Diciamo che -parlo per me- certe cose avrei potuto gestire in maniera
interviewwith : while walking our readers through of , would you tell us how did you come up with the idea for this interesting film? When I came back to Spain from that trip, I was very inspired and I wrote a little story, a poem. Romantic love has always lived deep inside me. But unlike a lot of films and novels that we got to watch or read, I always see the woman as the protagonist of the story, the one who leads, has the power and, in this case, is determined to go after what she wants, instead of remaining waiting for some external power –call it fate, call it the man wanting to move his arse- to bring it to her. In Dam to Dam there is a traditional inspiration as well. I was born by the sea, in a little town of working class people and fishermen. There is a particular traditional song, very well known, that describes how women, back in time, used to walk 15 kilometres along the river towards the main city, selling the fish that had been caught on the day. It was the women who carried the fish and made the journey to sell it. And they sang about it. The link between these two ideas –the trip to Amsterdam, falling in love, and the traditional song inspiration- was my grandfather, the stories he told us when he was alive, the excitement, spontaneity and modesty in the way he did it. He told us plenty of stories every week when we –his grandson and granddaughters- met him for lunch. And I never forgot that were the Dutch who built our port. To be honest, I’ve never checked if this was entirely truth or not. I don’t care. I liked the story.
Escaping from traditional narrative form, features a brilliant storytelling: how did you develop the script and the structure of the film? It all started with what I usually do, which is writing a poem inspired by some life experience and dressed up with a bunch of imagination. The poem was easily transformed in a story and suddenly I could clearly see that story in images inside my head, so the story took the form of a script, and the challenging part, then, was to turn it into an actual film. ‘Dam to Dam’ can be divided into three parts in terms of space: Santurce –point of departure-, the travel and Amsterdam. At the same time, it can be divided in terms of time: in the first part of the film we hear a story –‘A long time ago, my grandfather told me…’-, which is told in past tense. Then there is a turning point and we see the woman of the story as witnesses, we see what happens to her after the story finishes, and this is in a present tense. There is a strong presence of travelling, of constant movement, and this idea is a submerged common thread for the whole short film. With its gorgeous widescreen compositions, succeeds in placing the audience and the protagonist on equal and ambiguous footing: what are you hoping the film will trigger in your audience? In particular, do you consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component of your decisionmaking process, in terms of what type of language is used in a particular context?
interviewAs this was my first time directing a film, it was a challenging experience to transfer my ideas to the persons behind the camera, especially as the script wasn´t a usual one in its form, so we could work on the same page. The results were far beyond what I expected. The personal relationships that I’ve maintained for years, both with Maite Martínez and Urko Olazabal (those behind the camera) helped us in terms of understanding each other when the shooting time came. I wanted to use an intimate language, I wanted to portray a personal world and make the audience be part of that little world. There are two separate ways of approaching this story and you can see the difference between the first part: the presentation of the woman, the story the grandfather used to tell about and the decision made by the woman to go on a trip to find who she loves. From there, the woman arrives in a whole new city/world for her and we can appreciate that the camera here is almost following the woman, and as audience we can kind of feel that we are in the journey with her, just observing the whole scene a few meters behind her. I hope the film triggers hope in the audience, real hope and courage. Whether the woman finds what she is looking for or not, she is brave enough to step out from the known towards the unknown. I hope the film touches a nerve. It is this intimacy, this getting so close to the observed object, that could make the audience feel its vulnerability. The fact that I involved my grandfather in the story, I guess that I am unconsciously looking for an emotional response from the audience, but I don’t consider the issue of audience reception as being a crucial component
of my decision-making process. To be honest, when I was making the film I would never have thought that ‘Dam to Dam’ would travel to so many festivals around the world and moved so many different people. We have appreciated the film’s expressive color palette, stunning widescreen compositions: what were your when shooting? ‘Dam to Dam’ is not a Dogme 95 film but it actually follows some of its rules. We didn´t use any other light than the natural light and on the shooting in Amsterdam the camera was basically hand-held. These are some of the aesthetic decisions I made to settle an intimate environment, a personal world. At the same time, I wanted to establish a similarity between the two locations where we shot and the two locations in the story as well. We didn’t portray the usual Amsterdam with its beautiful canals and ancient waters, but the one that the woman would find that sailor in. We can appreciate the similarity on both of the landscapes, with the cargo ships, the cranes, the sea… On the other hand, despite of the grey tones in both Santurce and Amsterdam, there are generally brighter tones in Amsterdam, as well as a colourful, even dreamy sensation, during the transition between both locations, when we see the sun rising through the train window, greeting a new day, a new world, a new life. There is another important aesthetic decision which is the costumes: the woman is wearing the same traditional costume than those women who are referred to in the song, which gives to the film an anachronistic sensation.
In terms of the widescreen composition, there is a feeling of solitude: whether the frame shows a distant woman walking on a deserted port with her reflection on a large puddle, or a close-up of the same woman eating an apple on a boat, we barely see other people in the whole footage. Even the man she’s looking for (played by Georgi Meser) appears on screen just for a quick couple of seconds. This is a journey that has to be done alone. We have appreciated the way you have combined into coherent unity: Did you pursue such result instinctively or did you methodically structure the process? In particular, do you like ? There was a structure –specifically regarding to the moving images and statics- but this was not fixed or rigid. The process was more an instinctive one rather than methodical. I do like spontaneity. I worked with two different people with different views in terms of filming and having a space for spontaneity was inevitable. Maite, who shot all the Amsterdam part, is a professional photographer mostly focused and experienced in fashion photography. Urko, on the other hand, is a highly experienced filmmaker (and actor) with his particular vision of the craft. Fortunately, I managed to express what I wanted to show on screen, and they both did a great job. I talked to them of the emotions or feelings I wanted to get from the shot, instead of exactly ask them for a particular frame, in most of the cases. So there was a common ground where we could find each other, which made ‘Dam to Dam’ possible. Reminding us of Marguerite Duras work's, your artistic production in the field of animation is marked out with a personal style: who are, if any, some of your chief
influences from contemporary scene? In particular, how would you describe your cinematographic style? I would describe it as poetic. Which is a very broad concept... The fact that my work reminds you to Marguerite Duras’ is way more than I would’ve ever expected. But then it comes to my mind ‘Hiroshima mon amour’ and I can´t do anything but find me slightly smiling because, in spite of the apparent differences, I can have a glance of this remembrance. Regarding my influences, I grew up in the 80´s. ‘The Goonies’ was the reference film of my childhood –adventure and friendship wrapped in a pirate story are ingredients that would make any child completely excited-. And then, in my early twenties, I learnt about the Nouvelle Vague: this blew my mind. Films like ‘Les 400 coups’, ‘À bout de souffle’ and ‘Vivre sa vie’ became an absolute inspiration. Later, the combo Sam Shepard/Wim Wenders was the most majestic and wonderful one for me (‘Paris-Texas’!!!!). I could also name Jean-Pierre Jeunet, because ‘Amelie’ was my favourite movie for years, without forgetting Zhang Yimou and Lars von Trier. Yes, they are films such as ‘The broken circle breakdown’ that get my eye and my heart. I take a look to all of these inspirations and, despite having different styles and picturing diverse worlds, they all definitely have a poetic aspect. The soundtrack of is based on a traditional Basque song, that is both minimalistic and effective: according to media theorist Marshall McLuhan there is a 'sense bias' that affects Western societies favoring visual logic, a shift that occurred with the advent of the alphabet
as the eye became more essential than ear. How do you see the relationship between sound and moving images? This is very interesting. I’ve been very curious lately about the way we learn and the different brain areas we use for it, depending on whether we are illiterate or not. Marshall McLuhan was talking about the entire society but I guess we can have an example with the simple realisation that it is different the way we learn when we are kids and don´t know the alphabet yet compared to when we have gained that knowledge. And the sound becomes the protagonist here. That is why basically traditional songs keep on passing through one generation to the other. Because at an early stage the ear is the essential sense to communicate and learn, and we keep on singing them to our children, so this ancient form doesn´t get lost. Coming from the Basque Country, I would say that there is another main situation in which the ear, the sound, the traditional song becomes the protagonist as well: around food and drinks. Most of the traditional songs we learn them when we are children or when we are gathered around food and wine. Now that I moved to London, I can see the same reference with the songs in the pubs. There is still something ancient inside us that comes out in this kind of particular environment. ‘Dam to Dam’ is inspired by a traditional Basque song, like I said above, that describes how women, back in time, used to walk 15 kilometres along the river, from Santurce towards the main city -Bilbao-, selling the fish that had been caught on the day. They were singing along their way about the fresh fish they had to sell to call the attention of potential costumers –fresh sardines-. There are slight adjustments when I sing the song in the film: instead of ‘desde Santurce a Bilbao…’ (from Santurce to Bilbao), I sing ‘desde Santurce a Amsterdam’ (from Santurce to Amsterdam), relating the
traditional story with the specific one that we get to know on the film. So, I could say that we see one of these women, born and raised in a fishermen’s little town, used to walk 15km a day selling sardines and singing, who one day decides to change her direction, her path and her life. The relationship between sound and moving images is clear then. As well as the traditional song, in the first part of the film I counted with the collaboration of the American musician Will Csorba. As far as a description of the music he did for ‘Dam to dam’, it definitely falls within the realm of the guitar work he does, which often falls under the "American primitive guitar" heading, which again perfectly fits in the traditional aspect of the whole film. 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 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? Women have been discouraged from many things for more than enough time. We still are. But certainly this is changing, fortunately. We are still at that point in which we need the extra encouragement to balance all the discouragement, and we need cinema festivals in which women are the only protagonists –‘Dam to Dam’ was recently selected for World of Women in Tunisia-, we need magazines like Women Cinemakers, to highlight the work of women in cinema, we needed Kathryn Bigelow being the first woman director winning an Oscar so next time won’t be such a big issue being a woman and winning the best director Oscar.
My view on the future of women in cinema is full of promise. Since I moved to London I’ve been working in several films as an actress, and I must say that most of them are directed by women. I’d like to name the huge young promise Ella Kirby, who at only 21 years old has directed ‘NIÑA’, a film full of sensitivity and wisdom that surely will harvest big success. And if I turn my eyes to the Spanish scene, since I began being interested in cinema, in my early twenties, Icíar Bollaín and Isabel Coixet -both women Spanish directors- have always been a grand inspiration to me. You also collaborate internationally in different cinema and theatre projects: it's no doubt that interdisciplinary collaborations are today ever growing forces and that the most exciting things happen when creative minds from different fields of practice meet and collaborate on a project... could you tell us something about this effective synergy? By the way, Peter Tabor once stated that " ": what's your point about this? Can you explain how your work demonstrates communication between creative people from different fields? I totally agree with Mr. Tabor. I’ve collaborated with different people from diverse backgrounds and origins: from Spain to South Korea, USA, Belgium, Holland, Germany, UK, India, Greece, Italy, Turkey, Sweden… I’ve worked with actors, directors, dancers, choreographers, musicians, writers... You need to find a language in which the different disciplines can understand each other, express each other and create a reality that would never be possible without the combination of them.
I have collaborated with Nakhyun Kang, South Korean director, in several occasions and I particularly remember the shows Drive Thru and Elena-Elena: actors, dancers and musicians playing live were on stage, as well as video projections. These experiences are fully enriching and create new perceptions and therefore new realities. Thanks a lot for your time and for sharing your thoughts, Elena. Finally, would you like to tell us readers something about your future projects? How do you see your work evolving? I recently moved to London for a new stage on my career as an actress and I’m really focused on it. However, I want to keep on exploring this new facet of mine as a filmmaker: I have written a couple of stories that still need some work to be transformed in films. I can visualise both of them in the same style as ‘Dam to Dam’, in terms of poems in the form of a short film, although with different themes. Besides, after my first approach behind the camera, which was ‘Dam to Dam’, I’ve been working on an experimental series of film-poetry, mainly shot with a smartphone, which developed on a project I am currently working on, making micro-poem films using photography and animation. I hope I can show you some of this really soon and that we have the chance to talk again. Thank you for your time and your interest. Keep up and spread love!