Upside Down Carol Jacobanis, Amira Daigle Diciamo che -parlo per me- certe cose avrei potuto gestire in maniera
Upside Down Autumn Weisz, Amira Daigle
interviewreasons, the film did not get made. This is not an uncommon thing in the film business but certainly disappointing nonetheless. I worked for Scorsese for six years and continued my writing during that time. After I left that job, I wrote another screenplay, “Hair of the Dog,” a romantic comedy of sorts, based in part on my experience at dog grooming school and working briefly as a groomer. Then hard times hit and not being able to get another job in the film industry in New York (I did not want to go to L.A.), I went to social work school for two years and stopped all my creative work. This was not a happy time for me. I felt as if I’d cut off a crucial part of myself. While I enjoyed working with clients as a therapist, I sorely missed the arts and being creative. Fast-forward several years and several jobs later working as a therapist. I started to feel as if I needed to return to the arts and to my writing. I applied to teach screenwriting at a film school in NY and began to teach there while still working at an agency as a clinical social worker. I started to write again. A producer wanted to produce one of my earlier scripts and although that did not come to fruition, my heart was back in the arts. I eventually quit my social work job and continued to teach. I saw therapy clients in a small private practice, which I still do today. I wrote another script based on my social work experience and a TV pilot based on it as well. My work as a therapist informs my work as a writer and director. After I had been teaching a year or so, my husband suggested that I make a short film so I could see one of my written works produced for the screen. And so, after some false starts, I wrote my first short film script, “Last Day.” I wrote it very quickly and made it that summer. I had never wanted to direct but I was thrown into it, knowing next to nothing about begin a director. I suppose my sense of story and my comfort with acting and
character helped me through. So I guess you could say that it was indirectly my acting that led me down the path to writing and then filmmaking. Directing and filmmaking utilize more parts of myself then just writing did. That is a feeling I enjoy and probably why I went on to do three shorts and a feature. Before starting to elaborate about your artistic production and we would like to invite our readers to visit http://www.shiralevin.com in order to get a synoptical idea about your multifaceted artistic production: in the meaniwhile, would you like to tell to our readers something about the evolution of your style? In particular, do you think that there is that connect all your works? I think there is definitely a central idea that connects my short films. They are each about people on the edges of society, marginalized in some way from the mainstream. Each film contains loneliness, isolation and the yearning for connection. My films focus on character rather than too heavily on plot. My work probably reflects my fascination with people, feelings and how we relate to each other. In terms of evolution of style, I’d have to say that I’m still working on it. For this special edition of we have selected , a captivating film that our readers have already staterd to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your insightful inquiry into the friendship between a10 year-old girl and a transgender woman is way you have provided the visual results of your analysis with coherent
Upside Down Carol Jacobanis, Tim Hache
Upside Down Phoebe Leonard, Peter Buck Dettman
interviewcombination between and . While walking our readers through the genesis of , would you tell us what did you inspire of this subject? The inspiration for Upside Down came from two places. I first tried to write a short script about a 10 year-old girl whose parents have just gotten divorced. This was based in part on my own experience since my parents divorced when I was ten. I wrote the beginning but then got stuck and had to put it aside. By chance I watched a documentary about men and women who came out late in life. One of the people profiled in the film was a transgender woman. She was fascinating and I was impressed by her courage in the face of all she had gone through. Something clicked for me and I decided that I wanted to base a character on her. Then I thought to combine this woman with my original idea about the 10 year-old girl. Suddenly the story fell into place and the script Upside Down was born. I used facts from my own life and some from the transgender woman’s that were talked about briefly in the documentary. And of course, it then all became fiction. Escaping from traditional narrative form, features unique and nonlinear storytelling, capable of addressing the viewers to a multilayered visual experience: how did you develop the script and the structure of the film? In developing the script, I knew I wanted the characters to all live in the same building. I knew I had to set up Sunny’s life (her parents’ divorce, moving to the city, her unhappiness) and Gigi’s life (her estranged son in particular) and how some people react to her as a transgender person. Sunny’s mother was an important part of the story as was
her new boyfriend. Then I tried to tell the story as succinctly as possible and to make the relationships and emotional transitions believable. The script was the longest of my short film screenplays and had the most characters and dialogue. The structure fell into place as the story elements became clearer to me. The narrative needed to cut between Sunny’s world and Gigi’s. The point of view of each character had to be clear and distinct and everyone needed to be portrayed as truthfully and as multi dimensionally as possible. Emotional truth is important to me in my scripts and films. We have appreciated your particular care to details and your careful close up shots: what were your aesthetic decisions when shooting? In particular, what was your approach to lighiting? On all of my short films, I did the production design and costume design. This was out of necessity since we had very little money to pay others to do it, but I actually enjoyed doing both jobs. It became more challenging on Upside Down since we had to turn one apartment into two different ones. Also there was much more costume work to do since the cast was bigger and there were many more wardrobe changes, particularly with Sunny and Gigi. I always decide on a color palette for my films so that becomes a constant aesthetic factored in, particularly with wardrobe. In terms of lighting, we aimed for simple and realistic. Again, since money was very limited, we used minimal equipment, mainly what I could get from the school where I teach. There were some interior night scenes but we did not shoot at night. Therefore, those scenes were more difficult. My D.P. (Caroline Stucky) had to make the most out of little.
Upside Down Autumn Weisz, Muriel Mandell, Amira Daigle
Last Day (2012) Chris Behan, Keoni Patterson
Many scenes were shot outdoors so we used natural light, which made things easier in some ways. However, that poses its own challenges since we sometimes had to rush in order to beat the sun, looming shadows, etc. Dialogues are very important in and your long career as a screenplay writer informed the effective structure of your film. What is your approach to dialogues? Dialogue can be tricky. My first two short films had very little dialogue and were primarily visual. Both films had only one big dialogue scene between two characters. Dialogue ideally should come from necessity in terms of telling the story. In those two films, the characters were isolated and speaking to others was not a major part of their lives. “Upside Down” was completely different. The characters were all verbal and expressive, (except for Mrs. Sunderson who does not speak at all), so it was clear that dialogue was going to be necessary. The danger is over writing or relying too much on words rather than images. I always tell my students to first see if they can tell the story or the scene visually before resorting to spoken words. For example, in the scene where Gigi is taunted near the LGBT center, I thought it more powerful for her not to respond verbally. I wanted her to look her taunter in the eye and have her face speak rather than say anything. The scenes with Sunny and Mrs. Sunderson are silent except for one line at the end of the scene where they play Scrabble. I never thought of having dialogue in those sections. Aside from that, I try to make sure that each character has their own voice and that there is a reason for them to speak. But I still sometimes err on the side of too much dialogue so it is a constant learning process. This concept really hits home when I’m editing and discover that some lines weren’t
necessary. (This happened more frequently while editing my feature film.) We like the way also speaks to the subconscious sphere of the spectatorship: what are you hoping will trigger in the viewers? In particular, are you interested in addressing your audience to elaborate personal intepretations? As I tell my students, once you write something you have no control over what people think about it or how they react. I think that is a wonderful and important thing about art. It is open to interpretation and there is no right or wrong reaction or feeling associated with it. That being said, I did hope that audiences might be come away from the film with a different opinion or feeling about people they might have had assumptions or judgments about. I always strive to make my characters recognizably human. Nobody is all one thing. I like to look beneath the surface and ideally, in a perfect world, I’d like it if we all were able to get beyond our initial impressions, judgments, prejudices, and see a person as another human being. We are all made of the same stuff and actually have similar hopes and dreams and fears and loves. When I made my film “Old Junk” (inspired by my mother), I very much wanted people to stop and notice an old person who walks with a walker or cane or uses a wheelchair. I know that many older people in our society are invisible and/or judged negatively. If you make assumptions about people based on appearances, you miss out on a lot and don’t get to see the humanity and wonderfulness that likely exists in that person. Getting to know someone can surprise you. This is certainly one of the themes behind “Upside
Last Day Chris Behan
Old Junk (2013) Lew Gardner
Down.” However, there might be viewers who come away with something completely different and that’s ok with me. shows natural storytelling: what was your preparation process with actors in terms of reharsal? In particular how much importance do play spontaneity and improvisation in your work? Do you conceive your sequences instinctively or do you methodically elaborate each of them? I did rehearse with my actors in Upside Down but not that much. Since the biggest role was that of a 10 year-old, my main goal was to have the actress (Amira Daigle), be comfortable with the actors playing her mother and Gigi. Therefore, I had them rehearse and “play” together a bit during the pre-production period. During auditions it was important for me to see if there was a bond or chemistry between the girl and Gigi. Rehearsals were also in part to give everyone a chance to run lines and get comfortable with the script. I definitely want actors to stick to the script and not improvise lines but certainly if something spontaneous arises that works, I will use it. This happened a couple of times in Upside Down, particularly with Gigi (Autumn Weisz) and I kept those things in the film. If I realize that a line doesn’t work or if it doesn’t feel natural to an actor, I might change it, though there are times I might not and just work harder to make the actor understand why the line is there. I would say that I think about sequences and know what I want for each scene in advance, but then I respond to what the actors are doing and use that as well. I’ve found that even if you prepare in advance or think you know exactly what you want to do, invariably things happen on set that are unexpected and you must be in the moment and think on your feet. Sometimes you have to let go of things because it becomes clear that you can’t get what you want (usually due
to time, money or light). But sometimes you must work really hard to make it work the way you know it needs to be. Overall, being open to those lucky accidents on set is important and can sometimes result in gold. And, sometimes, better than you could have planned. We want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your view on the future of women in new media art. For more than half a century women have been discouraged from getting behind the camera, however in the last decades there are signs that something is changing. What's your view on the future of women in Art and especially in videomaking? When I was younger I never thought about the fact that most (if not all) of my favorite films were written and directed by men. Now I always notice how many produced films are written and directed by men and it bothers me a great deal because I know it is an indication of the vast inequality woman face in the film industry (as well as other industries) in terms of opportunity, pay, exposure, etc. Yes, there are far more films now written and directed by women, which is progress, but the norm remains male dominated products. It seems obvious to me that more chances are given to and taken on men. Although there is more awareness about this issue there is still a lot of work to be done. There is also a problem in terms of the willingness to produce films with female protagonists. Hopefully as more films with women in lead roles do well, it will be less of a struggle to get those made. The same is true in terms of roles for women, particularly
Old Junk Lew Gardner
Old Junk Lew Gardner, squirrel
women over 40 or 50, and roles for women (and men) of color. I do think that younger women starting out today in film will have more opportunities as time goes on. For older women (like me), it is likely to be harder, in part also because of ageism along with the other issues. But without a doubt, women have a lot to contribute to film. Maybe some day it will become second nature to say “she” when talking about a writer, director or filmmaker. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Shira. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I’m currently in post-production on my first feature film, “Starfish.” It was the next step to take after doing three short films. Although I have written quite a few feature length screenplays, I knew that none of them would be suitable for my first feature as they would require larger budgets and are too complicated. I wrote Starfish keeping low budget and simplicity in mind. The script is the most personal one I’ve written and different in tone from my other feature screenplays. Thematically it is about grief and healing but also about friendship, family and the strong bond between dogs and humans. It is based loosely on personal experiences and relationships. The death of my father and the death of our rescue dog had profound impact on me and much of Starfish reflects this. We shot the film last September 2016 on a shoestring budget, on location in Connecticut and New York in 19 days. It is female driven and has parts for “older” women. Characters range from 14-82. The work is similar to my short films in that character and
relationships are primary. It is a “small” film – which can be a dirty word in the film industry because it usually translates to “not commercial.” However, I know there is an audience for the film and I believe it is important for viewers to have a variety to choose from aside from standard Hollywood fare. I’m glad to have done my first feature film for very little money. I learned a great deal from the experience but do not want to make another film under those circumstances again as it is too difficult and many compromises must be made. I’d love to be able to direct some of my other screenplays, which are quite different from Starfish. However, I’d only make them with more workable budgets than I had this time, so I don’t know if that will be possible. Funding is always a challenge. I’m also very open to directing other people’s scripts, providing the work speaks to me. I’m extremely hands-on and enjoy the development process and the collaborative nature of film. I’d like to continue working on finding and fine-tuning the balance between the visual and verbal in how I tell my stories. For me the goal is to ideally touch my audience and elicit some kind of feeling and visceral experience from them. It might be recognizing or understanding something in others, or awakening something in themselves. A good laugh or cry is a wonderful thing. Without the arts, whether film, theatre, music, literature, dance etc., the world and the humans who inhabit it, would be doomed. Overall, I hope my work continues to grow and evolve as I do and that I am able to be creative and expressive in one way or another as long as I’m around. Thank you for including me in your magazine.
Margaret Curry in Starfish (2017)
A day in Chisinau is video art/experimental documentary telling the story of 4 inhabitants of the Moldovan capital and the jobs they do that will soon disappeared due to the social, economic and political changes the country is undertaking. This video talks about the fragility the labour market contains, it is about a society in transition. In different magnitudes, the characters struggle to draw themselves professionally in an uncertain future. But it also reflects on the break that happened before in the Moldovan society in a more a-temporal approach. The character’s fight either because they belong to a minority that was almost erase, because a late technological capitalism is chasing their corner or because social costumes are adapting to the new times. reviewAlana Mejia Gonzalez Alana Mejia Gonzalez
Hello Alana and welcome to this special edition of Women Cinemakers: before starting to elaborate about your artistic production would you like to tell us something about your background? In particular, how does your cultural substratum influence the way you conceive and produce your works? Thank you for interest in my work and for selecting my piece. I think the work I produce is a direct response of who I am and where I come from. I was born in Spain, but I don’t necessarily feel Spanish, just mainly when I’m abroad. My mother comes from a Spanish family but grew up in Belgium, and my father is Colombian. So the combination of cultures and the dialogue between them, as well as stories of migration and movement of people have always interested me, as it’s what I grew up with. I discover the cinema world by joining a youth film school, Orson the Kid, and by being cast as an actress in a small Spanish film. At that time, I meets An interview by Bonnie Curtis and Jennifer Rozt Druhn Alana Mejia Gonzalez believe the main storytellers where the actors but once on set, I discover how many people make films and I became attracted by knowing more about the professions behind the camera. I continue studying acting in Corazza in madrid while combining it with my BA in Media Studies at Carlos III University (Madrid, Spain) which allowed me to take exchange programs in the American University of Beirut (Lebanon) and Bilgi University in Istanbul (Turkey). But my interest was shifting strongly to photography, and its power to transport people to many other locations and stories. During my experiences abroad, learning by other countries, cultures, languages and fields, I became sure that my main passion was visual storytelling. I worked as a documentary photographer while moving between the Eastern Mediterranean and East Europe. In Lebanon, I followed a group of Filipino maids in their only free day, publishing the photovideo reportage Sundays at the online magazine Mediterráneo Sur. Attracted by the intense activism Turkey was experiencing in 2013, I moved to Istanbul to develop a visual project about dystopia landscapes due to urban renewal policies. In 2014, I moved to Moldova where I developed a web-doc about the new generation of Transnistrians (a self- proclaimed pro-Russian Lives and works between London, Rome and Madrid
republic.) while working at KSA:K Center for Contemporary Art of Chisinau. Transnitrian Youth: Disputed Sovereignty is a web doc that aims to explore the doubts, anxieties and sort of “freedom” that come with the uncertainty of the youth, while narrating what is to grow up in a country that do not exist. Definetely, all this background of travels, encounters and people I’ve met has shaped the way in which I look at the world and the way I’m interested in telling stories. For this special edition of we have selected , an interesting film that our readers have already started to get to know in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your exploration of the labor market fragility is the way you provided its results with with . When walking us through the genesis of would you tell us something about your process and set up? In particular, what was your choices about lens? A day in Chisinau was shot all on locations and using natural light, moving in the city and sometimes following the characters without exactly knowing where we were going to. All of the projects follow the premise of being shot during just one day of the character’s lifes, intending not to change their routine, and exploring the city and their professions through their perspective. For that reason I decided to use a zoom lenses Canon 24 – 105mm that will allow me the flexibility of shooting in many diverse situations, adjusting myself and the frames to the most appropiate for each shot. My intention, interview
whatever the situation we were in was, was to use a framing in which the character would always be put in his contest using the enviroment elements to add into the storytelling. For some shots, especially when we were in domestic spaces I knew or that we will stay in for longer, interiors mainly, I used a 50mm f1.8 as I needed a faster lens and I wanted to be tighter on the character when the work space or the city was not surronding them. We have appreciated the coherent use of static shots: what were your aesthetic decisions when shooting? Chisinau is a bit of a strange city, a place where sometimes seems that not much is going on but when you spend some time standing and looking at its streets, from the central market corner, or from a back alley way, you realized so many details come a life and only with time you start to read into the layers of the city. Looking back at this work, I realized probably the reason why I choose to focus on some static shots was the pictorical power of them, and their subtlely narrative. I used the aesthetic shots to look at those kind of locations I was talking about before, in which the monotonous tone of the city breaks once you look more into it. is rich with images pervaded with , that you draw from everyday life's experience and our observation of the social phenomena seems interview
to be very analytical, yet strives to be full of emotion: how much importance has in your shooting process? Thank you, as that was one of my main challenges when developing this project. I think this pieces comes from my direct experience as a resident of Moldova. I lived there for a year, and the piece evolved and got made towards the end of my stay in the country. And probably the strengh of this film comes from having spend a lot of time in the streets of Moldova, trying to understand how was life is in one of the least privilege countries in Europe, not to label it again as the poorest country in Europe. I believe all the months of direct observation of Moldovan life allowed me to include those ‘symbolic references’ into A day of Chisinau’s narrative, adding a more general social and cultural value to the story of individuals. Improvisation is an ambiguos term in this project, as one of my ideas was to find interesting and diverse characters that through their lifes would tell the story I wanted to tell about a major economical change and a society in transition between a Soviet pass and a struggle of social and political improvement. The approach I had on A day in Chisinau was completely documentary, but with a well thought easthetic behind, so improvisation was everything and nothing, what I portrayed was real life, not acting or interpreting behind. Just a way of looking at the city and life that has a clear, thought and care easthetic. You insightful inquiry into a society in transition as the Moldovan one is pervaded with sublte but interview
intervieweffective socio political criticism. Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco once stated, " ". Not to mention that almost everything, could be considered political. Do you think that could be considered political in this way? What could be in your opinion the role of a filmmaker in our unstable, everchanging contemporary societies? Well, I would like to believe that someone is political when aims to be a critical thinker, develop its own ideas and reflect about the conditions of the world he/she lives in. And that’s exactly what I try to do, therefore I aspire to produce work that shows it. I completely agree with Orozco’s view on the artist’s role, and I would like to put myself in that wave too. Thinking in this line, the idea of this kind of films in the socio-political context of Moldova takes a new dimension that if we place it in Germany or Spain. Culture has a significant importance in Moldovan society, but mainly still under the Soviet standards, Classical music concerts, ballet or classical Russian theatre are popular events. However, more contemporary approaches to art are developing fast but still marginal, minority, and precarious. A day in Chisinau was premiere as part of the exhibition Fire is a good servant, which was my solo exhibition in one of the few spaces that shows contemporary art in Chisinau,
Zpatiu. Fire is a good servant was showing a portraits photographic installation, the film A day in Chisinau and a series of performances. In this performances I invited a series of street musicians, who had become already part of Chisinau’s esence, to play inside the exhibition. I was aiming to break the barries between the street/public sphere and the “art institutions” that classically have decided what’s art and what’s not. As Orozco said, I believe this action makes sense and has a difference meaning in Moldova, where the Art Academy has decided in the past what’s art and what’s not, that would have in other countries or political systems. Some people have called me a traveller, but some of my friends who know me well will always say a I’m a nomad. And that’s what I fell, I don’t want to be a traveller or a tourist, but a nomad. Because I don’t just visit places, but live in them. I was living in a Moldovan house for a year, paying bills as any other citizen, buying my grosseries in the markets where I film, taking the buses in which I shot every day and even living on sort of a Moldovan salary. So, I think I managed to understand well how life unfolds in Chisinau, but at the same of course I will always be a foreigner, a privilege Spanish-passport holder, or at least someone that come from somewhere else (At this point in my life, I still don’t know from where) so I try to combine the look of an outsider with the one of a local. It comes from my love for Moldova, my gratitude with the country that hosted me and the curiosity about those fragile jobs that survive in Moldova. I try to build the narrative of the film based on the daily lifes of my characters but also in the desire to build a more complex structure talking about the city and an interview
economy in transition. Sound plays an important role in : how did you capture the sound of the ambience? In particular, how do you see the relationship between sound and moving images? Lately, I’m exploring so much the narrative power of sounds in a way I didn’t consider before. This project helped me understand the power of storytelling through sound, and how many layers a good sound design adds to the visual content. The sound in A day of Chisinau aims to go on the same line than the images, not following just a single linear narrative but being able to tell the four stories simultanously. And that was a big challenge as I couldn’t necesseraly use the same technique than with the images. I try to combine the soundscape of each story into a unique piece that will travel between the visual narrative of multiple screens. What are you hoping the film will trigger in the audience? Would you like that it addresses the viewers to a more conscious reflection about the themes of economic and social changes in the contemporary age or for you is just a matter of aesthetics? No, of course it isn’t just a matter of easthetics. I could look into an interesting images, maybe just a photograph, but I couldn’t sit and watch a film for minutes that do not want to say something a part from easthetics. This film is about the fragility that
the labor market contains, it is about a society in transition. Here the characters, all inhabitants and workers of Chisinau, in different magnitudes struggle to draw themselves professionally in the future. But it also reflects on the break that happened before in the Moldovan society in a more a-temporal approach. The characters struggle either because they belong to a minority that was almost erase, because a late technological capitalism is chasing their professional space or because social costumes are adapting to contemporary times. So, with this film I would like to audience to undestand more of the live in this unknown European capital, the current political-social situation in a postsoviet context. Reflect on the evolution of labor market, its adaptation to contemporary needs and the positive and negative consequences of globalization. Will the bus service in Moldova become like any other ones you can find in Switweland or Singapur? Will the knowledge of the mechanisim of old film soviet cameras will be lost or to who will be taught, if no one ones to take on Ghena’s job? Will the jewist community have a significant relevance in the Moldovan culture as ones had? For me one of the most interesting thought process I had when doing this project, is that I kept thinking in this situation being lived in Spain not that long ago and how things can change socially in the short amount of time of just a decade or few. We want to catch this occasion to ask you to express your view on the future of women in cinema. For more than half a century women have interview
been discouraged from getting behind the camera, however in the last decades there are signs that something is changing. What's your view on the future of women in cinema? In particular, do you think that your being a woman provides your artistic research with some special value? Yes, of course there are signs of things changing... Otherwise, in which world do we life in? I believe we are facing a moment of major changes, not only in the fact that more women are filling different positions behind the camera but also in the classical structure in which films have been made. It’s a time of restructuring many aspects of our industry. Cinema is a power tool to reach vast audiences, and it needs to reflect the diverse world in which we life not only by their stories or characters, but also the people behind it making it. In my case, the percentage of female presence in the cinematography world is embarassinly low. However, something is clearly changing as I’m doing my MA in Cinematography at the National Film and TV School in the UK in a 4 women – 4 men enviroment. I can see the ground we still have to conquest at the same time as the possibility to keep going forward. We often talk about the extra fights we face as women, in this industry and in the world, but I see my generation pushing harder, getting rid of some of the ‘weight’ of being a woman, working intensively and making a difference. And this comes with more women in different positions of the filmmaking process, but also with men being more aware of unequility and wanting to fight it. I believe
the gender gap in the professional world won’t only be solve with women claiming more space, but with both men and women aiming a more equilitarian possition. As racisim is not only an issue of discriminated racial communities, feminisim is not only an issue of women, but of contemporary citizens, whatever gender identification they have. Of course, being a women in this industry adds challenges that male collegues won’t have to face that often. But the lack of diversity in this industry is not just in terms of gender, but also on race, culture and economical class, and that’s one of my aims while working as a cinematographer to contribute to change that aspect by working in films that are aware and fight agains this tendency. I recently had a workshop with Charlotte Brus Christensen on of the few female DPs shooting major Hollywood films at the moment. She kept mentioning the fact of being a women in a very masculine world is not a impossible, as long as you don’t pay much attention to that fact as a difference. Being a woman provides me with a different artistic value? Well, I don’t believe that just the fact of being a woman gives you a certain vision. The value I add into my artistic research comes from being Alana, not just a woman. Comes from having lived in this and that place, growing up in a particular enviroment, having encounter given people and sum up of who I am as an individual, not just a woman. Of course, the female aspect is a section of my identity and has play positive and negative roles in my life. In the case of A day in Chisinau, it has helped me to access private homes and character’s intimacy easily that if I was a men. But It has also chosen some other paths. For example, when I met the Rabbi Daniel and he interview
agreed with me shooting his life, he had not issue with me coming and shooting in his house with his wife or at the Synagoge. But once the morning praying started, he told me I needed to go into the upper floor, the space reserved for the women. I thought that could be a good angle to shoot the praying, although I feel he didn’t understand what I was asking for. When I got upstairs I realized the balcony was cover with a wooden fance that was not letting you see through much. At the end I came up with a creative solution to my restriction, but of course both extremes of what happened are contained in this story. Platforms like Women Cinemakers are great for us to make our work known by collegues in the industry. Thanks for sharing your time and thoughts, Alana. We wish you all the best with your filmmaker career! What's next for you? Thank you for this opportunity of sharing my work and expressing my ideas. In 2017, I received La Caixa scholarship to persuit my studies in Cinematography at the National Film and TV School of UK. And this amazing experience is what I am now immersed in, learning so much while working in different projects. So my plans for the future are to keep growing as a visual storyteller, becoming a better cinematographer, looking for interesting and challenging directors to collaborate with, and make significant and moving films.
‘Tell the truth of what you know about life’, these words from a person I truly admire, have inspired me enormously for many years. I am an actress, a poet and a newbie filmmaker. Truth is what means the most to me. Beauty. Life. And I wouldn’t say that sometimes life doesn’t hurt, or that sometimes beauty has no scars. Cause it has. And it hurts. In every aspect of the work I’m doing I look for real and truthful. I look for life. For many years I thought that my words couldn’t reach more than a small familiar circle around me, that my story and the lives I wanted to live and tell about, would just touch those that personally knew me. What a limiting thought it was! Years went by, I grew up, and the time came when life got me into a very uncertain point. The need of shouting out my words, the way I see the world, the stories I had inside struggling to come out, became so urgent that with very few economic resources but loads of love and trust and a huge help from my friends, I dared to shoot my first short film: Dam to Dam. I like to address it as a poem in the form of a film. It is a small story, the kind of story I would tell about, intimate, personal, true and made with love. Inspired by traditions, family and the sea, developed with a thirst of adventure and an imagination craving for the far and the unknown. And contrary to that old thought, this poem/short film has touched the hearts of people I don’t even know, travelling all around the planet. Lives and works in London, United Kingdom Elena Sáenz Elena Sáenz
An ambitiously constructed, elegantly photographed film by Spanish born London based actress Elena Sáenz, exploring the story of a woman who goes on a trip looking for her love, DAM TO DAM initiates her audience into a poetic and highteneed visual experience that encourages a cross-pollination of the spectatorship: we are particularly pleased to introduce Sáenz's multifaceted and captivating work. Hello Elena and welcome to this special edition of Women Cinemakers: before starting to elaborate about your artistic production would you like to tell us something about your background? Are there any particular experiences that influenced your trajectory as a filmmaker? meets An interview by Francis Quettier and Dora Tennant Elena Sáenz Hello and thank you very much for inviting me to this edition of such an honour! I’m a trained and vocational actress as well as a vocational and self-taught poet. I quit my career as a lawyer and joined a Drama School a bit later than the usual, to do what I really wanted to do. Then, since 2012, I’ve been training with the master of the realistic school John Strasberg, and it is from him that I’ve learnt most of what I know about my work. It was him who inspired me in telling what I truly know about life. The poetry came a long time ago, I remember when I was a child at school, I used to write little stories and mostly poems but, as sometimes grown ups felt in a way uncomfortable with what I had to say when I was 8 or 10 years old, I stopped sharing my stories. Of course, I kept on writing but it wasn’t until I decided to become an actress that I started again to make my writings public. And couldn’t stop since then. I recently began exploring the area of filmmaking due to a particular situation that I was going through in life. I’ve always liked photography and the idea of
Elena Sáenz, photo by Bryan Lim
it as a tool to tell a story. Some years ago, I got my first reflex camera and got hooked by photography then. For a while I was missing something else. Something about the movement and all the possibilities that words and images can make us feel and understand a story. I was missing the film. So, almost two years ago, after what at first appeared as a terrible disappointment -I was living temporary in Spain and wanted to go back to NYC, where I had lived for a while, but it didn’t happen-, I got to the point that I really didn’t know what my next step was going to be. For months, all my energy and wishful thinking had been directed towards the dream of going back to NYC. And then, just like that: Deep Uncertainty. It is said that when a door’s shut, a window’s open. The exact same day when I got the news that the long-awaited dream had to be postponed, I got a call to travel to Amsterdam for a few weeks. So the door had closed but the window opened. And I went to Amsterdam. I fell in love there, came back to Spain and with a story bubbling inside me and absolutely nothing to lose, I decided to do something I had never done before. I wrote a poem but now I was going further, I was going to make a film out of it. For this special edition of we have selected the , an interesting film that our readers have already started to admire in the introductory pages of this article. What has at once captured our attention of your inquiry the story of a is the way you provided the visual results of your analysis