HEARTOF THETIGER photo: Ruud Jonkers
43rd International Film Festival Rotterdam #6 Tuesday 28 January 2014
At yesterday’s Expert Debate: Artistic Directors in an Age of Changing Perceptions, Pressures and Pursuits, former IFFR director Marco Müller (right) reminisced about the birth of CineMart, quoting IFFR’s founder, Huub Bals: “‘The festival that exists has to be doubled by a festival in the future’ – and so CineMart was born.”
Creating a buzz
Cast a long shadow
Tropical-sounding Mosquito Films Distribution might be the company to strengthen the connection between Thai filmmaking and the rest of the world.
IFFR welcomes first-time filmmakers, its Bright Future section being one showcase for fresh talent. Alain-Pascal Housiaux and Patrick Dechesne premiere their maiden film today; the culmination of a momentous journey.
Irina Trocan reports The new outfit’s plan is to keep things simple and distribute Thai films abroad, working as a group, bucking the recent trend of too much emphasis on self-promotion. Film editor, (assistant) director and Mosquito Films general manager Sompot Chidgasornpongse explains: “What sets us apart is that we’re a filmmakers-for-filmmakers initiative”. Founded by six leading Thai filmmakers – Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pimpaka Towira, Aditya Assarat, Soros Sukhum, Anocha Suwichakornpong and Lee Chatametikool – Mosquito’s primary goal is to find strategies to expand the audience for these films. Lee Chatametikool is optimistic: “I think it’s easier now, with social media, to find audiences around the world. We’d be willing to release them in smaller venues, but we want to make these films available to people who want to see them. Ideally, we want to expand our network by contacting arthouse theatre owners, distributors, and by developing strong relationships with festivals; video-on-demand platforms are definitely an option too.” They mention a young filmmaker in the group who’s been a very able self-marketeer so far, because he really connects with his online followers: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, whose latest film Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy (screening in Bright Future) has been described as “a Twitter comedy”. He pre-sold tickets for his film premiere to get money to book the venue and launched a real fad with the uniform the two teenage girls wear in the film. “He marketed the t-shirts and they were sold out!”, say Lee and Sompot. “The crowdfunding idea is an interesting one”, Lee claims, “because it guarantees you an audience that wants access to the films.” Pre-selling DVDs to cover
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the production costs, then just shipping the donors their DVD, is also common practice. The idea of artists with different styles and a common outlet may raise the problem of blurring individual identities, but these enterprising filmmakers aren’t intimidated by this potential pitfall. On the contrary: “I think even the films we’re presenting this year at IFFR offer a good sample of Thai filmmaking”, Lee says. “There’s the omnibus Letters from the South that we’re distributing – it includes a short film by Tsai Ming-liang. Uruphong Raksasad’s The Songs of Rice is perhaps the most nature-anchored of these films, being about rice farming. Apichatpong Weerasethakul is also nature-related, in his own particular style. My film, Concrete Clouds [competing in this year’s Tiger Awards Competition], is by contrast very urban and stylized. And Nawapol’s film is teen-oriented and comical. I think, if someone sees these films, they will maybe ask themselves questions about what is going on in Thailand: and that’s just what we want.” And Thailand is only the starting point – if things go well, Mosquito plans to bring in films from other parts of Asia. It’s definitely a welcome ambition to widely release Asian films, as these are not eligible for official support in Europe (from something equivalent to the MEDIA programme’s funding for European art film distribution). Just one more reason to applaud the launch of Mosquito Films Distribution.
UPC Audience Award RANKINGS As of Monday 14:57 hours 1. Nebraska............................................................4.74 2. Starred Up..........................................................4.63 3. Feel My Love......................................................4.58 4. Zombie: The Resurrection of Tim Zom .......4.58 5. The Selfish Giant...............................................4.50 6. Papusza..............................................................4.49 7. The Creator of the Jungle................................4.45 8. Eastern Boys......................................................4.42 9. The Reunion.......................................................4.42 10. See No Evil.........................................................4.37
By Laya Maheshwari Not many filmmakers would aim for a first film that spans different countries, multiple eras and a large cast of actors – some non-professionals. But Alain-Pascal Housiaux and Patrick Dechesne faced all these challenges and more while shooting their debut feature, L’ éclat furtif de l’ombre/Shattering Shadow. The story of an Ethiopian fisherman who has to leave his village in order to survive, Shattering Shadow depicts the man during old age and his distant youth. Set in Ethiopia and Europe, the project took years for the directors to research, shoot and edit. So what inspired them to come up with the project? Dechesne: “The big question was not to take an extraordinary character, but to grasp memories all of us can have when we get old.” In an effort to elaborate on how the film relates to everyone, he continues, “We were looking for the simplest and most universal possible memories, such as being in a restaurant and not being able to pay. This was a way we could bring the viewer inside the film and let them look into themselves.” Shattering Shadows may be ready now, but it took the makers years to get it to this stage. Dechesne reveals: “It was not easy, but we found a way to do it. We were [in Ethiopia] for five years. Every year, we would go back and do some research and scripting. We started writing four/five years ago. We did a lot of rehearsals and the script was born like this.” Asked about their approach to the different periods the film is set in, the filmmakers state: “The main project was not to show differences between the two eras. We wrote the script in parallel, always set partly in Ethiopia and partly in Europe … We didn’t want people to feel one half is fifty years in the past and the other fifty years in the future.” This intention ensured the editing of the film was anything but a cakewalk. Dechesne recollects: “We shot
international film festival rotterdam
in Ethiopia and then in Belgium. But in the editing, we always worked together. It was a long edit and we tried a lot of different ways. We wanted the film to move like a river, and that feeling was very difficult to find. We mixed the script while editing. We didn’t necessarily follow it while editing.” The aftermath of a war plays a prominent part in Shattering Shadow. However, the directors clarify: “The war is not the point of view of the film. The war is a factor in the film; it pushes the protagonist. This man fled his country and suffers from loneliness. The war is just the beginning of other situations.” Shattering Shadow uses its settings as a character. For the directors, the vibe and tone of the film were influenced immensely by their environment: “We wanted the locations to be like a memory, of one place and another … There were some people who had been with us from the very beginning, and they stayed with us throughout the entire shoot. Everyone multitasked, out of compulsion; for example, the lead actor helped us scout locations.” The film makes its world premiere at IFFR, and the filmmakers revealed the festival was always their first choice. Dechesne states: “Rotterdam is a prestigious, world-class festival; the agents and opportunities available here for filmmakers are unparalleled. We were very glad when our film was selected in Bright Future.”
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