Than we ever really expected lawmakers were expected to see what Reeker knew of the White House's plan to freeze military aid to Ukraine as part of an alleged quid pro quo Bobby Allen n.p.r. News the Capitol millions of Californians are bracing for another blackout as the state's largest utility weighs cutting the power again in the face of fire risks but weather is offering no reprieve N.P.R.'s Amy Held reports winds in northern California are forecast to get much worse throughout the weekend the aptly named Diablo winds are whipping up wildfires including the Can Kate fire that's already burned more than $20000.00 acres in Sonoma County and the winds are only strengthening around San Francisco and Sacramento says Jeremy Graham's lead forecaster at the Storm Prediction Center Sunday morning the Sunday afternoon is only expects sort of a peak in the wind speeds increasing to about 35 to 50 miles an hour with gusts to about 70 miles an hour those massive winds can make a combustible combination with dried out vegetation that acts as fuel a bit of good news the Santa Ana winds that helped spread a fire outside Los Angeles are subsiding but Graeme's cautions that by Monday that northern wind event could begin impacting the south and he held n.p.r. News Chicago's Teachers Union and the public schools are continuing negotiations today trying to end a teacher strike that's been going on for more than a week now 300000 children in the city of now missed 7 days of school Sarah Karp of member station. Has more school district and union officials say they only have a few sticking points to resolve to land a deal the problem is that they're big ones they center around working conditions and include class size caps and staffing increases salary demands also remain an issue Jesse Sharkey's head of the teachers union and says this is a crucial time for negotiators argue that point can mean exercise in trying to manage your emotions stay cool and work hard both the union and school district officials have said they want to get students back to school soon perhaps by Monday they're negotiating through the weekend for n.p.r. News I'm Sarah Karp in Chicago. And you're listening to n.p.r. News from Washington after meeting for 3 weeks in Rome an assembly of Roman Catholic bishops from the Amazon region has called for the Ordination of married men as priests in that area N.P.R.'s Sylvia Poggioli reports the bishops also called on the Vatican to reopen a debate on ordaining women as deacons the proposals contained in the final document were approved by a 2 thirds majority of the bishops on the most controversial issue 128 voting in favor and 41 against or d. Need to the priesthood married men who are proven leaders and already deacons in the church the move is meant to tackle the shortage of priests in the Amazon region but could also have major repr questions on the Catholic Church's centuries old celibacy rule for priests the other hot issue was the need to give more decision making power in church affairs to women who are often the leaders of their communities in the Amazon the final document said it's urgent for the church in the Amazon to promote and confer ministries for men and women in an equitable manner Sylvia Poggioli n.p.r. News Rome in Iraq the government is sending counterterrorism forces to the southern part of the country after violent protests left more than $22.00 security forces and protesters dead those protests continue today as thousands try to reach the heavily fortified Green Zone which is home to embassies and government agencies at least 48 people have been killed since the protests resumed this week after 149 were killed in a wave of demonstrations that took place earlier this month I'm joining Herbst And you're listening to n.p.r. News from Washington. Support for n.p.r. Comes from Frederick and Howard Stevenson supporting Olin College which is working to help the next generation of engineers to develop the entrepreneurial skills experience and mindset to bring technological innovations to market learn more at Olin dot edu and the Casey Foundation. Welcome to the frame weekend I'm. On this show we talk with creative people about how and why they do what they do and about how their art is impacted by the wider world a little later on the show how director Alfonzo Gomes re hone got his movie out from the clutches of Harvey Weinstein and into theaters are going to start today with an actor his name is Robert Pattinson who's in the Twilight movies and you might have seen that he's going to play the next Batman makes me feel free in a way I've never known. The movie is not out for a couple of years 2021 who want to see Pattinson Now you can catch him in the lighthouse but be warned hardly a superhero film and definitely unlike the Twilight movies that made Pattinson a worldwide heartthrob the lighthouse is a black and white surreal drama it's from filmmaker Robert Eggers who made the which it stars Pattinson and Willem de they're stuck on a remote New England island in the 8 $190.00 s. They play lighthouse keepers and there's nobody around to help them he used to be 2 guys in a lighthouse and done they used to always carry each other Ok. And a victory I mean to who I'm playing in as someone who's kind of essentially on the run and it's one of the wild west working there I guess you could also argue in some ways it's like 2 astronauts in space traveling to Mars they can't leave their stock Exactly yeah and full week suddenly seems like. 5 Yes it's kind of one of the one of the parts to me quite a thing was all fancy house people can even don know but you know what I don't because I tell you I screw up this here place twice over here you did nothing with us haunch and I say yes well but again you just want a proper lot this long and we'll be swapping it taking Tong small. The conceit of the movie is that your character I'm willing to pose character have different stations on the station that he is the boss and he gets to go places that your character doesn't he has more experience he has more knowledge and he's very possessive of those things and it got me thinking about the relationship between actors playing those characters that there's the dynamic in the story and there's the dynamic of how people approach acting and they may be very different. I mean the good thing about only having 2 people in something that makes it a lot easier I mean I don't mean when I'm really approach stuff that different anyway I feel like I feel like he just I mean he just has a lot of control over his technique whereas. I don't know I feel like I'm really just like rolling the dice a lot like trying to get my body to feel it and then hopefully something comes out off to it's Whereas I think women can really have a plan and stick to it as the chief Well what he strikes are chief. I've kind of. Noted a not entirely sure what I'm trying to achieve I've just tried I know. That I'm just I'm just kind of hoping that something happens and throwing myself just just jumping off a cliff basically I want to back up an ask you about watching the witch and about seeing that film and about what you took away from Robert Eggers 1st feature. I was kind of looking for someone who just heard some very original basically and the which was strikingly original and then I want to walk through a bit about. I guess 4 years ago some about the segment before I pick which is most about a night and the budget ends up a massive and it kind of never got together and then we kind of went through during Nosferatu I was sort of into it but I thought look actually close to home playing over. That then I thought that then that vampire Thank you yeah and I thought maybe that's kind of genius to do or just do it again. But then that kind of didn't come together then this came up and I just thought there's always someone who appeals to me about very very specific colloquial dialect the more movies I do I think I think the 1st thing I connect to and a part is just how character speaks and then everything kind of comes out of that we're talking with Robert Pattinson about his film The Lighthouse I want to ask you more about that idea about finding a character through dialogue is it something that you find organically and once you figure out the dialect do the physical traits of the character start to reveal itself I had a little tape of some lobster fisherman from Maine and there's something about the there's little areas of Maine which kind of have pockets of an accent which kind of sounds I mean it doesn't sound like you're in America at all and I thought I was really fascinated with something kind of. Almost like an English West Country accent or something and it's just survived completely intact doesn't change for hundreds of years to. Me. One will be know with the. Slogan earn a living just like any man start a new. On the run. There were just a couple of syllable sounds which then just sort of tickled me a little bit and I tried to sort of shove that into the into the script when I was reading it and then suddenly something clicked and he suddenly realized because of the way your mouth has to form a syllable it sort of changes your facial expressions and then it starts to kind of control your body a little bit it feels very natural approach for you and it really works and it's kind of but then you end up I mean some of the stuff I was doing. To kind of get into the lighthouse was just I mean I mean really on the cusp of unprofessional. You could torture yourself every which way the terms of how you would prepare for a scene or how you would actually yeah the scenes well to do them and it was kind of I guess because a lot of the very very very adrenalized scenes as well but there was something about how difficult that accent is to stay in it that inform the character as well because it's kind of you could slip into something else so easily and then I kind of I like the idea of just someone who's so uncomfortable with his own reality that you're trying to twist out of it the whole time it's some kind of you know you sort of become a kind of Houdini kind of thing I mean it sounds like in some ways a difficult idea to play because what you're describing is somebody who is not really understanding who he is and what he's doing Yeah and I am in the us and we're saying is this happening in his mind is this is a magical island it's kind of and one of the one of the 1st question I would rather I just awesome where how he'd come up with the story he was just saying I have no idea I just something happened because it's so bizarre I mean in so many ways it's kind of like when you've had a dream and if you wake up and you can kind of thing I know I had that dream because at this memory and this thing happened and sometimes you have a dream when you wake up and you're like way to die. And causes you to question everything here at existence his last question what do you enjoy about acting and how would you describe the satisfaction you get from performing I mean there's different facets of it I love I love that. The freefall aspects of when you're actually performing it's kind of you can do all this prat. But then I feel so what's that and then pick sport when you're doing tumbling when it's when your gymnastics you know when when you let you just have the kind of the mats and you're just flipping on the line for exercise or as and yeah success and running around in it kind of feels like if you can you can do the run up but once you're flipping it's kind of you just have to hope you can either stick your landing or go flying the mat and and it's and there's something very exhilarating about. Especially when you're prepared correctly Robert thanks so much for coming in so there's a Robert Pattinson is in the lighthouse opposite Willem Dafoe it's in select theaters now you're listening to the frame we can I'm John Horn. Game of Thrones is gone but h.b.o. Might be dominating Sunday night's again this time with a series called Watchmen aside from impeachment testimony in Washington and fires raging in California this series seems to be the thing that everybody is talking about this week watchman is created by Damon Lindelof you might know him from Lost in the leftovers it's based on a graphic novel set in New York in the 1980 s. Soraya Nadia MacDonald is the culture critic for the undefeated and she's been writing about the show. So the h.b.o. Watchman is set and told so Oklahoma unlike the graphic novel or the 2009 movie why is that an important choice it's set in Tulsa Oklahoma. 1921 race now it's occurred that takes place in a business district. Called Greenway this is an event that actually took place in American history in real life not just in this sort of superhero universe and it was this new. Act of racial tyranny. Seems to black protesters in shoes that Greenwood neighborhood $21.00 at the end of May The white man that confronts the protesters armed as many as $300.00 black people are murdered their businesses are burned down it's really horrific incident more than 10000 black people were left homeless about 40 blocks of this neighborhood were left smolder reign and it's an important thing to in terms of the opening scene I think that we see in Watchmen where we are inside a movie theater and there's a young African-American boy who is watching a silent film. Let's talk about what's on screen and then what happens after that this chaos in Iraq. And sitting in a movie theater mother played the piano you know. What he's doing. Now or start to play and his. Parents realize he might not necessarily be able to save all 3 of them to make it we've. Got to go. Hide him away. And if you look closely the silent film that the boys watching is Bass Reeves who is the 1st black deputy u.s. Marshal west of the Mississippi and he's a rest you know white sheriff and he's a real person so there are things where you can say I didn't know that and maybe there's a little hint of something and find out what it is these things are in further detail Yeah I think that is really wonderful about this and Dave and Linda Watts approach to it. Is that he has taken something from comic book culture and superheroes culture which is this idea of Easter eggs which are the stakes are meant for sort of hardcore fans to be able to identify sort of like a little not you know went to war but they're also meant to inspire curiosity and he's expecting their curiosity will be peak and maybe they'll do some googling learning about the history of that he's decided to center in a series we're talking by Sariah Nadi McDonald about the h.b.o. Series Watchmen Alan Moore's graphic novel played a lot with alternative history and the series in many ways picks up on that idea the country in the series is run by President Robert Redford Yes that Robert Redford and the president's treasury secretary Henry Louis Gates Jr But what does that alternative history give the creators of Watchmen and terms of exploring contemporary issues especially those focused really narrowly on race president Redford has passed an act that offers compensation for victims of racial violence because of this there are. White people in Tulsa and around the country who are put out by this by this form of reparations basically and so they refer to them as red sedations you know in the 1st episode you'll see King's character is introduced as this woman who own a bakery she's doing a demonstration for us and as she's doing this one of the children in the class asks her basically did you get the money to start your business from Bradford Asians and this is not said in a nice way and it turns out that Regina by day is the owner of this bakery that turns out to be a cover job for her because she is a member. The secret police of tolls who have basically gone undercover and who now were Basques whenever they're on duty because so much of their job is concerned with fighting white supremacist violence and 3 years earlier nearly the entire Tulsa police force is wiped out when all of these police officers are murdered in their homes by members of this white supremacist group called the 7th Cavalry which obviously has a lot in common with the Ku Klux Klan and I think it's fair to say that a lot of people who watch Watchmen may have no knowledge about the Tulsa race massacre and take it fantastic all that planes were dropping fire bombs but it's all true and I'm wondering when you think about the impact that a work of fiction can have on a contemporary audience how do you think shows like this can open our eyes not only to our history but also our present I think they can be tremendously important when you have a show that is magnetic as watchman it was and you know you could just sort of look at social media at 10 pm Sunday night after the 1st episode aired and everyone is basically aghast. And so that means that we have sort of a central point of reference to have a conversation about something that really has been I would say suppressed from sort of the larger common story of American history you know I mean just this week we're having this huge conversation about lynching and what that means because the president tweets that he is the subject of a lynching and then just sort of have like this math education that takes place on line of what the history of lynching actually is in America that's why I said that including something like the toll to reach massacre. In lieu of. Taking things that happened in American history that haven't necessarily been widely discussed and not only discussing the really challenging if you were in terms. Of them think critically about who is shaping the history that we know thanks so much for coming on the show thank you very much. Donald is the culture critic for the undefeated should be writing a weekly newsletter about H.B.O.'s watchman episode 2 airs Sunday night coming up the political leanings of a big part of his fan base that's coming up next on the frame we got. Well there are still a host of Live From here in this weekend for our insane show with Paul Simon Yes that Paul Simon Mavis Staples Yes Mavis Staples Rachel price with Rachel a villain. And more I guess can you believe it there's even more you seriously don't want to miss this one Saturday night at 7 on 89.3 k. P.c.c. . Potential. News normal programming will be preempted this Saturday night snap judgment presents. For full hours of true life supernatural stories told 1st hand by people who could barely believe it happened themselves the lights in the window went out it was silent and black as if anything inside no longer existed Saturday night starting at $9.00 p.c.c. P.c.c. Supporters include l.a. County Department of Public Health committed to helping people be stronger and healthier they've been in. Aerosol from any cigarette or other vaporing device is linked to illnesses and deaths across the country including in l.a. County these devices can contain harmful ingredients it's recommended that everyone adults and young people stop any form of babying now learn more at l.a. Quits dot com. Welcome back to the frame weekend I'm John Horn hollowing is right around the corner to target has all its candy on seo But if you're looking to get some scares one place to go is shutter the streaming service is to hard fans what the Criterion Collection is the film buffs but shutter also makes original content like Creep Show. A new generation. Is a person that. You have to ology series reimagined the 1982 Stephen King film in 20 minute segments they're filled with practical effects and a fair amount of blood and guts those are courtesy of makeup wizard Greg Nicotero who worked on The Walking Dead and he runs a series among the directors of Creep Show is Roxanne Benjamin who was like a kid in a candy store when she went to nick a terrorist studio you know he's got all of this great stuff around and that's just decades and decades worth and his whole team I mean there's you know between all of them like a century's worth of experience and in doing this kind of stuff did you grow up watching shows like Creep Show or what was your early years or entertainment diet when you were young Yeah well I grew up basically in the woods. In the Allegheny Mountains right next to national forest land in rural Pennsylvania so there's not a lot to do out there so it was a lot of I read a lot of books and I was reading like Stephen King and Dean Koontz and books like that and all of the e.c. Comics when I was like 67 years old because they were the only things that were in the house as it's also what my mother read does that. I mean you're more inclined to certain kinds of stories I mean if you're you're paying us picture I'm picturing your house and things that go bump in the night it sounds like it could be the setting for any number of horror movies oh yeah is that part of what your imagination was like when you're going to yeah absolutely and and plus it's you know this is like pre internet days and you're just kind of left with your own imagination and this is also in a place where you were basically booted out the door at dawn and told to come back at sunset you know make sure you get back before the light disappears and it sounds like I grew up in the fifty's because they we would ride our bikes into town and you know buy easy comics and Tales From The Crypt at like the local dime drugstore and it's a very kind of idea like childhood I guess looking back on it we're talking with director Roxanne Benjamin and there's a moment in your critique show episode where there is a glass object that gets wedged into that you say gets wedge into a part of somebody's body and that's grisly enough but the sound of facts that are added in post about what that object sounds like what it's pulled out are beyond describing. This sound process is my favorite part because that's where it really starts to feel like it's coming together because when you're on set you're making genre so much of it has to do with the soundscape and with building that sense of tension through music through school or through silence and when to break that silence so much of it has to do is sound it's it's 5050 on the visual and the sound it's so important in John or where I think that skews much more of the visual in straight film I guess you would say so when you're 100 set half the time you're like this is this live this is going to be so it's stared at I'm a failure at life and then you go. It into the the next new get into it fully and it starts to come together and you're like yes this is what I had in my head while we were there and you just have to get past that piece to get to the real meat of it which comes with the sound as on these are video Yeah that's And you also produce the v.h.s. Movies and you worked on southbound another anthology series what do those kinds of stories give you that may be a feature length movie doesn't there morality tales at the end of the day at that there if simplest form it's folktale you're working in folklore and mythology in a way and that's kind of the very basis of why we tell stories I feel is to impart some sort of lesson in life or something that you're supposed to take from it that is either to help you or warn you about the circumstances of life and this provides a format to do that and it's absolute purest and simplest form. Roxanne Benjamin is one of the directors of Creepshow you can watch episodes on the hard streaming service shutter. This is the frame weekend and tonight Morrissey the former front man for the band The Smiths plays the Hollywood ball but a historically devoted sector of his l.a. Fanbase may not be in attendance and that includes frame contributors Stephen quote of us he has our story recently Morsi has been more outspoken about his support for extreme far right politicians in his native England that's on top of inflammatory comments he's made in the past about Chinese people immigrants but there have been hints of Morrissey's more extreme views in lyrics going back for years like 1900 to snatch from disco song heard as a critique of extremist ideologies by some blood is a nationalistic rebel yell to others. Player It wasn't that hard for fans to let such song slide even Morrissey's championing of the underdog and the outsider he criticised the monarchy and police brutality and then last year came a controversial endorsement I'm not afraid to be called on to and I'm not afraid either for us as a party to embrace that and go with that it's about opposing barbarism and Marie waters is the founder of for Britain a radical far right openly Islamophobia party in all it mostly a noticed here in America until Morsi performed on The Jimmy Fallon Show earlier this year with a 4 Britain lapel pin stuck to his jacket. Morsi supporters of such far right anti immigrant politics is now in one of the singers biggest and most devoted fan bases Latinas especially in the British singers one time home. Once a month the cozy Boyle Heights bar East Side love has some Morrissey karaoke nights they're known as Morrissey open as usual the place is packed with mostly Mexican American fans queuing up to play in their favorite law. There's also chatter about Morrissey's divisive embrace of far right politics. Who asked that we not use his last name is conflicted disagrees with the singer's coarsening views but Morsi is also kind of been a lifelong companion I think even back then I already knew that I was clear I wasn't out so I kind of related to a lot of the songs are saying a lot of these pressures that I was having on the boys but he also decided to fight we boycott the seniors recent l.a. Area show I struggle a lot and if I'm going to give my money I'm not as prone to be like here I love you take my money. You don't need me in your auditorium some people might say well then you're not a real fan but that's my truth the cracks in Morrissey's fan base in the us appear to be spreading most recently during a show in Portland last Mock The Week the was the senior exploded after spotting a protester who was hoisting an anti for Britain sign and another that simply said Big Mouth indeed reference to one of more cities biggest hits with the Smiths. And I've actually seen you about 1314 times a D'Anna Civita a devoted fan in high school journalism teacher in the San Fernando Valley stuck with plans to attend more upcoming show this weekend in Hollywood but she also wishes he'd answer for his more caustic comments I may think it would be good for him to just come out and you know sit down for an interview come out and set things straight but I think he's always been very independent and he'll just say whatever is on his mind whether people agree with it or not just injures a breaking point for you I don't know I've been thinking about that but I don't know I can't tell you. Professor Melissa he the algo author of the 2016 book. Morrissey fans in the Borderlands and lead singer of an all Latino Morsi cover bands now on hiatus reached her breaking point about a year ago when Morrissey threw his arms around for Britain should it just be about what he sings about rather than what he talks about you know like I it's painful Morris he's mostly kept silent about Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies in this country and his frequent attacks of refugees and asylum seekers though it shows in Mexico City and Los Angeles 2 years ago his entire band wore t. Shirts with Trump's name preceded by a 4 letter expletive I think this is his way of say look I can't possibly be Reese's because I love my fans and they let me write and so songs he's anti Trump and that's good enough for a lot of left he says Well I mean just because he's said he's had his I mean his anti the ideologies in Mexico. For many let the you know fans myself included it's all been pretty confusing and painful after having kind of a take it or leave it relationship with Morsi is music for years a couple of songs I heard he recorded in 2004 that romanticized Mexican American culture sent me swooning tag. Board. After that I was sought a fan for life but how could that guy just a decade later tell a British magazine that he feels persecuted after being slammed over his own Zina phobic finger pointing I was a good. And that quote Racism doesn't mean anything and I wouldn't do no harm. So as I flip through all my own Morsi and Smith's records I don't know what to do I've not tossed any of them but I also haven't listened to any and well over. A year I guess I'm just waiting for an explanation an apology something that will ease the heartbreak fans around the world and right here in. The frame I'm Stephen Cuevas. In the new movie Joe Joe rabbit New Zealand filmmaker Tycho y.t.d. Takes on good and evil but if you think this is going to be anything like his Marvel blockbuster Thor think again this film is set in Germany during the 2nd World War and it focuses on a boy whose imaginary best friend is Adolf Hitler. Want to tell me about that incident that's about. They wanted me to kill. I'm sorry I didn't know about it I couldn't care less and now they call me a scared rabbit let them say whatever they want people to say I lost a nasty things about me a lunatic look at that psycho he's going to get us all killed. And on and in secret the rabbit is no coward the film star Scarlett Johansson and Sam Rockwell and white t.v. Plays Hitler were at least a 10 year old boy's imagination of what Hitler would be like it was interesting because it's not Hitler it's probably it's some sort of Malcolm of his father. And maybe some other father figures that he that he wanted to and so that's really where they come from the one of the best friend that was so striking and really represented the brush and I wanted to show that throughout the film you know if you look carefully like you know the buttons of falling off a jack in the. His slowly gets more messy and. Falling off on his jacket which. Is do you know the full of. The complete shambles that became the novel upon which this film is based was published more than a decade ago and you've been working on this film for a number of years. What kept you going and how did you finally get it made what changed between drafts because people must have said. You know what they told you when you started shopping around there's a lot of enthusiasm for the script because it is a good script with a. Even Denah news people make not only because of the you know the human element to it but it's another world war 2 feel like a thing at that time 2011 did being a lot and also at that time it was a period with. Focus more on at Does being the selling point of films and they to get the money to get financing for a film like this would need you know big names very very big names think that anyone big had played this role had played it would have really distracted from the whole point of the film in the message of the film and the story which is these kids in this story and it would have just become the insert name here at the movie and at this point when you're 1st thinking about it you haven't made one for older people correct not but you have been thinking about at least made one movie about under Parenthood or parroted kids which see. Pretty clearly to be something that you're struck by yes and Cajuns guys the novel and Judge arrive at the movie seem to fall pretty neatly into that idea Yeah well I really think some people would suggest that it's focus more on children father figures but. Most of my films are really about mothers you hate your kind genes as much I love my country so why he it's pointless and stupid and the sooner we have peace the better. And when they are just right we've got to ask hey no more politics is neutral ground. This is really about a boy's longing for his mother and trying to convince himself that. His father's this fantastical. This and that you know that really who he wants in his life when it's not very smooth. For. Sealers owns and for the family and I love the family dynamic and growing up with a single mother. With what dad. Would be up to all you know what with their backgrounds and stuff even though I knew my dad. But I grew up in the area with a lot of solo moms and a lot of you know kids from single parent homes new actually and we would actually roll around in little groups and hassle kids of if we found the parents were still together because it's just wasn't cool to have 2 parents saw there was a lot of really none and I got to like. The times of trying to write families with 2 parents. Who get bored or talk with talk about t.v. About his new film judge or rabbit This film is very polarizing and people have very strong opinions to the positive end of the negative and I guess given the material that's expected Did you always kind of know that going in there to be people who would embrace this film and people who would reject it yeah I always knew there were people who embrace the film and there'd be a racist either or. In America people see that would divisive this is a. Very negative thing I know that if I wanted to have pleased every single piece and with this film it would not be this film and it would not be one of my films to be someone else's film and it would be boring but yeah. That there would be people who would not you know and fair enough is a big deal with an especially if if it's something that's very close to. I did read somewhere someone says something like Oh I don't think we've really human with the subject matter which is insane to me I mean there was one movie in 1989 which did it. You're a tech hater Yes socialism you know new idea and I think was interesting is like this idea that oh she may be used in a serious way or can be used to fight against regimes and dictators use which is actually one of the most powerful tools as ever been used. I saw some very good company tech a Great to see you thank you to the show thanks very much. Coming up next the leader of the band Everclear once contemplated suicide now he's embracing life even as he battles idea belittling disease that's next on a frame we've got Stay with us. This is going to see American life we have I have to say our happiest show ever is stories about cute little bunnies. And. Scary stories. On. Saturdays at 389.3 k. P.c.c. Give a car you're not using a new lease on life by donating it to k.p.c. See it's quick and easy we pick it up handle the sale send you a tax receipt and use the proceeds to power local independent journalism k b c c dot org slash cars. Supporters include Fox Searchlight presenting Jo-Jo Rabbit an antiwar satire directed by Tyco i.t.t. In starring Scarlett Johansson Sam Rockwell Thomas in Mackenzie Rebel Wilson Stephen Merchant and Alfie Allen now playing in select theaters dignity house Southern California hospitals including Glendale Memorial St Mary in Long Beach North Ridge hospital California hospital in downtown l.a. St Bernard Dean and community. Hospital of San Bernadino they are doctors and nurses look for the healing effects of human kindness every day to learn about emergency services heart care and healthy babies you can visit dignity Health dot org slash So-Cal dignity health Hello human kindness. Welcome back to the frame weekend I'm John Horn our future is not going to pay for the bricks. And conquer the current war stars Benedict Cumberbatch Michael Shannon and Tom Holland switched tonight and you with his current kills people as you said the current war tells the true story of the competition between Nikola Tesla Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse to determine whose ideas would power the nation it was supposed to be the next big step for filmmaker Alfonzo Gomez Ray hone who previously directed me and Earl and the dying girl but Harvey Weinstein temporarily Darrelle Gomez Ray hones career it's great to see you get to see 20 was meaner all what year was that there was premiered at Sundance in 2015 Wow Yeah and you were the 1st interview after my premiere. Never forget that and I remember after I heard about current war I would occasionally send you e-mails saying what's going on when we see what's going on in that one and blunder after a year or 2 I stopped sending them out felt like you know asking a girl out on a date she was no longer interested but I think there are other things going on it leave me I wanted to get to dinner and talk about it for hours because the stories are more surreal and never ending but it was a time where it was so uncertain what was going to happen that it was best to just lay low and talk about it when the time is right in 2017 a version of the film heavily edited by Harvey Weinstein screen badly at the Toronto International Film Festival now Gomez Rone is. Lazying the current war director's cut this version is all me I understand and it's important because I don't want him to redefine this new donors part of my check of my life but. I listen to some really bad advice early on which is let Harvey into the process early during the director's cut and things will go better and that you all you do is open the door and the notes start and machine starts and and you become quite vulnerable to because you don't you're not doing the work you're not cutting the film you're dressing notes and negotiating and buying time and you have offices in London l.a. New York given you lists and just to make him happy and and it just becomes not about your process as an artist as a filmmaker but. Better about trying to keep your vision alive and so so so by the time you get to it if you've lost a lot of battles and you you're bracing and loving the stuff you got away with but that's the big difference between. Compromise and sacrifice that you're answering to the executive Harvey rather than to the story the film yeah it's a it's a force it's. Is a Force and I mean I I knew that going into it so a couple of weeks after the film premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival the New Yorker New York Times published their stories about Harvey Weinstein's Wong record of sexual assault and harassment that is its own story but what does it do to the film because there are number of movies that are at the Weinstein Company that are suddenly put into some sort of limbo so not only are you unhappy with the version of the film The You've shown a trauma but now the company itself is in collapse freefall was incredibly surreal timing because when the stories broke was before me too there was this period where no one knew what was going to happen and I was in the middle of the cutting room now cutting in the offices here in l.a. And the air. Or is different that half the people which are you know the cubicles are empty so we did we just quietly locked a cocked. As best we could you can't you can't be going in one wrong direction for a year and then then then correct the course in 3 days but we did as much as we could unlock the version and we're going to wait until a possible push of a month which is that's you know this is before it became something bigger one month became 6 became a year and I never stopped recording the movie in my head we're talking with a fan so Gomez that I honed about the current war early in your career you were working with a director by the name of Martin Scorsese. And I'm wondering if people like Martin or other people were allies through this process and what they brought to the process that helped you score says he was part of my actual he's a guardian angel of this whole process because it was part of my deal where if my final cutting rights for my final cut was in agreed on or there was a battle with the studio that the final cut would revert to him so Harvey Weinstein can push around all Fonzo Gomez or home but he can't push around Martin Scorsese pushed back a bit I know that. Having a merger while it was look it was. It was it was a chaotic time obviously everyone wanted the best version of the film but the version that matters is the one in the director's head and then it just abruptly ended without really coming to any kind of conclusion because of everything that happened so. Harvey wasn't even a factor in getting the final cut it was a good legal thing and it was he was kind enough to been generous enough to to hand it to me the end of your fellow is about the creation of the Motion Picture and about Thomas Edison filming at Niagara Falls correct yes and I'm wondering you have . I have the coda the film about the creation of Motion Pictures and it almost feels like the making and remaking and release of this film could be its own film about the making of a motion picture and at what point did you start to say art is imitating life or the other way around that what you are documented in your narrative film in some way is happening to you in real time about trying to create a moving image and having so many obstacles put in your way that's a great question because I've only recently started to see that part of that layer into a kind of believe me I didn't want I didn't think it was going to be this hard but Edison's fight against Mother Nature and trying to defy it and always looking ahead and not letting himself fail was something that I could see myself going through at the same time and even very close people around me tell me just let it go let it go just move on to the next movie this happens to a lot of filmmakers. But I couldn't let it go I couldn't stop because it wasn't it hadn't been ripped away from you yet so there was still hope but there was certain resilience in delusion delusions of grandeur I guess he just wanted to not face reality and my reality was so hard to even accept of what of what could happen had I just given up and walked away a year or 2 ago which would have been a film that has my name on it that isn't the movie I intended to make that is surrounded with a lot of shame and negativity and it affected me deeply in that reality was too hard to face and so that I'm glad I kept fighting because it is a triumph for really everybody I'm there representing the cast and the crew and and so I feel a little bit like I guess I'm looking ahead at the at the end with some optimism regardless of how it's received in the Re published the old reviews I know that this is what I intended to make Afonso Gomes really hone is the director of the current war Director's Cut Afonso great to see you thanks for coming thank you so much. The current war director's cut is in theaters now. To wrap up as edition of the frame we're going to visit with a punk pop star from the 1990 s. Who is now back with a solo album Art Alexakis the front man of ever Clare has a lot of heavy things on his mind white supremacists cyber bullies and living with a terrifying disease but as he explained to the frame contributor Tim grieving this might be his sunniest album yet. Art Alexakis Shouldn't Be Alive he grew up in marvelous to project housing raised on welfare by a single mom after being abandoned by his father he was addicted to drugs by his teens lost his girlfriend and his older brother to drug overdoses and tried to drown himself off the Santa Monica Pier. But he survived got sober and in 1902 he founded Everclear you get up you get up again and that hardest part is getting back up again doesn't mean you're going to win the next time but you're still there so in the game I want to muse everything there hit records were father of mine I will buy you a new life and wonderful. Alexakis his lyrics have always been incredibly personal just listen to the song that he wrote for his oldest daughter. Going to. A song they. Are. This song is fused punk rock attitude with pop catchiness and even at times lush orchestration and beach boy style harmonies the intro for so much for the after like the Beach Boys like into. Half of those. And then I put those guys into. A 3rd voices on everything and. He basically took that approach to the extreme on his new solo album recording every single part himself at his modest studio in Pasadena This is the studio this were recorded that if you came at any given time when I was doing. Just. And I'd set up and that was my vocal booth when I met Alexakis at a studio the other day his pipes sounded much more frail mostly because he was getting over a flu but years of rock'n'roll have taken their toll on other parts of his 57 year old body I have a bad knee and a bad hip I gotta get my hip replaced and I couldn't play kick drum like a normal again I've been playing drums for years so I did all the drums like old school like you're in my junior high music shop right and I'm just hitting kicks and if there's like the. Top top. Notably less sturdy on his feet these days people started gossiping that he was back on the bottle last year that's when he decided to make something public a few years ago Alexakis was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when I 1st got diagnosed I read about water to these 2 used to diagnose people and like people with these comes diseases it's like a constant water test you're constantly being poked and prodded. And sometimes in real life and sometimes just by yourself and by your own so it's. Like chances are good teacher too that you're going to the World's Fair if it's pretty scary scary. Story and made it into. The plonk to. Slag. Me my wife called her and told her I'm both sort of crying. You know and by the time I got home she was like she she looked like she was hacking in Fort Knox and so she like 3 computers up on the bed she's like baby we've got this we've got this . Besides open the addressing his disease on the album Alexakis Vince about the horrors of cyber bullies and trump one song is called white people scare me but despite all the darkness it's a surprisingly major key album which is after all called Song songs and I wrote a song on the record that I'd never done before it was like I wrote a love song for my wife sunshine a love song or a love song for my daughter Arizona Star and I wrote a love song for me. To. Play. A. I. Did say one thing about this is these I mean this is these it's really made me extremely career full for just about everything and I'm so much easier to deal with for going to dad. To read eyelids and spirit I know that sounds super hippy and that goes against my grain if his Give them about punk rock or my whole life but. I guess I am just become rich more to this. Take it as it comes for the frame and greeting. This guy with. The ladies. And that is our show for today the frame weekend is edited by Darby Maloney and produced by Herb Monica Bushman Jonathan Shiflet Robert Groves and Julia Paskin Valentino Rivera is our engineer Andrea Gutierrez is our news clerk are in turn as Paul rat left the frames opening theme music is by tailor make fair on and the show's senior producer is Oscar Garza I'm John Horn at the Mon broadcast center at k.p.c. C Have a great rest of your weekend and join us back here on Monday for the daily edition of the Frank. It's a minute before 3 with 2 hours of storytelling coming up here on 89.3 p.c.c. For This American Life and then snap judgment and as always thanks for spending part of your Saturday with us. Come see the ultimate cut of Blade Runner on the big screen with your fellow listeners must be expensive. Our next film week screening is November 2nd at the theater days hotel tickets a k p c c dot org slash in person. K.p.c. Say supporters include sandwich a creative studio making commercials and explainers for t.v. And web sandwich works to take complex ideas and make them seem simple so that audiences can understand what to do next and why you can see their work at Sandwich dot seo this is a 9.3 k. P.c.c. Pasadena Los Angeles a community service of Pasadena City College you can claim your place in the workforce of the future with over 100 specialized certificate programs learn mover at Pasadena dot edu.