Arthouse Quarterly Winter 2021

ARTHOUSE INTERVIEWS WITH THE 55 OFFICIAL SELECTIONS OF AUSTIN ARTHOUSE FILM FESTIVAL YEAR 3

The Mother Dir. Kaytlyn Turner

WINTER 2020

Editor in Chief, Art Director Elizabeth Tabish Senior Editor, Community Director Giselle Marie Muñoz We are seeking guest writers and reviewers who are passionate and knowledgable about arthouse cinema.

For inquiries, email us at arthousequarterly@gmail.com ADVERTISE WITH US arthousequarterly@gmail.com

arthousequarterly.com

EDITORS Hello and welcome to our third issue of Arthouse Quarterly. In this special edition we are spotlighting the incredible filmmakers that we have the honor of celebrating for Year 3 of Austin Arthouse Film Festival.

AAFF was born three years ago out of pure passion for experimental film and the desire to celebrate the filmmakers that presently create arthouse cinema. Our mission is to spotlight filmmakers around the world who champion art, defy convention and challenge audience expectations.

We are thrilled to introduce you to the 54 filmmakers where you will find an array of our programming is from underrepresented voices and we couldn’t be more thrilled to celebrate these deserving artists to share with you in a time where we need to be uplifting female voices, voices of color and LGBTQIA voices in our community.

As turbulent as 2020 has been, we feel fortunate to end the year in a celebration of art. We believe in the power of art as a way to move through life for many reasons but especially for it’s healing qualities. Now more than ever we’ve had to be flexible in the way we create to adapt to these uncertain times. The difference between the past and now is that in the past we used to pretend that we knew what tomorrow would bring. Now we know we certainly don’t. As we move forward let’s just be sure to take care of each other.

Here’s to more of what we love,

e ll e is G

h et b a z li E &

DIRECTOR BIO

A YOUNG GIRL SECRETLY CARES FOR HER SIX BROTHERS WHO HAVE BEEN TURNED INTO SWANS BY AN EVIL STEPMOTHER.

MY NAME IS MARIA ANTONIETTE NORRIS. I'M AN INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER WITH INTERESTS IN ANIMATION, EXPERIMENTAL, DOCUMENTARY AND REALIST FILMMAKING. I GREW UP IN A SUBURBAN TOWN CALLED SKANEATELES ABOUT A HALF HOUR FROM SYRACUSE NEW YORK. I AM A RECENT SUMMA CUM LAUDE GRADUATE OF THE COLLEGE OF VISUAL AND PERFORMING ARTS AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY. I CURRENTLY WORK AS A FREELANCE ANIMATOR AND CONTENT WRITER, BUT I HAVE PREVIOUS PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE IN EDITING, SOUND RECORDING & DESIGN, AND ART DEPARTMENT PRODUCTION WORK. I STARTED MY CAREER IN MEDIA WORKING AS A FREELANCE JOURNALIST & PHOTOGRAPHER THROUGH HIGH SCHOOL BEFORE STUDYING RADIO, TELEVISION & FILM PRODUCTION IN JUNIOR COLLEGE. INITIALLY WHEN I TRANSFERRED TO SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, I WAS ENROLLED IN THE WOMEN & GENDER STUDIES PROGRAM BEFORE ENTERING THE FILM & TRANSMEDIA PROGRAM. DURING MY TIME IN THE WOMEN & GENDER STUDIES PROGRAM I WAS HIRED AS A VIDEOGRAPHER AND EDITOR & SOCIAL MEDIA COORDINATOR FOR THE FEMINIST FREEDOM WARRIORS. IN THE FILM & TRANSMEDIA PROGRAM, WE WERE TAUGHT "TOTAL FILMMAKING" - STUDYING FILM HISTORY AND THE TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF PRODUCTION AS WELL AS WRITING, PRODUCING AND DIRECTING OUR OWN FILMS AT LEAST ONCE PER SEMESTER. I ALSO HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO FURTHER STUDY EUROPEAN CINEMA AND CINEMATOGRAPHY IN BOLOGNA ITALY FOR VPA'S BOLOGNA FILM PROGRAM. I'M ESPECIALLY INTERESTED IN ANIMATION, AND HAD THE PRIVILEGE OF STUDYING TRADITIONAL, COMPUTER, STOP MOTION, AND DRAWN-ON-FILM DIRECT ANIMATION UNDER DAVID HICOCK, GAIL HOFFMAN, AND KELLY GALLAGHER. I FIRMLY BELIEVE THAT FILM IS ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL MEDIUMS OF ART, AND PART OF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF IT FOR ME IS BEING HONEST ABOUT PEOPLE, SHOWING WHO THEY ARE FLAWS AND ALL, AND BEING HONEST ABOUT OUR PROBLEMS. SOCIAL ISSUES ARE A HUGE PASSION OF MINE, AND I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO USE FILM AS A TOOL TO BRING ATTENTION TO THE MANY DIFFERENT STRUGGLES THAT PEOPLE FACE IN OUR SOCIETY, ESPECIALLY THOSE ON THE MARGINS OF IT.

MARIA

NORRIS

"SINCE BEING OUT OF SCHOOL, I DON'T PUT AS MUCH PRESSURE ON MYSELF TO MAKE SOMETHING BE PERFECT OR FOR THINGS TO GO A CERTAIN WAY, AND I THINK IT'S HELPED ME BE MORE CREATIVE AND EXPERIENCE MORE ENJOYMENT DOING PROJECTS OVERALL." YOU MENTION BEING PASSIONATE ABOUT HONESTY AND BRINGING AWARENESS ABOUT THE STRUGGLES THAT PEOPLE FACE. SINCE MAKING 6 SWANS, WHAT SOCIAL ISSUES HAVE YOU TACKLED WITH YOUR FILMMAKING? Social issues are always in the back of my mind when I'm considering a project. Around the same time I made 6 swans, I also made a film called 'No One Left' for my junior year portfolio review. It was meant to explore what displacement would look like on American soil. It's centered around a group of siblings who had once lived a comfortable life, trying to escape violence and conflict. For a lot of Americans, war and displacement is something that happens far away and to people they don't recognize. Some of this is privilege and perhaps cognitive dissonance - we don't like to think about imperialism, the resulting violence, and what roles the U.S. military-industrial complex may or may not be playing. But for many immigrant communities and families of color especially, it's a very present reality. This concept and the cruel treatment of undocumented families by the U.S. Government are what I was thinking about when I produced 'No One Left'.

I made another short animation during the start of the George Floyd uprisings because I wanted to be out in the streets protesting but I was helping out some relatives at the time and didn't want to potentially expose them to covid. I made #Rest In Power because oftentimes when an unarmed person of color is killed by police, so much of the focus is on the violent way in which they died. This is obviously important, but it's also important to remember and respect the life that was taken - and not to become desensitized or dehumanizing in the way we consume media surrounding the death of the person. So I looked up what some friends and family of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade had said about them and just some things about their individual lives. I wrote these details down on a post-it note and animated it along with some images of them and flowers from my yard. I wanted to make sure the video was a small tribute to their memory and lives rather than another piece of media focusing on their tragic deaths.

YOU’RE A RECENT GRADUATE, HAVE YOU FOUND THAT YOU HAVE SHAKEN OFF CERTAIN THINGS YOU LEARNED IN SCHOOL TO MAKE ROOM FOR YOUR OWN EXPLORATIONS? AND THE FLIPSIDE TO THAT - ARE THERE TRIED & TRUE TECHNIQUES/TOOLS/APPROACHES TO FILMMAKING THAT YOU LEARNED IN SCHOOL THAT YOU WILL CONTINUE TO CARRY WITH YOU? One thing I've shaken off, or at least tried to shake off from film school is just the feeling of being competitive and comparing my work to others. I think this is one of the more problematic aspects of school in general that isn't unique to my alma mater. We had to complete a lot of projects each semester, and while this taught us a lot about some aspects of film production, it was a lot of hard work and pressure. Since being out of school, I don't put as much pressure on myself to make something be perfect or for things to go a certain way, and I think it's helped me be more creative and experience more enjoyment doing projects overall. In terms of projects, most of the time professors gave us a lot of creative freedom, and framed lessons as "this is something that could work for you - but something else may work better".

It wasn't so much the case that we were "boxed in" to certain filmmaking methods - at least that wasn't my experience, and because of that I was able to do a lot of exploring as a filmmaker for the first time during school. I had some really great professors at the College of Visual & Performing Arts at Syracuse University who taught me a lot about the technical aspects of storytelling and what differentiates a good story from a not-so-great story in ways I would have had a hard time understanding on my own. One tip from school that I apply the most at this point in my life is basically and 'write for what you're able to create'. I have a lot of ideas that I end up writing down but I don't yet have the resources to do everything that I want to do. Shooting throughout college on small sets (especially in Syracuse, where the weather is often terrible for shooting) made me more creative in how I executed a project with less manpower and funds, and it helped me to understand that sometimes you have to do some re-writing, or make room for error, or think on your feet when there's an issue in order to be successful.

DIRECTOR BIO

A YOUNG WOMAN STRUGGLES TO KEEP A HOLD ON REALITY, AS HER SANITY BEGINS TO FRAGMENT.

GRACE IS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY FILMMAKER & ACTRESS, WHO GREW UP SURROUNDED BY FILM AS HER FATHER IS THE AWARD WINNING CINEMATOGRAPHER ANDREW DUNN, BSC. IN 2012, AT THE AGE OF 13, GRACE WON AN ART SCHOLARSHIP TO THE PRESTIGIOUS MILLFIELD SCHOOL IN SOMERSET, UK. FROM THERE, IN 2017, SHE TOOK A GAP YEAR TO GAIN FURTHER EXPERIENCE IN THE FILM INDUSTRY, TRAVEL & CREATE AS SHE PLEASED. GRACE IS NOW IN HER THIRD & FINAL YEAR AT CENTRAL SAINT MARTINS (UAL), LONDON STUDYING BA “PERFORMANCE: DESIGN & PRACTICE”. HER SOLO FILM “A DELIRIOUS EYE” WAS CREATED AT THE END OF HER SECOND YEAR, AND HAS BEEN VERY SUCCESSFUL ON THE FESTIVAL CIRCUIT SO FAR. GRACE IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON A NEW ANIMATION SHORT.

GRACE DUNN

"I HAVE CONSISTENTLY BEEN FASCINATED WITH DREAMS, DREAM-LIKE STATES AND THE IDEA OF THE UNCANNY." WERE YOUR IDEAS REALIZED BY THE TIME YOU WERE EDITING OR WAS THERE FLEXIBILITY IN WHAT YOU WERE CREATING DURING THE PROCESS THAT ALLOWED YOU TO MAKE CHANGES ALONG THE WAY? I think that, particularly due to the fact that this was a solo project, I had quite a lot of flexibility. I began editing whilst I was still shooting, as this gave me a greater perspective on where I was at and where I needed to go. I began filming and editing before I knew exactly what my ending was going to be - I needed to feel it, let it unfold. In the editing process I rely on my instincts entirely, and focus on the inner flow and movement of the film. It is all a fine balance, so, of course, ideas, feelings and pace change according to what the film needs - I think in editing it is important to not hold fast onto pre-conceived ideas too much, because what one might think during writing or filming as "perfect" may not suit the final cut in the end. Just because you may have spent a lot of time on something, does not mean that it deserves to go into the finished film. The film as its own entity is primary.

ANY DISCOVERIES WHILE MAKING THIS PROJECT? WOULD YOU IMPLEMENT THEM AGAIN OR NEVER DO IT AGAIN? Despite being the idea that sparked this project, I was not sure how well combining stop-motion and live action together would work. I had never attempted it before and, interestingly, I could not find any modern examples of this - so instead I looked back to the works of Jan Švankmajer and earlier to Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen.

It was quite a complex editing process to achieve what I intended, which required a lot of trial & error and patience, but it was a challenge that I relished. In the end, I do think that it was successful and I would wholeheartedly want to do it again.

DID ANY NEW IDEAS BEGIN TO SPARK POTENTIAL FUTURE PROJECTS? I have consistently been fascinated with dreams, dream-like states and the idea of the uncanny. Although ‘A Delirious Eye’ does not represent a dream in the most literal sense, it seems my work often plays upon the atmosphere of one. This is something that I want to pursue further, delve deeper into. However, I am wary too, of pigeonholing myself. There are an endless amount of filmic things that I want to try, challenge & inspire myself with. I am as comfortable in front of the camera as I am behind it. Above all, I want my work to capture some emotional truth.

WAS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU IMAGINED TO BE MORE DIFFICULT THAN IT REALLY WAS? IF SO, WHAT WAS IT?

From the beginning, I was concerned about the score for ‘A Delirious Eye’. I am not a musician and I did not know anyone who would be able to compose for me, but I wanted original music and needed it so I wouldn’t run into copyright issues. In the end, I decided that as, thus far, I had created everything alone, I would attempt to compose the score also. Initially, I tried creating sounds with kitchen utensils & making music with wine glasses filled with different levels of water.

Ultimately though, I created the score over one full night, using the GarageBand keyboard on my iPad and my voice. I truly surprised myself with this, as it was not something I had ever imagined myself being able to do - & most surprising of all is that I am quite happy with how it turned out.

WAS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU IMAGINED TO BE EASIER THAN IT REALLY WAS? IF SO, WHAT WAS IT? Making the stop-motion puppet, and shooting the stopmotion itself. I created the puppet entirely from scratch, from the fully-articulated metal armature to the hand sculpted head (mimicking my own), alpaca-hair wig and embroidered collar. Again, I worked on this alone and taught myself professional techniques by using the breadth of the internet and my own instincts. It was a very exacting and intense process.

In stop motion animation, one is meant to use ‘tie-downs’ to prevent the puppet from falling. However, as I was using the dressing table in my bedroom, this was not possible for me.

During the filming process, she would sometimes fall over mid-shoot and I would have to meticulously try to place her back into the correct position - or else start again. At one point, I’d spent 5 hours creating a stop-motion scene and then realised afterward that I had not covered up every millimetre of my window, so there was a tiny light flicker. I couldn’t endure this... so I re-filmed the whole section (& I am so happy that I did). I have done a small amount of stop-motion work in the past, so I was aware it was time consuming and challenging, however I think that I forgot just how much until I was faced with it again!

AN INTERVIEW WITH

PEDRO PIRES DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

AN ENCOUNTER WITH A YOUNG PSYCHOTIC WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO AN ARDENTLY PASSIONATE RELATIONSHIP, MAKING ALEXANDRE SLOWLY DRIFT AWAY FROM HIS USUAL EMOTIONAL BOUNDARIES.

AFTER COLLABORATING WITH FRANÇOIS GIRARD AND ROBERT LEPAGE, 1998 EMMY AWARD WINNER PEDRO PIRES DIRECTED THE SHORT FILMS "DANSE MACABRE" IN 2008 WHICH WON 43 AWARDS INTERNATIONALLY, AND "HOPE" IN 2010, WHICH WON A TELEFILM CANADA PRIZE FOR OUTSTANDING CANADIAN SHORT. IN 2012, HE PARTNERED WITH LEPAGE TO CO-DIRECT THE FEATURE "TRIPTYCH".

THE FILM RECEIVED A HONORABLE MENTION OF THE ECUMENICAL JURY AT THE BERLINALE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL. IN 2019, HE RELEASED HIS FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE "ALEXANDRE LE FOU" FOR WHICH HE ACTED AS PRODUCER, WRITER AND DIRECTOR. THE FILM WON BEST EDITING IN A FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY AT THE 2020 CANADIAN SCREEN AWARDS AND WAS ALSO NOMINATED FOR BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY AND BEST FILM.

PEDRO PIRES

WHEN DID YOU MEET ALEXANDRE AND AT WHAT POINT DID YOU DECIDE YOU WANTED TO TELL HIS STORY? WAS HE APPREHENSIVE OR DID HE DECIDE TO JUMP IN RIGHT AWAY?

"AND I SAID: ONE DAY I WILL MAKE A FILM THAT CONVEYS...THE SINGULARITY, THEANDPOETRY THE HUMOR. DOCUMENTARIE S ON SCHIZOPHRENIA RARELY TALK ABOUT THOSE THINGS."

We made an audition in the psychiatric institution where I previously worked and we found Alexandre at the end of the day. He was literally the last one. Like, do we have time for one more? Ok what's your name? -"Alexandre". And he started speaking about a trip on a boat where he became crazy...lost his mind...lost everything...became schizophrenic. I was thinking: That's it. That's our guy. He is charming, funny and unique. He could bring the essence of what I want to convey for this film. Alexandre was very pleased and motivated to be the center of this film even if he has some apprehensions "on what people will say" in his head or for real, as he never knows. After that, it was a matter of following him and living in his shoes. Learning everything we could as documentarists do.

Discovering her grand-mother...and the rest of his family. Pushing a little bit here and there, but not too much because they are not actors.

They can't play and say what we want. We have to let them be who they are.

The real challenge, other than hoping this mashup of various shots will make sense one day, was to be sure that every participant will remain on board all along. Some of them were often hospitalized due to have stopped their medication. By far the most troubling event concerns Veronique, the girlfriend of Alexandre in the film and in the real life too. She was always telling him to stop taking his medication. "You don't need this. Do it cold turkey! You're not brave enough!" And one day, Alex called to tell me that Veronique had committed suicide. That was such a devastating news, to say the least. That reminded me, in a very crude manner, how the suffering of these people is a heavy burden to bear, especially when they stop taking their medication. And Alexandre has been so strong through all of that. I'm so proud of him.

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO TELL A STORY ABOUTA PERSON WITH PSYCHOSIS IN YOUR LASTFILM? HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THATIDEA? First, both my parents are psychiatrists.So, I will let you guess the effect it could had on me as a child. Second, I was hired to work in a psychiatric institution, as a summer student's job, then I discovered a entire new reality. I was stunned, impressed and inspired by what I saw. I was spending more time speaking with the patients than with the personnel.I liked the genuine quality of their personality, the poetry of the way they spoke, the level of humor they displayed. I was thinking: they didn't learn to put a mask, to play the game, like the rest of the society. That's why they are so touching and real, like children. And I said: one day I will make a film that convey all of this. The singularity, the poetry and the humor. Documentary on schizophrenia rarely talk about those things.

AS THIS WAS AN EXPERIMENTAL FILM FOR YOU - WERE YOU SMITTEN WITH THE PROCESS? Even if it was a documentary on somebody else's life, I was focusing on the things that were very close to me or similar to certain experiences I had.An isolated character, a little paranoiac, trying to find love, who doesn't want to make much compromises, who realize his family should have a greater place in his day to day life! That's me. That's Alex.And maybe that's you, too! I guess that's what makes a film somewhat"universal" in its comprehension or appreciation.I made this film in Quebec with no screenplay, in our local reality and people everywhere from Russia to the U.S. back to Bhutan likes the film and identify with its content. I have to admit that Alex is a very likable character too!

A N

I N T E R V I E W

N A T A L I E

P R A U S E R

D I R E C T O R

DIRECTOR BIO

W I T H

O F

NATALIE PRAUSER IS AN EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKER BASED IN KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI. HER WORK HAS BEEN SHOWN IN THEATERS, FILM FESTIVALS, AND EXHIBITIONS THROUGHOUT KANSAS CITY AND ACROSS THE COUNTRY. WORKING IN ANALOG PHOTOGRAPHY AND MOVIE FILM, HER AT-HOME PROCESS IS INTENDED TO INSPIRE A NEW WAVE OF YOUNG DOIT-YOURSELF FILMMAKERS. HER WORK EXPERIMENTS WITH CONCEPTS OF FREEDOM, LANDSCAPE, AND SELF-RELIANCE. SHE IS DRIVEN BY THE POWER OF A WOMAN ALONE IN THE WOODS WITH A MOVIE CAMERA.

NATALIE PRAUSER

YOU ARE A WOMAN OF MANY TALENTS. WHEN CREATING ALL-AMERICAN HANDS WHAT DID YOU ENJOY THE MOST? THE WRITING, THE LOCATION SCOUTING, SETTING UP THE SHOTS, PLAYING IN FRONT OF THE CAMERA, GATHERING THE GOODS IN THE FILM, THE EDITING...?

When creating All-American Hands, the part I enjoyed the most was the freedom I found in making a movie by myself in the middle of a pandemic. When writing this film, I had no intention of being in front of the camera.

However, as circumstances changed, I decided to quarantine in my car and go out and shoot this film. The ability to create and experiment in the midst of global chaos was a sense of freedom I hadn't experienced before. In addition to this, the shear test on my body was a new source of growth. Falling out of trees, building fires in the wind, stumbling through the desert, and falling into lakes. All of these physical and mental tests remind me why I love making movies: the beauty that comes out of struggle.

"THE ABILITY TO CREATE AND EXPERIMENT IN THE MIDST OF GLOBAL CHAOS WAS A SENSE OF FREEDOM I HADN'T EXPERIENCED BEFORE."

YOUR WORK IS PLAYFUL AND FREE YET VERY PURPOSEFUL. HOW MUCH PREPARATION DO YOU DO BEFORE HITTING RECORD ON YOUR CAMERA? DO YOU GIVE YOURSELF SPACE TO PLAY AROUND OUTSIDE OF WHAT YOU PLANNED WHEN FILMING? I find the play that occurs when making a film to be one of the most integral aspects. I had a loose script for this film before making it, but I try not to get attached to preconceived ideas of my films before they even exist. For example, I knew there needed to be a scene in All-American Hands where the character climbs to the very top of a lone tree. While driving around in California, I found my tree. I knew I needed to shoot that scene, though I was exhausted after shooting that whole day. As you can see in the film, the character struggles to even get up the tree, because the limbs at the bottom keep breaking.

This frustration shown on camera was real.

Instead of giving up on this tree and this scene, I decided that it was important to show this frustration, as it reflects the importance of the scene. The character is fighting these outside forces, and when you fight nature, you always lose. If I had planned for this to be one of the most frustrating scenes, I think it would be lacking in authenticity.

I IMAGINE THAT YOU GET A TON OF WONDERFUL FOOTAGE THAT YOU DON'T USE IN YOUR FINAL CUTS. WHAT DO YOU DO WITH THAT WORK? I always end up with way more footage, photographs, and work that never makes it into the final piece. When I couldn't use my studio due to the pandemic, I decided to turn my bathroom into a full darkroom. This constant access to this space allowed for some really exciting experimentation, but mostly I just made an excessive amount of prints. While some of this work made it into All-American Hands, the majority of it did not. After the project was completed, I ended up mailing these extra prints of strange and disfigured hands to far away friends. I like to imagine that a small part of this film exists on someone's refrigerator somewhere.

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Laís Sambugaro Director, Producer, Writer, Cast Gabriel Mendes Director, Producer, Writer

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AN INTERVIEW WITH

LAÍS SAMBUGARO + GABRIEL MENDES

A LOVE STORY THIS MYSTERIOUS AND POETIC PIECE ON LOVE AND DUALITY IS SIMULTANEOUSLY EPIC AND INTIMATE WITH AN ORIGINAL AESTHETIC AND TECHNIQUE THAT FULLY EMBODIES A NEW GENERATION OF AUTEURISM. THE FILM REPRESENTS THE BOLD, VISIONARY FILMMAKING SO ESSENTIAL TO ARTHOUSE CINEMA.

DIRECTOR BIO

B

MULTIDISCIPLINARY CREATOR BASED IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL. GRADUATED IN FILM, LAÍS SAMBUGARO MOVES TOWARDS ARTISTIC DIVERSIFICATION AND MIGRATION FROM CINEMA PER SE TO EXPANDED CINEMA AND CONTEMPORARY ART. WORKS WITH NEW FORMS OF VIDEO, MIXED MEDIA AND DIGITAL ART. PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN STUDYING IMAGE, ITS ATTRIBUTIONS AND THE DIFFERENT POWERS STORED IN THE PROCESS OF CONSTRUCTING IMAGERY. USES A MULTITUDE OF TEXTURES, MATERIALS AND COLORS THROUGH DIALOGUE WITH DIFFERENT MEDIA AND DISPLAYS.

GABRIEL S. MENDES WAS BORN IN JUNE 1997, IN SAO PAULO, BRAZIL. STUDIED FILM AND CINEMA IN FACULDADE ARMANDO ALVARES PENTEADO. WORKS AS FILMMAKER, OFTEN AS WRITER AND DIRECTOR OF HIS SHORT FILMS, AS WELL AS FILM CRITIC AND ASSISTANT DIRECTOR. IS INTERESTED IN SOCIAL ISSUES AND GLOBAL MATTERS, NOTWITHSTANDING HIS BRAZILIAN PERSPECTIVE ON SUCH TOPICS. HIS LATEST WORK IS ‘AND THERE WAS LIGHT’ (2020), A COLLABORATION WITH LAÍS SAMBUGARO.

LAÍS SAMBUGARO + GABRIEL MENDES

HOW MANY CONCEPTS DID YOU COME UP WITH BEFORE DECIDING TO TAKE ACTION?

From the moment the challenge was released online we began brainstorming ideas. That actually turned out to be way harder than we thought it would: we couldn’t come up with a concept that pleased both of us. We couldn’t find common ground. So much so that we went to bed that night without a solid concept.

Only one thing was settled, that we wanted to do something original that was also inspired by our brazilian culture. That’s when we came up with Jaci and Guaraci, characters of an indigenous folkloric lovestory.

WOULD YOU PUT YOURSELF THROUGH ANOTHER 48 HOUR FILM CHALLENGE AGAIN?

Yes, for sure! Especially being in quarantine, we tend to stay less creative and less inspired. To put yourself through a challenge like this is to reconnect with yourself and with the ones around you.

WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST TAKE AWAY FROM PARTICIPATING IN A FILM CHALLENGE LIKE THIS.

We often let ourselves be restrained by technical resources, especially in film. When creating something, we tend to think that without proper lightning, makeup or sound equipment our work will be nothing but amateur. But that doesn’t have to be true. What really matters is to have a good idea and how you use the resources you have in hand.

"WHEN CREATING SOMETHING, WE TEND TO THINK THAT WITHOUT PROPER LIGHTNING, MAKEUP OR SOUND EQUIPMENT OUR WORK WILL BE NOTHING BUT AMATEUR. BUT THAT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE TRUE. WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS TO HAVE A GOOD IDEA AND HOW YOU USE THE RESOURCES YOU HAVE IN HAND." WERE YOUR IDEAS REALIZED BY THE TIME YOU WERE EDITING OR WAS THERE FLEXIBILITY IN WHAT YOU WERE CREATING DURING THE PROCESS THAT ALLOWED YOU TO MAKE CHANGES ALONG THE WAY?

The making of "And There Was Light” followed the opposite steps of traditional filmmaking. During production we didn’t have a proper screenplay, we just reached the aesthetical consensus and let ourselves shoot whatever came to mind. Once we sat down to edit it, we began to construct the narrative as well as other aspects of the film such as soundtrack and the transitions.

AN INTERPRETATION OF THE ARTIST'S CREATIVE JOURNEY.

DIRECTOR BIO

DIRECTED BY JOANNA TRIEBEL & CHRISTIAN OLIVEIRA

JOANNA TRIEBEL - I LIVE IN AUSTIN, TEXAS AND CLEAN WINDOWS FOR A LIVING. I HAVE A BACHELOR’S DEGREE IN FILM, AND AM PURSUING A MASTER’S DEGREE IN CLINICAL MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELING, SPECIALIZING IN ADDICTION COUNSELING. ABOUT 5 YEARS AGO, I STARTED EXPERIMENTING WITH WHAT I CALL “INTUITIVE FILMMAKING.” I CARRY A PARTICULAR FEELING AROUND FOR A WHILE, EVENTUALLY DECIDE THAT I WANT TO EXPRESS IT THROUGH FILM, AND THEN FIND IMAGES THAT CONNECT WITH THAT FEELING. NOT ALWAYS, BUT OFTEN ENOUGH WHEN PEOPLE WATCH THE FILMS, THEY CONNECT WITH THE FEELING TOO.

CHRISTIAN OLIVERIA IS A TEXAS-BASED DIRECTOR, EDITOR, AND MEDIA PRODUCER. HE RECEIVED A M.A IN COMMUNICATIONS WITH A CONCENTRATION IN FILM & DIGITAL MEDIA FROM BAYLOR UNIVERSITY IN MAY 2019 AND HAS WORKED FOR TERRENCE MALICK, HISTORY CHANNEL, AND MORE. HE IS ALSO THE FOUNDER OF REEL COFFEE, A SPECIALTY COFFEE COMPANY INSPIRED BY MOVIES.

JOANNA TRIEBEL & CHRISTIAN OLIVEIRA

WE WERE INTRODUCED TO YOUR WORK DURING ONE OF OUR 48HOUR FILM CHALLENGES AND WE'RE SO HAPPY TO SHARE IT DURING THE FESTIVAL. HOW DID YOU MEET? HAVE YOU COLLABORATED ON MAKING FILMS TOGETHER BEFORE? Joanna: Christian and I knew of each other during our time at Baylor University, but had not met until we were both living in Austin. I had heard horror stories from other film students working with him and he had heard things about me; I think his impression of me was a bit more positive than mine of him. In Austin, we actually met on a dating app, but decided friendship was a better option. We had talked about collaborating on films before, but things didn't come together until the 48hour Film Challenge.

WHAT WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE MAKING THIS FILM WITH THE TIME CONSTRAINTS OF HAVING ONE WEEKEND TO DO SO AND WOULD YOU DO IT AGAIN? Joanna: Apart from being tired from working all week prior to the 48hour challenge, I think the time constraint was helpful in forcing us to create and produce a succinct and meaningful work of art. Rather than having the time to overanalyze the concept or spend days editing and re-editing, we had to make quick, concrete decisions and go with our gut. It was difficult working together, as both of us are quite stubborn and like things our way. I think I won most of the arguments, however. I would love to do the challenge again.

Christian: It was definitely a challenge to make the film in a single weekend, particularly because Joanna and I have very different schedules. Those limitations placed some strain on us, but I also think being placed in a box can really force you to be creative, and that was our experience.

I would definitely participate in a contest like that again.

HAVE YOU FOUND YOURSELVES BEING MORE CREATIVE DURING THE STAY - AT HOME ORDERS MORE THAN YOU WERE LAST YEAR? Joanna: I spent a lot more time outside during the stay-at-home orders, which was refreshing and necessary. Overall, even though I felt ideas brimming up and a need to express them, it was difficult to create because I felt so down. I lost my job and was scrambling for money to pay bills and stay afloat. Every day I had the choice to press into the sadness and confusion or to ignore it and shut down emotionally; unfortunately, I usually chose the latter. Without that connection to my emotions, my creative joy was rather depressed. Making this film helped lift some of the heaviness and reignite my desire to create; it reminded me how much I love film and how it speaks to me.

Christian: In some ways I feel like I’ve been much more creative this year because of the limitations of the pandemic, and in other ways I feel like it’s just been a natural product of the season of life I was entering at the beginning of 2020. I was working an editing job for a director I love and admire, but I felt personally creatively stifled because I was working 10 hour days, 6 days a week. Coming out of that in April, I had this urge to create that still hasn’t been quelled.

It’s different since I can’t shoot with large crews and do larger narrative projects like I’d like to, but it also has been a lot of fun to do small projects (like bârâ) and others to keep the juices flowing. I’ve probably done more writing and random shooting in 2020 than I ever did before.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

ROBERT PLATT DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

A LONE, PHANTOM CAMOFLEUR LOITERS AND DRIFTS IN A FORMIDABLE ARCTIC LANDSCAPE.

INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST ROBERT PLATT RECEIVED HIS BA IN FINE ART FROM NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY AND AN MA IN PAINTING FROM THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF ART, LONDON, UK. IN 2009 HE GAINED A PRACTICE-BASED PH.D. IN CONTEMPORARY ART PRACTICE (PAINTING) FROM KYOTO CITY UNIVERSITY OF ARTS, KYOTO, JAPAN. IN 2011 HE RELOCATED TO MICHIGAN WHERE HE HOLDS THE POSITION OF ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF ART IN ADDITION TO ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN CENTER FOR JAPANESE STUDIES. PLATT’S VARIED ART PRACTICE HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT IN ART IN AMERICA, AND FRIEZE MAGAZINE. HE HAS BEEN PARTICIPATED IN RESIDENCIES AND RESEARCH TRIPS TO INDIA, JAPAN, EUROPE AND HAS PARTICIPATED IN TWO ARCTIC EXPEDITIONS. HE REGULARLY EXHIBITS HIS ARTWORK BOTH NATIONALLY AND INTERNATIONALLY WITH RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS IN JAPAN, IRELAND, SOUTH KOREA AND NEW YORK. GROUP EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE A ROSE IS ROSE, THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER, NYC, AND DISPLACEMENTS, RENMIN UNIVERSITY, BEIJING, CHINA. HIS WORKS ARE INCLUDED IN THE PUBLIC COLLECTIONS OF TOYOTA, AND UENO ROYAL MUSEUM, TOKYO COLLECTION.

ROBERT PLATT

YOU HAVE AN INCREDIBLE ARRAY OF WORLDLY EXPERIENCE IN THE ARTS. DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE

THE LOCATION IN BECOMING ARCTIC IS STUNNING. YOU HAVE VENTURED TO THE ARCTIC BEFORE -WAS THIS ONE OF THE LOCATIONS YOU HAD PREVIOUSLY I really valued going to art school in London, having access to every type of cultural venue, but EXPLORED, OR WAS THIS NEW TERRAIN later, as a contrast to London, I was utterly seduced FOR YOU? and inspired by my surroundings as a post-grad in Kyoto, Japan. My school was set amongst bamboo forests on the city outskirts, surrounded by mountains and rice fields. Compared to a dirty, old, gray London, it was a verdant paradise. As for projects and showcasing my work, I had an incredible experience doing a film project/urban intervention with a collaborator in Bombay, India. I was totally blown away by the density and vibrancy of the urban experience. The streets were so full of sound, color, and movement.Everything is more intense than anywhere I’ve ever experienced in that respect.

"YOU HAD TO MAKE THE MOST OF EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY, KNOWING THAT CONDITIONS WOULD CHANGE AND RETURN WOULDN’T BE EASY."

Yes, I returned to Svalbard for a second time, but with an eight-year gap. Svalbard, an archipelago set in the extreme Norwegian Arctic, is wilderness, sort of no man’s land.Specific places and locations don’t really have the same significance as other geographical locations. Due to extreme fluctuations in climate, the appearance of the landscape is continually shifting and evolving. I know I returned to several familiar sites.Still, they appeared entirely new for me due to shrinking glaciers, ice melt, and the amount of snowfall, all directly a result of the climate crisis. What was exciting location-wise is that you knew you only had one shot at it when you found a location. You had to make the most of every second of every day, knowing that conditions would change and return wouldn’t be easy. We were always at the mercy of the weather and tides; hence any planning was futile.

HAVE YOUR STUDENTS SEEN THIS FILM? IF SO, WHAT WERE THEIR REACTIONS? I’ve shown some of them the rough cut, and it’s funny; in their reactions, they were really curious and impressed, but they were somewhat confused that their instructor, usually a fairly reasonable person, was involved in such high jinks in the Arctic. They eyed me half with admiration and the other with dubiety!

ELLIS FINNEY AN INTERVIEW WITH

DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

A TEENAGE KID DREAMS OF BEING A COWBOY, UNTIL HIS FRIEND TELLS HIM ABOUT A PAIR OF COWBOY BOOTS THAT CAN MAKE HIS WISH COME TRUE.

ELLIS FINNEY IS A VIRGINIA BASED DIRECTOR. HE IS A FULL TIME STUDENT AT JAMES MADISON UNIVERSITY MAJORING IN ENGLISH WITH A MINOR IN FILM STUDIES. ELLIS IS INSPIRED BY DIRECTORS LIKE EDWARD YANG, ÉRIC ROHMER, WONG-KAR WAI, MICHAEL HANEKE, ALFONSO CUARÓN, ABBAS KIAROSTAMI, ANDREA ARNOLD, AND DAVID FINCHER. HE WAS A FINALIST FOR BEST SHORT SCREENPLAY AT THE CANNES SCREENPLAY CONTEST, AND HE WON BEST SHORT SCREENPLAY AT FESTIGIOUS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FOR "THE STORY OF A WEAK WINGED BUTTERFLY". HIS PILOT, "PROXY", WAS SELECTED FOR COMPETITION AT CHANNEL101, AND HIS EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILM "LEFT BEHIND" WON BEST SHORT FILM AT ROSELLE PARK SHORT FILM FESTIVAL. THE MOMENT THAT LED ELLIS TO BECOMING A FILMMAKER WAS WATCHING "GONE GIRL" FOR THE FIRST TIME; HE'S BEEN IN LOVE EVER SINCE. ELLIS'S DREAM IS TO LIVE OFF OF THE MONEY HE MAKES MAKING FILMS.

ELLIS

FINNEY

AT WHAT POINT DID YOU GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO MAKE THIS FILM? I first gave myself permission to make the film when I realized that was really the only thing I could make. To be honest, one of the goals I had was to just make something good, something that I would be happy with, and this piece felt like the only way to do that.

Sometimes, I wonder if we really have any agency in choosing the things we create. To me, it feels like the projects we make choose us in a weird way.

"TO ME, IT FEELS LIKE THE PROJECTS WE MAKE CHOOSE US IN A WEIRD WAY."

HOW DID YOU OVERCOME YOUR FEAR OF NO ONE TAKING YOUR FILM SERIOUSLY? I experienced a little fear of no one taking the film seriously, but in a comforting way, I figured if I messed up, no one would really care. It's not like I have established a name for myself or something. Oddly enough, I find me being a nobody in filmmaking kind of liberating, because if I do screw up, the only person I have to answer to is myself.

The fear of no one taking the film seriously was overshadowed by the anxiety of not doing the script justice.

I really didn't want to butcher the emotion found within the script. I am a young filmmaker, and although I have made films before, this film feels like my first statement. After completing it, it felt as if I had just found my voice as a director and editor. It was easily the best moment of my life so far.

WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE YOUNG FILMMAKERS? Advice for young filmmakers is hard because I still consider myself one!

But, one thing that has helped me out immensely is digesting as much art as I can, whether it's music, poetry, fiction, films, photography, architecture, and paintings. I try to make sure I surround myself with things that move me. Then, for me, the biggest thing that's helped me as a director is improving my writing.

Once I gained a better grasped of language and the emotion that comes with writing, directing clicked for me.

During the time I was writing "But I Wanted to be a Cowboy", it was one of the most fruitful times of reading books and poetry, watching films, and listening to music for me, and because of that, my writing took huge leaps!

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Kolby jacobs Director, Producer, Writer, Cast Lucas McCutchen Director, Producer, Writer

AN ARTHOUSE FAUX DOCUMENTARY EXPLORING ART, ADDICTION AND ALTERED STATES.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

LUCAS MCCUTCHEN + KOLBY JACOBS

LUCAS MCCUTCHEN + KOLBY JACOBS

"I THINK THE SIGNIFICANCE OF WORKING IN THE HORROR GENRE FOR US IS EXPLORING THINGS WE DON’T QUITE UNDERSTAND. WHETHER IT’S ABOUT OURSELVES, OR THE THINGS AROUND US." SPECIFICALLY WITH HORROR, WHAT FILMS OR FILMMAKERS HAVE YOU LOOKED TO FOR INSPIRATION AND WHAT IS IT ABOUT THEIR WORK THAT MOVES YOU? We have been more inspired by art from the late 60s -70s when dipping into the horror genre. We became fascinated with the concept “in what space can art live”? which was something thoroughly explored during these two decades. So using this, we naturally stumbled upon our “subconsciousness” which we found can be quite a scary place. I think as humans, we’re quite infatuated with how our minds and other people’s minds work, and it can be quite scary to explore parts of the mind that we hadn’t really questioned just yet.

HAVE YOU WORKED ON A FILM PROJECT TOGETHER BEFORE? WAS THIS EXPERIENCE DIFFERENT? HOW? We have worked together for years now but never on a project that was actually just the two of us. It definitely had it’s challenges only being able to really have one actor on screen at a time but we still had a blast making it.

HOW MANY CONCEPTS DID YOU COME UP WITH BEFORE DECIDING TO TAKE ACTION? We did allow ourselves some time to brainstorm and build on ideas, but ultimately once an idea popped up that fit the criteria and we felt like we could execute, we went for it.

I’m not sure if it was because we made the smart decision to not waste too much time, or if it was because we were just so excited and eager to begin the process….

WERE YOUR IDEAS REALIZED BY THE TIME YOU WERE EDITING OR WAS THERE FLEXIBILITY IN WHAT YOU WERE CREATING DURING THE PROCESS THAT ALLOWED YOU TO MAKE CHANGES ALONG THE WAY? Thankfully most of our vision actually made it past editing although there were several shots/ideas that didn’t live up to their initial hype while filming. We had to look at shots objectively, even if some took a ton of time to light and block, they didn’t fit the film’s pacing so we had to let them go.

WAS THERE ANYTHING THAT YOU IMAGINED TO BE MORE DIFFICULT THAN IT REALLY WAS? IF SO, WHAT WAS IT? This was the first time we ever put in the effort to have some cinematic lighting so that probably ate up most of our time. While we had a lot of equipment it was finding that right balance with the fill and the shadows. I’m glad we spent so much time on it because I think it heavily benefited the film.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW AND HOW CAN WE SEE MORE OF YOUR WORK IN THE FUTURE? We are quite thrilled about our next project. I can’t give away too much, but It is a documentary that follows and reflects the journey of a man who’s been in the system. We are hoping to get this documentary entered into film festivals where it can then be viewed. But our main goal is for as many people as possible to be able to watch and witness this story. Because it’s important.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

N ED II RLE C TWO R EO SF T

DIRECTOR BIO

A WORLD WITHOUT PEOPLE IN WHICH GEOMETRIC SHAPES, LIGHT AND COLOUR, TAKE ON THEIR OWN MEANING AND SERENITY.

NEIL IS A FEATURE FILM DIRECTOR KNOWN FOR CONTAINMENT (2015). STARRING LOUISE BREALEY, SHEILA REID AND LEE ROSS. CONTAINMENT RECEIVED A THEATRICAL RELEASE AND CRITICAL ACCLAIM WITHIN INTERNATIONAL FILM MAGAZINES SUCH AS THE BFI SIGHT AND SOUND MAGAZINE, EMPIRE MAGAZINE, TOTAL FILM AND THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER. HIS PREVIOUS SHORT FILM, UNDERTOW, WAS PRAISED BY PETER BRADSHAW (CHIEF GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER FILM CRITIC) DURING HIS 2008 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL BLOG. NEIL HAS RECENTLY FORMED K FILMS WITH FEATURE FILM DIRECTOR, DAN TURNER (THE MAN INSIDE - PETER MULLEN) AND IS IN POST PRODUCTION ON HIS LATEST DRAMA, ASYLUM.

NEIL WEST

CHASM IS AN EXPERIMENTAL SHORT MADE THROUGHOUT THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC. A DIRECT AND PERSONAL RESPONSE TO THE CRISIS. THE SCULPTOR'S ENVIRONMENT REPRESENTS A HAUNTING AND ISOLATED WORLD FROM WHICH WE HAVE ALL BEEN TEMPORARILY EXCLUDED. A WORLD WITHOUT PEOPLE IN WHICH GEOMETRIC SHAPES, LIGHT AND COLOUR, TAKE ON THEIR OWN MEANING AND SERENITY. THE SLOW BUILDING DISCORDANT SOUND DESIGN IS LIKE A VIRUS TAKING FORM, THREATENING TO UNBALANCE THE VISUAL HARMONY.

WHAT CAME FIRST, THE LOCATION OR THE IDEA FOR YOUR PROJECT? Although I come from a narrative filmmaking background, I started out in experimental film and desperately wanted to get back to that for a short film. I wanted to make a film that was about geometric shapes and how they intersect with colour and light. The vibrant colours were influenced by my love of the use of colour by filmmakers like Dario Argento, but the fascination with shape and form were inspired by my love of American female director Maya Deren. I knew pretty quickly that sculpture would be the perfect subject matter for this film.

THE FILM REFLECTS THE CONFUSION, ISOLATION AND FEAR SURROUNDING A WORLD THAT IS TEMPORARILY UNRECOGNISABLE. RAISING THE QUESTION OF WHAT A NEW POSTCOVID 19 WORLD MIGHT LOOK LIKE. THE FILM WAS MADE ENTIRELY WITHIN THE GROUNDS OF BRITISH SCULPTOR - TOM STOGDON. HIS HOME AND WORKSHOP SPILL OUT INTO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT THAT SURROUNDS IT. GIVING THE AREA A GARDEN OF EDEN QUALITY IN WHICH NEW CREATIONS ARE PERIODICALLY ADDED TO AN OTHERWISE UNTOUCHED ENVIRONMENT.

WHEN DID YOU BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THE GROUNDS OF BRITISH SCULPTOR - TOM STOGDON? Only when researching sculptors. I came across and immediately fell in love with Tom’s work. The shape and texture is beautiful. I reached out to him and was incredibly lucky to get such a positive and enthusiastic response. Tom invited me to come and visit. He lives in a beautiful area of Oxford and I had no idea how incredible the grounds were before arriving. So I immediately wanted to incorporate that into the film. Plus he and his family were just the loveliest and most accommodating people you could possibly imagine.

HAVE YOU VISITED THE GROUNDS SINCE YOU FILMED? DO YOU THINK IT WILL PROVIDE A DIFFERENT MEANING FOR YOU NEXT TIME YOU GO? I haven’t, and would love to go back and visit.

I think once you’ve shot in a location it definitely changes the feeling of it when you go back. It’s a stunning home and grounds with Tom’s incredible work placed throughout.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

A L A A

S A F I

DIRECTOR BIO

FACING PRISON TIME. FOR MUHAMMAD, COMING OUT TO HIS FAMILY IS NOT AN OPTION. ALAA WAS BORN AND RAISED IN FRANCE TO MOROCCAN PARENTS. AT THE AGE OF 7, HE STARTS PRACTICING MARTIAL ARTS. AT 18, HE'S THE TAE KWON DO WORLD CHAMPION. HIS FIGHTING AND ACROBATIC SKILLS GET HIM TO WORK AS A STUNTMAN IN THAILAND, INDIA AND FRANCE. HE STUDIES ACTING IN THE ATELIER INTERNATIONAL DE THÉÂTRE BLANCHE SALANT & PAUL WEAVER. HE STARTS TAKING ON ROLES, AND KEEPS STUDYING WITH JACK WALTZER. SINCE HE WAS 21, ALAA TAKES PART IN DIFFERENT FILM GENRES. BUT HIS PERFORMANCE AS ANTAGONIST TO JACKIE CHAN IN CHINESE ZODIAC 12 PAVES HIS WAY TO HOLLYWOOD. HE'S OFFERED TO PLAY THE MOOR IN OUTCAST WITH NICOLAS CAGE. HE THEN JOINS TILDA SWINTON, MADS MIKKELSEN AND BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IN DOCTOR STRANGE. HE'S DIRECTED BY MICHAEL CUESTA IN AMERICAN ASSASSIN ALONGSIDE MICHAEL KEATON, AND BY KEVIN MACDONALD WITH JODIE FOSTER IN UPCOMING THE MAURITANIAN. HIS PERFORMANCE IN TAUREAU TAUREAU EARNED HIM THE BEST MALE ACTOR AWARD AT THE FESTIVAL NATIONAL DU FILM HYÈRES LES PALMIERS.

ALAA SAFI

WHEN YOU HAVE THE POSSIBILITY TO USE ART IN ORDER TO SPEAK FOR THOSE WHO AREN’T HEARD, TO ADDRESS AN ISSUE THAT NEEDS ATTENTION, IT IS A BIG PRIVILEGE AND A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO GROW. USING ART TO SHED THE LIGHT ON SOMETHING TRAGIC IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT - THANK YOU FOR DOING SO. WHEN YOU LEARNED ABOUT THE TRAGEDY AIMED AGAINST THE LGBTQ COMMUNITY IN MOROCCO, HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT MAKING CHRYSALIS?

When I found out about this witch-hunt, it haunted me. I had to do something about it, anything. My wife and I were in lockdown in Tuscany, with my in-laws. Her brother, Tobia Borgogni, is a director of photography, and we were fully rigged from home. We spontaneously decided to make a short film about it, the whole family joined and helped make it happen. I had to wait until my one year old was asleep, then we monopolized my father-in-law’s bathroom for a few hours until we got a good take. It took a few days to edit it, and Julien Campuzano remotely stepped in and added a whole dimension with the sound design. It took us about two weeks to make the film, from the intention to the final cut.The idea of capturing a visual suicide letter of a man who’s stuck at home with people who will never understand him, and will turn against him, came to me when I read about this young man committing suicide at his parents’ place during the events. He knew it was a matter of time before they found out on the internet about his homosexuality, and he just couldn’t stand it. His life would have become a nightmare, just like many others’.

The initial idea was to perform a monologue, to make a last confession to the camera. But during the writing process, not a word of it felt natural. I then decided to keep it silent, in order to let the audience fill and feel the space. I was very inspired by Anohni’s poignant video clip “I don’t love you anymore”. Chrysalis is about the struggle with being our true selves, regardless of how we’re perceived and defined by others, and what is commonly tolerated or legal. The way we look at ourselves and each other.

WILL YOU CONTINUE TO MAKE FILMS AS A VOICE FOR THE VOICELESS, IN ANY REGARD?

Who knows what life is cooking next. What I know is that making Chrysalis has opened a whole new perspective for me as an artist. When you have the possibility to use art in order to speak for those who aren’t heard, to address an issue that needs attention, it is a big privilege and a great opportunity to grow. It adds more meaning to my work and it reminds me of why I do what I do in the first place. It has the power to shake things deep inside and raise questions. Art is indeed a powerful communication platform, so please allow to seize this opportunity to say this: if there is anyone in Morocco, or elsewhere, who’s reading this and is desperately struggling with their identity, keep in mind that there is a whole world out there and within that does love you precisely for who you are. Please reach out!

YOU HAVE WORKED IN A NUMBER OF FILMS BOTH MAJOR MOTION PICTURES AND INDEPENDENT PRODUCTIONS - HAVE YOU NOTICED A COMMON THREAD AMONG THEM ALL?

Whatever the set up is, it always gets down to having fun with portraying a character and telling their story. I have this funny feeling that every movie I’m filming already exists “in the cloud”, and it’s downloaded one day at a time through artists coming together and doing their parts. We’re all “just” channels, and it’s good to remember that.

Whether I’m on a blockbuster film set working with names, getting insecure and intimidated by the scale of things, or making a family-no-budget-film like Chrysalis, we’re all serving something that’s magically happening. My window to that world is my character. And my relationship to my character is personal, and independent from the size of the film. Also, I love this job for all the precious encounters I get to make around the world. From the people I already admire to the ones I fall in love with artistically on the day.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

MATT MITCHELL DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

TWO BOYS STRUGGLE WITH LOVE AND HEARTBREAK IN CLOSETED SUBURBIA.

MATT MITCHELL IS A LOS ANGELES BASED ACTOR, WRITER AND DIRECTOR. ORIGINALLY FROM CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA, MATT BEGAN WRITING IN HIGH SCHOOL. HE HAS WRITTEN FOR BOTH THE STAGE AND SCREEN. HIS FIRST TWO PLAYS, WE ARE HIPSTERS (2014) & STRAIGHT A'S (2016), WERE PUBLISHED BY ON STAGE PRESS, A DIVISION OF SAMUEL FRENCH, INC. MATT RECEIVED THE 2019 HUMANITARIAN AWARD FROM THE INDIE FEST FILM AWARDS FOR HIS FIRST NARRATIVE SHORT FILM, PUBLIC LIFE. PUBLIC LIFE ALSO WON BEST DRAMA AT THE VEGAS MOVIE AWARDS AND WAS SCREENED AT SEVERAL FESTIVALS ACROSS THE WORLD. MATT'S NEXT SHORT, CLOSETS KEEP SUBURBAN BOYS HOME, IS HIS DIRECTORIAL DEBUT. IN MAY OF 2020, MATT GRADUATED FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WITH HIS BFA IN ACTING. MATT IS INCREDIBLY GRATEFUL FOR EVERYTHING HE LEARNED AND FOR ALL THE FRIENDS HE MET AT USC. HE CAN’T WAIT TO CONTINUE COLLABORATING WITH THEM IN THE FUTURE. FIGHT ON!

MATT MITCHELL

WHEN DID YOU MAKE THE DECISION TO DIRECT THIS FILM AND HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO MAKE IT FROM CONCEPT TO FINAL EDIT? I’ve always been interested in directing and this film seemed like a perfect opportunity. This story is close to my heart and I had a strong vision for how the final product would look. As a first-time director, I knew it was important to assemble a team that could help me through the process. In late November 2019, I wrote the script on a flight back to LA. While waiting at the gate, I was reading Keith Haring’s journal. I came across a poem he wrote and one of the lines really stuck with me: “Closets keep suburb boys home.” I thought that sentence was so beautifully sad and I decided to form a narrative around it. When I got back to LA, I sent the script to three friends of mine from the USC BFA Acting program. Once they all agreed to do it, I knew we could have something really special. This film would not exist without the beautiful performances of Alexander Pires, Ben Hirschhorn, and Danny Breslin.

After securing the actors, I then assembled the rest of the team. Our Cinematographer, Felipe Vargas, is an incredible filmmaker and every project he works on is better because of it. He is a wonderful human being and I feel so fortunate to call him a friend and collaborator. The same goes for our producer, Olivia Gill. Our day of filming went so smoothly and it is thanks to her tireless work ethic. We shot the film in one day. We filmed in early February, right before the pandemic shut downs occurred.

After we wrapped, the final pieces of the puzzle started to come together. Our Editor, Joseph DeRose, helped us create the world. His work, combined with Zachary Hernandez’s beautiful score, gave the film the dreamlike feel that I imagined when I wrote it.

It’s an incredible feeling to see your writing come to life. It’s like getting to meet your imaginary friends!

Finally, once our edit was complete, Emma Cataldo came on as our Colorist. I don’t want to spoil anything, but color plays an important role in our film. It’s one of my favorite aspects of the film and it’s all thanks to Emma’s fantastic work. A director is only as good as their team. As a first-time, I couldn’t have asked for a better team.

KEITH HARING IS AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF YOUR WORK - DO YOU REMEMBER THE MOMENT WHEN YOU WERE INTRODUCED TO HIS ART? HOW DID IT AFFECT YOU? To quote David Fincher, “If you think that you can hide what your interests are … what your fascinations are, if you think you can hide that in your work as a film director, you're nuts.” I am fascinated by all things Keith Haring and this no doubt influences my work.

I had always been aware of Keith Haring, but I really started to take an interest in his work during my junior year at USC. In my directing for the stage class, we had to create a scene based on a painting. I chose a piece

by Haring and I’ve been huge fan ever since.

I love Haring’s artwork. It is innocent and joyous while simultaneously being brutally honest and vulnerable. He is also a master storyteller. I like to think of Keith’s artwork like hieroglyphics. The message of each piece changes depending on the placement of the figures.

As much as I love Haring’s work, I am even more infatuated and moved by him as a person. He strived to make art that was not only pure and unique, but also accessible to everyone. He approached everything he did with intense energy, but also a sense of adventure and whimsy. No matter where he was or what was happening in the world, he just kept drawing.

I’d like to end with a quote by Keith Haring, “(art) should be something that liberates the soul, provokes the imagination, and encourages people to go further.” Throughout the process of making Closets Keep Suburban Boys Home, I would often think about this quote. I hope you enjoy our film and that it encourages you to keep going further.

“(ART) SHOULD BE SOMETHING THAT LIBERATES THE SOUL, PROVOKES THE IMAGINATION, AND ENCOURAGES PEOPLE TO GO FURTHER.” - KEITH HARING

AN INTERVIEW WITH

S Y DLI RVE CI TAO R TO OF Y

Little

DIRECTOR BIO

A DERMALIAN NATIONAL HERO HAS A STROKE THAT PUTS HIM IN A COMA. DESPERATE FOR A WAY TO SAVE HIS LIFE, HIS GUARDIAN SENDS HIM TO EARTH IN A STATE-OF-THE-ART SPACE SHIP. DR. VERNE'S LITTLE BIG BANG IS BASED ON A SUBPLOT OF MY FEATURE SCREENPLAY, DERMALIAN BY SYLVIA TOY, BUT DEVIATES SIGNIFICANTLY FROM THE SCREENPLAY. DR. VERNE'S LITTLE BIG BANG WAS CREATED TO GENERATE INTEREST IN DERMALIAN, FOR WHICH I AM RAISING FUNDS TO MEET A $77K BUDGET.

SYLVIA TOY

DR. VERNE'S LITTLE BIG BANG IS BASED ON A SUBPLOT OF YOUR FEATURE SCREENPLAY, DERMALIAN. HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO DECIDE IN WHICH WAYS TO DEVIATE FROM THE SCREENPLAY AS YOU MENTION? Dr. Verne is a minority among Dermalians because she has such a low level of empathy, which is as important to Dermalians as intelligence is to us. She is bitter, prickly, erratic; and she is frequently on probation for breaking the rules. It was fun to base this short around a slice of her life and her relationship with her coworkers.

HOW IS THE FUNDRAISING GOING? Truthfully, not well. I see plastic pollution and the Climate Emergency as social justice issues. The funders that I've been approaching do not. That is concerning and very scary – who suffers more as a result of natural disasters than the very people who are the subjects of social justice issues? I would really like to know their reasons why a 70 year old black woman (who may not even be alive in 2030) making a movie about human extinction due to climate change is not relevant enough.

HOW CAN WE, AS HUMANS, LIVE IN BETTER SYMBIOSIS AND MORE EMPATHETICALLY WITHIN NATURE? It would be easy if each of us had the epiphany, “Hey, I’m part of nature myself.” But there’s too much steel, glass, brick, wood, insulation helping us maintain the delusion that we are separate from what we call “nature.” So, if only we paid attention to how much water we're running in the kitchen that we’re not actually using. Or if only we felt stupid driving the four blocks to the strip mall instead of walking. Or if only we were ashamed when we forgot to bring our own bag to the grocery store. I believe those are all little inroads towards consciousness that “Hey, I’m part of nature myself.”

THERE ARE MANY ELEMENTS IN YOUR FILMMAKING. HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO MAKE THIS SPECIFIC HOMEMADE PROJECT? I created the animated characters at the beginning of January 2019 and shot the animations in February and March. Then I shot the live action almost every other day for about eight weeks starting in April 2019. It wasn’t possible to shoot a chase scene in my little apartment, so for the first time I rented a studio for a few days. My husband helped produce those scenes. He also helped produce the space ship scenes and helped design the aliens’ headquarters on their home planet. Once a scene was shot, I put it on the timeline. The entire movie is Chromakeyed and most of the scenes have two or three layers that each had to be Chromakeyed and exported as a high resolution file. I am still working in Final Cut Express, so it was tedious and quite the labor of love. The movie was finished by the middle of July 2019.

"IT WOULD BE EASY IF EACH OF US HAD THE EPIPHANY, "HEY, I’M PART OF NATURE MYSELF." BUT THERE’S TOO MUCH STEEL, GLASS, BRICK, WOOD, INSULATION HELPING US MAINTAIN THE DELUSION THAT WE ARE SEPARATE FROM WHAT WE CALL NATURE."

MARCOS MONTANE AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

INSPIRED BY THE OBSERVATION OF MICROSCOPIC IMAGES OF CELLULAR ACTIVITY.

WHAT WAS THE PROCESS OF CREATING YOUR FILM? AND HOW DID YOU GO ABOUT BRINGING ALL OF THE ELEMENTS TOGETHER? The idea behind dsDNA(RT) was to create a simple but powerful audiovisual piece with a strong emphasis on the narrative aspect.

Given the abstract form of the short film it was challenging to tell a story without characters, dialogue or text. The animation process begins with the development of an “autonomous being”.

This kind of animation evolves according to a series of parameters that the user set. With a high value of randomness it's impossible to predict accurately the motion. It's like the animation has her own will. The second step is to find the most interesting moments of the motion and set the camera point of view. At this point I feel like a cameraman filming a documentary. I think the connection between animation and cinema is dominant in my work.

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO NAVIGATE YOUR WORK IN FEATURE FILMS AND ADVERTISING DURING THIS PAST YEAR?

DIRECTOR BIO

In my experience, 2020 was just enough busy for the post production industry. I try to dedicate my spare time between commercial projects to personal projects. Sometimes that free time appears unexpectedly but what I enjoy the most is when I can plan in advance to work in a short film for a month or two.

For me the key is to start with a personal project that I can finish in a reasonable amount of time. I usually work on my own but now I’m eager to work with other people on future projects.

"IT'S LIKE THE ANIMATION HAS HER OWN WILL."

I STUDIED DESIGN OF IMAGE AND SOUND AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BUENOS AIRES IN ARGENTINA. I WORK IN 3D ANIMATION AND VFX FOR FEATURE FILMS AND ADVERTISING.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

PHILIP RABALAIS

DIRECTOR BIO

MINIMALIST SCI-FI ABOUT IMAGINARY SCIENCE AND SONIC SYMBIOSIS

PHILIP RABALAIS IS A FILMMAKER AND ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN LIVING IN IOWA CITY, IOWA. HE RECEIVED AN MFA IN FILM AND VIDEO PRODUCTION FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF IOWA. HIS FILMS HAVE SCREENED INTERNATIONALLY AT FESTIVALS SUCH AS SLAMDANCE, CHICAGO UNDERGROUND, LATERALE, ONION CITY, GIMLI, TACOMA, AND COSMIC RAYS. PHILIP’S FILMS ARE FILLED WITH PLANTS, TELEPHONES, BASEMENTS, BIG AND SMALL MYSTERIES, AND LOTS OF STRANGE SOUNDS.

PHILIP RABALAIS

"THE FEELINGS THAT ARISE AS A RESULT OF SOUND ARE HARDER TO PIN DOWN THAN THE MORE CONCRETE EMOTIONS THAT COME FROM CONNECTION WITH CHARACTERS OR A PLOT. THAT AMBIGUOUS CHARGE OF FEELING IS, TO ME, A KIND OF GATEWAY INTO THE UNKNOWN." AHHH. WE ARE SO HAPPY TO HAVE YOU BACK. WE WERE INTRODUCED TO YOUR WORK IN 2018 AS WE CELEBRATED OUR FIRST FESTIVAL WITH YOUR FILM PROBLEMS ON THE LINE. THANK YOU FOR JOINING US AGAIN! So grateful to have another film playing at your amazing festival! I only wish I could come down to Austin to meet you and celebrate...hopefully someday!

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON SINCE THEN? I just finished my MFA at the University of Iowa this past summer, so I have been working on my thesis film for most of 2019-2020. That film (called Utopia Park, and filmed at the titular trailer park where I grew up) is actually something of a follow-up to Earth FM - it deals with similar ideas regarding sound and pseudo-sonic-science and nature. Utopia Park centers more on a single character with an actual history (unlike the scientists in Earth FM who are mysteries in themselves); but I definitely feel like I'm still working through things that Earth FM opened up. I'm also working on music a lot more now that I'm out of school - music that is informed by experimental sound design techniques.

Perhaps I'm just trying to become one of the scientists in Earth FM!

THERE IS A CONSTANT THEME IN YOUR WORK THAT IS EXPLORATORY IN NATURE - EXPLORATION ITSELF AND EXPLORATION OF SOUND. WHERE DOES THE FASCINATION FOR THOSE THINGS COME FROM? AND HOW WILL YOU CONTINUE TO FURTHER CHANNEL THEM IN YOUR WORK? I'm glad to hear there is an exploratory quality that comes through in the movies! In the most basic (and maybe childlike) sense, I believe this fascination stems from the feeling that there is more than meets the eye to our reality. Holding that feeling close letting it guide you and take you over - is something I think the characters in the movies do; and I believe it gives me a chance to do the same. The specific focus on sound comes from my background as an electronic musician (I made music for many years before I began making movies). In fact, part of my interest in filmmaking was a desire to create a visual and narrative context for sound/music ideas that I wanted to work out. Sound has been a really wonderful guide in the pursuit of making movies that try to deal with the unknown. The feelings that arise as a result of sound are harder to pin down than the more concrete emotions that come from connection with characters or a plot. That ambiguous charge of feeling is, to me, a kind of gateway into the unknown. I feel pretty hooked on seeking that out, so I definitely hope to continue this exploration in my work.

HAS THIS TUMULTUOUS YEAR INFORMED YOUR CURRENT WORK IN ANY WAY? WILL YOU MAKE ADJUSTMENTS WHILE MAKING PROJECTS IN THE FUTURE AS A RESULT? I think the combination of finishing up a big project (my thesis film) and the general lockdown this year has pushed me back towards music. Focusing on filmmaking for the last few years has informed the way I think about and make music - I feel like it has opened me up in ways that I couldn't imagine before, which is exciting. While it's definitely nice to have a creative outlet that doesn't require a crew and close contact with other people to produce work, I do miss the big collaborative whirlwind of filmmaking, and look forward to it again sometime in the future!

DIRECTOR BIO

STAVIT ALLWEIS IS AN ISRAELI-BORN, NEW YORK-BASED VISUAL ARTIST WHO’S JOURNEY HAS TAKEN HER FROM PAINTING TO THE MOVING IMAGE. AS HER WORKS BECAME PROGRESSIVELY NARRATIVE, SHE BEGAN TO EXPERIMENT WITH SEQUENTIAL ART AND COMICS. IN 2010, INTRIGUED BY THE LANGUAGE OF CINEMA, SHE LAUNCHED THE PRODUCTION OF ISNESS, AN EPIC PHOTOGRAPHIC NOVEL. ALLWEIS STAGED AND DIRECTED THE ACTION AS IF IT WERE A FILM. USING PHOTOSHOP, THE STILL SHOTS OF THE ACTORS ARE SET INSIDE SHOTS OF HANDMADE MINIATURE ENVIRONMENTS SHE HAD CONSTRUCTED. THE PROGRESS OF THIS PROJECT CAN BE FOLLOWED ON WWW.COUNTERCOMICS.CO IN PREPARATION FOR HER SHIFT INTO FILM, ALLWEIS TOOK COURSES IN DIRECTING (JUDITH WESTON) AND ACTING (JASON BENNETT) AND JOINED THE BROOKLYN FILMMAKERS COLLECTIVE. THE SHORT FILM COOKING WITH CONNIE WAS ALLWEIS’ FIRST MOVING IMAGE PROJECT. IT WON BEST EXPERIMENTAL AT THE BROOKLYN FILM FESTIVAL IN 2017 AMONG OTHER AWARDS. ALLWEIS RECEIVED HER BFA IN GRAPHIC DESIGN FROM BEZALEL ACADEMY IN ISRAEL. SHE RECEIVED AN MFA IN PAINTING FROM COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IN NEW YORK.

ARTHOUSE QUARTERLY Â | Â PAGE 29

STAVIT ALLWEIS

EXECUTION IS AN INCREDIBLY FRESH APPROACH TO REVENGE FANTASY. DID YOU GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO CREATE SOMETHING SO UNAPOLOGETIC FROM THE GET GO OR DID YOU HAVE TO PUSH YOURSELF THROUGHOUT? From the get-go. I think I have been waiting my whole life to see women unapologetically killing men on screen. Waiting for the other shoe to drop, so to speak. There is no balance to the carnage against women that permeates cinema. Women are raped and killed simply for being women, while men get killed primarily in their fights with other men. If you start flipping genders on mainstream films you'd be treated to a very revealing and disturbing mirror image. I think it would freak men out to see it. In the rare occasion that a woman kills a man on screen, it is not the random victimizing that women are treated to. The guy will have deserved it. The context would be self defence or revenge. Even then it's often depicted as a singular act of rage, or as a transgression to be punished i.e. Thelma and Louise. I have to disagree, though, that Execution is non-apologetic. To get away with this type of depiction, I made the men not only rapists or only killers, but rapist-killers. The worst of the worst. I also felt compelled to include the lovers to avoid being labeled and dismissed as a "man-hater". I'm ok with these compromises because they help deliver the message. I'm saying in Execution that the annihilation of rapist-killers is a woman's business because as long as we live in a world under male custody it's just not going to happen. Even perfectly awesome men still benefit from the terrorism against women though they may hate that idea. It maintains a status quo that props them up. I did try, however, to do some things differently, primarily by making it a premeditated, serial killing. I purposefully had my women kill in a disinterested fashion. There is no personal, negative bond. There is nothing. They are dead meat. The men get flicked off the planet like scabs. I did not want to make an indulgent drama with some bullshit moral conundrum. Just some nice clean justice and eye-candy for women.

WAS THERE ANY ROOM FOR IMPROV DURING FILMING OR WAS EVERYTHING SET IN STONE SO THAT ALL THE ELEMENTS CAN SHINE INDIVIDUALLY YET ALSO COLLECTIVELY? Because there is so much going on and many actions are synchronised, I had to choreograph all the motion and keep the dialog on track with it. Improvisation would have been counterproductive for this. I also think that since the activity and dialogue are pretty outlandish, handing them over to improv would result in the actors defaulting to normalized human patterns with their standard logic. Having said that, I do regret that we didn't have enough time on set to afford me a couple more experimental takes. I would have chosen to loosen up the restraints and let the actors unleash some of the goods that I know each harbored.

STAVIT ALLWEIS

WHEN COLLECTING YOUR PERSONAL STORIES AND THOSE OF OTHER WOMEN, WAS THAT SOMETHING THAT HAPPENED OVER TIME BEFORE CREATING THIS PROJECT, PERHAPS THE IMPETUS OF THE FILM OR HAD YOU DECIDED WHAT THIS PROJECT WOULD ENTAIL AND COLLECTED FROM THERE? The realities of rapes and murders of women are ever present. Countless such events have been collecting and festering the back of my mind since I was a child. For the film I wanted to use real events from the era of the film, the early 1970s. The research took me down some very depressing rabbit holes. It was sickening. It was also frustrating to realize that records are not easily available for that time other than a few high profile cases that were turned into media fodder. One dead end for instance, was a study revealing that In Greece in the 70s, rapes were not being recorded by police. Another, that in Arab countries "honor" killings were a norm, not a crime and in the India Pakistan war of the era, women were imprisoned en-masse as sex slaves and then executed. How does one even work with this material without imploding? I ended up collecting what I could from each country and creating an amalgam, an approximation of a particular event. It didn't matter what I put together, really. Any horrible rape-murder I could imagine had already really happened.

LOOKS LIKE YOU GAVE THIS PRODUCTION A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF ROOM FOR COLLABORATION AND REHEARSAL TIME. IS THAT SOMETHING THAT YOU WELCOME WITH ALL OF YOUR PROJECTS? More rehearsal than collaboration, really. I thought that it would pay off, on screen, if I took the time to nurture an ensemble. By that I mean the women. I didn't rehearse the men at all because I wanted them to seem like foreign objects in the midst of the female hive. I worked with them every Sunday for three months to build the individual archetypes and the relationships between them. They each got a map of the floor with their dedicated routes of movement so they wouldn't bump into each other. I also had them over to my place one night and tasked them with cooking an entire dinner without exchanging a word. They didn't get the script (nor was it ready) until two months into the process. They were all such good sports! Looking forward, blocking will always be very important to me because it determines the composition on the screen. As a former painter I am acutely aware of that kind of thing. I'm sure that to some extent I will always rehearse actors for blocking but I'm not sure I would choose to repeat the process of Execution. I learned a lot from it but it was exhausting too.

ARTHOUSE QUARTERLY | PAGE 39

THE POETRY FROM

ZORNITSA STOYANOVA'S

A VISUAL POEM ABSTRACTING PREGNANCY AND THE ACT OF BIRTHING.

DIRECTOR BIO

IT IS THE MOST SENSUAL EXPERIENCE...

IT GIVES YOU PERSPECTIVE. IT GIVES YOU UNDERSTANDING ON THE DURABILITY OF THE FEMALE BODY. HOW WE HAVE SURVIVED... VIOLENCE... AND RAPE... AND BIRTH... AND DEATH... AND…. AND ... WE ARE STILL ….WE ARE… ADAPTABLE. DURABLE. IT IS THE MOST SENSUAL EXPERIENCE… IT GIVES YOU UNDERSTANDING OF WHY WOMEN HAVE LONGER LIFESPAN THAN MEN…….

AND HOW...

THOSE GROWING BONES… THOSE TISSUES WITHIN YOU …

TURN INTO A PERSON...

A SENSUAL DANCE, BETWEEN THIS NEW BODY AND MY OLD BIRTHING BODY. A SENSUAL DANCE BETWEEN MOTHER AND OFFSPRING. THEIR OWN THING… I AM SPLIT. IT MAKES ITSELF. MY GENETIC MATERIAL SLEEPING NEXT TO ME. THESE FEW CELLS DIVIDING...

IT IS ITS OWN PERSON, ITS OWN THING, TEN FINGERS AND TEN TOES. TURN INTO MORE AND MORE… I SERVE IT, AND… I CARE FOR IT. IT TAKES OVER …

MY OLD BODY GIVES FULLY IT TAKES OVER YOUR BODY FROM THE INSIDE. UNTIL THIS ALIEN MAKE ITSELF INTO MY OWN IMAGE. AN ALIEN. SLOWLY RHYTHMS EMERGE – A DANCE OF GIVE AND TAKE, WE EXCHANGE FLUIDS – ME CONSTANTLY GIVING AND IT CONSTANTLY EXPELLING… YOUR LITTLE ALIEN. A LOVING PARASITE, TRANSFORMED FROM TWO CELLS MEETING… AN ENERGY VAMPIRE, LIVING IN FLUID AND BREATHING YOUR INSIDES… AN ALIEN. DEEPLY LODGED INTO YOUR GROIN, WE HAVE BOTH TRANSFORMED… IT MADE ITSELF IN YOUR OWN IMAGE. NO LONGER BOUND BY THE SAME SPACE… IT BOUNCED OF OFF YOUR HIP BONES, WE HAVE EMERGED DIFFERENT. AND TORE YOU OPEN. I AM CONNECTED TO IT IT CAME KICKING AND SCREAMING, AND HOURS OF LABOR, AM A SLAVE TO IT. HOURS OF PAIN, I SPLIT HOURS OF PUSHING AND TURNED INTO DAYS. GAVE MY OTHER SELF IT MADE ITSELF, A MIND OF ITS OWN. EXPELLING DEEPLY FROM WITHIN YOU...

I PROPAGATED KICKING AND SCREAMING TO GET OUT. I CREATED NOW HERE, IT IS YOU AND IT IS NOT YOU. I PUT AN ALIEN ON THIS PLANET YOU HAVE SEPARATED… AND AS I DID THAT DIVIDED YOURSELF… I KILLED MY OLD BODY INTO THIS NEW ALIEN FORM. I KILLED MY OLD SELF YOU SEE YOUR CELLS, SHIFTED YOUR BLOOD, TRANSFORMED YOUR GENES, DANCED THE SENSUAL DANCE YOUR FACE, CHANGED OUTSIDE OF YOU...

AND IMMERGED AND WITH A MIND OF ITS OWN. DIFFERENT BLOODY, SCARRED WET, SLEEP DEPRIVED SHAKING, SKIN SAGGY FLUIDS EXPELLING, CARING BELLY EMPTY, I PROPAGATED SKIN FLOPPING. I CREATED TORN UP AND SOWN UP… I PUT AN ALIEN ON THIS PLANET WITH NEEDLE AND THREAD AS IF MY VAGINA IS A FAMILY QUILT TO BE MENDED. AND AS I DID THAT I AM SPLIT. I KILLED MY OLD BODY I CANNOT SLEEP. I KILLED MY OLD SELF I CANNOT EAT. SHIFTED TRANSFORMED DANCED THE SENSUAL DANCE CHANGED AND IMMERGED DIFFERENT SCARRED SLEEP DEPRIVED SKIN SAGGY CARING

ZORNITSA STOYANOVA IS A PERFORMANCE ARTIST, CURATOR, WRITER, LIGHTING AND VIDEO DESIGNER BASED IN PHILADELPHIA, PA. A NATIVE OF BULGARIA, SHE CREATES, PRODUCES AND PRESENTS PERFORMING ART AND VIDEO UNDER THE NAME HERE[BEGIN] DANCE.SHE QUESTIONS THE IDEAS OF THE CONSTRUCTED STRUCTURES OF PERFORMANCE AND PUSHES THE BOUNDARIES OF SOCIAL PROPRIETY. MYLAR REFLECTIVE MATERIAL AND CUSTOM LIGHTING ARE INTEGRAL PART OF HER MOST RECENT WORK. SINCE BECOMING A MOTHER HER WORK HAS FOCUSED ON ABSTRACTING THE FEMALE BODY, FEMINIST IDEAS AND IMAGERY.SHE ALSO SEEKS OUT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES RESEARCHING ART PRACTICES IN ABSTRACTING THE BODY AND LOOKING FOR EMOTIONAL CONTENT AND POTENTIAL FOR MEANING.

DAVI PENA AN INTERVIEW WITH

DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

A RECOVERING ADDICT MUST ENDURE A DESCENT INTO MADNESS WHEN THE GHOST OF HIS PAST LOVER MAKES HER PRESENCE KNOWN.

DAVI PENA IS AN ASPIRING PUERTO-RICAN AMERICAN DIRECTOR WITH A PASSION FOR TELLING INTIMATE HUMAN STORIES WITH A WIDE SCOPE. IN ADDITION TO BEING A DIRECTOR HE IS A FREELANCE D.P , SHOOTING MUSIC VIDEOS, BRANDED CONTENT AS WELL AS NARRATIVES.HE IS CURRENTLY FURTHERING HIS STUDIES AT SCAD

DAVI

HOW DOES YOUR PUERTO RICAN HERITAGE INFORM YOUR WORK? Up until this point, almost not at all. At least nothing inherently. I tend to keep my culture and the stories I tell apart from each other but I'm aiming to change that. I currently have some concepts in development that will be meditations for me in reconnecting with my cultural roots and I’m really excited to explore that avenue a bit more in the future. On the latter though, I think that storytelling and the way we as Puerto Ricans communicate and share stories, had much influence on my development as a filmmaker growing up. We Puerto Rican’s love to eat, dance and talk and when some of us starting talking there’s almost no stopping; stories were what connected us as a family, both immediate and extended.

"OUR MEMORIES OF LOST LOVED ONES, OUR DEEPEST FEARS, AND OUR DARKEST SECRETS ARE WHAT REALLY HAVE THE CAPABILITIES OF HAUNTING US RATHER THAN ANY SORT OF PHYSICAL MANIFESTATIONS."

PENA

DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS? I believe ghosts exist, but I believe they exist in the subconscious of our minds. Our memories of lost loved ones, our deepest fears, and our darkest secrets are what really have the capabilities of haunting us rather than any sort of physical manifestations. In Eyes of Eidolon, the ghost we see only exists within the psyche of Alexander Makris, our self deprived main character, and is what pushes him into his downward spiral. Ghosts live within our minds like a memory, because I think we all, in some way, have been haunted by the past. That’s my philosophy at least.

LOOKS LIKE YOU FILMED EYES OF EIDOLON JUST BEFORE THE PANDEMIC. HOW HAVE YOU MANAGED YOUR CREATIVITY DURING THE REST OF THE YEAR WITH ALL THE COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS? Surprisingly well. Amidst the chaos of the shutdown and the pandemic I’ve had more time to self reflect and appreciate the smaller things in life. Subsequently I took a bit of time off after finishing Eyes of Eidolon to spend more time with friends and loved ones. Creating this film in particular was somewhat mentally draining when you consider the context of the material I was working with, so taking a step back and giving myself to time to realign my thoughts during the shutdown was honestly healthy for me. I’ve had a lot of time to write and develop a number of different concepts for future projects and always manage to keep creating regardless. I even started sculpting a bit to broaden my range as an artist, I think it’s important for me to explore different mediums other than just film.

SO HAPPY TO HAVE YOU BACK WITH AAFF. LAST YEAR YOU TOOK HOME THE ARONOFSKY AWARD FOR BEST PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER FOR YOUR FILM PERCHT. SO HAPPY TO CONTINUE TO CELEBRATE YOUR WORK! HOW HAVE YOU BOTH KEPT YOUR CREATIVITY ALIVE DURING THIS UNPREDICTABLE YEAR?

Dolly: I kept to a schedule of meditation, accordion practice, and singing jazz.

Béla: Actually I enjoyed not needing to be creative because the world was on pause. It felt good not to be an idea factory for once. And I listened to someone singing jazz a lot.

WHAT ARE THE PLUSES OF LIVING IN NEW YORK CITY IN A TIME LIKE THIS?

Dolly: Even in a pandemic, New York is still the city that never sleeps. So if I needed a 3am chocolate bar, I could go out into the empty streets and the city was there for me.

Béla: The only plus to living in New York in a time like this is finding a great apartment with cheaper rent.

WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR ANYONE THAT IS IN A LIVING AND WORKING PARTNERSHIP?

Dolly: Choose kind over right.

Béla: Learn how to shut up in the right moments.

WHAT DO Y'ALL HAVE PLANNED NEXT?

Dolly and Béla: A feature shooting in the summer of 2021.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

DOLLY LEWIS & BÉLA BAPTISTE

DIRECTOR BIO

A WOMAN DEALS WITH AN UNWANTED NARRATOR.

DOLLY LEWIS AND BÉLA BAPTISTE MET IN 2016 AND AFTER 2.5 YEARS DATING LONG DISTANCE AND TRAVELING TO COLLABORATE BETWEEN NEW YORK AND VIENNA (ON THE FIRST VIRTUAL REALITY FILM SHOT IN AUSTRIA AND NUMEROUS OTHER SHORTS), THEY ARE NOW BASED TOGETHER IN NEW YORK CITY. THEY ARE CURRENTLY WORKING ON THEIR FIRST FEATURE TO BE SHOT IN SUMMER 2021.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

B R A N DD I OR E NC T OWR OI FL S O N

DIRECTOR BIO

A ghost is born in the forest

BRANDON WILSON (B. 1982) GREW UP IN THE DESERTS OF WEST TEXAS. HE STUDIED PHOTOGRAPHY AND PAINTING AND RECEIVED A BA IN STUDIO ARTS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS IN AUSTIN. HE LIVES IN A CABIN IN THE WOODS OF NORTHWEST OREGON AND HAS BEEN MAKING FILMS SINCE 2014.

BRANDON WILSON

ARE THERE CERTAIN TECHNIQUES OR KINDS OF MENTAL FRAMEWORKS OR CONCEPTS THAT GUIDE YOU? I’m primarily drawn to filmmaking because of the medium’s hypnotic potential. I try to facilitate in myself, and hopefully in others, an experience of inner spaciousness and mindstates that are not often encountered or not fully acknowledged in routine living. I think this goal of pointing inwards is best achieved when the experience of the film is carried solely through images and sound, without traditional story or dialog. A friend of mine described this as “dealing with narrative in the form of presence, the presence of images, like paintings.”

I TRY TO FACILITATE ... AN EXPERIENCE OF INNER SPACIOUSNESS AND MIND-STATES THAT ARE NOT OFTEN ENCOUNTERED...IN ROUTINE LIVING.

ANY OTHER PIECES OF ART OR LIFE THAT WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN YOUR PROCESS? The phantoms in the beginning of the film were made by manipulating images of myself that were taken when I was a brand new baby, in some cases minutes old, a few months old at most. I had been given a family photo album that contained these pictures just before starting work on this film. I had also recently gone through some difficult experiences with my family and looking at images of my former nascent self made me want to run them through a blender.

The waterfall in the film is a special place for me. It has appeared in several of my films and I have spent a lot of time there, sometimes at night in the cave behind the cascade in pitch blackness listening to the roar, barely able to see the faint outline of the water on its way down.

The paintings of Zdzisław Beksiński are also a big inspiration.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN DRAWN TO WATCHING AND MAKING HORROR FILMS? I’m drawn to watching and making dark, ominous films but I don’t think of them as traditional horror because there is not necessarily a threat of specific external violence being acted out on characters. I am interested in dread and gloom and the nebulous threat of the unknown.

WHAT FILMS OR FILMMAKERS HAVE YOU LOOKED TO FOR INSPIRATION AND WHAT IS IT ABOUT THEIR WORK THAT MOVES YOU? Takashi Makino, Sandy Ding, Scott Barley, Philippe Grandrieux, Sharunas Bartas, Jordan Belson Their work illuminates things and places that are familiar to me but only in a dim, rough way. Then I see their work and there it is, much clearer than before.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW AND HOW CAN WE SEE MORE OF YOUR WORK IN THE FUTURE? I’m working on a film that visualizes a dream as well as the state between sleep and wakefulness. It’s nightmarish at times, blissful at others.

AJ SMITH

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR BIO

ISOLATED FROM THE OUTSIDE WORLD, A WOMAN STRUGGLES TO ESCAPE A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP WITH HER HUSBAND. HER ATTEMPTS TO FLEE ARE HALTED WHEN SHE BEGINS TO HEAR DISTURBING VOICES FROM THE RADIO. HOWEVER, SHE FINDS HERSELF TRAPPED IN A PSYCHOLOGICAL LOOP, RELIVING HER PAST AND UNABLE TO FIND CLOSURE.

AJ SMITH IS AN AWARD WINNING WRITER, DIRECTOR AND EDITOR BASED AND BORN IN LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. CURRENTLY, AJ HAS FORMED A RELATIONSHIP WITH THE INDONESIA FILM MARKET AND WRITTEN AND SOLD OVER 4 HORROR FEATURE FILM SCRIPTS AND COUNTING FOR MD PICTURES UNDER THE MENTORSHIP OF MARIO KASSAR (TERMINATOR 2, RAMBO 2, BASIC INSTINCT). FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS, AJ HAS CULTIVATED A FOUNDATION OF EXPERIENCE WORKING AS A CREATIVE ASSISTANT TO 20TH CENTURY FOX PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR GEORGE TILLMAN JR. (THE HATE U GIVE, MUDBOUND) AT STATE STREET PICTURES. BY SHADOWING A DIRECTOR ON SET, DEVELOPING FEATURE FILMS, AND CREATING PROOF OF CONCEPT PITCH PRESENTATIONS FOR MAJOR FILM STUDIOS, AJ HAS ESTABLISHED A DEEP AND PROFESSIONAL UNDERSTANDING OF THE INDUSTRY THAT IS TAKEN INTO HIS CURRENT AND FUTURE WORK. AJ WAS RAISED IN TORONTO, CANADA WHERE HE GRADUATED WITH A BFA IN FILM PRODUCTION AT RYERSON UNIVERSITY. AJ IS CHINESE-AMERICAN, WHICH HAS SERVED AS STORYTELLING INSPIRATION IN HIS WORK. BEING HALF-ASIAN, HALF ENGLISH AND IRISH, HIS IDENTITY HAS BEEN TORN BETWEEN CULTURES. HIS WORK THEREFORE CENTERS AROUND THE DIVIDE BETWEEN WORLDS AND BRINGING THEM TOGETHER INTO A UNIFIED BALANCE, AND THEREFORE, A UNIQUE IDENTITY.

AJ SMITH

"FILM ALLOWS ME TO SEE THE WORLD FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF OTHER RACES GENDERS AND CREEDS THROUGH A TONAL AND EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE LIKE NONE OTHER." HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN DRAWN TO WATCHING AND MAKING HORROR FILMS AND WHY?

What led me to horror was I had a small body of psychological thriller shorts I could show off after graduating film school and moving to LA. One editing job led to another where I found myself in front of producer Mario Kassar who was collaborating with a film company in Jakarta, Indonesia and developing horror films for their market. As a result, for the past two years I’ve helped develop, write and sell four feature length horror films and have been very blessed to do so. I didn’t set out to make horror films yet felt compelled by the genre because, for me, the real enemy often comes from within. It is our own internalized fear, anger, and ego that creates the ‘monster’.

It’s been such a beautiful gift and discipline to be able to work for hire, learn the conventions of the horror genre, and develop characters in an environment that is both fun and rewarding. So by learning from the horror genre and working within it and being a student of films like Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, and Hereditary, I started to have an extreme passion for horror films. Knowing all of this I was left thinking, “what scares me?” and “what would I want to make for myself?” and “how could I go against the expectations of the genre and make something unique?” Here & Gone is a result of that.

WHAT FILMS OR FILMMAKERS HAVE YOU LOOKED TO FOR INSPIRATION AND WHAT IS IT ABOUT THEIR WORK THAT MOVES YOU? I love experimental, surrealistic horror because it places me in the mind of the character and I get to experience life from someone else’s point of view. It’s like being in a dream or a nightmare depending on how you look at it. For my short Here & Gone, the three biggest influences were Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Daren, Hour of the Wolf by Ingmar Bergman and The Lighthouse by Robert Eggers.

Those three films combined with my own sense of style and tone set the stage for my short.

Meshes of the Afternoon has always inspired me to be independent and believe in my own creativity. It taught me that all you need is a camera and an idea to tell a great story. I’m drawn to characters that feel stuck in a psychological, kafkaesque maze. Navigating life can feel the same way, and sometimes the solution to getting out of the maze can be so simple but getting there isn’t easy.

HOW DID THE PROCESS OF WRITING THE STORY FOR YOUR FILM BEGIN? The script started while I was isolated in quarantine due to COVID-19. For me, days seemed to repeat on loop and time felt irrelevant. I wanted to take advantage of my situation and make a short with the resources I had on hand. I took inspiration from what was happening in the zeitgeist of the world and I read news articles about how the the rate of domestic violence was rising due to isolation. So I started thinking, “how long is this quarantine going to last?” and “how many domestic incidences are going unreported?” I then imagined a world where this crisis lasted for years, and started building a not-too-distant future in my head that felt post apocalyptic.

I pictured a woman trapped in a toxic relationship standing over the body of her dead husband, reliving the moments that lead up to her committing murder. I imagined she didn’t mean to go so far but had been provoked. I imagined she was afraid and full of remorse. I really felt for her character and related to her fear of being trapped in a toxic relationship. I imagined her trying to convince herself none of the violence had ever happened; that he was really alive.

But every time she tried to imagine all of this, reality would sink back in. She was stuck in a loop. Just like how I felt being in quarantine.

WHAT DO YOU LOOK FOR WHEN CREATING YOUR CHARACTERS? I am looking for a primal fear that has universal relatability.

Fear has no prejudice. We all have the capacity to be afraid and are affected by fear. In terms of my short Here & Gone, my protagonist’s fear is of a toxic relationship. Everyone wants to find the right partner in life, and everyone fears being with the wrong person. Now what if you were trapped with that wrong person in isolation for two years going mad?

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF BRINGING THIS STORY TO LIFE? I made this short during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic so the entire LA area was shut down. The biggest and most rewarding challenge in creating this short was distilling all the roles of a normal film crew down to just myself. I was not only the writer/director but also the producer, production manager, art director, cinematographer, editor, and sound designer. With my lights and camera equipment and my garage as the set, I utilized this wonderful opportunity to make a film with absolutely no budget and asked the family around me for assistance.

I live in a home on the same property as my aunt and uncle who are both actors in Hollywood and devised a script that was tailored to their acting strengths. It was the perfect opportunity to make a short starring a woman of color and dive into her perspective and collaborate on a creative level.

Listening to my actress’ interpretation of the lines and incorporating her ideas and perspectives was an essential part of the process. Over the years, I’ve learned how to communicate with my actors on an open and collaborative level – to hear them out in a spirit of partnership in order to get the best performance. This sense of intimate collaboration is critical especially on a smaller set.

Film allows me to see the world from the perspective of other races, genders and creeds through a tonal and emotional experience like none other. The entire process offered me the opportunity to be unreserved and creatively free with absolute control over the filmmaking process. To be honest, it was the most fun I’ve had so far in making a film and am excited to see where it goes and what opportunities come next.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW AND HOW CAN WE SEE MORE OF YOUR WORK IN THE FUTURE? Currently I’m writing and working on several scripts to be made into feature films for my directorial debut. Being halfAsian and bi-racial, it is important for me to tell stories from my own perspective. While I cannot say too much, I’m working to make Here & Gone into a feature as well as working on an Asian-centered horror short designed to showcase my unique style and strong voice.

CONTINUED

ASIDE FROM LOVING FILM AND YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH GOING TO THE CINEMA, WHAT MADE YOU DIVE INTO FILMMAKING?

The love of stories and storytelling is what's at the core of it all. I just felt this story had to be told through film. It was one one of the most thrilling challenges I've taken on, and quite educational. I've learned so much that I want to apply to my next film. I'm finding filmmaking quite addictive as well.

HOW TO FALL IN LOVE IN A BROTHEL IS THE FIRST OF A THREE PART SERIES. WHEN DEVELOPING THE STORY, DID YOU COME UP WITH THE THREE PARTS SIMULTANEOUSLY OR IS THE STORY DEVELOPING AS TIME GOES ON? WHAT IS YOUR APPROACH?

The trilogy is actually part of a larger 300 page script. So, this first installment is kind of a circle within a circle within a circle. I got to an ending last year to be able to present it to my collaborators, but I never feel that a story is closed. I actually added three new scenes this past summer. I like keeping stories alive, even if there's already an ending. It's like excavating details of past lives that enrich their stories.

I LOVE THAT SURPRISE ENDING. WAS THAT SCRIPTED OR A HAPPY ACCIDENT YOU CAUGHT ON TAPE?

That was totally unscripted serendipity. My fabulous collaborator and coeditor, Maya Gurantz (Ellen Sebastian Chang is the third collaborator), cued it up at the end of the first day of editing. I was so thrilled! It was a wonderful compliment that the actors were dug into the story, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to end the film.

YOUR BACKGROUND IN SOCIOLOGY, CULINARY ARTS AND ASSISTING IMMIGRANTS ARE ALL BEAUTIFUL THINGS! HOW HAS YOUR WORK IN THOSE AREAS OF LIFE INFORMED YOUR STORYTELLING?

AN INTERVIEW WITH

SUNHUI CHANG

My family immigrated to Guam from South Korea in 1976. I lived with a Green Card till becoming an American citizen 17 years ago. So assisting immigrants is basically helping myself. I was always drawn to sociology in trying to understand our world and in telling the stories of this world. It's not a driving force for me to write with sociology in mind, but I'm sure it has an influence. As to food, food has always been a part of my life, and it was the first arena that I was able to tell my stories. There's that stories thing again. And, it seems I can't write a story without food in it. '

DIRECTOR BIO

TWO YOUNG KOREANS STRUGGLING TO FIND THEIR PLACE IN A HARD WORLD, FIND LOVE IN AN UNEXPECTED AND UNLIKELY SETTING.

SUNHUI CHANG WAS BORN IN KOREA AND GREW UP ON THE ISLAND OF GUAM, WHERE HE FELL IN LOVE WITH THE MOVIES AT WEEKLY DOUBLE FEATURES—AND WITH FOOD IN THE KITCHEN OF HIS MOTHER'S RESTAURANT. HE STARTED WRITING WHILE STUDYING SOCIOLOGY AT UC BERKELEY. AFTER THE UNIVERSITY, HE FOCUSED ON HIS PASSION FOR FOOD AND THE CULINARY ARTS, AS A JOURNEYMAN COOK. HE THEN STARTED HIS OWN BOUTIQUE CATERING BUSINESS, AND LATER BECAME THE CHEF AND OWNER OF AN AWARD-WINNING RESTAURANT—FUSEBOX—IN OAKLAND, CA. HE WAS ALSO THE MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST FOR UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA’S IMMIGRANT LEGAL SERVICES CENTER, WHICH PROVIDED IMMIGRANT LEGAL SERVICES TO ALL STUDENTS AND THEIR FAMILIES. HE IS NOW FOCUSING ON HIS WRITING AND FILM MAKING. HOW TO FALL IN LOVE IN A BROTHEL IS HIS FIRST FILM. IT IS A SHORT EXCERPT FROM A LONGER SCRIPT FOR A MINISERIES THAT TELLS THE STORY OF A KOREAN FAMILY'S IMMIGRATION TO GUAM. HE IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON A SECOND INSTALLMENT OF A PLANNED THREE-PART SERIES.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

N A T A L I AD I R PE C OT O LR UO F Y A N O V A

WHAT CAME FIRST - THE POEM IF YOU ARE SITTING ON A SWING OR THE CONCEPT OF THE FILM? I already made a film when I got acquainted with this poem. But it is very similar to my life. Since more often the simple turned out to be difficult, the good was evil, the easy was heavy. And vice versa.

WHAT ARE SOME THINGS THAT YOU HAVE SOUGHT BALANCE FOR? When I go to a goal, I am in balance. A man walking on a tightrope will reach if he is looking at the end point.Goals come when life experience appears and you know what you want. You know what to choose.

Therefore, there is less balance in youth. As a teenager, our persons consist from stories about other people's experiences, most often of our parents. But this is not our experience.

The not obvious problematic of the film - is infantilism.

The whole world is discussing problems of ecology, economics, gender issues. But few people notice that people don't grow up. This is a progressive trend. Adults watch Marvel, play video games, shoot TikTok videos.

This is the behavior of children. When we have no goals, we get bored and we arrange holidays for ourselves.

The heroes of the film openly behave like children. These are idlers and "grandmother's grandchildren", aimlessly wasting their lives with holiday. On this attraction there is a high probability of losing balance and falling.

HAS IT CHANGED WITH ALL THE EVENTS THAT HAPPENED IN THIS PAST YEAR?

DIRECTOR BIO

Due to the Covid pandemic in 2020, doctors were unable to provide medical care to my grandmother and she died from diabet. She became the prototype of the protagonist's grandmother. She always gave me money and terror me. The death of loved ones greatly affect our balance. It can make us stronger, but it can also break us. In 2020, I learned to control myself. And i have the same opinion about balance like before. There is a goal There is a balance.

NATALIA POLUYANOVA – IS A DIRECTOR FROM ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA. SHE STUDIED AT THE FILM STUDIO "LENFILM" - WORKSHOP OF THE SOVIET AND RUSSIAN CAMERAMAN ANATOLY LAPSHOV. HER FILMOGRAPHY INCLUDES 2 FILMS: " NEGLIGEE" (2014) AND "IF YOU’RE SITTING ON A SWING" (2020). NATALIA IS INSPIRED BY THE CITY OF ST. PETERSBURG AND THE PEOPLE AROUND HER.AS A DIRECTOR AND CAMERAMAN, NATALIA COLLABORATED WITH THE STATE HERMITAGE MUSEUM, THE HERMITAGE THEATER, FASHION DESIGNERS, SCULPTORS AND ARTISTS OF ST. PETERSBURG. AUTHOR OF MUSIC VIDEOS FOR RUSSIAN MUSICIANS. PARTICIPANT OF INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALS.

AN INTERVIEW WITH GAIA ALARI, DIRECTOR OF

A TRADITIONAL HAND DRAWN FRAME PER FRAME ANIMATED MUSIC VIDEO FOR DANA GAVANSKI'S COVER OF "I TALK TO THE WIND".

WE ARE THRILLED TO HAVE YOU BACK AS YOU WERE PART OF OUR PROGRAMMING FOR YEAR 2 WITH YOUR FILM TERMINUS. A LOT HAS CHANGED IN THE LAST YEAR. HOW HAVE THE WORLDLY EVENTS INFORMED YOUR DRAWING AND ILLUSTRATIONS? Practically speaking my working habits haven't changed - I am used to work tireless hours in my "cave", so I already was some kind of a hermit before. The current events though, paradoxically, made me open up to new influences, allowed me to make valuable connections online (that I am eager to continue irl), and had me involved in many different projects. The subject matter of some of them is indeed political and certainly the current events had me interested in learning and acknowledging things that I have always taken for granted earlier on, both in regards of my own country and globally, and led me to develop a new sensitivity and new sources of inspiration to add to my already quite long list!

YOUR WORK IN FILM TENDS TO BE 'A ONE WOMAN CREW', WHEN YOU WORK IN COLLABORATION WITH GALLERIES, MUSICIANS AND YOUR SKATE CREW, HOW DO YOU NAVIGATE THE DIFFERENCES IN WORKING WITH PEOPLE?

DIRECTOR BIO

Haha yes as a matter of fact I keep being a one woman crew and people I work with know this well - actually they get in touch also because of this at least partially. I have been lucky enough so far to have been given a lot of freedom as for the visuals I pick and the kind of structure I design for each video or project in general. I do like to discuss for details and general directions, and despite being a lone wolf in my practice, i am always very open to new ideas and inputs that I then elaborate my own way. Surely I enjoyed working with all the people I've collaborated with so far. There are also a few incredibly gifted people (Dana herself is one of them, Alexandra Levy from Ada Lea, lebanese singer/songwriter, illustrator and director Noel Keserwany and Poppy Edwards filmmaker and musician) I connected with on a deeper level who influence my daily practice and whom I keep collaborating on the long haul, as in a virtuous circle.

GAIA ALARI IS A VISUAL ARTIST BASED IN MILAN, ITALY. SINCE 2011, IN PARALLEL WITH HER ACADEMIC STUDIES IN MEDICINE, SHE PURSUED DRAWING AND ILLUSTRATION AS A SELF TAUGHT. HER EARLY WORKS HAVE BEEN PUBLISHED ON LAMONO MAGAZINE, CRUZINE, INEEDAGUIDE, HIFRUCTOSE.

IN 2015, SHE ABANDONED HER ILLUSTRATIVE WORKS TO PURSUE ARTISTIC PROJECTS, COLLABORATING TRADITIONALLY WITH ART GALLERIES ALL OVER EUROPE (IN PARTICULAR GALLERI BENONI, COPENHAGEN, DENMARK, AND GALERIE ANOUK LE BOURDIEC, PARIS, FRANCE) AND, INSPIRED BY THE WORKS OF ARTISTS AS WILLIAM KENTRIDGE, NATHALIE DJURBERG AND LAUREN KELLEY, AS WELL AS CONTEMPORARY CINEMA AND FILMMAKERS, SINCE 2017 SHE HAS BEEN DEDICATING TO CREATING AND DIRECTING EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC VIDEOS AND SHORT FILMS WITH THE TECHNIQUE OF CLAY ANIMATION AND TRADITIONAL HAND DRAWN FRAME PER FRAME ANIMATION, AS A ONE WOMAN CREW.SHE COLLABORATES WITH INTERNATIONAL MUSIC BANDS AND MUSIC LABELS: ADA LEA / SADDLECREEK +NEXTDOOR RECORDS (USA, CANADA), DANA GAVANSKI / FULL TIME HOBBY - FLEMISH EYE RECORDS - BA DA BING RECORDS (UK, CANADA, USA) , LOW CUT CONNIE / CONTENDER RECORDS (USA), FLORDA (CANADA), DOT COMET (USA), CROM LUS (UK).SHE ALSO WORKS WITH PARIS BASED SKATE CREW AND BRAND QUOTAMINE DIRECTING COMMERCIALS IN CLAY ANIMATION (THE CREW'S DEBUT FILM "DIDIER" PREMIERED AT CONVERSE HQ IN PARIS) AND DESIGNING BOARDS AND PRODUCTS FEATURING HER ARTWORKS.IN 2018 HER DEBUT SHORT FILM “HAPPY” WAS OFFICIALLY SELECTED FOR SCREENING AT SEVERAL FESTIVALS: MICROACTS LONDON, 4TH ATHENS ANIMATION MARATHON, FEMALE FILMMAKERS FESTIVAL BERLIN, LISBON FILM RENDEZVOUS, MIRROR MOUNTAIN FILM FESTIVAL.HER SECOND SHORT FORM CLAY ANIMATION “TERMINUS” PREMIERED AT AVIFF CANNES (FRANCE) AND WAS AWARDED THE SPECIAL “PRIX AVIFF INCOGNITO” IN MAY, 2019. IT WAS EXHIBITED FOR GALERIE INCOGNITO AT THE MONNAIE DE PARIS. ALSO SCREENED AT AUSTIN ARTHOUSE FILM FESTIVAL.HER MUSIC VIDEO FOR DANA GAVANSKI WAS OFFICIALLY SELECTED FOR SCREENING AT PRESTIGIOUS SOUND UNSEEN MUSIC AND FILM FESTIVAL AND RECEIVED MANY POSITIVE CRITIQUES FROM THE PRESS.SHE IS INTERESTED IN EXPLORING, THROUGHOUT HER NARRATIVE AND EXPERIMENTAL SHORT ANIMATIONS, THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE INDIVIDUAL, MORE OFTEN A GIRL/WOMAN, AND SOCIETY IN ITS VARIOUS ASPECTS, WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON CONTEMPORARY LONELINESS IN EVERYDAY LIFE.

HOW DID YOU COME TO KNOW THE1957 NOVEL LA JALOUSIE

BY FRENCH WRITER ROBBE-GRILLET AND WHAT DREW YOU TO HIS WORK? I read “La Jalousie” in the early 70s while I was an art student and I have reread it several times since then. It made a huge impact on me because it is almost entirely a depiction of visuals – there is almost no dialogue. The novel consists of compulsively observed settings and objects revealing the obsessive mindset of the main character, a jealous husband who suspects his wife of having an affair. I found this to be a fascinating way to build a narrative. Also included are many compelling descriptions of light – which is an enduring factor in my art practice whether I am creating paintings or animations.

YOU WORK IN A VARIETY OF MEDIUMS. WITH THE STAY-AT-HOME ORDERS DUE TO COVID-19, HAVE YOU FOUND YOURSELF TO BE DRAWN TO A CERTAIN MEDIUM OVER ALL THE OTHERS? IF SO, WHY DO YOU THINK THAT IS?

DIRECTOR BIO

Interesting question! I am a Professor of Fine Arts in the College of Design, Architecture and Interior Design, Art and Planning at the University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, OH. I taught a seminar this Fall 2020 semester and included a lecture on Artists and AIDS so as to prompt my students to think about how artists may respond to our current pandemic. Now, most of the time I am in my studio in my home; working on some paintings while I listen to constant "breaking news" on TV, and teaching on-line.

HONORED WITH NUMEROUS GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS FROM SUCH INSTITUTIONS AS THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS AND THE OHIO ARTS COUNCIL, KIMBERLY BURLEIGH HAS SHOWN HER WORK IN OVER 150 EXHIBITIONS AND FILM FESTIVALS. SHE WORKS WITH A VARIETY OF MEDIUMS, INCLUDING; PAINTING, DRAWING, COLLAGE AND COMPUTER IMAGING/ANIMATION. EXHIBITIONS AND FILM FESTIVALS INCLUDE “AUSTRALIAN EXPERIMENTAL FILM FESTIVAL” (MELBOURNE), “MADATAC06” (MADRID), “THE SPIRITUAL MACHINE” ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES (NYC), MYKONOS BIENNALE (MYKONOS), “SEATTLE TRANSMEDIA & INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL” (SEATTLE), ALCHEMY FILM AND MOVING IMAGE FESTIVAL” (HAWICK, SCOTLAND), “8TH RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES SCIENCES ET CINÉMAS” (MARSEILLES), “EXPERIMENTS IN CINEMA FESTIVAL V10.T36” (ALBUQUERQUE), “5TH UNDERGROUND FILM FESTIVAL” (CORK, IRELAND), “2015 OREGON INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL” (PORTLAND), FEATURE (CHICAGO), GALERIE 1900-2000 (PARIS), CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY GALLERY (PITTSBURGH), AND THE NEW YORK CITY LOCATIONS OF FRANKLIN FURNACE ARCHIVES, VISUAL ARTS MUSEUM, TERRY DINTENFASS GALLERY AND GREATHOUSE. SHE IS CURRENTLY PROFESSOR OF FINE ARTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI. YOU CAN FIND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HER WORK AT WWW.KIMBERLYBURLEIGH.COM.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

ADRIANA BARBOSA + THIAGO ZANATO DIRECTORS OF

DIRECTOR BIO

THE LEADER OF THE SANTA MUERTE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT FACES CHALLENGES TO FULFILL AN OLD PROMISE .

ADRIANA BARBOSA IS A MEXICAN-BRAZILIAN FILMMAKER BASED IN LOS ANGELES, US. HER WORK FOCUSES ON NON-FICTION CINEMA, EXPERIMENTAL AND HYBRID NARRATIVES, ADDRESSING THEMES LIKE IMMIGRATION, COLONIZATION, LGBTQ+ RIGHTS, LATINO COMMUNITIES AND FAITH. SHE DIRECTED “FERROADA” (BITE), ALONG WITH BRUNO MELLO CASTANHO, A SHORT FILM ABOUT THE BRAZILIAN MARGINAL WRITER/UNDERTAKER TICO. IN 2018 SHE CO-DIRECTED ALONG WITH THIAGO ZANATO “LA FLACA” (THE BONY LADY), A SHORT FILM ABOUT A MEXICAN TRANSGENDER WOMAN AND LEADER OF THE SANTA MUERTE CULT IN QUEENS, NY. IN 2020, SHE DIRECTED, ALONG WITH FERNANDA PESSOA, THE SHORT FILM “SAME/DIFFERENT/BOTH/NEITHER”, A VIDEO CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE FILMMAKERS LIVING IN LOS ANGELES (USA) AND SÃO PAULO (BRAZIL) - THE FILM PREMIERED AT THE SHORT COMPETITION OF IDFA - INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL AMSTERDAM 2020. SHE IS CURRENTLY PRODUCING THE FEATURE DOCUMENTARY "ESU AND THE UNIVERSE '', A CO-PRODUCTION BETWEEN BRAZIL AND NIGERIA, DIRECTED BY THIAGO ZANATO.

THIAGO ZANATO IS A BRAZILIAN-AMERICAN FILMMAKER BASED IN LOS ANGELES. HIS WORK IS FOCUSED ON SOCIAL ISSUES AND THE AESTHETICS OF REPRESENTATION AS IT RELATES TO MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES. HE DIRECTED “LA FLACA”, A SHORT FILM ABOUT A MEXICAN TRANSGENDER WOMAN AND LEADER OF THE SANTA MUERTE (SAINT DEATH) CULT IN QUEENS, NY. THE FILM WAS HIGHLY ACCLAIMED AND ENTERED +100 FILM FESTIVALS AROUND THE WORLD, AMONG THEM: FRIBOURG INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, MESSAGE TO MAN, GUANAJUATO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, OUTFEST, FRAMELINE, ENCOUNTERS FF, LALIFF. HE IS CURRENTLY DIRECTING HIS FIRST FEATURE “ESU AND THE UNIVERSE”, A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT FREEDOM OF WORSHIP, THE DECOLONIZATION OF THOUGHT AND THE INFLUENCE OF THE AFRICAN YORUBA PEOPLE, NOT ONLY IN BRAZIL BUT AROUND THE WORLD - SELECTED TO POINTS NORTH FELLOWSHIP, LATINO MEDIA MARKET - NALIP MEDIA SUMMIT, WIP LATINO AT FICG IN LA, “ONLY IN NEW YORK” - DOCNYC AND DOCSP - INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY OF SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL.

ADRIANA BARBOSA + THIAGO ZANATO

ADRIANA, THIS IS YOUR SECOND TIME WITH US AT AAFF. LAST YEAR YOU AND BRUNO MELLO CASTANHO WERE THE RECIPIENT OF OUR LINKLATER AWARD FOR BEST WRITING FOR YOUR FILM BITE. WELCOME BACK! HI THIAGO, WELCOME!ADRIANA, WE LOVE THAT YOU FOCUS AND INTRODUCE US TO THE INCREDIBLE PEOPLE YOU HAVE MET. HOW DID YOU MEET ARELY? It was actually Thiago who met Arely at first. After a research we were both doing in Mexico about rituals related to death, Thiago was really impressed by the figure of Santa Muerte and the image of the Skeleton Saint stuck on his mind. When he went back to NY, where he lived, he googled about shrines to Santa Muerte in New York and that's when he came across this article about Arely. He sent her a message and they met for a chat. He was really amazed by her story and what she presented to her community. And he told me about her and that we could work together to tell a story through her perspective.

AS CO-DIRECTORS, HOW DID YOU TWO DIVY UP THE RESPONSIBILITIES AND TASKS? We worked really close during the whole process, Thiago was more focused in directing the scene as he had more experience in narrative forms and I was more focused in some production necessities like casting and making sure the community that was being part of the film felt comfortable during the shoot. We had a really small crew so we had to divide the responsibilities in a very effective way. After production was concluded, we had the post-production in Brazil, so I worked very closely with the editor to get to a first cut and Thiago came onboard to define the final cut. It was interesting to divide our participation as Directors as it gave an opportunity to see and discuss diverse solutions to make this story as potent as possible. Me and Thiago have always worked together, one way or another, I believe we are a good team to challenge ourselves and find the best way to tell a story.

"IT WAS REALLY IMPORTANT TO SHARE THE PROCESS ALONGSIDE [ARELY] AND THAT THE FILM DECONSTRUCTED AN IMAGE THAT MAINSTREAM MEDIA HAS DEPICTED OF THIS RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT."

AT WHAT POINT DID YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF AS A FILMMAKER AND SHARE YOUR IDEA FOR THIS FILM WITH ARELY? WHAT WAS HER REACTION? WHAT DOES SHE THINK OF THE FILM? Thiago began to attend the monthly rosaries that Arely held at her house and started to create a relationship with her and the community that attended the rosaries. During one of these rosaries, she asked him what was his interest and he was really transparent about his wish in portraying Arely's story and what she meant to her community. She accepted and gave permission for him to get closer, so he started to bring his camera to the rosaries and started filming to make her and the community familiar with the presence of a camera. I was living in São Paulo, but was close to the process even from afar, and after talking extensively about what we knew about her, we started writing a script based on what she has shared about her life. When I went to NY, I met her and quickly connected, I guess that by being both Mexicans, it was easy to get close to each other. Me and Thiago showed her the script and we were really glad when she said that the script really represented her life and struggles. It was really important to share the process alongside her and that the film deconstructed an image that mainstream media has depicted of this religious movement.

She is proud of the film and she asked us to make a screening of the film to all of her community in one of the yearly anniversaries to Santa Muerte. To have our world premiere of the film in that situation and people from the community cheering after the screening meant that the film had accomplished a big part of its purpose.

AN INTERVIEW WITH MARIT LIANG DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

A MYSTERIOUS WOMAN PREPARES TO RETURN TO HER PLACE IN THE STARS [NEW WAVE MEETS SURREALISM]

MARIT LIANG IS A FILMMAKER BASED IN BROOKLYN, NY. MARIT IS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CINEMA ARTIST WHOSE WORK ENCOMPASSES VIDEO ART, PHOTOGRAPHY, MUSIC AND SOUND, RESEARCH AND OTHER PRACTICES. HER FILMS USE THE HIGHLY CRAFTED VISUAL LANGUAGE OF ARTHOUSE AND GENRE CINEMA TO EXPLORE QUESTIONS OF NATURE, EMBODIMENT, OTHERNESS, THE BOUNDARIES AND CONTOURS OF PERSONHOOD, MEMORY, MEDIUM, AND TIME.SHE IS CURRENTLY ENROLLED IN THE FILM/VIDEO MFA GRADUATE PROGRAM AT BARD COLLEGE, AND HER WORK HAS BEEN SCREENED AND WON SEVERAL 'BEST PICTURES' AWARDS AT MORE THAN THREE DOZEN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS.

MARIT LIANG

"I WENT TO SLEEP ON FRIDAY NIGHT WITH ALL THESE IMAGES IN MY MIND...EVERYTHING COALESCED TOGETHER IN A DREAM. I WOKE UP KNOWING EXACTLY WHAT I WOULD DO." HOW MANY CONCEPTS DID YOU COME UP WITH BEFORE DECIDING TO TAKE ACTION? When I saw the prompt for New Wave and Surrealism, my creative wheels started turning. I love both of these film genres/tendencies and found myself trying to find some way to combine iconic New Wave aesthetics, seen in films like Godard’s Vivre sa Vie and Alphaville, with surreal gestures like those seen in David Lynch and Jean Cocteau’s films as well as the work of painters I love like Kay Sage, Leonora Carrington, and Leonor Fini.

I went to sleep on Friday night with all these images in my mind, and along with the recently released UFO footage I’d seen that week, everything coalesced together in a dream. I woke up knowing exactly what I would do! This is the opposite of last time I did the 48 hour challenge, in which I was making everything up as I went along.

WERE YOU ABLE TO GET ANY SLEEP? I went to bed early on Friday night, then woke up early on Saturday morning, made a big pot of coffee, and did not sleep a wink until the film was done and submitted late Sunday night! The creative euphoria of the filmmaking process - as well as the determination to finish what I’d gotten myself into - kept me going no matter how much I wanted to crawl into bed.

WOULD YOU PUT YOURSELF THROUGH ANOTHER 48 HOUR FILM CHALLENGE AGAIN? YES!!!! I’ve found these challenges an incredibly fun and inspiring way to keep up my creative drive while sharpening my filmmaking chops under quarantine. Each time I’ve done the challenge, I’ve ended the weekend proud of my accomplishment, with a completed short film to show for it. The challenges have been nourishing to my creative spirit, and I look forward to the next one.

WERE YOUR IDEAS REALIZED

BY THE TIME YOU WERE EDITING OR WAS THERE FLEXIBILITY IN WHAT YOU WERE CREATING DURING THE PROCESS? I was pretty organized this time around, which is unusual for me. I knew wanted to tell the story of an alien visitor getting ready to leave Earth for the last time. I wrote a short script, planned a brief shot list, and got to work. Thanks to my amazing volunteer collaborators Phillip Birch, an excellent artist and animator, and Célia Hay, a fantastic filmmaker herself, who did a great job on the French voiceover - everything came together seamlessly, much to my surprise! I couldn’t have pulled this off without their help - endless thanks to Célia and Phil.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW AND HOW CAN WE SEE MORE OF YOUR WORK IN THE FUTURE? Like so many others, my creative practice has been impacted by the vicissitudes of this year. Production on my new mid-length short, Mermaid’s Purse, which was scheduled to shoot in May, has been put on hold until next year. In the meantime, I’ve been staying busy painting, making ceramics, and working on video art pieces from quarantine in Upstate New York.

I’ve recently finished the final cut of a short film I wrote, directed and produced last year, Cherry Hawk Down, starring the talented Annapurna Sriram. We’re very proud of this project – a feminist, anti-war subversion of the war film genre, which we made on a minimal budget with an all-female crew – and will be submitting it to festivals for 2021. Maybe we’ll even be able to see movies in theaters together again next year what a joy that would be! But until then, I will continue making films and art in whatever way I can, even if it continues to be a solitary practice, as with La Visiteuse.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

ISABELLE GIROUX DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

BEN WANDERS AROUND THE TOURIST ATTRACTIONS IN GENEVA, GUIDED BY HIS SISTER'S VOICE.

ISABELLE GIROUX HAS A BACKGROUND IN MUSIC AND GRADUATED FROM THE AMERICAN MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC ACADEMY IN LOS ANGELES. BASED IN MONTREAL, SHE WORKS AS AN ACTRESS. SHE GOT NOMINATED IN 2017 FOR HER ROLE AS A BALLERINA IN THE FRENCH CANADIAN CHILDREN TV SHOW « SALMIGONDIS ». SHE IS ALSO PART OF THE FIRST FRENCH CANADIAN NETFLIX MOVIE “THE DECLINE”, BY PATRICE LALIBERTÉ. AS A DIRECTOR, SHE MADE HER DEBUT WITH KINO MONTREAL, WHICH SHE IS A SPOKESWOMAN FOR. SHE HAS BEEN TRAVELING AROUND THE WORLD, MAKING SHORT FILMS IN THE URGE TO CREATE.

ISABELLE GIROUX

IN WHAT WAYS HAS YOUR BROTHER INSPIRED YOUR PREVIOUS WORK? IN WHAT WAYS DO YOU THINK HE WILL CONTINUE TO DO SO? When I was young, my older brother Ben was my best friend, up until I was a pre-teenager and realized I "outgrew" him. Then, let's say our relationship wasn't as organic. He was taking a lot of space in my life, but I wasn't ready to lend him that space. As an artist, I think it's important to recognize and analyze our patterns, our fears, our deeper emotions... and I think a lot of those come from my relationship with Ben. One of my first film (when he was still alive) was inspired by him, and his simple way of thinking. I feel like I have so much more to tell. I'm actually working on a new project about mental health. My brother had schizophrenia and a mild intellectual impairment.

"AS AN ARTIST, I THINK IT'S IMPORTANT TO RECOGNIZE AND ANALYZE OUR PATTERNS, OUR FEARS, OUR DEEPER EMOTIONS..."

YOU MENTION YOUR WORK WITH KINO MONTREAL. HOW HAS BEING A FILMMAKER AND A SPOKESPERSON FOR THEM INFORMED YOUR WORK ON BOTH SIDES? I have learned so much with Kino Montreal. As an actress, between 2010 and 2012, I must have acted in more than 50 different short films, which made me meet so many different creative people and different ways to shoot and work. Which led me to start directing myself. I felt like I had something to say, a cinematographic vision, and Kino was allowing me to try out stuff at a low cost (literally and as an impact on my career). Working behind the camera makes me a better actress I think.

About Kino, it is a non-competitive movement of filmmakers, gathering to make short films in the urge to create. There are Kino "Kabarets" all around the world, which are events that last from 3 to 10 days, where people are simply there to make films.

YOU TRAVEL A LOT FOR WORK - IN WHAT CREATIVE WAYS HAVE YOU MANAGED YOUR WORK WITH ALL THE TRAVEL CONSTRAINTS AND VARIOUS LOCKDOWNS DUE TO COVID - 19 AROUND THE WORLD? Well, I went to Geneva in January, where I shot "Letter to my brother" with Kino Geneva.

That was just before the whole world went on lockdown. I unfortunately haven't traveled since. I believe it's safer for everybody to just stay home as much as we can during these weird times. It's unfortunate, but it's everybody's responsibility to be careful, no matter what your field of work is. I have been acting in various projects this year, taking all precautions necessary. That is what I've been focusing on, besides trying to write at home, projects to be developed when the time is right.

AN INTERVIEW WITH VALARIE GOLD, DIRECTOR OF

A SHORT REFLECTION ON A TOXIC RELATIONSHIP USING SUPER 8 FILM. YOU WORK IN BOTH ANALOG AND DIGITAL. HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHAT FORMAT YOU'LL USE PER PROJECT? Honestly, right now my filmmaking is all about experimenting with what sounds like fun to work with. I also take into consideration what works best for the envisioned project and my end goal. This summer, for example, I used archival footage for a small project reflecting on the civil rights movements of this year. Not only is using archival footage while quarantining useful, but the medium became particularly important as I reflected on our nation's history with protesting.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE PLANNED NEXT? HAVE YOU HAD TO POSTPONE PROJECTS OR ARE YOU ABLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE TIMES TO CREATE MORE THAN USUAL? My filmmaking has been put on hold mostly due to graduate school. Right now I'm focused on developing a thesis paper looking into the intersection of media literacy, social justice, and activism in educational curriculum for youth. I'm also pursuing a teaching certification and increasingly passionate about how to effectively create an educational space where youth can both create media and develop a critical media literacy lens. I have no doubt I'll continue creating weird stuff, though. I like to edit old scooby-doo episodes to music in my spare time.

DIRECTOR BIO

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO MANAGE YOUR MASTER OF ARTS STUDIES AT UT WITH THE CURRENT CLIMATE THAT IS 2020?

HELLO MY NAME IS VALARIE GOLD AND I'M A FILMMAKER BORN AND RAISED IN AUSTIN, TEXAS. I HAVE WORKED AS AN EDITOR AND PRODUCER ON A VARIETY OF SHORT NARRATIVE FILMS IN TEXAS, THOUGH NOWADAYS MY FILM WORK FOCUSES ON EXPERIMENTAL STORYTELLING USING ARCHIVAL, ANALOG, AND DIGITAL MEDIUMS. I'M CURRENTLY A GRADUATE STUDENT AT UT AUSTIN PURSUING MY MA IN MEDIA STUDIES.

Zoom has become a way of life this year. There's no doubt that education- how we do it and the structures that maintain it- will be permanently impacted by the pandemic. Adaptability and giving grace has been key for so many of us. It's difficult not to get stuck in the mentality of "why am I doing this again?", but I try to remind myself that this is but one step in my journey as a lifelong student, educator, and creator.

HOW TO HOLD COUNTERINTUITIVE FORCES TOGETHER WITHOUT TRYING.

DIRECTOR BIO

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR DENISE PRINCE

DENISE PRINCE IS AN AUSTIN-BASED, AMERICAN ARTIST WORKING IN FILM, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND PERFORMANCE. SHE IS KNOWN FOR USING THE VISUAL LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISING TO PLAY WITH AND REVEAL THE WAYS WE TAKE PRETENDS AS REAL AND TO EXPLORE BEING IN RELATION TO DESIRE. INFLUENCED BY CRITICAL THEORY AT CALARTS IN LOS ANGELES, SHE HAS WORKED CLOSELY WITH CLINICAL PHILOSOPHER AND LACANIAN PSYCHOANALYST CHARLES MERWARD SINCE 2007. HER WORK HAS BEEN CLARIFIED, CONFRONTED, AND INTERPRETED BY PSYCHOANALYST MEMBERS OF THE WORLD ASSOCIATION OF PSYCHOANALYSIS, IS IN THE COLLECTION OF THE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS HOUSTON, HAS BEEN EXHIBITED INTERNATIONALLY AND HAS BEEN FEATURED ON PBS TELEVISION AND IN VOGUE MAGAZINE.

DENISE PRINCE

"TO WANTONLY EMBRACE LACK AS FUNDAMENTAL IS A WAY TO OPEN UP TO FREEDOM WITH ALL THE POSSIBILITY AN INDIVIDUAL CAN DARE TO DREAM."

CAN YOU SHARE SOMETHING THAT YOU AND CHARLES MERWARD HAVE WORKED ON RECENTLY? In May, Charles and I held an online class "WellBeing in Art Practice and Art Product” in which we talked about the concept of freedom introduced in Simone de Beauvoir’s book, The Ethics of Ambiguity. That sounds so dry but it’s a thrilling look at choosing better fantasies. I’d been looking towards what freedom is available (sure there was more than stereotypical excess) for months. To roughly explain, freedom is commitment over time with lack. So, commitment lets you know it’s the path, not the result. Over time, implies to me that the commitment itself is the path. What a person is willing to commit to for the long run. For a lifetime perhaps. And lack is the surprising element. De Beauvoir was an Existentialist and they understood that existence was markedly different than being. We are not Gods. There is no Being for us. We exist and we are aware of it and fundamental to this state is the memory of the missing thing (Desire and the awareness of mortality). But instead of lack being a negative it opens up a massive vision for embracing what we ARE instead of our fantasies of life. It helps to not take our pretends as given or real. I believe one of the most difficult things life requires is to learn what is real and what isn’t. And to wantonly embrace lack as fundamental is a way to open up to freedom with all the possibility an individual can dare to dream.

OUT OF ALL THE PLACES WHERE YOU'VE SHOWCASED YOUR WORK, WHAT LOCATION HAS BEEN YOUR FAVORITE TO VISIT AND WHY? I had a solo show in Marfa, Texas in October 2019 and it stood out in part because it was a trial getting my work out there (I loaded sixteen 40 inch framed prints into a pickup and getting them to stand upright so the glass would be safe was near impossible. The truck broke down and people pulled the truck back to the nearest town and a female mechanic and her daughters not only worked on the truck but when it was pronounced dead drove me in their truck the last hour and a half to deliver me and my dog and the work to the gallery). But that isn’t why. I camped on the gallery property twenty feet from a train track and several times a night it seemed very much like Satan was roaring towards me with a legion of archangels. And after all of that the show itself was remarkable. Everyone from eighty year old ranchmen to city folk in town for Trans Pecos attended. I got it in my head to speak to everyone I could and when I asked them what they thought about the work (this photo series can bring an existential awareness up in people - both joyful and paralyzing senses) even people who intimidated me were open and honest. It was incredibly satisfying.

DIRECTOR BIO

A STOP-MOTION ANIMATION CELEBRATING THE VULNERABILITY, IMPERFECTION & THE HUMAN CAPACITY FOR TRANSFORMATION.

ERIN POLLOCK (B. 1982, ALASKA) IS AN AMERICAN PAINTER, SCULPTOR, PHOTOGRAPHER AND STOP-MOTION ANIMATOR BASED IN BROOKLYN. SHE HAS STAGED PUBLIC ART PROJECTS, INCLUDING COMMISSIONS FOR SEATTLE ART MUSEUM, MICROSOFT, FORD MOTOR COMPANY, CITY OF ANCHORAGE, AND CITY OF SEATTLE. SHE HAS EXHIBITED IN ANCHORAGE, BEIJING, BROOKLYN, BUENOS AIRES, CANNES, FLORENCE, LONDON, LA, LIMA, MEXICO CITY, NYC, SEATTLE, AND SEOUL. HER FILMS HAVE SCREENED IN FESTIVALS INCLUDING: CANNES SHORT FILM CORNER, HARLEM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL, LA FEMME FILM FESTIVAL, PORTLAND FILM FESTIVAL, UNRESTRICTED VIEW FILM FESTIVAL, AND BUMBERSHOOT.

ERIN POLLOCK

"THAT IDEA OF IMPERMANENCE IS SOMETHING I LEAN INTO THESE DAYS. NO SCULPTURES REMAIN INTACT BY THE END OF AN ANIMATION. THE CHARACTERS EVOLVE BY SLOWLY DISFIGURING THEMSELVES AND EACH OTHER." HOW HAVE YOU MANAGED NOT SEEING AS MANY PEOPLE TO FALL IN LOVE WITH (DUE THE CURRENT CIRCUMSTANCES) AS YOU Thank you! This animation probably took about a year to WOULD HAVE IN PREVIOUS YEARS? make. I don’t storyboard or plan anything in advance so Hah! Good question! Well, I’ve always progress moves at an inconsistent rate. Working this way is craved isolation so I think quarantine is unpredictable. Sometimes it allows me to access a flow state easier for me in that regard than my more during which it feels as though I’m channeling a extroverted friends. But perhaps part of my predetermined storyline beyond my control. Other times, it can feel like an utter waste of time and materials. The creative block was indeed related to the fact footage from days like that usually gets scrapped. It’s that I could no longer go hunting for certainly not an efficient way to work but there is some inspiration by getting lost in a crowd or magic in it. When things go well, all the ideas bouncing eavesdropping on private moments as they around my head organize themselves in more complex and play out on the subway. Though a funny nuanced ways than I could ever plan. thing began happening in May as lockdown wore on and people, stuck at home and bored DID YOU PLAY WITH CLAY AS A KID? IF SO, DID out of their gourds, started to LOSE it. The YOU SAVE ANY OF YOUR CLAY SCULPTURES? internet was suddenly our coffeeshop / bar / I sure did! I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska, just a 2-minute gallery / stage / club / gym / classroom / bike ride from the shore of Cook Inlet. In the summers I therapist’s office / and general outlet for all collected rich clay from the beach to make sculptures that I the big feelings. It took on a new attempted to bake in my parent’s oven. They did not love vulnerability and seemingly became, if only this. Of course, the oven wasn’t hot enough to do anything briefly, a kinder place. People dropped their but speed up the drying time of my lumpy mud figures. guards a bit and curated less of what they They’d all eventually dry out completely and crumble to dust. That idea of impermanence is something I lean into shared online and the trauma-bonding made these days. No sculptures remain intact by the end of an people more generous with one another. animation. The characters evolve by slowly disfiguring Another shift happened on May 25th when themselves and each other. What remains at the end of their George Floyd’s murder instigated a long journeys are discarded, lifeless lumps of earth. overdue reckoning. Suddenly the internet was where people organized for change, OUT OF YOUR PAINTING, PHOTOGRAPHY, SCULPTING educated each other, had honest and AND ANIMATION - WHAT HAS BROUGHT YOU THE uncomfortable conversations about race and MOST SOLACE DURING THIS TURBULENT YEAR? power, and demanded accountability for things previously ignored.

Honestly, between the pandemic and the protests, I found it YOUR MASTERPIECE IS INCREDIBLY MOVING! THE TRANSFORMATIONS ARE BRILLIANT. HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO CREATE LUCKY MUD ?

almost impossible to make work for about 6 months - I couldn’t convince myself that it mattered. Which is ironic because the thing that actually gave me solace, amidst all the uncertainty and violence, was to consume the artistic expressions of other people. I devoured movies, TV shows, books, podcasts, IG and zoom performances when I was unable to make anything myself. I beat myself up for that long stagnant stretch in the studio, but I realize now that though I wasn’t actively making work during those months, I was absorbing a ton. As I start to feel the creative drive return to my fingers and heart, I’m curious to see how it all gets synthesized and what form my processing will take.

So, to answer your question more directly: I started doing more people-watching online.

It’s not the same as in person of course, but it’s still pretty compelling. Sometimes I do feel guilty for the amount of time I’ve spent looking at screens recently, but that’s where the people are! I can be defeated by this new reality or make the most of it. I’m doing my best to aim for the latter, even if I don’t always succeed.

MYRIAM KHAMMASSI AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR BIO

ART MEETS DEATH AND BEAUTY MEETS BRUTALITY IN THIS EXPRESSIONISTIC NIGHTMARE

AFTER STARTING A CAREER IN COMMUNICATION AND WEBMARKETING, I DECIDED TO FOLLOW MY DREAMS AND BECOME A FILMMAKER. WRITING AND DIRECTING MOVIES IS LIKE GIVING BIRTH, IT'S ALL ABOUT MAGIC !

MYRIAM KHAMMASSI

IN HIS QUEST FOR THE PERFECT SCULPTURE, AIMING TO REPRODUCE THE HUMAN BODY AND ESPECIALLY THE FLESH, SLIM, A SCULPTOR, WILL GO AS FAR ASÂ KILL TO CREATE THE PERFECT EXPOSURE, THE PERFECT MIX BETWEEN PULP AND CLAY.

WHAT FILM DID YOU SEE IN YOUR PAST THAT MADE YOU WANT TO MAKE YOUR OWN? Lost Highway, by David Lynch. It was the first movie that made me want to become a director.

HOW DID THE PROCESS OF WRITING THE STORY FOR YOUR FILM BEGIN? I was always attracted by the story of murderers like Ted Bundy. I think that that moment when everything is broken and when you kill another human is very important. I think that this kind of story is the scariest ones, that's why I've decided to talk about a murderer.

WHAT ARE YOU READING OR LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? Right now I am reading A Room To Dream by David Lynch and am listening to some Stoner Rock, especially Offblast, their last album.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN DRAWN TO WATCHING AND MAKING HORROR FILMS? Yes, since I was a child, I loved that feeling of fear, so I think it was evidence for me to make horror movies.

WHAT FILMS OR FILMMAKERS HAVE YOU LOOKED TO FOR INSPIRATION AND WHAT IS IT ABOUT THEIR WORK THAT MOVES YOU? David Lynch was an essential inspiration for me. Robert Eggers also, with his masterpiece The Lighthouse.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW AND HOW CAN WE SEE MORE OF YOUR WORK IN THE FUTURE? Right now, I am writing a thriller.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

GWENDOLYN AUDREY FOSTER

DIRECTOR BIO

AN INFINITELY MORPHING KALEIDSCOPIC STAINED GLASS WINDOW

GWENDOLYN AUDREY FOSTER MAKES HIGHLY PERSONAL POETIC ABSTRACT FILMS IN 8MM AND 16MM, AND ALSO FILMS MADE FROM FOUND 35MM FILM AND HD VIDEO. SHE WORKS IN HANDPAINTED FILMMAKING AND DIRECT CINEMA AS WELL AS OTHER FILM AND VIDEO TECHNIQUES. FOSTER'S FILMS AND VIDEOS HAVE SCREENED AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART (MOMA, NYC), ANTHOLOGY FILM ARCHIVES (NY), AS WELL AS MANY OTHER NOTABLE GALLERIES, FILM FESTIVALS, AND MUSEUMS AROUND THE WORLD AND ARE HELD IN THE UCLA FILM ARCHIVE. AUTHOR OF "EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA: THE FILM READER," FOSTER IS WILLA CATHER PROFESSOR EMERITA IN FILM STUDIES.

GWENDOLYN AUDREY FOSTER

THERE ARE SO MANY INCREDIBLE AND EXQUISITE COMPONENTS TO MASS FOR SHUT-INS. WILL YOU WALK US THROUGH YOUR PROCESS? WHAT COMES FIRST? WHAT’S THE FINISHING TOUCH? Thank you. I have been making a lot of art films from found archival footage and working in the Surrealist/Dadaist tradition of détournement, but I also like to play directly with film footage more directly as a painter and sculptor. I like working in my basement and in a huge old sink down there, in my little “mad lab.” I am inspired by other experimental filmmakers such as Mary Ellen Bute, Storm de Hirsch, Marie Menken, and Barbara Hammer, Stan Brakhage and others; 60s poet filmmakers who painted directly onto film and practiced ‘direct animation.’ Some see in my work asort of psychedelic aesthetic (hopefully transcendent) that is reminiscent of stained glass from church windows, swirling in color, light and abstraction.As much as I enjoy the freedom of HD digital video, there is much to be said for good old fashioned an analog film like Super 8, 16mm and 35 mm film. I like scratching it, painting it, baking it, even burying it in the backyard, brutalizing it with chemicals and solutions; all to see what kind of effects come out of experimentation. It is a form of alchemy and itis the opposite of control. There is a lot of beauty and metaphysical aspects, magic in playing directly with film.

It’s an embrace of chance and ritual. It’s about finding something you were not necessarily looking for. There is so much freedom in this process that is often denied in narrative filmmaking and even in painting and writing.

And the hand-made-ed-ness appeals to me. It’s working in the kitchen sink, it is part of a female artistic tradition.

It’s private and hands-on. It’s not that different than putting laundry on a clothesline, although art is more celebrated. It’s very personal; a celebration of the domestic sphere and women and queerness and our spaces.

For Mass For Shut-Ins, I was playing around with some 16mm clear film leader and doing some tests on it using various different paints and adhesives, nail polish remover, scratching tools from paper clips to hand mallets.

Scratching the film with sand, gravel, and stomping on it.

I wanted to see what kinds of light patterns I could get from the material and how many different abstract forms and constellations I could paint onto the film. Some things seemed right but I cut some sections and I will probably use that material for different projects. After I handprocess, I startworking on the material in HD video.

I am not a purist about aspect ratio, nor do I have any problem with mixing analog and digital video editing techniques. I primarily use (or I should say ‘mis-use’) iMovie as my editing software and I like the look of the wet gate being directly painted upon and also the three of four layers of painted film gives it a Romantic Structuralist look.For the finishing touch, I start cutting and lengthening and looking for a track. Because the images reminded my of endlessly morphing abstract stained glass, and I didn’t really want to use silence - as you are expected to do in Structuralist circles, so I chose some recordings of church bells and manipulated them.

Bells and city sounds are mundane, but they are also profound, and I don’t mean that in a religious sense.

These bells are played by hand, often by women. The abstracted church bells work because they compliment the material in the sort of manic frenzied pace sections, but also in the slower abstractions. For me personally, they are soothing and recall the bells in cities in Europe, mainly Amsterdam, where I have spent a lot of my life, and also the church bells of New York, where I lived. They suggest the mundane everyday and sublime all-at-once. I should say a lot of my work is done unconsciously,almost in the spirit of female mystic artists of the occult such as Hilma af Klint, whose work I adore.I like to mesmerize or hypnotize the audience by delighting them with endless abstractions and the unexpected. It’s a playful interaction I seek, expressing the power of joy in the midst of this dark time that cannot possibly drown out joy, art and playfulness. There is more power in light than in the darkness.

THANK YOU FOR REMINDING US THAT ART AND MUSIC ARE HUGE ASPECTS OF SURVIVAL IN YOUR VERY VISUALLY POETIC FILM. Yes, it’s been very hard for artists to work in the midst of the pandemic, but we forge ahead. It’s such a terrible thing to live through; especially when you live in the midst of many people who deny the virus exists. It’s been bizarre. I decided the only way to survive this time period is to throw myself into creative work and music, both making it and enjoying it.

"IT’S VERY PERSONAL; A CELEBRATION OF THE DOMESTIC SPHERE AND WOMEN AND QUEERNESS AND OUR SPACES."

AN INTERVIEW WITH

SIBI SEKAR DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

A BEING ALTERNATELY ENTERS AND EXITS A FRAGMENTED WORLD OF PROJECTIONS

SIBI SEKAR WAS BORN ON APRIL 29TH, 1997 IN CHENNAI, TAMIL NADU, INDIA. HE FELL IN LOVE WITH CINEMA AT AN EARLY AGE UPON VIEWING THE WORKS OF DIRECTORS SUCH AS LUIS BUÑUEL AND SERGEI PARAJANOV. SIBI BEGAN MAKING EXPERIMENTAL FILMS AND DIRECTED HIS FIRST SHORT FILMS, "THOUGHTS OUT OF SEASON", “NIGHT TRAIN LIGHT ON TRACK “ AND “TEAL CITY,” DURING HIS POSTGRADUATE YEARS. SIBI HAS SINCE DIRECTED, PRODUCED & EDITED ONE FEATURE FILM, AND TEN SHORT FILMS. HIS WORKS HAVE BEEN SCREENED AT OVER THIRTY FESTIVALS ACROSS FIVE CONTINENTS. HE RECENTLY GRADUATED FROM INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, MADRAS WITH A MASTER'S DEGREE IN HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AND IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON EXPLORATIVE FILMS THAT ARE PRIMARILY AN ASCETIC REPRESENTATION OF RESISTANCE. THE THEMATIC DISPOSITIONS OF HIS FILMS CONCERN THE SYMBOLIC DEPICTION OF BEING, NOTHINGNESS AND THE TRANSCENDENTAL SPACE.

SIBI SEKAR

YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH CINEMA AT AN EARLY AGE. HOW WERE YOU EXPOSED TO THE MAGIC THAT IS LUIS BUÑUEL AND SERGEI PARAJANOV? I find myself in a constant search for films. I like to think about the kind of impact a film has on me and if I like a particular kind of impact, I’d try to find new sources to recreate the very same impact. Though restrictive, it is still a major obsession of mine. If I seem to remember correctly, I stumbled upon Parajanov and Buñuel when I was in a search for the mystical. I wouldn’t call it surreal but I definitely was in a search for unworldliness. Los Olviados AKA The Young and the Damned was my first trip to a Buñuel’s world. Unfortunately, I saw it on a pirated copy, but back then pirated copies were my only access to films.

I saw it with my father when I was around 13 or 14 and the film created a weird sense of paranoia for me.

I got obsessed with fantasising about being the only person alive and I’d end up with a panic attack every single time. Parajanov on the contrary, had a soothing impact on me. He made me fall in love with tableaux vivants at a time when I didn’t know what tableaux vivants were. One of the early scenes in The Colour of Pomegranates shows the young Sayat-Nova placing religious texts on the roof of a church and laying among them. He seemed to be wondering if the wind turning the pages of the text will carry some of their knowledge into him. I’ve seen at least a thousand films since then, but that is still the most hauntingly beautiful imagery I’ve laid my eyes upon.

YOU'VE MADE AN IMPRESSIVE AMOUNT OF WORK SINCE YOU GRADUATED FROM SCHOOL. HOW DO YOU KEEP YOURSELF ORGANISED IN YOUR PROCESS TO MAKE EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT TO MAKE? I am a student of Humanities and Social Sciences and I am conditioned to be critical of every single thing I come across. I couldn’t help but try to deconstruct all the structures and constructs in my life and the world began to feel exhilaratingly topsy-turvy. The films I used to love began to lose its charm and I was trying to bridge that gap through my continued search for films. I have been an admirer of Guy Maddin for quite sometime now and one article that I read right after watching ‘My Winnipeg’, opened up a whole new window in my life. In the article, he stated that he had no other choice but to ‘film his way out’ of an ordeal. ‘Filming one’s way out’ felt like the best medicine for melancholy and that’s how and why I made ‘Thoughts Out Of Season’, my first film.

I shot it with my mother who was also the sole reason behind the realisation of the film. It was screened in a few Film Festivals and I heard some beautiful words from several people with regard to the film.

As far as organisation is concerned, I have a very tedious and humdrum existence with close to zero planning for the future. I make what I want to make when I absolutely need to make. My films are entirely self funded and close to zero money is spent on making the films. All the financial resources are put into expanding the reach for the film through film festivals and screening clubs. I believe that one shouldn’t run away from thoughts and one definitely shouldn’t be afraid to express those thoughts no matter how mundane or idiotic you think them to be. Einstein famously said: "Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” I believe that thinking is integral to art and being confrontational with thoughts is integral to living

ON FLOATING BODIES IS FILLED WITH BEAUTIFUL LAYERS THAT GIVE US ENOUGH TIME TO SETTLE WITHIN US. HOW DID YOU DECIDE WHAT TO IMPLEMENT AND IN WHAT ORDER? On Floating Bodies was initially constructed as a compilation of ten monologues performed by my friend, Uddish Pasupathy. I’d send him texts and he’d film himself performing them without my intervention.

As I was watching him perform one such monologue from Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir, he seemed to cast or display an external layer over his persona. I could neither see his natural self nor the character he was playing. It was a ‘projection’ of sorts that seemed to have a consciousness of its own.

A few moments after the performance, the projection disappeared. I couldn’t help but think about the nature and state of the displaced ‘projection’. It was concretely present for a brief period of time, but soon lost all its tangibility. The nature of the ‘projection’ could have been explored through a sociological lens or a psychological perspective but for some reason I took the road relatively less travelled and found myself thinking about solid bodies displacing water and the Archimedes’ Principle. I realised that the source of displacement in the case of the projections was pure abstraction. The trajectory of these projections was the mystery I was trying to come to terms with through the film.

The cinematographer, Mahesh Mani and I began to film spaces that could represent an imbalance between the real and the ethereal. I asked my friend Malavika, a painter who also enjoys the language of abstraction to send me a few paintings based on my inarticulate description of what I naturally began to term as ‘projections’. Marius Paulikas, a friend from Lithuania whole-heartedly allowed me to use a few of his tracks that I thought would work well with the film. I was initially an admirer before getting to know him on a personal level. I was dwelling on the idea for weeks but once I decided to film my way out of it, everything fell into place in a short period of time. I’d like to think that the reason behind the realisation of this film was me trying to be honest with my flow of imagination. According to Locke, memory has no obligations. In that flow of thought, though limited by perception, imagination has no obligations too. On Floating Bodies is an exploration of projections and their spatial dimensions based on ‘pure imagination’ and as Julian Barnes would like it, my imagination’s first duty was to be transgressive.

"ACCORDING TO LOCKE, MEMORY HAS NO OBLIGATIONS. IN THAT FLOW OF THOUGHT, THOUGH LIMITED BY PERCEPTION, IMAGINATION HAS NO OBLIGATIONS TOO."

AN INTERVIEW WITH

H A D I D MI R EOC TUO RS OSF A L L Y

DIRECTOR BIO

A TRIBUTE TO THE PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD BY TELLING THE STORY OF THE CREATION HADI MOUSSALLY WAS BORN IN LEBANON IN 1987.BY AGE 18, HE DECIDES TO GO STUDY FILM DIRECTION IN FRANCE WHERE HE ACQUIRES A FIRST MASTER’S DEGREE IN “FICTION CINEMA” FROM PARIS-EST MARNE LA VALLÉE UNIVERSITY. MOUSSALLY THEN CHOOSES TO TAKE ON A COMPLEMENTARY MASTERS IN “DOCUMENTARY AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL CINEMA” FROM PARIS X NANTERRE UNIVERSITY, IN THE COURSE OF JEAN ROUCH. IN THAT RESPECT, HADI MOUSSALLY ACQUAINTED HIMSELF WITH REALITY-CINEMA. THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL AND DOCUMENTARY APPROACH ACCUSTOMS HIM WITH THE SENSE OF KEEN OBSERVATION OF HIS SUBJECTS AND ALERTS HIM TO THE IMPORTANCE OF INSTANTANEOUS SHOOTING; WHEREAS HIS FICTIONAL BACKGROUND GIVES HIM THE URGE OF CREATING SENSUAL, ESTHETICALLY PLEASING IMAGERY UNIVERSES.FROM 2012, HADI MOUSSALLY SHIFTS TOWARDS THE WORLD OF FASHION AND DIRECTS SEVERAL EXPERIMENTAL FILMS SOME OF WHICH RECEIVED VARIOUS DISTINCTIONS IN FESTIVALS. IN 2014 HE MADE HIS FIRST DOCUMENTARY ON THE END OF HIS GRANDMOTHER'S LIFE, AND IN 2016 A DOCU-PORTRAIT ON A SENIOR MODEL. IN 2018 HE COMPLETED AN EXPERIMENTAL PROJECT ON ALBINISM "POSITIVE" WHOSE PHOTOS HAVE BEEN EXHIBITED AT THE UNESCO, THE CITY HALL OF PARIS AND BEIRUT ART FAIR AS WELL. IN 2015 HE FOUNDED THE PRODUCTION UNIT H7O7 WHOSE MAIN OBJECTIVE IS TO ENABLE THE MAKING AND PROMOTION OF FILMS AND PHOTOS WITH "HYBRID" VOCATION WHERE IS PRIVILEGED THE MIXTURE OF GENRES BETWEEN EXPERIMENTAL, DOCUMENTARY, FASHION AND FICTION. IN 2020, HE FOUNDED THE COLLECTIVE “HYBRID WAVE” WITH AROUND 30 HYBRID ARTISTS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.

HADI MOUSSALLY

"I FINALLY UNDERSTOOD WHO I AM: HYBRID. I AM ALL OF THAT, AND I DON’T WANT TO BE PUT IN JUST ONE CATEGORY. I MIX A LOT OF GENRES IN MY WORK AND THIS IS WHAT I LIKE TO DO." YOU WERE PART OF OUR PROGRAMMING FOR LAST YEAR'S FESTIVAL WITH YOUR VIBRANT FILM ALUID. WE ARE SO HAPPY TO CONTINUE TO CELEBRATE YOUR WORK. WELCOME BACK!!

It’s always a pleasure and honor to be part of this Festival. Last year, It was amazing to have my other film « ALIUD », a collaboration film with the 3D printed jewelry designer Diana Law and inspired by the cinemagraph effect. A completely different one from this year’s selected film « Ophelia ». Thank you for having me this year too.

OUT OF ALL THE PRE-RAPHAELITE BROTHERHOOD PAINTINGS, WHAT WAS IT ABOUT OPHELIA THAT MADE YOU WANT TO CREATE A FILM ADAPTATION? To answer this question, we have to know the essence of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. This movement fascinates me, because when we see it today, we think it’s classical, but at that time in the 19th century, it was completely non-conformist and anti-Victorian. Painters had enough of doing the perfect framing, pose and clothes as the Victorian style was very trendy. They wanted to be freer in the posing, showing more nature, with loose hair.

They wanted to draw the perfection in the imperfection.

And I completely relate to this ideology.

So « Ophelia » by John Everett Millais, the painting, is one of the most known painting of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. It inspired a lot of artists, and one of them, is one of my favorite director Lars Von Trier, in his film « Melancholia ». The painting represents the death of Ophelia, a character from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river. What is amazing is the story behind the painting. Millais produced Ophelia in two separate stages: He first painted the landscape, and secondly the figure of Ophelia. He asked the model to lie fully clothed in a full bathtub in his studio. As it was winter, he placed oil lamps under the tub to warm the water, but he was so concentrated that he forgot to heat them up again. The model caught a severe cold and she was nearly going to die. So, I find it ironic that he wanted to draw the death of Ophelia, and he nearly was going to « kill » Ophelia, the model.

That is why, in the film, we see the first scene a bathtub in the middle of the field. The idea was to get inspired by the brotherhood and recreate them. But not identically, but to take the soul of the movement as « non-conformist » and pay tribute to it. The same thing is also with the frames in the film, sometimes it is full, and sometimes it’s divided in 3 shots. Also, the music, it is « Death of Ophelia », but instead of having it on a piano, we tried to break the rule and put it on an electronic music. And finally, since the nature is very important in the movement, we can see little by little the nature taking over the actress Anne-Lise Maulin, where at the end, practically all of her face is covered by flowers.

WHAT OTHER PAINTINGS WOULD YOU TURN INTO FILM? Since I was young, I was always inspired by the « Surrealism » paintings, and mostly by Salvador Dali. I was always fascinated by his paintings and the fact that you can create your own world, that has no logic and still be understandable. When I first knew the painter at the age of 16, in a French book, I was hypnotized by one painting that has maybe the longest title ever « Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening ». This painting is, for me, one the best representation of this movement and what I like in it. The bee around a pomegranate that is in the title is very small part of the painting, around it you can see a woman lying naked and a gun coming out of a tiger coming out of another tiger coming out of a fish coming out of a pomegranate and an elephant with huge legs in the background in a long deserted blue field. Of course, If I would turn it into a film, I would be inspired, not recreate exactly the same thing.

But today, I have one more painting I would love to turn into a film, it is my dad’s painting. And the name of the painting « Radiation - Transition ».

After he passing away last month, I discovered in my childhood house a painting that he did when he was in art school. I knew that my dad used to draw sketches, but I didn’t know that he did one. You can see a woman looking at a sunset that looks like a flower where we can see in her head an idea coming out and it’s a playboy logo. Near the sunset, there’s a harlequin dancing that is faded by the colors of the background. I would love to turn it into a film, and as I said before, more getting inspired rather than recreating exactly the same thing.

TELL US MORE ABOUT HYBRID WAVE! I wanted to be a math teacher, I started engineer school, I changed to do filmmaking, I had a degree in fiction cinema and another one in documentary, after, I started working in fashion. So, it is a lot of fields that I did, and that I enjoyed and still enjoying doing them. When I started working it was hard for me to define myself, especially when asked from the society. Usually people didn’t understand exactly what I do: I’m a filmmaker and photographer, I do fiction, documentary, fashion, dance etc… so I am a melting pot, and it’s been few years that I finally understood who I am: Hybrid. I am all of that, and I don’t want to be put in just one category. I mix a lot of genres in my work and this is what I like to do.

When I was talking to artists, I realized, I am not the only one like that, there’s a lot of artists that like to do a lot of things, but since we have to fit in just one box, then we only do one thing and we tend to forget to do the other things.

So, I had an idea of building a community of hybrid artists from all around the world, and when lockdown hit all of us, I realized that I should do it now, because it’s now more than ever that we need that. So, I suggested to all the friend artists that I know if they are interested, and the feedback was amazing : They all joined.

Hybrid Wave is an inclusive artistic collective that aims to be a laboratory for research, attempts and unconventional associations by mixing genres, formats and mediums. Here solidarity takes on its full meaning; sharing is considered as a way of consolidating each person's art and giving birth to new art forms.

So, the main idea is to have fun while creating (something that we tend to forget), get inspired by other artists and help each other when we can. At the present time, the movement includes artists working in more than ten different fields: photography, design, fashion, painting, sculpture, music, writing, directing, etc... The artists participating in the collective come from different backgrounds, cultures and nationalities. Scattered around the globe, their diversity is an essential asset to nourish their exchanges. The collective takes shape both virtually, via an internet platform and social networks, but also physically, during meetings, workshops, exhibitions and conferences. www.hybridwave.art

AN INTERVIEW WITH

HELEN ROLLINS DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

AN ACTOR BECOMES STRANGELY COMPELLED BY THE COLORFUL WORLD BENEATH THE FLOOR.

HELEN GRADUATED FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY WITH A DOUBLE FIRST IN MODERN LANGUAGES. AT CAMBRIDGE, SHE RECEIVED MULTIPLE ACADEMIC PRIZES AND SCHOLARSHIPS, INCLUDING THE AWARD FOR TOP STUDENT IN TERMS OF EXAM RESULTS AT CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, TAKEN ACROSS ALL YEARS AND SUBJECTS IN HER GRADUATING CLASS. SHE WAS ALSO A BOURSIÈRE ÉTRANGÈRE AT THE ECOLE NORMALE SUPÉRIEURE IN LYON. DURING HER HIGH SCHOOL YEARS, SHE WAS TOP STUDENT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM FOR MODERN LANGUAGES IN THE NATIONAL GCSE EXAM AND WAS AMONGST THE TOP FIVE PERFORMERS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE. AT TWENTY-TWO, SHE BECAME A TEACHER OF FRENCH LANGUAGE, FILM AND LITERATURE AT ETON COLLEGE, LEAVING THAT POST TWO YEARS LATER TO WORK AS A WRITER, TRANSLATOR AND FILMMAKER. IN HER CINEMATIC WORK, SHE EXPLORES IDEAS OF DESIRE, REPRESSION AND LOSS. SHE HAS A PARTICULAR INTEREST IN PSYCHOANALYSIS, CONTINENTAL PHILOSOPHY AND FILM AND LITERATURE FROM THE FRENCH AND SPANISH-SPEAKING WORLD.

HELEN

ROLLINS

HOW DID YOU LEARN ABOUT FRANC KRANJC AND WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO PURSUE THIS PIECE OF WORK TO BRING TO LIFE? How did you learn about Franc Kranjc and what made you decide to pursue this piece of work to bring to life?I discovered Franc Kranjc, a Slovenian director who was dogged in his creation of challenging and complicating work throughout his long life, via my interest in The Slovenian School - a group of philosophers and psychoanalytic theorists, based in Ljubljana, the capital city of the small European nation. I have read that Kranjc was a troubled man. He is said to have suffered from delusional paranoia, believing at times that he didn’t even exist. He was a mysterious recluse, never married, known only by reputation - the man was essentially a ghost. He struggled to connect with people, although was known within the filmmaking community of Eastern Europe as a brilliant director, who seemed to come to life only through the stories he created.

Kranjc was passionate about dialectical argumentation and ideology critique, but he found little fame when he was alive. Hailing from Ljubljana, he often interacted with The Slovenian School. Members would say that he attended salons and screenings in disguise. While the official cause of death is unknown, it is surmised that he died of complications resulting from Coronavirus, given his age and the date of his death. He played with the same ideas that The Slovenian School dealt with, but explored them in artistic, rather than philosophical form.

The scale and dynamism of his oeuvre was only discovered upon his unheralded death. I thought, perhaps, that his work might finally have its day in the sun, as old systems of power shift and as the forms of ideological thinking that he was challenging become exposed and, at last, understood. Perhaps, finally, we might be able to accept and come to terms with the truth of what he was exploring.I was lucky enough to be granted access to some of his footage and unfinished works. I decided to dedicate time this year to piecing together this and another film - there are more to come in the future. Would it be possible to understand the ethos and ideas Kranjc was working with? Would these rebuilt films even hold together as compelling pieces of work in their own right?

The work of The Slovenian School at large is something I am really interested in. It has reinvigorated the ideas of historical thinkers, focusing in particular on reinterpreting the writings of Karl Marx through the tradition of German idealism, specifically the work of Hegel.

A key motivation is to critique ideology and to promote dialectical thinking. So much of the commercialized or ‘mainstream’ creative work on offer for consumption by global audiences today is heavily ideological, supporting and often justifying the power structures that currently exist. We largely don’t and can’t recognize ideology when we see it, so much are we inculcated with systems of thought that maintain the status quo, even if - and perhaps especially if - they are actually detrimental to us. Because of market forces, ideological work is often not only foregrounded, but also lauded. Dialectics, on the other hand, confounds ideology. It explores how phenomena aren’t ever just one thing or another. Dialectically speaking, a position or idea generates its own opposition, which it initially takes to be external to itself. The truth lies in coming to understand that this external opposition is really part of the original position itself. In this way, dialectics complicates our relationship to powers that be, particularly those obfuscated within the market system. When we understand that any given position generates its own opposition, we can no longer just blindly accept things the way they are. In Kranjc’s film ‘Outopia’, he explores how Heaven and Hell are one and the same. A frantic pursuit of a heavenly utopia can often lead to something that at first seems better, but is ultimately just as grim.

In exploring the work of this school, I quickly became interested in the implications of ideology on artistic production. This led me to questions about the capital vs audience relationship and questions about what might happen to an artist if they are focused on dialectical truth in their work, rather than on the blind acceptance of contemporary ideology. To me, audiences desire contradiction: this is the very purpose of art. Capital, on the other hand, resists it. It might incorporate aesthetic complication into the market system, but deep dialectical work that challenges the very undercurrents of the status quo sits with capital like oil does with water. All this raises a number of questions.

Given the cost of film production, how can this kind of vital work ever get made? What happens to all this exciting and provocative content even if it does? Would audiences ever be granted the privilege of being able to watch it? It was these questions that led to me the work of Franc Kranjc. But the most fascinating thing about Franc Kranjc, of course, is that he is himself a work of fiction.

YOU HAVE AN IMPRESSIVE ACADEMIC, LINGUISTIC, AND TEACHING BACKGROUND. AT WHAT POINT DID FILMMAKING MAKE ITS WAY INTO YOUR LIFE? Thank you so much. My background is in languages, translation and teaching and I continue to teach, lecture and translate occasionally, alongside my film work. I became interested in language learning in my early teens. My father had a diplomatic career, so we lived in a number of different countries growing up. I discovered that the easiest and most engaging way to become proficient in a language was through watching movies. I became obsessed with watching foreign films all throughout my teenage years, especially those from France and Spain. This was really an education in the language of film, although - at the time - I never thought it would be possible for me to have a creative career. I studied Modern Languages at Cambridge University and Literature and Film at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon. I got a job as a French teacher at a school near London called Eton College after university, which I applied for because I decided I’d had enough of studying for a while! All this time, I was totally obsessed with watching, thinking about and communicating my passion for film. It was only when I went through a period of illness in my mid twenties, during which time I resigned from my post and began to write, that I thought making films for a living might be a possibility. I had a really good response to my first screenplay, which was optioned twice. It quickly became clear, though, that this success still didn’t mean that the film was likely to ever be produced. I therefore resolved to write, direct and self finance a short film, which ended up being well received at festivals. I set up a small, independent production company based here in Northern Ireland and have been lucky enough over the past several years to be able to create work that I am passionate about and to collaborate with a number of wonderful creative partners throughout the world on projects ranging from a live album film, to music videos, documentaries, narrative and experimental work.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

DOR PE'ER

DIRECTOR BIO

A MISERABLE MAN, UNHAPPY WITH HIS DULL MARRIED LIFE, DESCENDS INTO A WORLD OF DARK HALLUCINATIONS, AND MEETS AN ENTITY THAT MIGHT GIVE HIM A CHANCE TO EXPERIENCE PLEASURE.

BORN IN RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL. AS A CHILD HE BEGAN EXPERIMENTING WITH FILMMAKING USING HIS PARENTS’ HOME CAMERA.IN HIGH-SCHOOL DOR MAJORED IN FILM STUDIES.HE STARTED HIS ACADEMIC FILM STUDIES IN MINSHAR SCHOOL OF ARTS IN TEL-AVIV IN 2015, WHERE HE HAS MADE SEVERAL SHORT FILMS.DOR GRADUATED FROM MINSHAR IN 2020.

DOR PE'ER

"I STARTED LETTING IMAGES JUST COME TO MY MIND AND I SKETCHED THE IMAGES THAT STUCK WITH ME MOST." HOW DID THE PROCESS OF WRITING THE STORY FOR YOUR FILM BEGIN? The idea didn't start with a specific story or character.

Instead It started with a specific feeling that I wanted the film to have. In order to articulate that feeling, I started writing journals and essays, writing on what that feeling may suggest, where that feeling comes from in my personal life, and what connotations I had with that feeling. I also started collecting images that gave a similar feeling, like paintings from artists that inspire me. The two biggest inspirations from the world of painting were Edward Munch and Egon Schiele.

That process went on for a few months. I tried a few storyline ideas but none of them felt right. However the big break came when a friend from school called me and asked if I'd like to storyboard his short film, because he knew I have decent sketching skills. His question sparked a thought in my mind: "I don't have a story yet, but I can imagine at least a few frames that could be in the movie." So I started letting images just come to my mind and I sketched the images that stuck with me most.

After sketching roughly 7 frames, I decided to try and quickly sketch an entire "storyboard" from beginning to end, very roughly, working on each frame for no more than a couple of minutes. I've made up a story that goes through the frames I drew earlier. It felt like taking a string and passing it through beads to make a necklace. So eventually I developed the story through making the storyboard. Every single shot that exists in the final film was initially storyboarded.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF BRINGING THIS STORY TO LIFE? The biggest challenge was actually figuring out how the concept of "illusion vs reality" would play out in the film.

During the film, the main character undergoes a horrible experience. But that experience probably isn't real. But then again, the entire world of the film isn't very real and is more like a bad dream. So how do you approach this threshold between what is real and what is a hallucination? During the entire film, the line between real and fake stays pretty blurry.

And to me that actually helps to emphasize the only real thing in the movie: The emotions of the main characters.

ARE THERE CERTAIN TECHNIQUES OR KINDS OF MENTAL FRAMEWORKS OR CONCEPTS THAT GUIDE YOU? The main thing that I've learned from the creative process of Pleasures, and that I kept with me ever since, is that the basis of cinema is: Images that convey emotion, that when put together, begin to tell a story. Even before there is a story, I let my imagination flow and I try to grab images that already convey a specific feelings or emotions. Images that convey emotion are the basis. When you connect one image to the next, a story is starting to emerge. And that is the magic of cinema. When people just treat cinematography as "coverage", I think it misses a lot of potential.

ANY OTHER PIECES OF ART OR LIFE THAT WERE INSTRUMENTAL IN YOUR PROCESS? The fact that I have decent drawing skills really helped articulate and develop the idea. I feel like for this film specifically, the storyboard is the screenplay. I don't think that if you make films then you have to know how to draw, but you do have to understand what an image is, and how to use an image to tell your story. I think that studying sketching and art has taught me a lot about how composition, color, light, etc. can help you to tell a story and convey emotion.

HAVE YOU ALWAYS BEEN DRAWN TO WATCHING AND MAKING HORROR FILMS AND WHY?!

When it comes to horror films my favorites are The Exorcist and The Shining, and lately Ari Aster's Midsommar and Luca Guadagnino's version of Suspiria really blew my mind.

The first movies I made as a kid with my parents' camera were always genre films, like westerns, and dumb action movies. We also made a few horror shorts inspired by the actual horror films we saw at the time, like the Grudge and The Ring.

When I went to film school, at first I was making these small short dramas. But after a while, I was getting kind of sick of it, and I started looking for ideas that are darker, scarier, and more exciting.

WHAT FILMS OR FILMMAKERS HAVE YOU LOOKED TO FOR INSPIRATION AND WHAT IS IT ABOUT THEIR WORK THAT MOVES YOU? The biggest inspiration for this movie was Eraserhead by David Lynch. I loved the way he created a world that feels and looks like a horrible nightmare, without ever explaining to you the rules of this world. It forces you to just get sucked into this nightmarish hell. This is the kind of experience that I wanted to try to create with Pleasures.

WHAT ARE YOU WORKING ON NOW AND HOW CAN WE SEE MORE OF YOUR WORK IN THE FUTURE? Right now I'm working on a short suspenseful drama, about a young jewish mother who decides not to give her new born son a Bris, and therefore gets into a huge battle with her entire family. The subject of the Bris is a big taboo in Jewish and Israeli culture, and I thought it could be an interesting way to talk about that and about the power and danger of tribalism.

Recently I have also made another horror short called Bordo, about a secretly gay man, that is starting to become afraid that his wife is going to murder him.

While I don't think that I will just keep making dark films forever, nothing excites me more than creating dark, disturbing images and tales.

NICK EFTERIADES AN INTERVIEW WITH

DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

A MAN AND A WOMAN WAIT OUT A RAINSTORM IN A HOTEL LOBBY SOME PLACE BETWEEN ‘HERE AND NOWHERE’.

A NEW YORK-BASED FILMMAKER AND PROFESSOR NICK IS A NATIVE OF BOSTON AND A GRADUATE OF DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. HE HOLDS AN MFA IN FILM FROM COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. HIS DEBUT FEATURE AS WRITER/DIRECTOR, THE AWARD-WINNING ASTORIA, PREMIERED AT THE SANTA BARBARA FILM FESTIVAL AND PLAYED IN FESTIVALS WORLDWIDE. ASTORIA WAS RELEASED THEATRICALLY BY MENEMSHA FILMS. NICK RECENTLY COPRODUCED THE AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY BENEATH THE OLIVE TREE, NARRATED BY OSCAR-WINNER OLYMPIA DUKAKIS. OTHER CURRENT PROJECTS INCLUDE THE SCREENPLAY TRUST IN HER, CO-WRITTEN WITH STELIO SAVANTE AND DJ, A FEATURE SET IN THE NIGHTCLUB WORLD OF 70S NYC. NICK HAS SERVED ON THE FACULTIES OF NEW JERSEY CITY UNIVERSITY, ST. FRANCIS COLLEGE, AND FORDHAM UNIVERSITY WHERE HE TEACHES ON VARIOUS TOPICS IN FILM AND MEDIA STUDIES. HE HAS ALSO SERVED ON THE SELECTION COMMITTEES FOR THE IFP’S INDEPENDENT FILM WEEK AND THE TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL.

NICK

HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE STORY OF PRONOIA? THERE ARE COMPLEX PIECES THAT YOU FIT TOGETHER BEAUTIFULLY. Pronoia is actually inspired by a real life case. I was watching the news many years ago and there was this bizarre, but true story of a Department of Defense official named John Wheeler who disappeared. His car was found in an abandoned lot somewhere in Delaware.

The last images of him were found on surveillance footage in a DC parking garage. He was stumbling around, looking disoriented and shoeless. The case is still unsolved and has been fodder for conspiracy theorists. It stuck with me as did the idea of how conspiracy theories are formulated - usually from connecting our own imagined fragments of what we think would be the "truth." So many ways it could go. Then, at the time, I was rediscovering the cinema of Alain Resnais, especially "Last Year At Marienbad" and "Hiroshima, Mon Amour." These films delved deeply into the reconstruction of memory and "what really happened." And that connected deeply with this idea that the cinema in and of itself is ultimately a lie - a fiction which sneaks up on us once the credits roll. So, Pronoia became: a girl, a guy, a place, and this bizarre news story.

Ultimately, I wanted the story to be opaque, to have loose pieces that may or may not fit - kind of like conspiracy tales.

EFTERIADES

AS A WRITER AND A DIRECTOR, DO YOU FIND THAT YOU GIVE YOURSELF ROOM FOR MODIFICATIONS WHILE IN PRODUCTION OR ARE YOU SET IN WHAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN IN THE SCRIPT? Oh, I'm always open to my collaborators. Especially with Pronoia, which has a puzzle of a script. Then, there are always issues that arise because of budget, locations, and so on. So you have to be ready to improvise. Generally, I let my actors explore whatever they feel in terms of dialogue adjustments and then work with them to get it closer to what feels right. The experimental narrative of Pronoia posed a challenge in the editing room. We played around a lot but found the version that worked best, I hope!

THE CHEMISTRY BETWEEN STELIO SAVANTE AND HANNAH JANE MCMURRAY IS UNDENIABLE. THEY PLAY OFF OF EACH OTHER SO WELL. WHEN CASTING THE FILM OR EVEN WRITING IT, DID YOU HAVE THOSE ACTORS IN MIND? HOW DID THEY FIND THEIR WAY TO YOUR SCRIPT? Stelio and I go back many years when he acted in a feature I did. We hit it off and became best of friends who pretty much share the same brain hard drive of favorite cinema, directors, actors. I wrote Pronoia with Stelio in mind. I knew for the film to work it had to surrender to the central performance. And I knew Stelio could carry it through brilliantly. Hannah Jane came to us via an audition process which was exhaustive. But once she read for it, I knew it right away. And that she could pair well with Stelio. Then I gave both actors references to Resnais, Melville (Le Samourai), and Monica Vitti's work in Antonioni films.

They found the perfect modulation and their chemistry is something I'm grateful for.

"ULTIMATELY, I WANTED THE STORY TO BE OPAQUE, TO HAVE LOOSE PIECES THAT MAY OR MAY NOT FIT - KIND OF LIKE CONSPIRACY TALES."

ARTHOUSE QUARTERLY | PA

O H I I TG G W A N W O E D I V O F R C O E T AR R IN M TO N A NE C A I R G I D

A NON-LINEAR PERCEPTION OF TIME AND A BENT VISION OF SPACE

WHEN SETTING UP FOR Q DI Q DID YOU ALREADY HAVE A LIST OF POSSIBILITIES THAT YOU WANTED TO CAPTURE ON FILM OR DID YOU HAPPEN UPON THEM WITH YOUR CAMERA DURING FILMING?

DIRECTOR BIO

Q di Q was created thanks to the invitation from Austin Arthouse to make a short film in less than 48 hours. Once I have received the contest’s guidelines (at 11 pm in Italy), I have started a night of brainstorming, in this process, three elements have come together to shape this film. First, the limitation imposed by the festival (theme, duration, props, etc.), second my wish to express my-self poetically within the work, and third the situation of lockdown which has inspired me to look at my surroundings differently. Once the filming started the morning after, I knew what I was after and which elements I needed to achieve it. The surprise came from the macro-cinematography sequence, there I found a universe that was waiting for me to fall into, and it was the most interesting process for me, it truly made me question my “authorial gaze” and poetic expression. Therefore, to answer I would say it was a mix between planning and improving during the filming process. Since then I started in-depth research on micro and macro cinematography, particularly the inherent condition of suspension peculiar to the microworld.

PRIOR TO THIS PROJECT WHAT WERE YOU WORKING ON AND HOW MANY OF YOUR PROJECTS WERE EITHER POSTPONED OR CANCELED DUE TO COVID-19?

In February 2020, in less than two weeks, I have been working and traveling between five different countries. Luckily I managed to attend the Berlinale for the premiere of “Gunda” (2020), a film I have collaborated in the making. After which, on my way to the south of Italy, the Italian government decided for a full lockdown, and I got stuck in Lecce for one Month before I could go back to Milan in April. Fortunately, my plan in Lecce was to write a script, therefore being forced to stay inside was not a major issue, it turned out to be a pretty productive writing time. In a way, the lockdown due to the global pandemic came as a necessary “shock” into my life. For once, I did not have to care about work, and I was liberated from the pressure of constantly performing as an artist, filmmaker, or cinematographer. Of course, I had to change plans and find alternative income solutions, but as a freelancer that is the way my life is structured, so it was not a problem.

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN ABLE TO NAVIGATE THE REMAINDER OF THE STAY-ATHOME ORDERS? DO YOU FIND THAT YOU ARE MORE OR LESS CREATIVE THAN YOU WERE LAST YEAR? In a way, the lockdown was a similar situation to the one in which a random person pulls the emergency brake on a high-speed train. After the brake was pulled, I was not sure if the train was about to start again, and this shared uncertainty gave me hope somehow. I felt that this could have been the necessary “shock” which Walter Benjamin refers to as the awakening experience from the dream-world of progress. As if all of a sudden, the world as a community was forced to an alternative perspective upon the system. Maybe a given chance to redesign its social and economical structures. Personally, as an artist and filmmaker, I have taken the lockdown period as an opportunity to give more delicate and careful attention to my practice. All of a sudden, the whole world was sharing the same conditions in which artists regularly live: instability and uncertainty. In this condition, poetic forms overall were temporarily liberated from their function of production of goods.

Therefore, it was a great chance of creation for the one (as myself) struggling with the paradoxical relation between capital and artproduction.

GIANMARCO DONAGGIO (B.1991) IS ACTIVE IN THE HYBRID DIMENSION BETWEEN CINEMA AND ARTISTIC RESEARCH. HE GRADUATED IN FILM PRODUCTION IN THE UK, SPECIALISING IN FICTION-CINEMATOGRAPHY AND EXPERIMENTAL-DOCUMENTARY, AFTER WHICH HE HAS WORKED ON SEVERAL INTERNATIONAL FILM PRODUCTIONS ALL OVER THE WORLD. CURRENTLY, GIANMARCO IS MOSTLY ACTIVE AS AN ARTIST. HIS WORKS EVOLVE AS ATMOSPHERIC CINEMATIC EXPERIENCES AND TEND TO EXPERIMENT BOTH FORMALLY AND CONCEPTUALLY. HIS FILMS HAVE BEEN PRESENTED AND AWARDED IN SEVERAL INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALS AND ART EVENTS WORLDWIDE.

CONTINUED

A N

I N T E R V I E W W I T H J U L I E T E L L I S

DIRECTOR BIO

W H E N T H E U N I M A G I N A B L E H A P P E N S , 1 2 Y E A R O L D R U B Y ’ S W O R L D C O L L A P S E S A N D S H E I S L E F T O N H E R O W N .

JULIET ELLIS IS A FILM DIRECTOR, ACTOR, PERFORMANCE ARTIST AND THEATRE MAKER. SHE HAS WORKED CONTINUOUSLY AS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY ARTIST TO PRODUCE A NUMBER OF AWARD WINNING WORKS. HER WORK HAS TOURED EXTENSIVELY AND HER FILMS HAVE BEEN SCREENED AT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVALS INCLUDING LONDON, OBENHAUSEN, SOUTH AFRICA AND THE US. JULIET IS AN ALUMNI OF THE PRESTIGIOUS BINGER LAB IN AMSTERDAM AND THE TORONTO INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL TALENT LAB. SHE HAS BEEN COMMISSIONED BY THE BFI, UK FILM COUNCIL, B3 MEDIA BLANK SLATE, CREATIVE ENGLAND, ARTS ADMIN, LIVE ART DEVELOPMENT AGENCY, ARTS COUNCIL ENGLAND AND ACE’S BRIT (BLACK REGIONAL INITIATIVE IN THEATRE), AND WAS AWARDED BLACK PROGRESS TRUST AWARD FOR CONTRIBUTION TO ARTS AND MEDIA. SHE IS CURRENTLY DEVELOPING A THREE PART TV SERIES FOR THE BBC. DIRECTING A THEATRE PIECE IN 2021 TO BE SHOWN AT THE SOUTH BANK IN LONDON. RUBY IS HER FIRST FEATURE FILM.

JULIET ELLIS

"I WANT TO CONTINUE MAKING FILMS THAT ... BRING BEAUTY AND VALUE IN THE WORLD, SOMETHING HONEST AND AUTHENTIC AND EVEN TRANSCENDENTAL." WAS MAKING A FEATURE WHAT YOU EXPECTED? When I think of this question my first thought is about what others' expectations of what films I should be making as a black, northern, working class woman. Growing up in England and now, you would never believe that there were black people living in the North of England. We are totally invisible in films shot in that part of the country. It's an accent you rarely hear coming out of the mouth of a black person in film. The passion I had for the film was in part because I wanted to make a film where black who people inhabited the frame, had the same rights as white people in terms of an emotional interiority without having to justify it with big themes of racism or oppression. Don't get me wrong these themes don't escape Ruby, they are just more subtle and nuanced. I was hungry to tell a story in a more intricate way, interweaving elements from my theatre/performance art practices and exploring the side of creativity that is spiritual.

I wanted to approach the universal subject of death through the unique perspective of a twelve- year old girl, faced with the sudden death of her mother. I'm always amazed that death is the one thing that is certain in our lives but yet we seldom talk about it. To me, thinking about death is hopeful. What you see in it is a reflection of yourself. Death can be a thing of beauty, transcendental and even poetic. Death teaches us about life. How to face that loss without glancing away, without hiding? With Ruby I wanted to do what music does, that capacity to be devastatingly sad and at the exact same moment be incredibly beautiful.

I'm still thinking about the question: Was making a feature what I expected? When I'm creating work I get lost in the process. I immerse myself in solving problems moment by moment. I was fortunate to have a team that wanted to dive in there with me. I wanted the crew to also reflect where I am from. We had a very female led film crew, all being heads except for Hair and make up and lighting. Actually it wasn't that hard.

I was constantly surprised by the actors who didn't have a lot of experience acting in film. In Latifah's case no experience at all. We found her outside a bakery shop. She was incredible. Her subtle yet nuanced performance was a surprise to all of us. She is a very intelligent actor. Very instinctive and I trusted that. I didn't interfere too much with her process. I was very fortunate to have a crew full of artists in their own right. Having limitations can be a blessing and in this case it worked for us. The crew found amazingly, inexpensive creative solutions to many of the challenges that arose. Never did we give up and think, nah that can't be done.

Annette the DOP, worked above and beyond. It was her first feature which I liked because I knew she would be hungry to do a great job.

The trust between us was right there from the beginning. We have the same artistic sensibility. Beauty is important to both of us as a spiritual expression.

I was very very fortunate to meet two incredible artists thanks to a friend of mine Susan Jacobs (music supervisor extraordinaire). Kate Williams (editor) and Paul Hsu (sound designer), these two people usually work on big, big films but Ruby somehow captured their imaginations. They both just loved the film and put their heart and soul into it. That I didn't expect.

WHAT WAS YOUR BIGGEST TAKE AWAY FROM THE EXPERIENCE? When I was applying for funding for Ruby, many said that Ruby has no commercial value. I really disagree. When was that ever a reason not to fund a film? Making a film is easier than getting it out there and being seen. I don't know many people in the film industry so where does a filmmaker go once they have made a film? So many of the big film festivals are for people with loads of money and influence. It's an expensive process so it's great to see a festival like yours existing for filmmakers who have an arthouse sensibility and are truly independent Even though it's been difficult to get Ruby out there, the joy of creating a film like this still inspires me. I want to continue making films that artistically reflect my yearning to create subtle films that bring beauty and value in the world, something honest and authentic and even transcendental.

(Statistics on the percentage of black or BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnicbackgrounds) female directors in the UK film industry are harder to come by, howeverthe British Film Institute (BFI) reported that in 2012, only 5.3% of the film productionworkforce were from BAME backgrounds. Based on this, an assumption could be madethat the percentage of black female directors is even lower).I am a Black, female, working class and living in the north of England, so these statisticsdon’t look good. It feels like what is being said is that these diverse voices do not haveany commercial value. I started to muse on these statistics and ask myself: What does itactually mean.

Who decides what has Commercial Value and what hasn’t.

What is one'scommercial value based on? Can we step free of commercial constraints and its limitingvalues that try to tell us what is worthwhile and what is not? Is it important that everyfilm is made with this sense of commodification in mind?

Is the only possible value artcan have is what the market decides its worth in advance of making it? and lastly, canart exist for arts sake?I wanted to make this film and thought about different ways I could make revenue in aninteresting and creative way. I designed a t-shirt with the words NO COMMERCIAL VALUE.I had them printed and sold them to make revenue for Ruby. I sold over $10,000’s worthand had several articles printed in newspapers and was picked up by a local billboardcompany and given free advertising.

HAVE THE TUMULTUOUS EVENTS OF THIS YEAR INFORMED YOUR WORK? In terms of the content of the work, all I can say is that the universal themes relating to humanity remain the same. There is an internal shift in terms of how not to take anything for granted. The world can change in a moment's notice. Nothing is certain. So I want to make sure that the time I have here is meaningful, engaging in work that will entertain but more importantly have an impact on how we see the world around us.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

NOGA DEKEL

DIRECTOR BIO

A CASUAL ENCOUNTER ON TINDER TAKES AN UNEXPECTED TURN, WHILE THE TWO EMBARK ON A POETIC JOURNEY BETWEEN SDEROT AND PARIS.

NOGA DEKEL, 29, GRADUATED WITH HONORS AN ACADEMIC DEGREE IN CINEMA AT SAPIR ACADEMIC COLLEGE. NOGA GREW UP IN HAIFA AND ABOUT FIVE YEARS AGO MOVED TO SDEROT DURING HER CINEMA STUDIES. HER FINAL FILM WAS "SDEROT KISSUFIM", A SHORT FILM WHO CELEBRATE THE FRENCH NEW WAVE INSIDE SDEROT CITY. AFTER COLLEGE, SHE INITIATED THE FIRST FILM FESTIVAL IN MITZPE RAMON AT THE SOUTH, WHERE SHE CURRENTLY LIVES. IN HER FREE TIME, SHE TEACHES CINEMA, DANCES, WRITES POETRY, AS WELL AS THE SCRIPT FOR HER FIRST FEATURE FILM.

NOGA DEKEL

"THE SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN LIFE EVENTS AND FILMMAKING WAS SUCH THAT, IT WAS NO LONGER POSSIBLE TO DISCONNECT AND I BELIEVED THAT I HAD TO SACRIFICE MY SOUL ON THE ALTAR OF ART." WE LOVE AND FELT YOUR INFLUENCE FROM THE FRENCH NEW WAVE GENRE. WHAT OTHER GENRES OR SUBGENRES WOULD YOU LIKE TO EXPLORE WITH YOUR FILMMAKING? The Inspiration by the new French wave genre is part of a wide canvas that I like to explore within my cinema - a cinema of poetry, capable of capturing movement through time and generate a daring emotion through the melody of cinematic language. My wanderings as a filmmaker are mainly in areas where a realistic story accumulates to a poetic realism, interdisciplinary cinema that contains within it different types of arts (dance, theater, performance, plastic arts) cinema of absurdity and even surrealism. Through these genres, a rare opportunity is given to stretch the movement of the image or action, to examine it with a magnifying glass and to arouse the viewer’s different senses. For me it is always thrilling and infinite.

HAS THIS YEAR INSPIRED ANY PARTICULAR STORIES FOR YOU TO PURSUE? This year, marked by the Corona, has brought with it a lot of inspiration for absurd and surreal stories and moments, especially when I live in Mitzpe Ramon embracing a beautiful desert. The observatory has a community of artists, actors, dancers, circus performers and musicians who inspire fascinating collaborations in the interdisciplinary areas of cinema. Following these, I write a script that is an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland in a slightly melancholy tone of the present world today.

WHAT IS SOMETHING THAT YOU LEARNED FROM SCHOOL THAT YOU’VE IMPLEMENTED IN YOUR WORK AND LOVE? WHAT ABOUT SOMETHING THAT YOU’D RATHER LEAVE BEHIND? I had a teacher named Orna Levy in Sapir Academic College , that taught me from first year until the final film. Orna always repeated the basic idea of cinema: Location generates a situation, which in turn will generate a dialogue. At times, a filmmaker might have a romantic vision or a special imagery, and without context will create one. The circumstantial necessity of things also allows for the opposite movement - a dialogue that takes a turn, creates a new situation and this creates a different space for a moment, and these can eventually give rise to an image. This pattern is an important element that I took with me to my works as a filmmaker, and allows a lot of freedom when you know how to use it.

One thing I would leave behind, is the intention to try to maintain a “blood relationship” between the director and the main character in the film he is writing about, even if it expresses something deep going on inside him. Which often, I had a tendency to do, and the parallel emotional processes confused me so that I could not maintain a healthy space between me and the main character. The symbiosis between life events and filmmaking was such that, it was no longer possible to disconnect and I believed that I had to sacrifice my soul on the altar of art.

Today I give more respect to life itself and their rhythm alongside art.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

ULRIKE KORBACH

DIRECTOR BIO

THE DOCTORS CALL IT A BIPOLAR DISORDER. ANKE HERSELF DESCRIBES HER MISSION AS ...

I AM FROM GERMANY. I STUDIED PHOTO-DESIGN AT THE FACHHOCHSCHULE BIELEFELD, BUT WAS MORE INTERESTED IN THE MOVING PICTURE. SO I DID A FURTHER EDUCATION AS A DIGITAL MEDIA DESIGNER FOR PICTURES AND SOUND. SINCE THE YEAR 2000, I HAVE BEEN DOING DOCUMENTARIES WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON PERSONAL PORTRAITS. THE PROTAGONISTS I AM FOCUSING ON ARE MAINLY SETTLED AT THE EDGE OF SOCIETY. THE DOCUMENTARIES ARE IN THE STYLE OF CINEMA VERITÈOR ESSAYS. THE AIM IS TO GET THE AUDIENCE KNOW HOW PEOPLE LIVE, IN ORDER TO BROADEN THEIR HORIZONS, BUT NOT TO TEACH THEM. I OFFER THE AUDIENCE PICTURES AND THEY CAN DECIDE HOW TO INTERPRET THEM. AT THIS POINT, I HAVE DIFFICULTIES GETTING THOSE FILMS BROADCASTED. THE TV CHANNELS ASK, “WHAT IS THE TOPIC OF YOUR DOCUMENTARY?” “WHAT IS IT ABOUT?” AND I NEVER HAVE A ONE SENTENCE ANSWER FOR THEM. PEOPLE HAVE SOMANY TOPICS IN ONE PERSON. FOR EXAMPLE, SHADE GUZZLING. IT IS ABOUT MUSIC, ART, MENTAL ILLNESS, WOMEN AND HUMAN RIGHTS, MEDICINE AND POETRY. YOU CANNOT PIGEONHOLE THE FILM NOR THE PROTAGONIST. FILMS HAVE TO BREAK PREJUDICES NOT TO CONCRETE THEM. WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL, MY FATHER WROTE IN MY POETRY ALBUM – A BOOK WHICH WAS VERY POPULAR WHERE PEOPLE WRITE WORLDLY WISDOMS IN: “THE MOST GENERAL TRUTHS AND WHATEVERYONE BELIEVES TO BE ESTABLISHED OFTEN DESERVE THE MOST RECONSIDERATION.”I TOOK THIS SENTENCE AS A BASIS FOR MY LIFE AND WORK. FILM IS A PERFECT MEDIUM FOR DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO ONE TOPIC, BECAUSE THERE ARE PICTURES, SOUNDS, COLORS. EVERYTHING CAN BE SAMPLED TO A MULTILAYERED PIECE. DOING DOCUMENTARIES ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S LIFE MEANS TAKING A GREAT RESPONSIBILITY BECAUSE THE FILMMAKER HAS TO BE VERY SENSITIVE NOT TO DRAW A ONE-SIDED PICTURE OF A PERSON. OTHERWISE IT COULD BE REALLY DESTRUCTIVE. THAT'S WHY I AM ALWAYS IN CLOSE CONTACT WITH MY PROTAGONISTS AND THEY HAVE A VETO RIGHT ON SINGLE SCENES. THAT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE CONFIDENCE BETWEEN EACH OTHER AND HAS TO BE THE BASIS OF EVERY PERSONAL PORTRAIT.AND I REALLY LOVE MAKING POLARIZING DOCUMENTARIES. WHEN THEY BRING UP A DISCUSSION AND SOME PEOPLE REMEMBER THEM YEARS AFTER THEY HAVE SEEN ONE OF THEM AT A FESTIVAL. THEN EVERYTHING IS FINE. I SPENT MY YOUTH BEING A PUNK SO I LIKE DISTURBING PEOPLE.

ULRIKE KORBACH

THANK YOU FOR INTRODUCING US TO ANKE AMES. WE FELL IN LOVE WITH HER IMMEDIATELY. HOW DID YOU MEET? I met Anke in a Buddhist organization. From our first encounter I thought, it would be interesting to work together with her. But it took several years till we thought, “Well, we have an idea for the structure. We can tell the story.” What was important was to get the confidence that each of us knows what she is doing. I never mixed in the content, Anke brought that into the film. On the other hand, she relied on my ideas on how to tell the story as a whole with my photography and editing. None of us told the other one what to do.

HOW HAVE THE EVENTS OF THIS YEAR INFORMED YOUR CURRENT WORK AND WHAT DO YOU ENVISION FOR 2021?

The events in 2020 have slowed down everything. I rethought my approach towards my work. I am always fixed on deadlines.

And in 2020 I had to learn that not everything depends on me. (cont.)

My work had to become more flexible. And in Germany we had those “Querdenker” which means lateral thinker, a group, which named itself by a term, I and many of my friends like a lot. But they abused it to get in opposite to the covid19-restrictions. This is dominated by Rightists and conspiracists. That was the point at which I started researching absolute thinking. This is a phenomenon I realize in the past years, no matter whether it was ISIS, Donald Trump or the “Querdenker” in Germany. People take current events and abuse them for their personal ideology. I got to cults. It's the same with them. Whatever happens, they take it to prove their ideology. In 2021 we, a group of visual artists, are going to make an animated documentary about cults.

What is determining people's minds ? How can you get out of these groups and get rid of thoughts, which are terrifying you and nevertheless give you a hold, because they explain everything. In my project for 2021 we will do interviews with sect abandoners. A focus will be on Jehovas Witnesses, because they think the normal world is obsessed by demons, a very descriptive picture for everything scaring us. We will build these demons as figures for stop-motion animation and combined with original texts from the watchtower society and the interviews.

WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO TELL THIS STORY FROM A VETERAN'S PERSPECTIVE? The story is inspired by a traditional japanese folk legend about a samurai (a merchant in other versions) who returns home to his wife, not knowing that she's actually dead and she is a ghost. So, the samurai has become a veteran, quite simply.

TO BE CLEAR, IS THIS YOUR FIRST FILM ON 16MM? WHAT DID YOU SHOOT ON BEFORE? DO YOU THINK YOUR NEXT FILM WILL ALSO BE SHOT ON 16MM? Yes, this is my first 16mm movie, even though I had to use digital color correction, which I would not do again. My previous film was very cheap and was filmed in HD. If I were to make other fictional movies, they will be shot on film or they won't be shot at all. My own world is on 16mm.

HOW HAVE THE EVENTS OF THIS YEAR INFORMED YOUR WORK? The situation is not easy for cinema in Italy at the moment and all my projects are currently on hold. Post-production was finished before wuhan's events, however the lockdowns hasn't helped the movie's visibility at all.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

V I N C E N ZD I OR E C TL OAR UO FR E L L A

DIRECTOR BIO

AN OLD VETERAN RETURNS HOME AFTER MANY YEARS AND IS WELCOMED BY HIS WIFE. THE TWO TALK ALL NIGHT, SHARING THEIR MEMORIES. BUT THERE’S SOMETHING STRANGE IN THE WOMAN’S WORDS AND THE HOUSE ITSELF SEEMS TO DISSOLVE INTO A DREAM...

VINCENZO LAURELLA IS AN ITALIAN FILMMAKER AND STAGE ACTOR. HE RECEIVED HIS DIPLOMA FROM THE DRAMA SCHOOL UMBERTO SPADARO OF TEATRO STABILE DI CATANIA (THE MOST PRESTIGIOUS IN SICILY). HIS PREVIOUS FILM IS "DALLA POLVERE" (FROM THE DUST).

AN INTERVIEW WITH

WALTER FANNINGER

DIRECTOR BIO

AN AUSTRIAN MOUNTAIN PASTURE SETS THE STAGE FOR A SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION WITH INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS AND ARCHAIC FIRE RITUALS.

WALTER FANNINGER HAS BEEN WORKING AS DIRECTOR, PRODUCER, CAMERAMAN, EDITOR, COLORIST AND MOTION DESIGNER SINCE 2000 AND CAN BE DESCRIBED AS A FILM ALL-ROUNDER. "SHADOWS OF LIGHT" IS HIS CURRENT PROJECT, WHICH NOT ONLY REFLECTS WALTER FANNINGER AS A FILMMAKER, BUT ALSO HITS THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES.

WALTER FANNINGER

HOW DID YOU LEARN ABOUT THE FESTIVAL?

Some years ago I ran into Barth, the guy behind the festival, during a completely different shooting. At first sight I thought that we have nothing in common. But that wasn't the case – on the contrary, little by little we discovered more and more connections between us. And when I first came to the festival I was at once illuminated by the spirit of the place and the nature – and how art was created there out of nothing. It was clear that this has to be covered with my camera.

WHAT DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR EXPERIENCE THERE?

Simply, that you can create something without money or constraints. As long as you are prepared to take the long and difficult way. And to develop a story from the back instead of doing it as usual from the beginning. Our advisor was our curiosity. And what we found out is that the whole process is like a quest without beginning and end, and without a center where you can pinpoint the essential.

HOW DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR TEAM TO EMBARK ON THIS SPECIAL OCCASION?

Looking back it seems essential for the whole project, that we started without a plan and without a team.

At the beginning it was quite exhausting to shoot a music performance without an additional camera. But as time went by, during the festival, people came up to me and supported me. First came Caro who could help me in all areas, then Gigi who had no shooting experience and by chance was handed a camera by me. In the postproduction appeared Martin, a film colleague from long time ago, and finally Wolfgang, who came from writing and storytelling. He helped me reseeing the story in the cutting and shaping the final face of the film.

"OUR ADVISOR WAS OUR CURIOSITY. AND WHAT WE FOUND OUT IS THAT THE WHOLE PROCESS IS LIKE A QUEST WITHOUT BEGINNING AND END..."

A YOUNG WOMAN SEARCHES FOR LIGHT IN A SERIES OF DREAMS.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

ADAM MARK BROWN

WE LEARNED ABOUT YOU AND THIS FILM DURING OUR MAY 48HOUR FILM CONTEST, THANK YOU FOR SHARING IT WITH THE FESTIVAL! YOUR FILM IS POETRY FOR THE EYES AND EARS. WHEN CREATING SHIMMER DID THE WRITING INFORM THE LOCATIONS WHERE YOU FILMED OR DID YOU FILM YOUR LOCATIONS BEFORE CREATING THE SCRIPT?

This film was made in 48 hours as a part of the Arthouse competition in May. Because of that, it really evolved as we were piecing it together. I happened to be with Eman during the lockdown in South Carolina and there were locations around us that sparked the idea. There’s a lot of serenity there, but also a kind of mysteriousness because of all the islands. Sort of like you’re at the edge of the world.There are pockets of remoteness everywhere, and I think this was our initial inspiration when coming up with the concept. After this, I did script something, but pretty informally. It was nice to just give ourselves the freedom to make something without having to follow a traditional outline.The music in the film really carries everything we did, and that was all Eman. She saw a rough cut I made and her music was the finishing touch.

WHAT IS ONE THING THAT YOU HAVE LEARNED FROM YOUR GRANDPARENTS THAT YOU CARRY WITH YOU IN YOUR LIFE AND IN YOUR WORK?

DIRECTOR BIO

My grandparents became self-taught artists in their fifties while living in poverty. The thing that resonates most with me about their work is how they made great art from such limited resources.I have found that the most fulfilling work usually comes from these limitations, because of how the ideas evolve from a raw place. Shimmer was made like this.

MY FILMMAKING CAREER BEGAN BY DOCUMENTING THE OUTSIDER AND FOLK ARTWORK OF MY GRANDPARENTS. SOME OF MY FILMS HAVE BEEN RECOGNIZED AND SCREENED AT FESTIVALS, ARTHOUSES, AND MUSEUMS. I AM ORIGINALLY FROM OHIO, BUT CURRENTLY LIVING AND WORKING IN ATX.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

ALEX BERIAULT

DIRECTOR BIO

THREE WOMEN SUSPENDED WITHIN AN ARCHITECTURAL, PAINTERLY WORLD.

ALEX BERIAULT IS A VISUAL ARTIST BORN IN TORONTO, CANADA. IN 2014 SHE GRADUATED FROM OCAD UNIVERSITY FROM THE SCULPTURE/INSTALLATION PROGRAM AND HAS SINCE DEVELOPED A STRONG FOCUS AROUND PERFORMANCE-CENTRIC PROJECTS THAT HAVE BEEN EXHIBITED IN CANADA, THE UNITED STATES, AND IN EUROPE. SHE IS CURRENTLY BASED IN BREMEN, GERMANY AT THE HOCHSCHULE FÜR KÜNSTE AS A MASTER STUDENT OF ROSA BARBA.

ALEX BERIAULT

"THERE ALWAYS HAD TO BE A DESIGN AND RHYTHM IN EVERYTHING THAT I PRODUCED, WHICH INVOLVED CLOSE ATTENTION TO FORMAL DETAILS..."

YOUR ARTISTRY IS EXQUISITE. HOW DID YOU COME TO DEVELOP IT? Prior to my work with film, I’ve spent the past years making performance and installation-based artworks. My sculptural works took the forms of objects or platforms that would shape the context of a gesture or motion suspended over a period of sometimes hours. There always had to be a design and rhythm in everything that I produced, which involved close attention to formal details, from the outfit I wore to colour, space, light, etc. Such details remained just as important for the moving image, which gave me a new space to play with ways in how tension and suspense could build and take form.

YOU'VE SPENT TIME IN CANADA, US AND NOW EUROPE. HOW HAVE THE DIFFERENCES IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFORMED YOUR WORK? Growing up in Toronto, I learned about dance and theatre. The time I spent dancing gave me a range of tools for how I could move and carry my body, but the theatre allowed me to step outside of physical performance. The director of a play, for example, makes decisions to shift elements like space, light, and sound, all of which alter the atmosphere of an environment. This gave me a foundation that heavily influenced my sculptural/installation and performance projects to come.

After moving to Germany in 2019, I started playing more with movingimage media as a framework for performance and began to work more specifically with 16mm film.

This rectangular frame of film and video always dealt with a manner of cropping an image. As I involved sculptural material into my subject matter, I discovered that the construction of a certain space or subject matter could be a catalyst that plays with the expectations.

MARINA SANTANA DE LA TORRE AN INTERVIEW WITH

DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

CLARA'S MEMORIES UNLEASH A STORM THAT COULD DROWN HER IN THE PAST FOREVER.

BORN IN MEXICO CITY, MARINA’S EARLY INTEREST IN ARTS LED HER TO PAINTING. AFTER GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOL SHE BECAME MORE INTERESTED IN SOCIAL RESEARCH AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND RECEIVED A MAJOR IN SOCIAL SCIENCES AT THE INSTITUTO TECNOLÓGICO AUTÓNOMO DE MÉXICO. (MEXICO AUTONOMOUS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, ITAM). DURING THIS TIME SHE WAS ALSO INTERESTED IN THEATRE AND PARTICIPATED AS AN ACTRESS IN ITAM’S THEATRE COMPANY. WHILE STILL ENROLLED AT ITAM SHE WAS ACCEPTED IN ASOCIACIÓN MEXICANA DE CINEASTAS INDEPENDIENTES (MEXICAN ASSOCIATION OF INDEPENDENT FILMMAKERS, AMCI). HER FIRST SHORT DOCUMENTARY FILM, LA PARADOJA DEL MUAY THAI, “MUAY THAI PARADOX”, A REFLECTION OF THE DESIRE FOR VIOLENCE; PREMIERED AT THE ACCLAIMED FESTIVAL PANTALLA DE CRISTAL 2008 AND WAS NOMINATED FOR BEST SHORT DOCUMENTARY AND AT THE INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY FILM FESTIVAL, FICU LANTERNA 2009. SHE LATER BECAME DIRECTOR AND CINEMATOGRAPHER OF MOST OF HER FILMS. HER THESIS PROJECT FROM AMCI LA FORTUNA EN UN DÍA DE SOL Y LLUVIA, “THE FORTUNE OF A DAY WITH SUN AND RAIN” PREMIERED AT THE NEW YORK CITY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (NYCIFF) 2013 AND WON THE AWARD OF BEST DIRECTOR IN A SHORT FILM.IN 2015 SHE WAS AWARDED A MERIT SCHOLARSHIP TO ATTEND CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF THE ARTS, CALARTS. SHE IS CURRENTLY WORKING IN HER FEATURE FILM.

MARINA SANTANA DE LA TORRE

"WHILE I WAS EXPLORING THESE DREAM-LIKE ATMOSPHERES, MY WORK BECAME MORE PERSONAL." YOU MENTION YOUR LOVE OF EXPLORING FEARS AND DREAMS. WAS THERE SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT THAT HAPPENED IN YOUR LIFE 6 YEARS AGO WHICH LED YOU DOWN THAT PATH? Exploring fiction and dreams eventually became really comfortable for me, because I practiced a lot as a kid playing with dolls and toys like barbies, legos, and Playmobil sets for a very prolonged period of time, longer than the usual. I have a sister and a lot of my cousins always came to play with us in our house, so we created complicated nightmarish plots and stories when we were playing. We were exposed to a lot of practice hours creating stories with our cousins while we were growing up. We liked to make the plots inside of a game really complicated and eerie to make the situation interesting to my sister and me because we were older than our cousins so it couldn’t be so happy-ending or easy because we could get bored. It was like theater-improvisation and inviting our cousins to be actors as well. Later in film school, I realized that exploring these atmospheres and places gave me a lot of creative freedom and one could use elements of cinematography and sound that could enhance those emotions and create these places.

I feel very comfortable with that situation, however, I am open to other genres like realism, but it is not as comfortable, for now.

HOW HAS YOUR WORK ADVANCED AS YOU CONTINUE TO EXPLORE THE DREAM-LIKE ATMOSPHERES, EERIE CIRCUMSTANCES AND FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN AS YOU MENTION? While I was exploring these dream-like atmospheres, my work became more personal, so, for example, sometimes I can hold emotion and it can trigger a story. I can reach the image, space, and sound to portray it with more confidence, without feeling any kind of restrictions. When I wrote Spring Winds it was a time during the Santa Anna winds in California, the wind was dangerous, it could bring a Wildfire at any time; this was not a normal thing for me because I was used to the wind in Mexico City and I was overwhelmed with my own workload so I also felt like I was drowning, and with those images and emotions I found inspiration visualized it and that was how I thought of Spring Winds.

HOW WAS YOUR EXPERIENCE AT CAL ARTS? WAS IT BETTER THAN YOU EXPECTED? WHAT DID YOU TAKE AWAY FROM YOUR TIME THERE? I had an amazing time at CalArts, It became like my second family and I was very close to a lot of faculty members and students, I love and care about some people like if they were my close family. It was an amazing place to learn different approaches and audiovisual languages to develop my voice as a filmmaker and audiovisual artist. I learned many things that were related to my art practice but also about myself and who I am as a person, I had never been so exposed to art and audiovisuals, so many hours of exposure in the hallways, classrooms and with artistic personalities, also I felt very loved and very welcomed. I really loved the dormitory experience because I never really stopped the “working” and creating mood, so I slept and then I was ready to go back to work; on-campus housing was great for producing or creating work. I was there day and night and just loved my life every day.

WITH THE CONFINES OF OUR WORLDLY CIRCUMSTANCES, DO YOU FEEL MORE CREATIVE OR LESS CREATIVE THAN LAST YEAR? It affected me because I felt upset and annoyed, even though I should be grateful for the things that I have. I guess Coronavirus does affect creativity because I feel a lot of uncertainty that does not let me work with the freedom of a World without a deadly virus in the air. The summer 2020 was difficult, I felt very upset and hopeless with the world circumstances; now in December 2020 I feel much better, much more enthusiastic, when I go out I feel hope and I feel like taking pictures of everything, even the Christmas decorations in the mall or Walmart, so I hope I create something with the vibe that I am feeling. December 2020 feels so awesome so full of hope.

PAUL BRONISŁAW KMIEC AN INTERVIEW WITH

DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

HAUNTED BY THE SPECTRE OF HIS ETHNIC IDENTITY, AN ELDERLY MAN RECEIVES A MESSAGE FROM A SPECIAL VISITOR.

PAUL KMIEC IS A FILMMAKER AND EDUCATOR FROM BOSTON. HE GRADUATED CUM LAUDE FROM SUNY PURCHASE FILM CONSERVATORY WITH A B.F.A IN WRITING AND DIRECTING FILM. PAUL'S FILMS HAVE BEEN SCREENED AT FESTIVALS AND EVENTS IN HOLLYWOOD, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, FLORIDA, NEW MEXICO, MICHIGAN, FRANCE, GREECE AND AT JACOB BURNS FILM CENTRE IN NEW YORK. IN 2013 HIS FILM “MAGI” WON BEST SHORT FILM AT THE SANTA CRUZ FILM FESTIVAL. RECENTLY HIS FILM "SKYE" WON THE AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR AND FOR BEST FEMALE ACTOR AT THE SYMI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IN GREECE AND SCREENED AT THE SOLARIS FILM FESTIVAL IN NICE, FRANCE. HIS MUSIC VIDEO, "WHEN NOVEMBER CAME" WAS AWARDED WINNER AT THE BERLIN FLASH FILM FESTIVAL IN GERMANY (JULY 2018) AND WAS ALSO SCREENED AT THE MOVEMENT FOR PEACE EVENT AT THE 17TH ANNUAL SANTA CRUZ FILM FESTIVAL THIS OCTOBER 2019.

IN 2012 AND 2013 PAUL WAS AWARDED THE JOAN POTTER & MIRIAM ARSHAM AWARD FOR DIRECTING ACTORS FROM SUNY PURCHASE COLLEGE AND IS A TWO-TIME RECIPIENT OF THE HARRIET IRSAY SCHOLARSHIP FROM THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF POLISH CULTURE. HIS ESSAY, “CINEMA: A SOURCE OF POLISH SURVIVAL” WAS PUBLISHED IN THEIR ANNUAL MAGAZINE. PAUL HAS LIVED AND WORKED IN HOLLYWOOD, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA AND BOSTON WHERE HE HAS TAUGHT HISTORY AND THEATRE. HE WILL BE RETURNING AS FILM INSTRUCTOR AT SUNY PURCHASE COLLEGE PRE-BACCALAUREATE SUMMER PROGRAM FOR A FIFTH YEAR AND IS THE ACTING FOR SCREEN INSTRUCTOR AT THE INTERNATIONAL THEATRE & DANCE PROJECT (ITDP).

PAUL

BRONISĹ AW

KMIEC

"THERE IS STUFF IN US THAT EMERGES IN OUR BEHAVIOUR AND PERSONALITIES REMINISCENT OF "GHOSTS". HISTORY, IDENTITY, THE PAST- ALL OF THAT KINDA FUNCTIONS THE WAY GHOSTS DO. THERE IS SOMETHING COMFORTING IN KNOWING THAT THE PAST..."HAUNTS" YOU INTO THE DEVELOPMENT OF WHO YOU ARE." DO YOU BELIEVE IN GHOSTS? HAVE YOU HAD ANY INTERACTIONS WITH THEM?

HAS YOUR POLISH HERITAGE ALWAYS INFORMED YOUR WORK OR IS IT SOMETHING So... yes, haha. I do. Reason always comes THAT YOU TAPPED INTO AS charging in when I reflect on "believing" in YOUR WORK AND ghosts... but, I guess I think I like to believe that I believe in ghosts... I grew up doing musical theatreOPPORTUNITIES MATURED? for years at this old historic building-turned playhouse in Massachusetts. The adults who worked at the theatre constantly talked about unusual experiences that would happen there including during live performances. Some didn't believe it was haunted, but many did and there were stories from countless people corroborating "supernatural phenomena". I started doing Ouijaboard nights with fellow show-mates and friends after performances (good cast-party activity) and some things happened during our attempts to contact the spirit(s) that, to this day, seem irrefutably real. I'm pretty convinced we were in contact with something... There is another aspect to this though as well... the fact that people want to believe in ghosts. Many people are adverse to or ambivalent about ghosts. But many people I know are comforted by the concept of ghosts. I think it's rooted in that same desire to believe that Santa Claus, God, or aliens exist. That desire is really compelling. Recently I moved into a really old house (over 200 years old). I was like, "there's definitely gotta be ghosts here" .... Four months later.... nothing. No signs of ghosts. And in a weird way, I've been disappointed, haha. I was like, "Where is the spooky?... give me the spooky". But, I like the idea that "ghosts" are more of a metaphor for the many personalities we have inherited through our parents, grandparents, friends, and whatever else is lurking in our biological makeup. There is stuff in us that emerges in our behaviour and personalities reminiscent of "ghosts". History, identity, the past- all of that kinda functions the way ghosts do. There is something comforting in knowing that the Pastpersonal, cultural, biological- 'haunts' you into the development of who you are. But it would be fun to have doors creak open and shit fly off the walls with more regularity.

Growing up my Polish heritage was always been really important to me- as goes for my Greek heritage. My father was first generation to Polish immigrant parents who survived WWII. As kids, he told us all the WWII stories his parents experienced and as a kid obsessed by movies, I started to dramatize these stories in my imagination.

This process made me more conscious and concerned with the historical/cultural dimensions of our family. When I was like 7, I remember being upset that my last name, Kmiec, didn't end with the 'ski' common to so many Polish surnames because I wanted to be demonstrably more Polish, haha. Weirdo. Our extended Polish family in Boston felt especially big as a kid.

Gathering for holidays and events, listening to them speak Polish, eating Polish meals... these were really happy times. The American identity is elusive and complicated, so growing up with strong ethnic backgrounds helped cohere my American self somewhat and it continues to provide me a deep well into history that is both spiritually enlightening but creatively as well. Stay for Tea is rooted in our family stories. The mother who visits the old man (played by my father) is based on my Babcia (grandmother) and the story she tells about almost losing the baby in the German POW camp is based on her losing her first child due to malnutrition. My grandparents appear in a photograph and a painting in the film. The material in the film is very close-to-home subject matter and I'm really thankful to have a father who so openly shared so much about our family growing up. He made it an actively discussed the difficult things in family and passed down the rich remnants of a cultural self.

HOW HAVE YOU AND YOUR STUDENTS ACCLIMATED WITH STAY-AT-HOME ORDERS DUE TO COVID-19?

I predominantly teach during the summer months now. International Theatre & Dance Project (ITDP), a 3-week acting intensive workshop & cultural immersion program in Greece where I teach Acting for Film had to be suspended for 2020 due to the pandemic obviously. But I have had to pivot like most educators and co-developed a virtual-based film curriculum. Parameters are always fruitful when they are imposed on creative thinking.

Employing Covid as a lesson- teaching kids to further embrace the limitations on filmmaking that Covid has produced can lead to powerful creative decisions one might otherwise have never made. From an arts educational standpoint, Covid is just another pressure- a set of confines that suck to work within, but it helps eliminate excess fat in your choice-making that can lead to novel decisions and artistic selfdiscovery. Stay for Tea was very much a product of Covid. It was like, "Well what do we have? We have each other (my father and I), this house, some equipment... okay". So many students are doing the same exact thing: "I'm stuck with my family, eh, in this house...". But then you reflect... "this is ALL you have... so, go and discover all the potential hiding in plain sight. How can you make the most of your house? Maybe your house is boring or something, but what kind of angles or lenses can you employ to make it imaginative. Maybe you only have one crappy lens, or no lens at all and only your cell-phone." One kid took their phone and attached it to a bicycle wheel and spun the wheel to get these whirling, disorienting shots....

I mean, this is novel thinking. Great shit. Look at what you have and go as deep into those parameters as possible. Meaningful art often develops within strong parameters and under absurd pressures and Covid has been, if nothing else, a powerful lesson in learning to love these impositions.

AN INTERVIEW WITH

DESMOND CONFOY DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

A MOMENT OF STRENGTH DURING A MOMENT OF WEAKNESS IN ONE MAN'S LIFE.

DESMOND CONFOY IS A NEW YORK CITY BASED ARTIST ORIGINALLY FROM TRENTON, NEW JERSEY. HE GRADUATED FROM SUNY PURCHASE WITH A BFA FROM THE CONSERVATORY OF ACTING.CURRENTLY HE WORKS AS A VIDEOGRAPHER AND EDITOR FOR PRIVATE CLIENTS IN NEW YORK AND NEW JERSEY INCLUDING:PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, SAMEER KHAN PHOTOGRAPHY, TAKÉ DANCE, THREE BEARS COMMUNICATION, FLYING CAMEL MEDIA AND PAMELA PRATHER COACHING.SINCE GRADUATING HE HAS PARTICIPATED IN WORKS WITH THE PHOENIX THEATRE ENSEMBLE AND STRANGEMEN&CO.AS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF RAUCOUS&QUILL, HE CURRENTLY SELF PRODUCES AND ACTS IN ORIGINAL THEATRE AND FILM.

DESMOND CONFOY

"WHAT ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY THAT WE HAVE MULTIPLE LIVES HAPPENING IN DIFFERENT TIMES ALL AT ONCE. AND WHAT IF THEY SOMEHOW INTERSECTED IN SMALL WAYS." WHAT WAS THE IMPETUS THAT RESULTED IN SUNDER? It came from the actor in the film, Austin Alleman's desire that life could be simpler and that he lived far back in time. And what about the possibility that we have multiple lives happening in different times all at once. And what if they somehow intersected in small ways.

LOOKS LIKE YOU TWO HAVE COLLABORATED ON VARIOUS PROJECTS - HOW DID YOU MEET? Austin and I met at SUNY Purchase where we received our BFA’s from the Conservatory of Acting. We worked consistently throughout the program along with our classmate Dakota Granados, who wrote the poem heard in Sunder. Fast forward to today and the three of us have been working on stage and in film for going on 10 years now. Together we founded Raucous&Quill and began creating the art we wanted to see in the world. Our 60 second ‘Instashorts’ like Sunder have been seen in film festivals in over 42 countries across the globe, and our live pop-up show Take 3 is a reoccurring stage performance that travels around New York City. The last iteration of the show took place last September in Brooklyn, with the next planned for Summer of 2021 at its next secret location.

Whenever we start the creative process with a Raucous&Quill team we ask the questions: 1). What artists are we working with and how do they want to be showcased? 2). How will this resonate on a universal level? 3). How does this entertain while remaining artistic. Our mission is to repair the relationship between Art and Audience and between Art and Artist. By spotlighting artists strengths, truly collaborating with them, compensating them at a professional rate, and valuing their time and craft; we foster an environment of respect for artists that seems to be shrinking smaller and smaller in the arts world. Furthermore, by creating universal accessible art with intention, we work to close the gap between the audience and elitists expensive and inaccessible art that dominates the modern performance world.

WHAT DO YOU HAVE IN STORE FOR 2021?

Raucous&Quill thrives under restriction. The majority of our first works don’t have any dialogue because when we started with no sound equipment to record it and no funds to buy it. We take constraints and find the creative solutions that lead to artistic expression. 2021 is going to be a mess of creativity inspired by a new world of boundaries. Most notably we have a team currently developing a completely digital arts event entitled The Festival of The Unheard, which will be open to all mediums of art and performance including film. If you would like to be apart of the festival we encourage you to reach out, you can find Raucous&Quill on instagram @raucousandquill and at raucousandquill@gmail.com

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

LAUREN JEVNIKAR

DIRECTOR BIO

A WOMAN UNEARTHS TRUE FEELINGS ABOUT INTIMATE MOMENTS SPENT WITH HER PARTNER.

LAUREN (SHE/HER/HERS) IS A SELF-SHOOTING FILMMAKER WITH 11 YEARS OF EDITING EXPERIENCE FROM PITTSBURGH, PA CURRENTLY RESIDING IN SYRACUSE NY. HER WORK HAS BEEN SCREENED INTERNATIONALLY: INCLUDING THE US, AUSTRIA, BRAZIL, CANADA, CZECH REPUBLIC, AND FRANCE, NOTABLY AT NFFTY AND THE YOUKI INTERNATIONAL YOUTH MEDIA FESTIVAL. RECENTLY HAVING FINISHED HER BFA IN FILM AT SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY THIS MAY 2020, SHE HAS ADDITIONALLY STUDIED VISUAL THEORY AND 35MM FILM PRODUCTION AT FAMU, THE FIFTH OLDEST FILM SCHOOL IN THE WORLD, IN PRAGUE, CZ. THEMATICALLY, LAUREN IS INTERESTED IN EXPLORING VULNERABILITY AND EMOTIONAL INTIMACY. TOPICS BEHIND A MAJORITY OF HER FILMS EXPLORE SAPPHIC RELATIONSHIPS AND NAVIGATING LIFE AFTER SEXUAL VIOLENCE.

LAUREN JEVNIKAR

"GIVEN THAT A LOT OF MY WORK COVERS PRETTY INTIMATE AND SENSITIVE MATERIALS, IT'S REALLY IMPORTANT WHEN I'M CASTING THAT ACTORS ARE GOING TO BE MINDFUL OF THAT." WELCOME BACK! YOUR FILM TOUCH ME RIGHT WAS WITH US FOR OUR INAUGURAL FEST IN 2018. WE ARE HAPPY TO BE CELEBRATING YOUR WORK ONCE AGAIN! Thank you so much for having me back! I'm very excited to check out the rest of the lineup this year, always a pleasure.

WHAT HAS THIS PAST YEAR BROUGHT FOR YOU - ABUNDANT CREATIVITY OR RADICAL REST? AND HOW HAVE YOU SOUGHT SOLACE DURING THIS TUMULTUOUS TIME? Probably a bit of both! I've been very fortunate this past year, I finished my undergraduate degree and found a steady job as an in-house editor with everything going on. So I'm very grateful. I feel like I've been able to grow a lot as a person, and felt a lot of relationships with close friends flourish despite the lockdowns. It's been nice to have a chance to settle for a moment after graduating and re-evaluate who and what's important to me. I've been writing on and off here and there, but mostly just reflecting. So I suppose it's been a year filled with more radical rest for me, but I feel energized to dive back into new creative works and endeavors!

YOUR WORK IS INCREDIBLY INTIMATE. HOW DO YOU GO ABOUT CASTING? ARE YOU WORKING WITH STORYTELLERS THAT YOU ALREADY KNOW OR DO YOU BRING IN ACTORS TO AUDITION? Historically, people I've known previously. Given that a lot of my work covers pretty intimate and sensitive materials, it's really important when I'm casting that actors are going to be mindful of that. With both Tender Hearts and Touch Me Right, I was working with very small crews of close friends and collaborators, and knew all of my cast personally before the project. Sadie, the lead actress in Tender Hearts, is a performance artist and vintage store owner that I was working with pretty frequently on some short video work for her store the summer we shot the project. Sierra, the other actress in the film, is a close friend of mine (and an entomologist! super cool) that I've known practically my whole life.

Having those previous connections definitely made communication on set much easier, and I think the whole experience smoother.

With my most recent project, I brought in outside actors to audition. Since most of the work I have my cast doing is based around physicality and the emotion behind that, I more so look for how they can connect to the piece or the emotions we're building. This past spring I finished principle photography for a film that deals with the romanticization of codependency and nuances in laterstage healing from sexual violence. I hadn't known either of my actresses before auditions, but we spoke extensively about what love and reliance means to one another.

They both ended up being a dream to work with, so I'd definitely be open to bringing in actors I don't know as long as I felt we could build that kind of connection.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

KAYTLYN TURNER

DIRECTOR BIO

A COLONIAL TRAPPER WRESTLES WITH HIS VIOLENT PAST.

KAYTLYN TURNER IS A WRITER, DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER BASED IN CALGARY, CANADA WHO SPECIALIZES IN ANALOGUE, ARTHOUSE-STYLE FILMMAKING. HER THREE COMPLETED SHORT FILMS HAVE PLAYED AT FESTIVALS ACROSS NORTH AMERICA, AND RECEIVED SEVERAL AWARDS. HER WORKS OFTEN WALK THE LINE BETWEEN NARRATIVE AND EXPERIMENTAL WHILE FOCUSING THEMES OF MISOGYNY, LONELINESS AND TEMPORALITY. AS A PROFESSIONAL CAMERA ASSISTANT AND A MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHER'S GUILD A STRONG TECHNICAL BACKGROUND IS THE FOUNDATION FOR KAYTLYN'S CREATIVE PROCESS. KAYTLYN HAS ALWAYS WANTED HER STYLE TO BE DESCRIBED AS UNCOMPROMISING, BUT HAS LEARNED THE HARD WAY THAT ART IS ALWAYS A COMPROMISE.

KAYTLYN TURNER

"I THINK ‘HORROR’ HAS ALWAYS HAD A SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT MEANING TO WOMEN, WHO TYPICALLY HAVEN’T BEEN OFFERED MUCH OF A SAFETY NET IN WESTERN SOCIETY."

YOUR WORK IS SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL AND HAUNTING. WHAT WAS THE IMPETUS FOR MAKING THE MOTHER? With The Mother, I wanted to see how my filmmaking style would translate to something scary. I’m really interested in history so I also wanted to explore a new perspective on colonialism. I think ‘horror’ has always had a slightly different meaning to women, who typically haven’t been offered much of a safety net in Western society. There’s an inherent tension that’s always existed there.

YOU ARE A WRITER AND DIRECTOR FOR LITTLE ARTHOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. FIRST OF ALL - BEST NAME! WHEN WAS LITTLE ARTHOUSE BORN AND WHAT IMPACT HAS IT MADE ON YOUR CAREER? My partner and I have been making films together for about four years now. We’ve only recently started ‘branding ourselves’ (I hate that term) as Little Arthouse on the Prairie. A friend of mine came up with the name and it just fit so well.Film is a weird art form because it’s so closely linked to the commercial side of media. I hate marketing, consumerism and the word content. It’s been hard to figure out how to try and promote our films, while trying to fight against the infinite stream of content consumption. The idea behind Little Arthouse is to connect with like minded artists and collaborators without sacrificing our strong artistic ideals.

AN INTERVIEW WITH BILAL S. HAIDER, DIRECTOR OF

DIRECTOR BIO

FOLLOWING TWO DAYS IN THE LIFE OF AN AMERICAN PRISONER,

BILAL S. HAIDER IS AN AUSTIN BASED FILMMAKER WHO AIMS TO MAKE FILMS THAT EXPLORE INTERPERSONAL STORIES WITHIN IMPORTANT SOCIAL ISSUES. HIS LATEST FILM, THE PRISONER'S SONG IS AN AMALGAMATION OF TRUE TO LIFE EVENTS EXPERIENCED BY CLOSE FRIENDS AND FAMILY OF THE PROJECT'S CREATIVE TEAM, AND AIMS TO PAINT THE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS AFFECTED BY THIS COUNTRY'S INCARCERATION SYSTEM IN A NEW LIGHT.

"IF WE WERE GOING TO TELL A STORY LIKE THIS, WE KNEW THAT IT WOULD NEED TO BE HANDLED AS HONEST AND RAW AS POSSIBLE..."

YOU FILMED THE PRISONER'S SONG IN 2019.

OUT OF ALL THE THINGS THAT YOU COULD HAVE BROUGHT ATTENTION TO WITH YOUR WORK - WHAT MADE YOU EMBARK ON THIS IMPORTANT ISSUE? Because America’s mass incarceration problem has impacted so many people that my creative team and I know personally, telling a narrative exploring the emotional impact of incarceration became important to us. Many of the stories we heard from first hand account or read online about were absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking. If we were going to tell a story like this, we knew that it would need to be handled as honest and raw as possible, or it would not do justice to the millions of Americans who’ve suffered from it.

It wasn’t until hearing “The Prisoner’s Song”, the music track featured in our film, and learning that Vernon Dalhart stole the song’s lyrics from an unnamed prisoner, did we know exactly how we wanted to tell this delicate story. The track became such an interesting, unique and powerful tool to drive the narrative forward, and only added more to the themes we wanted to explore within the film.

WITH THE CIVIL UNREST AND UPRISING THIS PAST YEAR, HAVE YOU EXPLORED WHAT OTHER DISPARITIES YOU'D LIKE TO TACKLE NEXT WITH YOUR FILMMAKING? Absolutely. I’m incredibly proud of the reception The Prisoner’s Song has garnered from people who’ve seen it, and I want to continue telling very personal stories born from issues in our society that need to be addressed.

I would love to tell a story exploring the Muslim identity in America, something extremely personal to me as a Muslim American. Maybe that’ll be the next one…

YEARS INTO LOCKDOWN, A WOMAN SEARCHES FOR A WAY TO RETURN TO HER FAMILY.

AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

DIRECTOR BIO

MARIT LIANG

MARIT LIANG IS A FILMMAKER BASED IN BROOKLYN, NY. MARIT IS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CINEMA ARTIST WHOSE WORK ENCOMPASSES VIDEO ART, PHOTOGRAPHY, MUSIC AND SOUND, RESEARCH AND OTHER PRACTICES. HER FILMS USE THE HIGHLY CRAFTED VISUAL LANGUAGE OF ARTHOUSE AND GENRE CINEMA TO EXPLORE QUESTIONS OF NATURE, EMBODIMENT, OTHERNESS, THE BOUNDARIES AND CONTOURS OF PERSONHOOD, MEMORY, MEDIUM, AND TIME.SHE IS CURRENTLY ENROLLED IN THE FILM/VIDEO MFA GRADUATE PROGRAM AT BARD COLLEGE, AND HER WORK HAS BEEN SCREENED AND WON SEVERAL 'BEST PICTURES' AWARDS AT MORE THAN THREE DOZEN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL FESTIVALS.

MARIT LIANG

YOU STARRED, WROTE, DIRECTED, SHOT AND EDITED TOCCATA: DAY 1,599 ON YOUR OWN. HAVE YOU MADE FILMS BY YOURSELF BEFORE?

"I MAKE AN EFFORT TO FILM SOMETHING EVERY DAY, EVEN IF IT'S JUST ON MY PHONE - SNOW MELTING, A BIRD ON A TREE BRANCH, A CLOUD FORMATION..."

I've just completed my graduate degree in Film from Bard College. During my time in school, I wrote, produced, and directed several shorts - The Bridge (2018), Orchid (2018) and Cherry Hawk Down (2019). On each of these projects, I was working with nonexistent budgets, minimal crews, and found locations. This experience taught me how to make effective creative decisions despite the constraints, as well as how to operate the camera and sound equipment by myself. Being isolated under the conditions of the early pandemic, I found myself having to work as a one-woman band - director, crew, and actress all at once! I'm glad to have had this experience; it reminds me that just about anyone with a camera, under almost any conditions, can make a film.

THERE IS A SUBLIME AND EXQUISITE QUALITY TO YOUR WORK. HOW DID YOU COME ABOUT DEVELOPING YOUR CRAFT? Thank you, I am flattered! Some of the best filmmaking advice I've ever received comes from one of my mentors. She says it's important for all artists to cultivate a creative diet - to be conscientious about what you are putting into your creative brain every day. I love to watch as many films as possible, both classic and obscure, from many different eras and countries; it's fun to think about what the directors were doing, how they framed shots, how they worked with their actors, how they pulled things off given the constraints they faced. But I think it's equally important to spend time reading, looking at art, listening to music, spending time in nature, just observing the world in its beauty and complexity. I make an effort to film something every day, even if it's just on my phone - snow melting, a bird on a tree branch, a cloud formation.. It teaches you how to frame, how to find the light, how to be patient and listen to the world. Maya Deren made a beautiful, moving film with just her cats.. to me, that is the essence of the filmmaker's skill.

ARTHOUSE QUARTERLY | PA

A FAMILY OF MUSICIANS FROM MEXICO FIND THEIR OWN PERSONAL APPROACH TO MUSIC.

EVA WOTTRENG

AND INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR

HOW DID YOU MEET THE OLMEDO GARRIDO FAMILY? Their oldest son, Joel, was our neighbour when I lived with my husband for 3 years in Mexico City. We had a very close friendship and his whole family got very close as well. I feel like they would be our Mexican family.

WHAT WAS THEIR YOU COMPLETED THIS IN REACTION TO SEEING MARCH OF THIS YEAR. THE FILM? WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN WORKING ON SINCE THEN? They are very excited to be part of a film. They also have some relatives in the USA, they are also very excited that their family in Mexico is part of a movie.

I work at the university in Switzerland teaching Visual Art. This february I will start to study "documentary" at the film school in Bern, Switzerland.

DIRECTOR BIO

AN INTERVIEW WITH SUZANNE FRIESEN DIRECTOR OF

ONE UNSHAKEABLE AND FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH REMAINS: “I AM HERE.”

SUZANNE FRIESEN IS AN AWARD WINNING CANADIAN/POLISH FILMMAKER ANDCINEMATOGRAPHER BASED IN VANCOUVER, BC. SHE WORKS AS A DIRECTOR OFPHOTOGRAPHY ON INDEPENDENT AND COMMERCIAL INDUSTRY PRODUCTIONS, WHILEWRITING AND DEVELOPING HER OWN DIRECTED FILMS. SUZANNE IS AN ADJUNCT PROFESSORAT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA, WHERE SHE TEACHES CINEMATOGRAPHY IN THEIRTHEATRE AND FILM DEPARTMENT.

SUZANNE FRIESEN

"I WAS INSPIRED BY THE DYNAMICS I BORE WITNESS TO, AND BROKE THEM INTO CHARACTERS THAT COULD INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER IN WAYS THAT IMITATED AN INTERNAL PERSONAL DIALOGUE." YOU HAVE A VARIED BACKGROUND WITH BIOLOGY AND PHOTOGRAPHY. WHEN DID FILMMAKING MAKE ITS WAY INTO YOUR LIFE? AND WHEN DID TEACHING COME INTO PLAY? While I was completing my biology/microbiology degree at the University of Manitoba I became increasingly involved in experimental darkroom processes. I worked as a photographer for a couple years during this time, and eventually felt that I wanted to explore the time-based formal quality that filmmaking necessitates. I chose to study at Simon Fraser University for my second degree (Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production), on account of the program’s hands-on, theorybased, and auteur approach to the filmmaking process. Teaching came into my life quite unexpectedly; after several years of working at varying levels of Camera (AC, DOP, Operator, etc.) in the independent film scene in Vancouver, I was contacted by several institutions to teach courses and run cinematography workshops.

Teaching came very naturally, and remains my favourite professional role to date. I am constantly inspired by students’ boundless imaginations and ideas, and love having a part in helping them realize their artistic visions.

YOU FILMED ON 16MM GIVING TU AN UNDENIABLE SENSE THAT DEEPENS THE MEDITATIVE QUALITY OF YOUR STORY. OUT OF ALL THE FORMATS THAT YOU'VE FILMED ON WOULD YOU SAY THAT 16MM IS YOUR FAVORITE? Yes, 16mm is absolutely my favourite format. With a good quality scan, the grain of 16mm is beautiful (depending on one’s preference of film stock, as appropriate to the story/objective of the film). Each frame has a unique grain structure/identity, which gives a very “alive” feeling to the image as it runs through the piece. The depth-of-field that the 16mm format provides is also an aesthetic choice I run to and enjoy working with; you need to push the image in certain ways to achieve a buttery, shallow-focus look, and can more easily have a deeper depth of field than other formats such as 35mm or large format sensors. For the narrative work I explore, these qualities create a feel and voice for the image that works for me. I’ve been considering committing myself exclusively to black and white celluloid film for all my solodirected works, as that’s been my trend thus far in my career. I love working with black and white film, it’s just how I like to capture the world and project my imagination.

YOU GIFTED US WITH A BEAUTIFUL FILM FILLED WITH DIFFERENT GENERATIONS OF WOMEN. HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA FOR THIS PROJECT? I am a Polish-Canadian dual citizen, with my mother’s side being my Polish family. Over the years I witnessed the women in that side of my family sharing stories, sharing support, and sharing in recovery from generations of experiences spanning the First and Second World Wars, social and political unrest in Eastern Europe, immigration, and the grief, guilt, and complex familial dynamics resulting from years of collective endurance and survival. I was inspired by the dynamics I bore witness to, and broke them into characters that could interact with each other in ways that imitated an internal personal dialogue.

Although we see and hear several different distinct characters and voices, we experience a sense of unity that indicates the seamless way that our descendents and family members subsist within us.

COMPETE IN The Arthouse Challenge

FILMFREEWAY.COM/THEARTHOUSECHALLENGE $500 JURY PRIZE | $100 AUDIENCE FAVORITE AWARDÂ GUIDELINES POSTED JANUARY 10, 2021 FILMS DUE FEBRUARY 7, 2021 WINNERS ANNOUNCED FEBRUARY 14, 2021

AUSTIN ARTHOUSE CALENDAR

AAFF Early Deadline

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February 7 The Arthouse Challenge Films Due February 14 The Arthouse Challenge Winners Announced

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January 1 Submissions Open for AAFF Year 4 January 10 The Arthouse Challenge Guidelines Posted

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2021

Arthouse Quarterly, Spring Issue