As music festival season takes hold of the summer, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode look at festival films from Woodstock to Summer of Soul. Can you really capture the spirit of a music festival on screen?Mark speaks to legendary editor Thelma Schoonmaker about her era-defining, Academy Award-nominated work on the documentary film Woodstock. He then talks to maverick British director Julien Temple about filming Glastonbury - his very personal film about the history of the English music festival. Ellen talks to music journalist Shaad D’Souza about the relationship between festivals and screen culture in the 21st century, from Bridget Jones to Beyonce at Coachella. And she also speaks to director Jamie Crawford, whose 2022 documentary series Trainwreck: Woodstock 99 showed - in some detail - what can happen when the festival dream gets torn down and trampled underfoot. Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Summer Blockbusters
Fifty years ago this summer, Jaws was released in the US. Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the bestselling novel by Peter Benchley, the film - about a coastal resort town threatened by a great white stark at the busiest time of the year - was a groundbreaking box office phenomenon.Jaws changed the industry overnight - pioneering new marketing and release patterns, and altering the focus and mix of movies that Hollywood made - some say for the worse. From Jaws and Star Wars through to the double whammy of Barbenheimer, summer blockbusters have dominated cinemas. But is this changing? And is there more to the summer blockbuster than big box office and a summer release date? Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode join the queue for popcorn to explore the genre. Mark speaks to critic and author Tim Robey about how Jaws went from potential disaster to record-breaking hit, and about the summer blockbusters that followed. And he also speaks to Jenny He, senior exhibitions curator at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, about the museum’s forthcoming ‘Jaws: The Exhibition’ and the marketing techniques that helped make the 1975 film such a success. Meanwhile, Ellen talks to pop culture critic Kayleigh Donaldson about box office mega-hits for the modern age - and how the inescapable megalith of Marvel has impacted the summer film landscape. And Ellen also speaks to Canadian filmmaker Nyla Innuksuk about her 2022 film Slash/Back - a Spielberg-influenced summer-blockbuster-in-spirit sci-fi adventure movie set in the remote Arctic fishing town of Pangnirtung. Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Immigrant Epics
The Brutalist has been one of the most talked about films of the year and taps into a rich vein of films and television that dramatise the immigrant experience. From The Godfather Part 2 to Small Axe, The Emigrants to Home and Away and An American Tail - Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode examine how filmmakers have investigated and portrayed the perils, patterns and adventure of human movement across the globe.Mark speaks to film critic Christina Newland about the history of immigrant epics in Hollywood - from Once Upon a Time in America to The Brutalist.Ellen then speaks to writer and creator of the tv series Get Millie Black, Marlon James, about his experience watching Small Axe for the first time. Ellen also talks to director Sir Steve McQueen about his anthology series Small Axe and how the films act as their own immigrant epic for the Windrush generation.Producer: Queenie Qureshi-Wales
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Sex Work
Pretty Woman was released in 1990. One of the most beloved and successful romantic comedies of all time, the film tells the Cinderella story of a sex worker, played by Julia Roberts, who finds love with a slick businessman - Richard Gere - after he picks her up on Hollywood Boulevard.Fast forward to 2025 and the astonishing Oscar success of Anora - director Sean Baker’s tale of a young sex worker whose whirlwind affair with a Russian billionaire’s son turns bad, fast.So how has the way we treat sex work on screen changed? Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode delve into the long and thorny relationship between cinema and sex work. Mark speaks to film historian and critic Pamela Hutchinson about how sex work has been tackled in over a hundred years of movies - from early silent films like Pandora’s Box, to the work of Sean Baker. They discuss Jane Fonda’s Oscar-winning turn as a ‘call girl’ in Klute, and look at how male sex worker films like Midnight Cowboy might approach the subject differently. Meanwhile, Ellen talks to Andrea Werhun, the writer, performer and real-life sex worker who served as a consultant on Anora - about her work on the film, and her love for another Richard Gere sex work film, American Gigolo. And Ellen also speaks to Kristen Lovell and Zachary Drucker, whose 2023 documentary The Stroll traced the history of trans sex workers in New York City’s Meatpacking District. Kristen and Zachary discuss why sex work has been a key part of trans history - and what they think Anora’s success means for sex workers. Producer: Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
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Studio Ghibli
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode waltz into the magical world of Studio Ghibli, as the animation giant celebrates its 40th birthday.Ellen speaks to the film, TV and video game critic, Kambole Campbell about Studio Ghibli's origin story and key aspects of visual style. Also, the animator and co-founder of Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, Nora Twomey discusses the emotional impact of films like My Neighbour Totoro, and Grave of the Fireflies. Mark meets actor, Emily Mortimer who discusses the process of re-dubbing for the film, Howl's Moving Castle. And the animator and director, Michaël Dudok de Wit discusses the collaborative relationship forged with Studio Ghibli, while working on his feature length production, The Red Turtle.Producer: Mae-Li Evans
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4
Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode guide us through the expanding universe of the moving image revealing fascinating links and hidden gems from cinema and TV to streaming and beyond.
France