Family Film Club

25/04/21
Sound of Metal
• Director: Darius Marder
• The film originated as the unfinished Derek Cianfrance project
Metalhead, which centres on a metal drummer whose eardrums are
ruptured and he becomes deaf.
• The film took more than a decade to produce, and those close to him
speak about that process in almost spiritual terms. 
• Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Original
Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Sound.
Sound of Metal: Fun Facts
•  Riz Ahmed spent 5v days a week for 7 months working with American Sign
Language coach Jeremy Lee Stone to prepare for his role.
• Stone, BTW, also portrays the ASL teacher in the film...
• Ahmed wore auditory blockers deep inside his ear canal that emitted white
noise for certain scenes
• He also learned to play the drums in 7 months for the role.
• Before production, supervising sound editor Nicolas Becker brought Marder to
an anechoic chamber — a room designed to absorb all sound — so they could 
experiencewhat it's like to not hear anything, just the sound of their bodies.
• Paul Raci, the actor who plays Joe, is a C.O.D.A. (Child of Deaf Adults) and is
a hearing person who grew up with deaf parents.
Sound of Metal: Discussion Points
1. How did the film make you feel?
2. What’s the message of this movie? Letting go? Accepting change?
3. What did you best /least like about the movie and why?
4. If you had a chance to ask a character in this movie a question, what would it be?
5. What aspects worked well, and which didn’t (think about writing, direction, cinematography, acting,
editing and soundtrack)?
6. If you were writing the screenplay for this movie, would you have changed the ending? General views
on the ending…
7. How would you describe the main characters?
8. What do human beings most need in life? Does the film identify any universal problems confronting
human beings? What do humans need in order to flourish? 
9. Which Academy Awards, if any, do you think this movie will win?
10. Any other discussion points/comments from the group.
Judas and the Black Messiah
• Director: Shaka King
• Ryan Coogler was finishing Marvel's historic Black Panther superhero
movie when a panther figure of a different kind came into his life. He
and his wife, Zinzi, were having dinner in the Brooklyn backyard of
filmmaker and friend Shaka King in August 2017 when King mentioned
a project he wanted to direct about Fred Hampton, the famed Chicago
Black Panther Party leader.
• Oscar Nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (LaKeith
Stanfield), Best Supporting Actor (Daniel Kaluuya), Best Original
Screenplay, Best Cinematography.
Judas and the Black Messiah: Fun Facts
•  LaKieth Stanfield was actually against the idea of playing William O'Neal at first.
• Before filming, the actors actually went to Chicago and met with Chairman Fred Hampton Jr.
(Hampton's son) and Mother Akua (formerly known as Deborah Johnson) for 7 hours.
• The film actually has 2 composers, which is pretty rare.
• After 42 days, production concluded on December 19, 2019.
• Despite the serious nature of the film and the harrowing true drama it presents, the story of Judas
and the Black Messiah was conceived by comedic twin brothers, Keith and Kenny Lucas.
• Judas and the Black Messiah made Oscar history by becoming the first Best Picture nominee made
by all Black producers.
• In a stunning piece of synchronicity, the emotionally fraught scene where Bill poisons Fred with a
sleep narcotic was filmed exactly 50 years to the day after the occurrence took place in real life.
• Accoring to People, playing Bill O'Neal took such a psychological toll of Lakieth Stanfield that the
actor felt the need to undergo therapy after filming wrapped.
Judas and the Black Messiah: Discussion
Points
1. What’s the message of this movie?
2. Did Fred Hampton go about his journey in the right way? Of trying to unite people under a common
goal with violence?
3. Can we see a parallel between Fred Hampton and Jesus Christ? Predicting his own fate/death, saying he
would die for the people, Judas committing suicide etc…
4. If you had a chance to ask a character in this movie a question, what would it be?
5. What aspects worked well, and which didn’t (think about writing, direction, cinematography, acting,
editing and soundtrack)?
6. How did you feel about the ending? Did you want more? The investigation into the raid etc…
7. Do you believe William O’Neal started believing in the Black Panther party after a while? Did he feel
conflicted when asked to murder Fred Hampton?
8. Why did Roy Mitchell (FBI guy) change his tune?
9. Which Academy Awards, if any, do you think this movie will win?
10. Any other discussion points/comments from the group.
Summary

Which film did everyone prefer?