Writer and director Angelo Pizzo, the mind behind Hoosiers and Rudy, joins Nice Work to talk about his most personal film yet, Someone Saved My Life. Inspired by his own childhood in Bloomington, the film follows a young prodigy trying to break free from his mother’s control and discovering himself through a friendship that’s both freeing and dangerous.
Associate Producer Jonah Ballard speaks with Pizzo about shooting the film in Bloomington, self-financing such an intimate project, and how memory and lived experience shape storytelling. They also explore his approach to filmmaking and what it means to be a young creative in today’s industry.
Mall Rats? No, Mall Arts!
When you go to the mall, you expect to see chains like Hot Topic, Foot Locker, Old Navy. You expect a food court with pizza slices, soft pretzels, and chicken sandwiches. You expect kiosks with cell phone covers or framed pictures of athletes and Taylor Swift.
But here in Bloomington, if you walk through Target into College Mall, and then turn left, you'll see a place that sells local art. It's big: 6 galleries. It's called Pillar Arts, and it's an outgrowth of the Arts Alliance of Greater Bloomington. They run this shop in the mall, and they also recently took over By Hand Gallery, the long-running shop in Fountain Square, downtown, when its founders decided it was time to move on. Carol Rhodes, the president of Pillar Arts, and vice-president Henry Leck give us a tour of the space and tell us about how it’s going in the mall.
The Ryan White Memorial Statue
Ryan White was a teenager in Kokomo when he contracted HIV/AIDS from a blood transfusion in 1984.
He was by all accounts a remarkable human being. He seemed to understand the role he could play in the AIDS epidemic. He worked tirelessly, to the end of his short life, to help destigmatize AIDS. A remarkable human being.
More than worth memorializing. A bronze sculpture of White is in the works, created by artists and Senior lecturer of Sculpture at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture and Design, Melanie Cooper Pennington. She also did the casting of Alfred Kinsey that sits on IU’s Campus. We talked to her about that sculpture and her more abstract that explores organic shapes in strange, unsettling ways.
CREDITS
This episode was produced and edited by Alex Chambers. We get production help from Danny William, Holly Wilkerson, Karl Templeton, Leo Paes, Jillian Blackburn and Jonah Ballard.
Our theme music was composed and performed by Alan Davis. Additional music from Universal Production Music. The executive producer is Eric Bolstridge.