Director Mike Mitchell and co-director Walt Dohrn talk about their relentlessly happy film Trolls. Mitchell and Dorn have known each other since their time as students at Cal Institute of Arts and later on in Shrek and other films. Both are big fans of Walt Disney and HayooMiyazaki and talk about them as well as Alfred Hitchcock. How… Continue Reading
A robot riding a motorcycle? Yes, there is one. Meet MOTOBOT an autonomous motorcycle-riding humanoid. This is a collaborative project between Yamaha and SRI International of Menlo Park. Mike Stevens from the Robotics Group at SRI International walks us through a demo of Motobot at the RoboBusiness Conference in San Jose in 2015. You can subscribe to… Continue Reading
3rd i’s San Francisco International South Asian Films Festival is back this year in two locations: San Francisco and Cupertino in Silicon Valley. The San Francisco leg of the festival is a 4 day event that runs from November 10th-13th, 2016. And the Silicon Valley leg of the festival in Cupertino is a one day event… Continue Reading
We sat down with Jonathan Aibel and Glenn Berger to talk about how they wrote the screenplay for Trolls. Happiness is the central theme of this 3D animated film. How did they write the screenplay and create a universe for trolls? Tune in to find out. A long time ago in a far away city where… Continue Reading
Danielle Applestone is CEO of Other Machine Co., a hardware company that makes desktop milling machine called Other Mill. The company is based in Berkeley and manufactures its desktop milling machines locally in San Francisco Bay area. We sat down to speak to Applestone on how she developed in interest in math and science from… Continue Reading
Filmmaker Barry Jenkins Moonlight is an elegant and brilliantly evocative film about coming-of-age and love.This is one of the best films I have seen so far this year. There is an aura of quiet grace about Moonlight that makes you think long after the end credits have rolled. You go away wondering what is that little… Continue Reading
Like films, food and wine? Then the 6th Annual Napa Film Festival (NVFF) is the place to be from November 9-13, 2016. For 5 days you get to see feature films, shorts and documentaries and listen to panel discussions on food. And a big bonus of attendig a film festival in the wine country means you… Continue Reading
Mike Mitchell and Walt Drohn are the directors of Trolls, a new 3D animation film from Dreamworks. Relentlessly happy is the phrase that comes to mind when I watched the film a few days ago. I wondered if the directors themselves were relentlessly happy folks. Tune into to find out. Happiness is the central theme… Continue Reading
Filmmaker Ewan McGregor makes his directorial debut with American Pastoral that is based on a Philip Roth novel by the same name. Roth won a Pulitzer prize for his novel. American Pastoral stars McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, Dakokta Fanning, David Strathairn, Uzo Aduba, Rupert Evans and Valorie Curry. We caught up with McGregor in San Francisco to talk about the making… Continue Reading
The annual United National Association Film Festival (UNAFF) is back this year with an interesting mix of documentaries and shorts from the US, Ethiopia, Spain, India, Canada, Guatemala and other countries. The theme for this year’s festival is Compass For A Better World. “We went through 600 screeners to select the films for this year’s festival,”… Continue Reading
This is a highlight from an upcoming interview with filmmaker Barry Jenkins on the making of his new film Moonlight. The film is based on Tarell Alvin McCraney’s novel In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue. Jenkins explains why he chose to shorten the title to Moonlight. Moonlight is an elegant and emotionally charged film. This… Continue Reading
We sat down with Chris Garcia, curator at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View to find out about the evolution of technology and the history and legacy of Silicon Valley. The Computer History Museum is the place to see those huge computers that used punch cards to the advent of personal computers and smart… Continue Reading
Ewan McGreogor talks about how he got into acting and how his parents helped him with his decision to become an actor. He also talks about his new film American Pastoral, which marks his debut as a director. American Pastoral is based on Philip Roth’s novel by the same name and stars McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning, Valorie… Continue Reading
Punit Soni is an engineer, investor and advistor to startups. He is an ex-Googler and the former Chief Product Officer of Flipkart, an Indian ecommerce company. We sat down with Soni to talk about his journey to America from Mumbai, India. What prompted him to pursue a MBA degree after working as an engineer in Silicon… Continue Reading
Michael Price is Chief Technology Officer of Seismic Warning Systems, a Silicon Valley company. We sit down to speak with Price about earthquakes and early warning systems. What happens during an earthquake? How many seconds of warning do you get before the earthquake shock waves hit? How does their technology and signal help facilities like a… Continue Reading
We speak with filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra about his new film Mirzya. “It is a film about love,” shares Mehra. The film is set in two, different time periods he adds. We talk to Mehra on how how the idea for the film was born, the preparation that went into making the film, the music… Continue Reading
We caught up with Zoe Elton, Director of Programming for the 39th Mill Valley Film Festival (Oct 6-16, 2016) to find out what they have in store at this year’s festival. We spoke to her about the film, actors and the new sections they have on Latin America & Culinary Cinema. This is one of… Continue Reading
A kitchen computer, that too a binary one? Yes, way back in the 1960’s Honeywell Corp. made a kitchen computer for home makers. And, the home computer was featured in a Neiman Marcus catalog from 1969. We turned to Chris Garcia, curator at the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley to find out about this… Continue Reading
We sat down with Vic Vanni of Solis Winery of Santa Clara Valley to talk about how his family got into the wine business and also taste some wine from his winery. Vani remembers the good old days when they lived in the “Valley of Heart’s Delight,” which is now known as Silicon Valley. His… Continue Reading
Meet Mobot, an autonomous motorcycle-riding humanoid robot that I saw at the RoboBusiness in San Jose. Motobot is a collaboration between Yamaha and SRI International of Menlo Park, CA. Think of it like the motorcycle equivalent of Google’s self-driving car. One of the objectives from the project is to improve safety of motorcycles.
Earlier this week I visited the Computer History Museum in Silicon Valley. I got a guided tour from Chris Garcia, a curator at the museum. This is the place to see how the “Computing Revolution” started 2,000 years ago. The artefacts range from primitive calculating devices to Napier’s Bones to the Enigma machine and the first… Continue Reading
Meet Amy Love, who along with her parents is instrumental in girls being able to play for their soccer teams in the US. It all started when Love moved back with her family from Brazil to the San Francisco Bay area. She was passionate about baseball and soccer and qualified to play for her soccer… Continue Reading
Here are 3 more picks from me for this year’s 39th Mill Valley Film Festival that runs from Oct 6-16,2016.. These 3 films take you on a culinary and mediation journey across the world. In case you missed it, here are my first 3 selections of films from this year’s film festival. The Last Dalai… Continue Reading
Meet Tom and Sandy Moller of Satori Cellars of Santa Clara Wineries. Tom is a techie-turned-winemaker, while Sandy is a yoga teacher and winemaker. The Mollers started Satori Cellars over 10 years ago and have gone on to win awards for their wines. We spoke to them to find out how they got started with… Continue Reading
Movie lovers are in for a 4-day treat of Vienna And The Movies at the historic Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto. The silent film series is curated by film historian David Thomson. One of the joys of watching silent films at the Stanford Theater is the opportunity to listen to the Wurlitzer organ. Dennis James will play… Continue Reading
Filmmaker Matt Johnson’s Operation Avalanche is set against the space race between US and the USSR during the Cold War period. The film is about the fake landing of Apollo 11 on the moon. The film was part of Johnson’s Masters project at York University in Canada. Johnson directs, acts and co-wrote the film with Josh… Continue Reading
Silicon Valley-based Vinod Dham is an engineer, investor and an entrepreneur. He is perhaps best known as “The Father of the Pentium Chip.” Ever wonder how Dham got that moniker? We were curious to find out about it, and his journey to America and to Silicon Valley, where he initially worked for Intel for many… Continue Reading
Gino Fortino of Fortino Winery in Gilroy talks about Charbono wine, which is made out of an Italian grape varietal. There are only 80 acres of the Italian grape varietal Charbono grown in California and Fortino’s grows some of them. “Cult wine,” is often a phrase used when talking about Charbono. Fortino Winery was founded in… Continue Reading
The 39th Mill Valley Film Festival (Oct 6-26,2016) is packed with so many wonderful films that it is going to be a challenge to figure out which ones to watch. For the next couple of weeks I will share a few of the films that caught my eyes. Here are my first 3 films that had me… Continue Reading
Meet Dhruv Khannna, a lawyer and owner of Kirigin Cellars, the oldest winery in Santa Clara Valley. 2016 marks the centennial year of Kirigin Cellars located in the oldest wine growing region in California. Khanna combines the tech and agriculture strands of Santa Clara Valley, once known as “Valley of Heart’s Delight,” and now known as “Silicon… Continue Reading
The Kamla Show 