So there's this, who were, you know, like, focus on Israel and anything Israel does as being, horrific.

So I do think that the films have to be seen on all sides of suffering, human suffering, not just Israel, not just Gaza, but everywhere in the world.

We're talking to Nancy Spielberg, president of Play Mount Productions, and Nancy, part of the team that created a film called A Letter to David David, one of the hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7th attacks and was held for more than 700 days before his release.

And with me in studio as well is Marty Weissman, director of the Jewish Film Festival, which is ongoing now, and this film is part of it.

So give people a little schedule if they want to see it.

This film will be screened.

A letter to David on Tuesday at 6 p.m.

at the Dryden Theater at the historic George Eastman Museum.

Tickets can be purchased by going to our website, which is ww.org 4G.

There are still tickets available.

There will be security on site, just in case, but we don't anticipate any trouble.

It's a it's a beautiful film about two brothers and their experience and, thank God it has a happy ending.

Yeah.

I think journalistically, I have to say, I mean, I, I think there's plenty in the film that we're not going to be able to talk about that wouldn't give parts of it away.

But I do think people should know that David was released, that Ariel was released, that, that they were reunited with their families.

And Nancy, that's another interesting sort of filmmaking choice.

So could you describe a little bit of what you and the team that you're part of was thinking when it came to, you know, how you wrap up a story like this that has all of this tension and not all of the stories end like this?

Then all the hostages, of course, then all the hostage stories ended like that.

How much you wanted to show how much the family was comfortable allowing you to be there for?

Can you just describe some of that?

So for it's my first experience making a film where I didn't know what the ending was.

I think Tom somehow kept us all afloat because he never said yes.

He comes down.

He always said, when David comes home, the one dream he is a filmmaker.

Which filmmakers don't have about their films?

Because he said, I really hope this film becomes irrelevant, that he comes home, you know, a happy ending if it can be after 738 days in a tunnel the entire time, and Ariel in a warehouse alone for 738 days, you know, so it was really, tough.

Plus, because Tom was close to the family, he was so respectful.

And when he went to film the twice, but one day, she was just she was a wreck.

She couldn't sit for cameras, so we would change it if he weren't to film the the parents.

Sylvia, the mother, who was a lioness screaming her children's names on the border of Gaza.

So we tiptoed, we tiptoed.

And when David was finally released and he and Ariel were coming home, I'm screaming to Tom, the director, you've got to be there.

You have to film it.

And Tom said, no, there's so many cameras in their face.

I need them to be ready when they are ready.

If they are ready, we will talk about adding a new ending.

But David came out and he had no clue there was a film about him.

So his wife told him when he was in the hospital, they they brought them to a hospital.

He was there for, I think, a couple of weeks.

She said, you know, I want you to know there's a film about you that's been shown everywhere.

And he said, you know, constantly the Hamas terrorists said to them, no one's trying to save you and your wife has moved on.

Yeah.

So to actually hear that, no, there was this incredible global effort to tell his story.

He he when he was ready, he saw the film.

And then he agreed to to film a new ending.

But the film, as you see it, as you know, it was going to end very abruptly hanging out there just, you know, praying that, that we would have the right ending.

You know, you talk about captivity in a tunnel.

And his story has been not only documented in your film, but, reported in places where you find out not only was it, food debris, food deprivation, I mean, dangerous conditions just to try to survive.

And but some of that psychological, I would call it abuse or torture that you talked about where, you know, either your family's dead or your wife has moved on.

No one is looking for you.

No one cares.

And I don't know.

I mean, when you're making a film like this, Nancy, does it do you feel restored in a sense, about humanity because of the ending that you can bring?

Or do you feel sort of, crushed a bit that human beings can do such things to each other?

Well, when the film came out, David was still captive, and I have to say that I don't, I don't think I have yet recovered from even being in Israel.

October 7th and subsequently being there every three months because I brought my daughter and her baby home.

But she had to go back at some point.

And you know, and I actually found some comfort in being there, which is really crazy because my family always goes, why you're coming back to Israel.

It's a war zone.

It's like, well, interestingly, I sort of feel a little more comfortable in Israel than the streets of Manhattan right now because I'm I don't know if I'm an obvious Jew, but I am Jewish, and I do feel, I do feel unsafe in this country, and I do think even though I'm not a fan of the government in Israel, but I think that a country that has been under attack since its formation has has security measures.

You know, the first time I went to Israel, I went to a movie theater and they looked at my purse and I was like, how dare you?

And then I went, oh, it's for our own good.

So, you know, that becomes your, your norm.

So I was actually, I've been tormented in, in a minor way, not not comparing myself to what people that really lived through this, all of this horrific the last couple of years.

And I could leave, I could I could leave other ones couldn't.

So I really was in many ways demoralized and seeing that people were still saying, and, and this, this, this seething hatred that's coming out of people's pores in this world and watching people repeat things that, you know, shouldn't, not even true.

And then even going and throwing the Holocaust in there like the Holocaust never happened.

Like, let's just change all of history.

Let's just rewrite it.

So, I don't know that it was satisfying until we finished the film.

And even the most satisfying moment, which really sends me to tears, is in May.

I was there, and I sat at a restaurant with David and his family, and we lifted a glass or 2 or 3 and ate a steak.

And we there was this celebration of life and this full circle that was, to me, the what I was hoping for, because I couldn't imagine what I didn't want to imagine, what it could have been.

So it's really a mixed bag.

You can't quite call anything a happy ending when you've gone through an experience like that in your entire life has changed.

Yeah, and the three year old twins, who are now five, cannot be left alone in the house.

And look at their father, a little funny because he hasn't been around for the last two years.

And, the trauma, you know, one of the twins was taken separately, by the terrorist and put, an at home with some some cousins who who kept her for holding her until she ran a fever.

And they were afraid she was going to die and gave her back to Hamas, who then brought her to the hospital where they had gathered.

All of that was their center.

But they had gathered a lot of the hostages.

So, I I'm glad that we have a semi happy ending.

Well, so before I let you go, then I just want to ask you one other question that when you talk about not feeling safe in the United States or maybe not feeling as safe in the United States as you would in Israel, all while juxtaposing that with some of your maybe mixed feelings.

Or, you know, maybe you're not a fan of some of the leaders of Israel.

This is the debate right now, or this is I don't even know if this is a debate.

This is where I think lines get blurred.

I mean, I don't think there is any question that people should be able to and really should criticize government, whether it's the United States, whether it's Israel, whether it's any government in the world, if they think their government is behaving poorly.

I think I think Jewish people do this.

I think Israelis do this.

Of course, the question is when it becomes an act of anti-Semitism.

And I think there's sometimes good faith and bad faith debates about that.

How do you see those lines right now?

And it seems like you think we're not in a healthy place with that, not in a healthy place.

And I 100% believe that we should always criticize our government and make it better when we are calling for the dissolution of the state of Israel, that Israel has no right to exist.

I have a big problem.

There's no other country in the world that anybody is saying should not exist.

So there, you know, that's one thing.

The lines I used to say that the lines were blurred between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, but those lines have been erased.

It is it is open season on Jews.

And I'm I can't believe I'm even saying this.

You know, I've been involved in making films about the Holocaust and we always say never happen again.

But what is coming from the far left and the far right is so it, to me is bone chilling that I'm living like that, that I see I'm wearing, again, I'm wearing my Jewish star.

I put it on after October 7th, because I felt like the need to stand as a proud Jew one way or another.

Whatever I feel about the politics in Israel, you know, if you talk to half the house, the people in Israel and the filmmakers, they're all having a lot of issues the same way this country is having problems with the government is happening there.

That's a democracy and it needs to be fixed.

But I feel and I've seen people's faces, reactions, silence, cold shoulder when someone sees my mug in David.

So that's that's sad.

I saw the antisemitism before when I was a young kid in Arizona where they didn't know what Jews look like.

You know, we must have and things like that.

And I actually also was pulled aside by an American Airlines flight attendant who was we were on a plane with a lot of obviously Jewish people.

I wasn't wearing my mark David pre October 7th when she looked at me and rolled her eyes.

And because there were a lot of people going to pass on the program.

So the airplane was lively and she said, as if I was a, you know, a comrade, it's going to be one of those flights, and I wish I hadn't.

I wish I had stood up and said, well, I'm one of those.

So I see it, I feel it, I feel like, I mean, this is very political.

I'm not comfortable with Mamdani because I think there's creating when when I am not protected.

Going to a synagogue has nothing to do with Israel.

If I am not protected going into a synagogue, then I am not protected in the city, and I need my city to protect me.

That's how I feel.

I, I feel that Americans were supposed to protect all minorities, and we're really teeny group and the biggest Jewish population outside of Israel is New York.

So that we should have somebody stabbed last week coming out of a synagogue, or that we should have demonstrations at our doorsteps or blocking us from going into synagogue.

I have a problem.

I have a big problem.

There's no line.

The is gone.

Marty Weiss, before we let you go, the director of the Jewish Film Festival.

Nancy's coming for the festival.

Is that right?

Yes she is.

We are delighted to welcome her to Rochester.

She will be doing.

And, after screening, talkback with Oren Spitzer and, we're really excited to host her and have her and welcome her to this beautiful city and, and, show her some love.

Nancy, you are generous with your time, and we're going to let you go now, but I know we'll see you in Rochester.

Thank you for making time for the program today.

I'm excited.

Thank you for having me on, Marci.

Thank you.

I'll see you tomorrow.

Nancy Spielberg, president of Playmate Productions.

Before we let Marci Wiseman go, that's we've been talking primarily about a letter to David.

What do you want people to know about the rest of the festival?

There's a lot going on.

We have a lot of really great films on a multitude of topics.

We have.

We're screening today at 6 p.m.

at the Dryden, a film, called To Artemis, which is about the, World Championships of Judo and the Iranian contender is in a position where she might be faced with the Israeli contender and the supreme leader of Iran forces her to throw the game so that that doesn't happen.

We have a great film Wednesday evening at 815 called The Stamp Thief, which is a production by Dan Sterman, who I believe is one of the writers of Seinfeld.

And it's kind of, and Argo and Argo esque, documentary about a rumored valuable stamp collection in a, in an apartment building in Poland.

And they create this whole ruse of making a film so that they can get in there and jackhammer the basement floor to look for this, stamp collection.

We have documentaries.

We have narratives, we have love stories, we have music.

Our our films just are on a wide range of topics, and we are really, really excited to just host the community and welcome everybody in to learn a little bit about what Jewish life looks like in all different parts of the world, and all different times of history.

Marci is the director of the Jewish Film Festival.

It's happening now through August 2nd.

This weekend.

Good luck with that.

Thank you for making time for the program.

Thank you so much for having me.

When we come back, we're going to talk about the Rochester Teen Film Festival next.

Coming up in our second Our Connection Summer sessions looks at the state of the American economy this week.

What are the lessons we can learn from the last several years, from things like tariffs and the effect of rate cuts, and why grocery prices have been so sticky.

What makes inflation stick and when might it come back down?

Economist Eric Morris bringing those lessons in a recent conversation.

We'll bring it back next hour.

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Well, we know there's a lot of talented in the filmmaking community locally, and there is another festival to tell you about the Rochester Teen Film Festival and Linda Maroney is the co-founder is with us back here.

Of course you are.

It's nice to see you again.

How are you?

It's great to be back and welcome as well to Kyla Batiste, who's director and star of issue number one in the Rochester Teen Film Festival.

Hello.

Hello, welcome.

How are you?

I'm great.

How are you?

Very good.

It's nice to have both of you here.

Linda, what's, what's the broad outlines of what you're trying to do with the Rochester Teen Film Festival?

Sure.

We started in 2010 and originally started for urban, suburban and rural youth in Greater Rochester.

And then we started getting more and more, films from around the world.

They would trickle in.

But it was a way to really support the creativity of youth filmmakers and give them, an experience of having a professional film festival.

This year we opened up on film Freeway and we got over 400 submissions.

So how does that how how do you go from 30 submissions to 300 to 400?

How does that happen?

Yeah, I mean, we have film.

I actually wrote down where we receive films from Argentina, Portugal, Indonesia, Australia, Kenya, China, and on and on and on.

But film freeway is a professional platform that filmmakers are uploading their materials to, so they're aware of it.

And now we are in that space as well.

Wow.

Okay.

So it's kind of broaden the horizons a bit here.

Did it make your job harder?

It did.

It really did.

But because there were so many films, we brought in some alumni from the Rochester Teen Film Festival from previous years that act as reviewers.

So they watched about 50 films each and sort of gave it a thumbs up or thumbs down.

And to, you know, move it ahead for other people to watch.

So, okay, so where and when?

The 6th of August at the little theater, doors open at five and the festival will start at 530 next Thursday.

Next Thursday, ten day.

And it's free.

Absolutely free.

Free festival.

Yeah.

And this year we have, we're trying to be more accessible.

So we actually will be open captions and we'll have ASL interpreters.

They are provided by our sponsors.

Shortest film is how short.

It's a little.

It's about two minutes.

Two minutes.

Longest film is is just over ten.

So I've seen two of the films.

One was three minutes, I saw Pandora's present and I saw issue number one, which was 9 or 10 minutes, something like that.

Right in there.

So before we talk about some of those here, give me a sense for what you are seeing in terms of talent, like, I mean, what kind of quality are you typically seeing with these films?

Yeah, I mean, it's runs all over the place, as you might imagine.

Our age range is 13 to pretty much 18 till they go off to college.

So that's a wide gap.

You know, 13 year old films are very different than 18 year old films.

This year there was a lot of drama.

A lot.

There was three films about young male friendship, which is really interesting.

One comedy, one drama and one dramedy, which was really interesting.

Lots of animation this year.

No music videos.

For some reason they didn't arrive.

That's usually a big aspect of teen films as well.

And you had all these submissions and no music.

It's interesting.

Yeah.

I wonder what's what's driving that here?

Okay, so Kyle has film issue number one.

Now I've seen it.

I want to talk to you about what you want the audience to take from it.

What is issue number one about?

Well, it's about two friends, Adonis and Berlin, who, kind of get into school and Adonis is kind of have these new flashy clothes and it catches the attention of Mean Girl, top of the school head of the food chain, Jada, played by me.

Play by you.

Yeah.

And, we kind of see how she creates this rift in their friendship and kind of like how Adonis kind of changes based off his popularity status.

And it's kind of a test of where their friendship will go.

How will end, what is the resolution to it?

And as you may have saw in the movie, that it's not like a perfect ending.

People hearts break, relationships are broken and it takes a while to fix that back up again.

So the mean girl at the top of the food chain again played by you?

Yes.

You know, is forcing friends to make a choice or trying to kind of create these divisions?

How true to life in your world is that?

Well, for me, I was on the opposing side.

I'm actually not meeting in real life.

So there was this hard to play a mean girl.

It's actually a lot easier than me.

Like, I it's really easy, kind of, because I just get to be the opposite of myself.

But I have seen, like, I've had relationships of where I've kind of been, like, pushed away because of something that someone has been interested in, or someone kind of got, like, attracted to, I guess, to where I kind of felt like second fiddle, I guess.

And so, like kind of embodying that character in a way kind of, you know, expresses kind of what I feel in that type of situation.

The name is issue number one, which winks at the comic book world.

But what is issue number one, really?

Just like status status, the like losing yourself based off status.

And in the world we are now kind of like just losing your identity for your for like personal gain and like kind of losing the humility that people have and, kind of wondering where that relationship can go on from there as a friendship when you've been hurt so much, when you push someone so far, I guess.

And I guess the issue itself is popularity in general.

Now as part of the teen film festival.

How old are you, Kayla?

I'm 19 right now.

I was 18 when I made the film.

So, you know, I'm a little older than you.

The older I get, the more I think about the issues that you just described as being really all about insecurity.

You know, not feeling like the world is going to see you as you want, not being part of the status that you want.

And finding a way, as you get older, to be comfortable with who you are is really, really valuable.

And I would wish that for anybody at any age.

Right.

But teenage years are really, really hard.

Have you discovered any sort of piece of wisdom that you want to share for how your peers can get more?

You seem pretty comfortable in your own skin.

Yeah, I just say, don't be afraid to show your flowers.

Just like, don't be afraid to be yourself, no matter how quote unquote weird it may be.

Or like how out of like out of place it may be.

Just don't be afraid to be yourself.

And like, don't let what the world says about you kind of like define you personally inside.

It's what you feel in your heart at the end of the day, I guess.

Don't let people mess with your thermostat.

Yeah, I mean, I love that idea, I love it, and, I have a teenager myself, and Lynn has been through that and making movies yet.

No, he's not, he's not making any movies yet.

He doesn't think he's an artist, but there's an artist in him I'm sure that we can find, but, you know, I. I just want more than anything what we want.

What parents want for kids is for them to be happy and to feel comfortable with who they are.

And my fear, Kyla, is that so much of sort of modern tech and the way we live has made that even harder.

Do you think living on our phones, living on screens, living on social media has made it harder?

Yes.

While also, at the same time, people are kind of using that technology to also uplift certain voices and kind of give awareness to like, you know, mental health and struggles that we see as like in our generation as Gen Z, like kind of kind of be seen as like oversensitive or kind of like immature, I guess.

And creators and a lot of people are kind of combating that negative social media stereotype and trying to make it as beautiful as it can through, you know, talking about helping people where to get sources and stuff and like trying to make sure that you're not alone, I guess.

And that's also the same what I want to do in the future with film, like as a person who mostly kind of felt that loneliness in their life, I it's, I want my gift to create and tell stories is so people who felt like me will know that they are not alone, and they don't have to feel that way alone.

It's a really thoughtful film.

It's a really thoughtful idea.

And you say you do want to keep making films?

Yes.

I mean, like, as the top of your life.

That's that's what you want the career to be.

Are you going to be a filmmaker?

Yes.

I want to expand on everything, whether it be musically or theatrically.

I want to be able to create, to tell stories to, you know, open the dialog, I guess, with, you know, just bring people together.

So how did you how did you react to the film?

What did you think?

Oh, it was very strong.

I mean, I think the performances I, you know, I was just talking to Kyla before this that I thought the performances were really strong.

I thought it was a big topic to tackle.

It was a huge crew and cast that you had, which is not easy.

You know, one thing that we talk about is about collaboration and how you leadership skills that you learn from making films at such a young age, so, so all of those, like, I'm looking at it from various points of view as an educator, as a filmmaker, as an audience member.

I'm looking at it from all those points of view and assessing it that way.

I hate to ask this, but did you use any AI in the creation in the film?

No, not for me personally.

I don't know about anything else, but for me I didn't.

I try to use my original thoughts, most likely.

But I don't know anything else.

Yeah.

So no.

Yeah.

We do have a film from Malaysia about AI.

About it.

Yeah.

And so it's really interesting.

It's about writing essays and using AI, and it becomes a thriller pretty quickly.

Oh, you should definitely come and see it.

Oh, boy.

And how long is this film?

Oh it's short.

It's under four minutes.

I mean, yeah, there's something really impressive about that.

This whole program runs 60 minutes.

So you'll come at 530.

We'll watch all the films down of 60 minutes, and then all of the 12 films that we will watch out of the 400, each one will receive an award and they'll be presented by a jury.

And the jury members take this very seriously about what is really unique and award worthy about that specific film.

And then filmmakers get to go up and give their acceptance speeches, and then afterwards we have a reception that's open again for everyone free pizza and cookies and everything else.

And quite honestly, that's my favorite part, is seeing the filmmakers interact with each other.

So it's free.

Everything's free.

Yeah, free.

It's next Thursday, ten days from now, the Rochester Teen Film Festival, and again, 400 submissions.

You chose a dozen?

Yeah.

And the average length is five minutes.

That's what.

That's what it comes to that.

Yeah.

So it's an hour.

And you've hinted at some of the subjects, or do you think I assume people can use AI if they want to, right.

I mean, is I getting used more in filmmaking?

Oh, we could I mean, I know that you've done a lot of shows about that, but we could always do another one.

Not really in filmmaking.

Like, I don't know, I mean, script writing, I get.

Yeah, but I mean, I'm sure there's other ways that you can use AI.

Oh, completely.

I mean, I'm, I mean, I teach a course in business and careers in film at rat and we talk about we have guests come in and zoom in and talk about it a lot.

That topic comes up, but they're using it.

Producers are using it to create their pitch decks, storyboards, sometimes, previs visualization materials, and then so forth.

I mean, all throughout the pipeline.

So just be direct with me.

Am I being too alarmist when I think we should just read lines?

No, I, I with anything like I don't use AI to write anything.

I never ever have.

Not a script for the show, not anything.

But do I need to accept that it's in society and it's going to be used and it can make things more efficient at times.

And that's and that's not always evil.

Yeah.

I you know, it's a very complicated question.

Right.

And that's why you've had multiple shows about AI.

This is not a black and white thing.

I think thinking about the environmental impact, I think thinking about, what it does on so many different levels, whether you're using it assistive or, you know, are you using AI to clean up an old archival photo for your piece in your film?

Or are you trying to make Abraham Lincoln speak?

You know, just different things, right?

Yeah.

So I think it's a very nuanced conversation that I'd be happy to have with you at a longer time.

I love restoring, you know, old things, using a technique that there's no real replacement for versus like, do I just not want to employ people?

Then I'm like, no, I don't feel good about this.

You're right.

That's probably for another day.

So as I begin to wrap here, I want to think about there's something I've been thinking about lately.

I think a lot about the teenagers who are swirling around me, around my my son.

And they a lot of them talk about how they don't watch full length movies because movies just take too long to watch.

And I'm going, oh, no, Kyle just reacted a certain way.

First of all, do you watch full, full length movies or do.

Yeah, I try to as a film student now, I get more in depth with movies, kind of like, expand, kind of analyzing, I guess, and it's kind of easier to retain it as well, because you can always look at something and try to find, I guess, a deeper meaning by it or like, oh, why did this actor say it like this?

Or so your attention span is no problem handling a two hour movie.

No?

Okay, first of all, awesome.

I'm really glad to hear that.

But at the same time, what this festival shows is you can create something really dramatic or funny or interesting in 3 to 7, eight, nine minutes.

So how do you do that and how do you create like an arc if you've got a four minute film?

Yeah.

I mean, this goes down to the essentials of storytelling, right?

You know, that three act structure, potentially works really well.

Sometimes it doesn't, but, that's often the case of of what you're trying to do, with the short films and you want to leave audiences wanting more, right?

As opposed to, oh, my goodness, that was the longest four minutes of my life.

So it's really about getting down to the essence of storytelling and working on that script, working on your idea.

If you're making a documentary, and editing, editing, editing, editing, and getting really good at that.

And for young filmmakers, sometimes that's the hardest part.

At this age, you know, that high school level is to let go of things that they're emotionally attached to, that they've written, that they had a great time on set and to let it go for service of the story where any edits painful to make for you?

I personally was not part of the editing process, but I was really happy from what I had made from it.

There are certain times where if I had a separate project, it was a bit hard.

I was like, oh, I really like this, or oh no, I have to give this away.

But, you know, putting it towards like, you know, the story so it can still be, you know, concise and, you know, cut down at the same time being coherent.

You know, having to make those decisions is kind of, you know, one of the jobs of being a director.

It's part of the job, for sure.

So like I mentioned, I've seen two of the 12 films.

And certainly when you've got a three minute film or a nine ten minute film, you know you're in it.

It's moving fast.

Hopefully it's really stimulating and it's over.

I'm thinking about the conversation I watch with so Matt Damon and Ben Affleck run Joe Rogan's podcast, and they talked about how so Matt Damon was saying on Netflix, they want you to basically restate using dialog, restate the plot like 4 to 5 times throughout the movie because they think most people who watch movies at home now are distracted by their phone.

They're not really always paying attention.

You're nodding over there.

I heard about this.

Yeah.

Where they design movies to like, where, how much you would look at your phone, kind of and kind of play it off of that.

I guess.

Oh, man.

It's like, you're a filmmaker, but you're a busy person.

You get a lot going when you lock in to watch a movie.

Are you on your phone?

Are you like, I'm in, sometimes.

Sometimes, like, you know, sometimes I get caught up by my phone to.

I would totally admit this.

At home in the theater.

I do not do that.

Thank you.

Yet the theater is the theater still right?

Okay, but have you noticed a trend that Damon is talking about?

They're changing with, like, something a little more overt?

Well, I think, I mean, we could talk about the Netflix model for a while, and there's a lot there to talk about.

But even in the past with, you know, with, with studios, they would want very specific notes to make it appeal to mass audiences.

And this is the same thing, you know, I know right now, like, video essays are really popular with, young 20 somethings and the, you know, no one has attention spans.

But these video essays are two hours and three hours long, you know, and people put them on just in the background.

It's almost like white noise.

And then they're doing other things, and then they pick up when they hear something being interesting.

And so it's fast.

Like that's a whole other thing that's completely fascinating.

Yeah.

I mean, look, generations bring changes in culture and norms.

And I get it.

So as the music plays here one more time, the details next week.

Argh!

Thursday, August 6th, doors open 5:00.

Festivities begin at 530.

It is free to attend at the little theater, so come on down 400.

Roughly 400 submissions for the Rochester Teen Film Festival.

Only a dozen made the cut.

The film's average five minutes.

It's an hour total.

It's all free.

Kyla Batiste You'll be there.

Yes, I will, of course you will.

You're the director and star of issue number one.

Good luck with that and your career.

Thanks for telling your story this hour.

No problem.

Thank you for having me and Linda Maroney, co-founder of the Rochester Teen Film Festival.

I have so much fun.

Next Thursday we will.

It is probably one of the happiest days of the year for me.

Awesome.

We got more connections coming up in just a moment.

Oh.

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