tiff 24 ICK World Premiere Mena Suvari interview with Robert Aaron Mitchell

 

The last time I saw Mena Suvari in Toronto was in 2007 when she was at the Midnight Madness World Premiere of Stuart Gordon's Stuck. It was great to speak with her ahead of the World Premiere of Joseph Kahn's new creature feature, Ick. Always a delight, smart, funny and insightful. Here is Mena and I's conversation on the Midnight Madness red carpet at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.

tiff 24 ICK World Premiere Brandon Routh interview with Robert Aaron Mitchell

 

The excitement was very present the first Saturday of Midnight Madness at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. As present as the mysterious substance that is everywhere in Joseph Kahn's new creature feature, ICK. The ick is around doing not much, until it is doing something...trying to consume everyone in it's path. Leading the stellar cast is Brandon Routh. Brandon plays Hank a guy who had it all, quarterback, the girl Staci (Mena Suvari) and then it's all gone like a Mellencamp song. He starts working at the high school as a janitor and becomes a science teacher. He is still in contact with Staci and her husband Peter (Ted Kim) As the ick begins to threaten the town Brandon leads the town in a heroic charge against the mysterious substance. In person, Brandon is a delight, charming, charismatic and possessing great sense of humor. Here is our conversation.

tiff 24 ICK World Premiere Interview with Joseph Kahn with Robert Aaron Mitchell

Joseph Kahn has returned to the Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film Festival with his latest film ICK. He premiered Bodied here in 2017 and that screening was one of the all time best premieres I have attended at Midnight Madness. This time around Kahn and his team of collaborators are shifting gears and take us to a small town focused on the high school. A mysterious gross substance has been around for years. Not doing much just....around... It has been dubbed the ick. Then one day it is not static, it has started to move and consume. The town is very much in denial. Conversations mirror those that were centered around a certain corona virus of this decade. It is always great when I am able to talk to Joseph Kahn. He is a filmmaker I can listen talk about the craft for hours. Here is our conversation from the red carpet. 

A DECADE OF INTERVIEWS 2010 - 2019: Soldier Of Cinema Robert Aaron Mitchell

As the decade draws to a close I thought it would be cool to look back at a decade of interviews I have conducted. This is no small undertaking I have been fortunate to interview a lot of people over the past ten years. What follows is one interview for each year. This is not be exclusionary, I am thankful for every person I have met under the strange circumstances of meeting them for a few seconds and then asking questions as a video camera records. What follows are only from video interviews not the numerous email and phone interviews from the now soon to be past decade.

2010 STAKE LAND TIFF World Premiere

At the 2010 Midnight Madness program I spoke with Director Jim Mickle who has gone on to make several more feature films as well as Hap & Leonard featuring the beloved characters of Joe R. Lansdale, actor and writer Nick Damici and as well as genre legend Larry Fessenden who in the past decade has continued to produce and direct provocative genre films as well as co-produce and contribute to Tales Beyond The Pale a horror podcast in the spirit of 1930s radio dramas. Larry has also written horror video games Until Dawn and Man Of Medan. These interviews would wind up on the DVD and Blu-ray release of the movie.


2011 OFF! NXNE Music Festival
I was working with my good friend Ryan O'Shaughnessy and his Tune In TO website. I interviewed Keith Morris, Dimitri Coats, Steven Shane McDonald and Mario Rubalcaba the members of the punk group OFF! this was a huge thrill for me because Keith Morris was the first singer of Black Flag. I have always enjoyed running around doing interviews at music festivals, a completly different vibe than my usual film festival beat.


2012 THE LORDS OF SALEM TIFF World Premiere Interviews with Rob Zombie, Sheri Moon Zombie and actor Jeff Daniel Phillips. Doing world premiere red carpet interviews are very short usually not substantive affairs. I try to infuse something unique in this quick snippets of conversation. My research lead me to the fact that Rob Zombie was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts which is not far from Salem. I brought this up as an ice breaker and our quick conversation lead to Stanley Kubrick. At the moment I felt we were vibing one another the moment was over. It was also cool that the film was well received at Midnight Madness and holds up. 2013 R100 TIFF World Premiere with Hitoshi Matsumoto This was an extremly fun interview. It is always great to meet filmmakers from all over the world and it was a huge thrill to meet Mr. Matsumoto especially in this setting where red carpets are a rarity in Japan most filmmakers only do formal press conferences. It was also awesome that I was able to make the great comedic legend laugh. 2014 TUSK World Premiere Interview with Kevin Smith There was a lot of things swirling around this night behind the scenes. Time was running out and it looked as though I was not going to speak with Kevin Smith. I did and said it was great that he was back to making movies and he gave me a huge bear hug which has since been written about in a dissertation and published in a book. 2015 SLUMS THE CITIES OF TOMORROW The In Light Human Rights Film Festival I was the videographer for a new film festival that was created in the anthropology department at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Later in 2015 I would interview Sir Patrick Stewart at the Green Room premiere but I went with this conversation with professor Nicolas Reeves because I really enjoyed our conversation and the documentary is becoming more and more relevant as the wealth divide increases. 2016 THE BAD BATCH TIFF Premiere with Jason Momoa This is one of my most talked about interviews I have done and happen before already star Jason Momoa was launched into superstardom. It also features another bear hug. Guess I am a huggable guy! 2017 BODIED TIFF World Premiere with Dizaster This was the opening film this year and was great to research and learn more about the underground hip-hop battle scene. I had no idea that Toronto had such a vibrant scene. The film was very provacative and in your face so was battle rapper Dizaster. It was also another interview that ended in a hug! 2018 THE WIND TIFF World Premiere It is great to go into a movie not knowing anything about it. From an interview and research stand point though it makes an interview quite difficult. I really enjoyed these interviews at THE WIND Premiere with director Emma Tammi, writer Teresa Sutherland and actors Caitlin Gerard, Julia Goldani Telles The flow and ease of the interviews went really well and I was happy to support this film. 2019 FIRST LOVE Interview with Takashi Miike This was another year that featured some very cool interviews. The long awaited return of Richard Stanley and the few minutes with elusive Nicolas Cage, third time really was the charm this year but I went with my interview with legendary filmmaker Takashi Miike. In my film collection I probably have more films by him than any other filmmaker, in large part to how prolific he is. This would mark the second time I have interviewed Mr. Miike this time it was great that I could sit down with him for a longer interview. Interviews with a translator can always be difficult but I feel this interview flowed well. Honorable Mention SADAKO VS KAYAKO 2016 The photo on this post is from this premiere and one of my favorite photos my good friend Ian Goring has taken of me over the years. This was a really fun premiere and threw out the normal interview process out the window.

BODIED World Premiere Interviews Joseph Kahn, Dizaster, Alex Larsen aka Kid Twist, Charlamagne Tha God

                Dizaster speaking with Robert Mitchell at the world premiere of Bodied.

Bodied, the new film directed by Joseph Kahn and written by Alex Larsen aka Kid Twist was the opening movie of the 2017 Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival and it rocked the Ryerson Theatre. Robert Mitchell was on the red carpet and spoke with director Joseph Kahn, writer/actor Alex Larsen, Dizaster, Charlamagne Tha God, Calum Worthy and Rory Uphold.

MIDNIGHT MADNESS 2017 Photo Gallery Ft. James Franco, Vince Vaughn, Dizaster, Joseph Kahn, Coralie Fargeat, Ryûhei Kitamura, Sôichi Umezawa

Here is a photo gallery of Robert Aaron Mitchell and Sarah Dillard Mitchell's adventures at the 2017 Midnight Madness programme at the Toronto International Film Festival. Here is a link to a New York Times piece about the programme. Photos by Ian Goring, Sarah Mitchell, Daniel Pearl & Dominik Magdziak.

  Talking to Dizaster at the world premiere of Bodied. 09/07/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

Speaking with Director Joseph Kahn at the world premiere of Bodied. Photo by: Ian Goring

Talking to Director Joseph Kahn at the world premiere of Bodied. Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

In conversation with actor Calum Worthy at the world premiere of Bodied. Photo by: Ian Goring

Interviewing writer Alex Larsen aka Kid Twist at the world premiere of Bodied Photo By: Ian Goring

 Speaking with Charlamagne Tha God about his role in Bodied Photo by: Ian Goring

Interviewing actor Rory Uphold at the Bodied world premiere. Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Talking to Director David Bruckner at the world premiere The Ritual 09/08/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

 Speaking to actor Sam Troughton about his role in The Ritual Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

"Crank-styled" interview with writer/director Brian Taylor at the world premiere of Mom & Dad Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Talking to writer/director at Mom & Dad premiere 09/09/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

In conversation with Anne Winters about her character in Mom & Dad. Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

 Anne Winters at the world premiere of Mom & Dad. Photo by: Ian Goring

With cinematographer Daniel Pearl (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) at the premiere of Mom & Dad Photo by: Daniel Pearl

Talking to writer/director Coralie Fargeat actor Matilda Lutz at premiere of Revenge 09/10/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

Talking to James Franco at the world premiere of The Disaster Artist 09/11/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

Talking to James Franco at the world premiere of The Disaster Artist Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

 Speaking to Ari Graynor about portraying Lisa in The Disaster Artist Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

 

Talking to screenwriters Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

 

With Vince Vaughn at the world premiere of Brawl In Cell Block 99

09/12/17 Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Interviewing actor Dan Amboyer at premiere of Brawl In Cell Block 99

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Speaking with the Let The Corpses Tan writers/directors Bruno Forzani & Hélène Cattet

World Premiere 09/13/17 Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

 With actor Hervé Sogne at the premiere of Let The Corpses Tan

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Talking to The Crescent Director Seth A. Smith 09/14/17

Photo by: Ian Goring

Speaking to actor Danika Vandersteen at the world premiere of The Crescent

Photo by: Ian Goring

 With director Ryûhei Kitamura at world premiere of Downrange

09/15/17 Photo by: Ian Goring

Talking to actor Graham Skipper about Downrange & Sequence Break

Photo by: Ian Goring

Speaking with Anthony Kirlew about his character in Downrange

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Interviewing Kelly Connaire at the premiere of Downrange

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Talking with Downrange actor Rod Hernandez-Farella

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

In conversation with Stephanie Pearson at the Downrange premiere.

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

Talking to Alexa Yeames at the Downrange premiere.

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell

With actor Jason Tobias at the Downrange premiere.

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell 

Talking to Tamotsu Kimura, director Sôichi Umezawa & Asuka Kurosawa

at the world premiere of Vampire Clay 09/16/17

Photo by: Ian Goring

Robert & Sarah Mitchell 

Photo by: Ian Goring

 Robert & Sarah Mitchell Midnight Madness Progammer Peter Kuplowsky Photographer Ian Goring

Photo by: Dominik Magdziak

Nicolas Cage

Photo by: Sarah Mitchell