Artists at Work

Nikki Bedi and critic Leila Latif celebrate this year’s London Film Festival with international directors of some of the most playful and provocative upcoming titles.
African-American auteur Boots Riley explains the heady cocktail of comedy, shoplifting and politics in his film, ‘I Love Boosters’.
From the Philippines, Rafael Manuel, reveals why he chose an elite Manila golf course as the setting for his social satire, Filipiñana.
Chilean-Indian director Shalini Adnani’s ‘Our Share of Sand’ examines class and patriarchy’, through the eyes of a twelve year old girl who travels from England to India to reconnect with her father.
And Nigerian filmmaker Daniel Oriahi’s “The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives” is a dark comedy which explores marriage, jealousy and fertility in a Yoruba family.

Nikki Bedi speaks to Sudanese Russian director Suzannah Mirghani about her latest film, Cotton Queen and discusses this week’s cultural highlights with critic Hanna Flint: Tom Cruise and Oscar winning Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu on their new film, Digger Oscar winning actor Catherine Zeta Jones on reclaiming her Welsh accent in the TV series, Kill Jackie Punjabi-Indian superstar singer Diljit Dosanjh on performing in London's biggest stadium Gonzo journalist Jon Ronson on his latest book, The Castle And Oscar-winning screenwriter Callie Khouri on adapting Thelma and Louise into a stage musical

In Berlin, three artists have come together to make some unusual music. They’re not a regular rock band in a commercial recording studio, but in an experimental space, where rare vintage synthesisers from Cold War East Germany sit alongside contemporary instruments. They’re continuing a decades long Berlin tradition of experimental electronic music. In the Studio joins the trio for a couple of days as they push at the envelope of audio possibilities, and hears how musicians from the East and the West influenced each other at the heights of the Cold War. Thanks to the only surviving example of one GDR synthesiser, we’ll literally hear the sound of the other side of the wall in a former divided city.

Josie Long interviews one of the masters of modern horror, Paul Tremblay. He answers your questions on on of his best loved novels, A Head Full of Ghosts.
The story centres on the Barretts, a typical New England suburban family, torn apart when their eldest daughter, 14-year-old Marjorie, begins to display signs of acute mental illness.
When doctors are seemingly unable to offer any relief, and financial troubles compound the horror of being unable to help their child, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. But the priest offers more than prayers; he knows of a production company that is eager to document their plight, and pay a pretty penny for access. With mounting medical bills, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of a hit reality television show - The Possession. When events in the Barrett household spiral into tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.
Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old memories blur with the edited version presented to the world, and the terrible truth of what happened to the Barrett’s is finally brought to light. Though at the end, readers will still be asking if the events were purely medical, or if there really was a supernatural evil lurking beneath it all.
One of Paul’s most beloved works.
Paul answers your questions about the timeless appeal of horror, the power of ambiguity in storytelling, and how demonic possession is perhaps the lesser of all the evils revealed in this story.

Nikki Bedi speaks to American poet, author, and artist Rachel Eliza Griffiths about the extraordinary new documentary film Knife: The Attempted Murder of Salman Rushdie and discusses this week’s cultural highlights with critic William Lee Adams:
American Irish actor Saoirse Ronan on her cultural hero, Barbra Streisand
French creator and writer Fanny Herrero on her new feature length film, Call My Agent
Chinese American literary star Rebecca F Kuang on her new novel, Taipei Story
Director Dave Green on his Looney Toons film, Coyote vs Acme
And we hear music from Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta