Interview with filmmaker Daniel B Salas

Sow will screen at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

How did you get into making films?

In seventh grade English class, I was partnered with my best friend (my assistant director on Sow) to teach the class about pronouns in a creative manner, we decided to video a puppet show lesson.  Since then, he and I have made films together.

What inspired you to make your movie?

A plethora of things.  Beautiful nature and my home county were incredible influences on showcasing the world within the film.  My friends and our mutual respect for cinema.  Particularly, for my film Sow, something that was a high inspiration, was my four sisters, who are thanked in the credits.

How has your style evolved?

Every project I have encountered I like to experiment with.  Maybe things don't work, but I'll learn that as I go.  And each project I hone toward a better masterpiece.  Even throughout production, we as a team experiment often, desire to try something different, or have a vision unattainable, so we utilised resources.  Attempting and growing through film has always made me smile.

Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film.

While trespassing an abandoned fuel station, we spent too many minutes long.  The police were called multiple times by drivers-by who noticed peculiar activity at a known ghost station.  The film's sequence asks the male lead to drive off at a squeal.  Perfect timing, the police showed up, my male lead (not noticing them) squeals off.  With his hand hovering over his holster, the officer finally got the vehicle to cease movement and asked all actors to step out, and we crew joined them.  After explaining our situation as filmmakers, they gaily remarked on one another being "stars" and if we ever should need police officers, we know who to go to.  They were cheeky.  The sergeant came simply to view the excitement.  At the end, we asked them if we could remain to finish the shoot, they allowed and left, waving.

Upon watching the dailies, I noticed the reflections of our production crew in the windows of the vehicle in each shot.  Even after all of this, we had to re-shoot this sequence.  We re-shot in a wholly different location.  Which I find to have been a much better looking shot, and even our actors performed better than before.

The MIsrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?

Straightjacket Guerrilla Film Festival

What can we expect from your next film?

The fantasy world Sow takes place in is a broad one.  There are many towns throughout this world, each at the mercy of a dragon.  My next film is working-title Eager, production this winter.  It is a winter's fantasy world about individuals who are setting off come morning to slay dragons in the towns over.  But today, they prepare.  We learn of citizens' lives and how they are affected by this impending change.  The facebook page for this upcoming production is facebook.com/eagercatalyst.

Interview with filmmaker Eli Hayes

Image & Illusion will screen at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

How did you get into making films?

At a very young age, my parents introduced me to filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch, Agnès Varda, and even more transgressive filmmakers like Lars von Trier (specifically Dancer in the Dark at the age of thirteen or fourteen, which I remember absolutely annihilating me emotionally). But beyond the emotional resonance, I always recognised film as a sort of "ultimate art form," combining text with image with movement and performance, and so on. I began to regard it as the most fully fleshed out art form of them all, or at least the medium to marry the most other mediums within its own innate structure. When I was seventeen years old and found out that my dad had terminal esophageal cancer, I started to make films of my own. I started to think about death more than ever before, and knew that I wanted to leave something behind on this earth when I died myself: what better than art? So during my senior year of high school, I directed my first two short films, Dancing with Shadows and Nobody (2012). The rest is history.

What inspired you to make your movie?

Over the last couple years, I've become obsessed with the notion of films as dreams. Whenever I watch a great experimental film, I always come out on the other end as if I've just awoken from a dream or been released from a trance. This effect is something that I've always wanted to achieve and, with both Mirage and Image & Illusion, I was interested in attempting to straddle that line between ambient, contemplative cinema and the world of the unconscious.

How has your style evolved?

I would say that my style has evolved quite noticeably over the years. While Dancing with Shadows is rather impressionistic, my other debut short film, Nobody, is a hyper-realist video diary of a film, documenting a day in the life of a severely mentally unstable teenager. I play the lead role in the film, and it contains not only dialogue but a rather clear A-to-B-to-C narrative (while still hinting toward some experimental techniques that I would implement later on in my career). The jump in aesthetic from Nobody to my next short film, Vanished (2013), was huge, not even necessarily in terms of quality but more in terms of taking a leap from pure realism to pure non-narrative expression. And I've definitely explored the realm of the latter more so than the former, over the past half decade of filmmaking.

Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?

I can't specifically think of anything strange or funny that happened during the production of these two features -- I know, I'm so boring, haha -- but there is something unorthodox about the way that both films were shot/created. Both Mirage and Image & Illusion had over a half dozen cinematographers on board. Not in the sense that I kept having to fire my DP or anything; that was the idea from the beginning, to structure a film comprised of segments shot by several different cameramen and camerawomen across the globe, and then fuse all of those visions into one, anthological dreamscape. Mirage was shot by ten individuals across four countries (France, Italy, the U.K. and the U.S.): myself, Ben Danzi, Nadin Mai, Pietro Agnoletto, Seb Karamayar, Andre de Nervaux, Ted Parks, James Slaymaker, Reece Beckett, and Ian Flick. Image & Illusion was shot by seven individuals across three countries (the U.K., the U.S. and Canada): myself, Alex Davies, Andre de Nervaux, Dov Doviak, Susie Brancaccio, Jesse Rolfe, and Ben Danzi.

The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?

I think that any attempt to break the rules of typical cinematic conventions is a good thing, so the U.K.'s Misrule Film Movement & the Pink8 manifesto bring's to mind the hopes (and, to an extent, the reality) of rewriting cinema's language through the artists of the underground. I love the idea of going against the grain, going against what "film school" teaches and creating, instead, with a micro-budget, a cast of unknowns, little to no preparation, little to no technical advances, and the experience of making something on one's own without the interference of institutions. Directors I admire that seem to have adhered to these kinds of ideas in the past include Giuseppe Andrews, Jonathan Caouette and, of course, Harmony Korine.

What can we expect from your next film?

I've spent the summer in Tallahassee, Florida, where my girlfriend is working a summer job and, over the course of the last two to three months, have been suffering from the extremities of my clinical depression. I was diagnosed with severe depression years ago, long before my father passed away, and the experience of being here in Tallahassee, essentially alone most days without anyone to really talk to or hang around, has been extremely difficult for me. Thank god I have my dog here, but it's been difficult to leave the apartment and actually function in society while suffering from such intense anxiety & depression. The handful of times that I've left my apartment have been to go out and shoot, as the original plan for this move to Tallahassee -- even though I wouldn't have a paying job here in Florida -- was to make a DIY landscape documentary over the course of these few months. As of right now, I've shot and cut 53 minutes of the film. I'm not sure how much more shooting that I will do before I decide that the project is complete, but there are a couple other locations that I'd like to capture before closing the door on this chapter of my life and moving back to Nashville, Tennessee.

Interview with filmmaker Dave Jigar

Matsar will be screening at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

*How did you get into making films? For me, Making Films is like living. I started making Films literally in 2007 when I was doing my Mechanical Engineering but I'm making films and visualizing them since 1998 when I was around 13. So When you live it for so many years in your mind, the nature propagates it in real world I guess. 

*What inspired you to make your movie? I firmly believe that movies have a big social impact and as a filmmaker, it's my moral responsibility to make a film that can bring a change in the world. See, change is always a thought process. If you're convinced about something that is how you are going to bring it in your life.

Matsar is inspired by a thought about bringing two different personalities together. One who is a manual scavenger living in a hell. And another is a young kid living exactly opposite. Their interaction brings two different aspects of life face to face and that is how their thoughts begin to change in right direction. 

*How has your style evolved? Well there is no particular style about a film but more about the genre and conviction of that perception portrayed in film. Yet, if I try to find a pattern or style in my filmmaking then On the concept level, I try to give leverage on the battles within. The one who has conquered himself, has conquered the world. My earlier work “Kuchh Manziley Aisy” and “Maanas” - both selected in various film festivals in 2008 and 2011 respectively, are the examples for the same. And another thing that I can quote as my style is music plays a significant role in my storytelling. I find it easy to convey the emotions of any particular moment with lyrics and composition. And Music certainly adds heavy emotions to the scene. So songs are bound to be strong if it's a Dave Jigar film. 

*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film? Of course there are lots of funny stories especially when you are on guerrilla filmmaking with skeleton crew and limited budget & Timeline. One such incident is when we were shooting a song in Vijaynagar which is a hilly area. And we were shooting with two cameras. I was on one and my assistant was on another camera and we were taking the shot from two different hills. We didn't have Megaphone there. And Even Mobile phones didn't have network coverage. So to communicate I had no other option but to use my strong voice. Yes, I mean I was literally shouting on every take loud enough to be heard on another hill. We decided some body signs to communicate that evening but My vocal chords took 4 days to recover from that. Also it compromises the footages you wish to take but then you don't have option with timeline and budget so you have to rely on editing for damage control.

*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind? Filmmaking, at the end, is an art. and art can never be bound by any laws or rules. Well, still the basic rule is how psychology works and on that how we are going to convey what we wish to by applying or breaking them. So on that note, having a bunch of rules against the traditional rules are at the end rules. For me, Art is above these measures.

*What can we expect from your next film? I'm working on "Morgue" right now. It is a Film inspired from a real incident and again the very base concept is winning the battles within but this time it will be more intriguing as storytelling part is different from Matsar, having more layers of suspense not only of characters but also of story itself. So thrill is what one can expect as extra perk along with lots of drama, laughter, wet eyes and a story revealing itself with great music and songs.

Interview with filmmaker Rubber Cripple

Mondo Lizard: A Guide To Gonzo Cinema will be screening at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

*How did you get into making films? 
First of all I would like to point out that I do not consider myself a " filmmaker" or "director" or "video artist" or "photographer" etc, etc. I used these titles in the past thinking that's what I must be because of what I'm doing, right? Wrong! I have no burning desire to make films or photography, Im not at all concerned if nobody sees anything I make, I don't care if people like it or hate it, I think most filmmakers do feel the need to make and show work and rightly so, there are some great people making some great work! I got into this by being frustrated with the music industry Divas, everybody thinks they are so fucking deserving, fuck em! I decided to mess around with cameras, taught myself how to develop film so I could film/record or document things that interest me. Along the way I've met some brilliant people! 

*What inspired you to make your movie? 
I used to be a member of the Experimental Film Society, a collective based in Ireland and I came across an interview or article which featured this filmmaker Fabrizio Federico, he was ripping into us, I think he referred to us as dish-washing hipsters, which was fucking great! So I thought who the fuck is this guy? Who the fuck does he think he is? I hated him! I'm an experimental filmmaker, I'm important,etc,etc. So I got in touch with him, called him up on the phone and asked if I could make a movie about him because he irritated me.....I was so wrong, he turned out to be a great guy and has given much of his time in helping me make my latest pile of tripe called Mondo Lizard. Yeah, so you can say Fabrizio Federico inspired me to make Mondo Lizard. 

*How has your style evolved? Possibly by not watching many films, avoiding the cinema, trial and error? I've no idea if I'm honest. 

*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film? 
Tony's toothless interview: Fabrizio and I visited a mature gentleman's fetish dungeon for Mondo Lizard, Tony loves eggs but can't eat them with his false teeth in. So, when we took a break Tony decides he's having a few pickled eggs, takes his teeth out, leaves them on the worktop, has his eggs. Meanwhile, I decide they'd make a good prop, so I edged over to the kitchen worktop and slipped them into my pocket, they feel extremely life like, made me wretch a bit too! So we finish our break, Tony can't find his teeth, he's wandering around the kitchen, Fab is singing " I am the eggman " and distracts him by asking what type of music he likes. He gives up, we get back to work and I've got a great prop for a street fight scene in my Boxing movie " I'm in a Wheelchair and this time it's Personal " and Tony gums his way through an interview. Funny? Strange? Nah, just plain fucking weird. 

*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind? 
Pink8, I think if we understand that it was basically used for one film by Fabrizio Federico (Black Biscuit) then its just there for the taking, if you want to follow it, great! If you want elements of it, great! I think it's a good way to say fuck you! The Misrule Cinema Movement, hopefully it's created a lot of mutant punk filmmakers. Actually the film Anarchy in the UK was one of the reasons I'd called Fabrizio, that and the fact he was ripping into EFS. It's good people challenging the government. Even better now that there are skint, ugly, freaky filmmakers on the loose! 

*What can we expect from your next film? 
I have a couple of on-going projects, the first is researching into something called Autogynephilia and sexologist Dr Ray Blanchard, I started it a year maybe 18 months ago, complex and controversial. The other will be some sort of weird boxing movie. But you never know what might come along, who knows? 

*Tell us about this new film movement that you have captured in your film? 
I think maybe the underground needs to be exhumed, maybe there is no underground. All the people in this film are on their own, they're broke, they all have next to no resources. They are all insane in their own way, they are all true to themselves. They are all completely genuine. None of them backed out of Mondo Lizard. They're maverick filmmakers.

Interview with filmmaker Rafael Arévalo

Year Of The Apocalypse will screen at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

*How did you get into making films?

Since I was a child I always wanted to create universes and tell stories. I fell in love with the cinema at first sight and I grew up seeing all kinds of proposals, from the most important masters of the seventh art to the most extravagant B and Z movies. The democratization that was achieved with the arrival of the digital format encouraged me to take a risk and become a filmmaker. In 10 years of career I have made 8 feature films and more than 20 shorts and I hope I can do many more until it is humanly possible.

 

*What inspired you to make your movie?

As a child my favourite genre was terror and the zombie sub-genre always had a special feeling to me. For several years I planned different options of possible films, but the excessive production of movies of the same theme that caused the revival of the genre since the beginning of the century, made me rethink everything and I decided to make a zombie anti-film that will tell several small stories with few dialogues and a lot of instrumental music from Peruvian independent bands during almost all their footage. My idea was to achieve a mixture of "Pink Floyd’s the wall" and the dead films of George Romero paying homage to the classic silent movies and the bizarre and trash movies.

 

*How has your style evolved?

As my cinema is still very low budget I try to continue experimenting in all possible ways turning the flaws into effects until I can access a big budget that allows me to make a film at 100% of its possibilities. For the meantime, I have fun experimenting.

 

*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?

We film the movie in different streets of the city of Lima without asking for any permission. We had to take advantage of days and hours when the areas we needed were empty and we had little time to record because, when neighbors or the police discovered us, we had to leave. Fortunately, we got enough shots to finish the movie with dignity.

 

*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?

It reminds me the spirit of Sion Sono’s “Why don’t you play in hell?”

 

*What can we expect from your next film?

I have several new short films this 2018 and I hope to finish filming a new independent and experimental feature film before the end of the year. It is called "Sleepless Sleepwalker" and is about a poet who must undergo a sleep cure to enter into his subconscious and recover his first book of poems. In addition, I plan to post my sci fi feature film project "The Gospel of Chaos" to various contests and funds that allow me to direct it in the best way in the near future.

Interview with producer Antonio Acampora

She Was Young With Light Eyes will premier at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

How did you get into making films?

It was a story I wanted to do for a long time, but only after writing the novel from which I made the film, I decided to put it on stage.

What inspired you to make your movie?

A fundamental question: how should life be lived, in extremes or in the middle?

How has your style evolved?

Over time it has changed a lot, but with this film I found the precise shape with which I wanted to tell a story like that. Halfway between the American indie style and the French one.

Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?

There's no better time than filming. But the best thing that happens every time an audiovisual project starts is that when everything seems lost and a scene is completely far from being realised, at that precise moment, like magic, something extraordinary happens and actors and crews hunt their best and succeed in realising the scene of the day.

The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?

Strength and sympathy at the same time.

What can we expect from your next movie?

A new story which you would never expect, something you would like to see however.

Interview with filmmaker Philani A Nyoni

I Love You Nikita will screen at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

*How did you get into making films?

I've known I wanted to write since I was ten. Growing up in an underdeveloped country with one TV station really limits your world-view to the extent that one never quite knows what to do with their gifts. I specialised in poetry, wrote some prose, fiction and a bit of journalism later although I always knew I was more into the creative side of things.

After moving to South Africa I met a girl, a poet who was studying theatre and sort of got into a production (’And Now We Speak’ by Cletus Moyo) which required poets to write and perform a play. She turned out to be gay but I found myself doing more productions after that, a scene in a short film as well.
My biggest shot came when I moved back to Zimbabwe. My best friend Leroy, who plays Conrad in ‘I Love You, Nikita’ knew all this,one day he was in a production that needed an actor for the lead, he threw my name into the hat, the guys gave me an audition maybe more from curiosity if an award-winning author could handle the screen. I got a National Arts Merit Award nomination for the role and figured I had a strong passion for film. I did whatever work I could find and developed my skills on both sides of the camera. Now here we are.

*What inspired you to make your movie?
Life in Zimbabwe hasn't been easy for a long time. We had one president for thirty-seven years and he didn't leave on his own accord; the military had to ‘intervene’. As a creative, one is burdened with a moral choice in such times: how does one use their gift to be... relevant.
‘I Love You Nikita’ started out as a piece of protest theatre. The first ‘Canto’, ‘Nikita’s Wedding’ was a commentary on how our levels of education do not reflect upon the life we live. This is a place where over 90% of people are unemployed despite their learning; the unemployment rate is just about at par with literacy so something is wrong.
Alas, writers get carried away with pens. I thought it was too short to put on stage so I developed the script. ‘Canto 2’ tells the story of how they met, And 3 resolves the story. I was well aware that I might have to produce the film myself so I wasn't going to worry about writing something sane, I just wanted to have fun and write a film that would fuck with your mind in a fantastic way. So my script, my budget (part of it, Dorcas Gwata helped out a lot) and I was directing despite my best attempts not to. I was well on my way to make an art house film, a rare occurrence in our part of the world.
Despite all the hardships, being a first time director, budget and a crawling industry, the team inspired me to push on. Everyone loved the script and that's all you can ask for in a team.
It gets weird for me now, watching Conrad and Nikita, they have a special relationship almost as intense as one I had with someone who's gone now, but we were not as brave as these characters. I suppose we have superheroes on our screens because the people who create them are weak. Still, I relate strongly to Conrad right now.

*How has your style evolved?
When I started out making shorts they were always radical. I'm trying to find the line between anesthetic and function but I'm gaining more confidence in madness because of this film. Because of the budget constrains we could have the footage edited and coloured long before the next shot so I got to analyze it, a lot. That taught me not to worry too much about the script and the Floorplan, I'm more concerned about the beginning and the end, how are we doing at each level, my style is more result-oriented. Sure I hate to see actors skipping my meticulously-crafted lines, but if they know what's important in a scene, know which lines to hit and it looks great, I can live with it. You can't imagine it all, but if you know the important bits, listen to suggestion and the organic flow of things, you might surprise yourself.
Stepping into the director’s shoes from the actor’s helps. Like Regina King said in an interview with Trevor Noah; as an actor you know how a director can rub you up the wrong way so that's one thing you know not to do.

*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?
I was supposed to play the lead in the stage version against Lady Tshawe who plays Nikita in the first part. After I went over the lines I decided they were too much for me. Leroy liked the script so I let him suffer for his bad choice in friends. He aced it actually.
Renne Seckel who did the SFX makeup couldn't make it on set for the final scene. She wasn't too far from location actually so when we were about an hour from the scene where Leroy shows up with a busted nose, he drove to her to sort that out. We needed some stuff from the supermarket so he passed by after he was done. Some people screamed when he walked onto set, I laugh to imagine what was going through everyone's nose when he was just minding his business with his shopping cart.
Also, in the last scene when Tom (Daniel Rodrigues) and Lolita (Linda Nyauchi) fall, they actually fell. Onto a dumbell. She broke her ass. That's not funny.


*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?
Anarchy! Anarchy! Anarchy!

*What can we expect from your next film?
I'm a big Monty Python fan. It will be something completely different.

Interview with filmmaker Mark & Li Shuen

Cannonball will be screening at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

*How did you get into making films?

His dad being a film buff and giving him a camcorder when he was 13, Mark got his start with making skate videos. He then went on over the years to create narrative and documentary films around the world. Finding in the craft, the possibility of resistance and  re-imagination. After we met, and worked together in a psych-art project, we have found the medium to be a fantastic one for our intentions to re-image and re-imagine reality and its conditions - as mirror and reflection.

*What inspired you to make your movie?

We were experimenting with a concept. To create a Gonzo-pop album and have it be based on an imagined film that would be shot on the tour of the album.
We then worked out a music tour through Australia with our friend, musician Shoeb Ahmad and made the film during the tour together with our friends from Australia, Japan and Singapore.
We were driven by the many a time absurd reality surrounding the creation, presentation and ingestion of art in film and music.

*How has your style evolved?

Making films over the years, we have tried to pursue the craft outside of the film school/institutional and industry constructs. We have become more wary of creating films that fight for a cause and have been thinking more of making films that cause a fight.

*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?

The day of filming the flashback scene in the beginning of the film was also the day that our friends had flown in from Japan to Singapore while we were flying out to Australia for the tour. We had only a few hours to film and play a show that we had set up in an artist studio, Mural Lingo. It felt like that was exactly the spirit of the film, rushing about in a sweat, getting punched by your friend, making some noise and finding yourself in places you’ve never been.

 

*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?

Having found out about them, it brings to our mind a great sense of joyful resistance, to take action where one is constantly made to second guess oneself to be a complicit actor in the conditions surrounding the creation of work. Brings a lifefulness to the shrouds of fatality in reality.

*What can we expect from your next film?

We’re currently in pre-production for an absurdist comedy film, a feature to be set in New York and Japan.  A tale of an English teacher whose life seems headed into the gutter who gets into all sorts of hijinx in a northern town in Japan.
A sombre and heartening display of being in the world in its ridiculousness, beauty, ugliness and truth.

Interview with filmmaker Gary Hewitt

Cleek will screen at Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

*How did you get into making films?

I first off studied Media at School (Primary 6), learning about how other people shot some of my favourite films and TV shows. There was one class where we got to shoot a 3 minute film using an old flip camera and although the film wasn't very good -- I knew this was where my heart and passion lay. From that moment I was a filmmaker.

*What inspired you to make your movie?

When looking for a new project I wanted to do a film about addiction. About one man and his addiction and what happens when the thing he’s addicted to is taken away. 

Most common Scottish films are filled with Scottish miserablism. In these types of films most people are either addicted to drink or drugs. I wanted to find something different. 

My second inspiration came from the very unlikely but hugely successful show ‘Desperate Housewives. Set is the suburbs with it’s white picket fences and huge family homes, it center's on housewives who lie, steal, blackmail, murder and cheat on their partners and each other. The characters all hide their dark secrets and put on the perfect “person suits” to hide their true goals.

Cleek however was never going to be light hearted

*How has your style evolved?

When I was shooting my first film -- I would sit and watch hours and hours of my favourite films - coming away with certain shots I like or different angles and lighting that stood out.

I would then try to incorporate all of these into one film and it would end up looking like a an amateur  mush of other people's work. I still get influenced from other movies, but I have now learned to incorporate my own signature and style onto my films, I storyboard certain shots that I want in particular scenes and as long as my DOP (Cinematographer) can achieve these, he builds the rest of the shots round that with his style as well.

I trust my cinematographer so I focus on working closely with the actors because if a film is shot well it wont matter if the acting fails.

 

*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?

There was one scene (It never made the final film unfortunately)  which was a very personal dark scene, we spent hours and hours rehearsing it - so the actors would be ready. When it came to filming we kept hearing a jingling noise. Each time I shouted action the jingling would appear half way through the scene. 

The Sound Operator was getting furious, but we played the footage back and tried and tried again, until we finally realized it was in fact the sound operator that was making the noise. Every time he moved the boom, his keys would jingle in his trouser pocket.

*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?

That we should never stop -- no matter what society thinks of you, your views and your message. Film is the one way we can express our message, our emotions, how we feel, what we want the world to be or the way we don't want the world to be. It's our escapism to a better world.

This is why there is no funding for the indie film industry - society wants to keep us down like a herd of sheep and filmmakers who can express without money, RISE ABOVE IT

*What can we expect from your next film?

I have shot a short film Mia: A Rapture 2.0 Production, which so far has taken home six awards. In a nutshell it's about sex robots and the end of the world. I would now love to develop it into a feature film

https://vimeo.com/243447049

Interview with filmmaker Pablo Marini

Malvineitor will be screening at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

*How did you get into making films?

​-It was the year 1996 and I was about 16 years old when my father gave me one of the first home movie cameras, a VHS Compact. We were young and with many influences of humor we began to make funny movies instantly. Without much knowledge, only with passion and looking to make our friends laugh. In the year 1997 we premiered our first film "BACKMAN and ROBIN's AGAINST RIBERITO THE TENACIOUS."​

 

*What inspired you to make your movie?

​​In Argentina one of the tabu issues of society is the war of MALVINAS. There have been many dramatic films on the subject but never an action or war movie. I felt the need for an action comedy about war, someone who shows war not as a low blow, but as a fun movie for the audience. A true tribute to so many young Argentinian brothers.

​​*How has your style evolved?

​My style has evolved like a Pokemon, through study and experience, like 10 more films happened to the first, film faculty, a lot of experience in filming, a lot of work with film brothers with whom we shared production criteria and especially the evolution of humor as a weapon of social criticism led our films to find their own and defined style, something that does not abound today in the cinema.

​ 

*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?

​One of the last days of filming, everything was downhill, the team had fragmented, and to top it off, it was long rain winter day in the middle of a jungle. We were recording a scene on a dirt canyon and one of the FXs guys tied a rope to a tree so that we would not slip, climbing up and down. I could not concentrate thinking about all those who were down there getting wet with that cold. I remember repeating several times to give up and come back another day, however everyone was still working and nobody questioned it more than me. I seemed out of place for wanting to suspend. But there they were all! and luckily disobeying the orders of its director. Today we remember that day as going up and down the rope and under the rain as Batman and Robin by Adam West, but above all for the consolidation of an iron team to which I owe the film.

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*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?

​I have no idea what they refer to with that manifesto. I think that without knowing what it is I am against the manifesto because nobody tells me how to do things. Not a pope, not a woman, not a black man.

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*What can we expect from your next film?

​From my next film we can expect a scandal and probably the prison for several of those involved as it will deal with a famous case of the death of a prosecutor of the Argentine nation. It is time for someone to correct us, where they saw so much disrespect for a country.​ 

Interview with filmmaker William Carne

Pneuma will screen at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

*How did you get into making films?

I’ve wanted to make films since before high school.  I always wanted to tell stories so I’ve been attracted to writing, directing and producing.  My first short of any quality was White Knight about 6 years ago and Pneuma was my first feature.  

*What inspired you to make your movie?

Pneuma was inspired by an idea I had about memory loss and what would happen if a person lost all their memories. How would that affect their lives?  Would they be the same person?  From that I made a logical jump into taking someone who has done horrendous things and exploring the idea of whether or not that person could reinvent themselves as someone new, or if they’re destined to be the same.  

*How has your style evolved?

Regarding style I tend to dream big. In that way, Pneuma was a massive challenge because it’s a “small” film in nearly every way.  I constantly fought my desire to explore other locations and other characters in favour of keeping the story very contained.  That really helped develop my ability to tell stories theough subtle beats and I’ve been able to apply that in projects since to give larger moments more drama. 

*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?

Pneuma was filmed in a church and there were a number of odd events that came with the location.  From the organ player practicing through our shots, to putting on all the neo-Nazi tattoos while Sunday mass was going on.  

*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?

I don’t feel like filmmaking needs to follow any kind of manifesto. In my interpretation I think what Misrule and Pink8 are trying to get at is to take away some of the fear of making a film.  Not everything needs to be a blockbuster to have worth. So in that way I think they’re very valuable.  Making a film is extremely tough, but it’s not something anyone needs to be afraid of. 

*What can we expect from your next film?

The next film I’m working on is a supernatural thriller that also deals with some psychological “what’s real” kind of issues as the main character is a schizophrenic. It’ll be much more visually ambitious but I plan to apply many of the techniques I used in Pneuma to really bring out character moments.  

Interview with filmmaker Diego Stickar

Pelicula will screen at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

*How did you get into making films?

PELICULA began as a project that didn't mean to become a feature film. It was going to be a 3 minutes video with a trailer structure. The trailer of a never made movie. I shot scenes in order to be able to edit it but then Irealised I was already in the process of making a film, an actual one with ideas development, concept arts, situations. It was shot in 3 parts. First in Berlin, then Buenos Aires and then Berlin to close the narration. 

*What inspired you to make your movie?

To observe the ways and kinds of human relationships. I wanted to make a portrait on my background and give my opinions about it.

*How has your style evolved?

Thanks to being able to shot my first film as a director I was able to put in it lots of aesthetic resources that I wanted to try and work with. It helped to reunite ideas, scenes that I had in my mind and now I'm able to work on something totally different in a more mature and concrete way.

*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?

All the characters of the film are thought and inspired in real people. This is my background. None of the actors new about that until the shooting ended. Only then I told them about it and it was very funny looking at them becoming the persons they didn't even knew.

*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?

I like it, a twisted and political proposal. I see it as something alternative and areapropriation of the territories, techniques, aesthetics and ideas. I think it is revolutionary and it reminds  us of the poor image concept that Hito Steyerl presents on his book 'Loscondenados de la pantalla'.

*What can we expect from your next film?

I looking forward to something completely different. At the moment I'm writing it as a B-Side of anything I've ever worked so far. 

It's very risky, dark, political, libidinous, explicit, and not so lovely. It's disgusting but also very emphatic.

Interview with filmmaker Ken Carlson

Penny Palabras will be screening at the Straight Jacket Guerrilla Film Festival

*How did you get into making films?

Just always had a very deep love of telling stories, ever since a child. Writing, drawing sequential art, playing with still & video cameras, spoken word. It's like answering a call from deep in our past. Like the most human thing we can do is tell stories. That's it, it feels like fulfilling a biological imperative. I have to do it because I'm alive. 

*What inspired you to make your movie?

Penny Palabras seemed like a great opportunity to take an established property with a built-in audience and play around in someone else's world for a while. It was going to be more challenging than the previous project I'd worked on, and I always like each project to be more challenging than the previous. It was fun to play around for a while in the world that James Willard created. It was also nice to adapt a work that wasn't something I had written. I think that let me have a bit more objectivity when it came to approaching the script, the characters, the arc, what worked, what didn't, etc. It was a nice change for me, as I usually work on stuff that I've written myself. 

*How has your style evolved?

In the very early days, we were doing sketch comedy out of high school, and we didn't give a shit about the quality of the camera, the sound, lighting, etc. It was all about the material. It's still all about the material, but now I have an understanding that people don't care about the material if it isn't presented in a palatable fashion. So the quality of sound, light, cameras, etc, has all gone up. No one is going to laugh at a joke they don't hear. 

*Tell us any strange or funny stories while making the film?

My favourite anecdote from the set of Penny Palabras was the night we were filming the final scene with the two devils and Penny, outside of our "Library." Deena and Alyssa had some phenomenal chemistry in that sequence, I think everybody felt it in the air. It was one of those times where I got so caught up in what we were doing that I didn't want it to end. I just wanted to take the scene over and over again. Anyway, during the middle of a take, while Alyssa was delivering her lines, I see a coyote wandering past, about 20 feet away from us. Alyssa was killing it, so I didn't want to stop her, so I started waving my arms trying to get everyone to look at the passing coyote. It was a big one, too. Gray, it sauntered by, full of lupine confidence, leering at us all the while. Unfortunately no one got a picture of it. 

 

*The Misrule Film Movement & Pink8 manifesto bring what to mind?

I don't know what either of those things are. 

*What can we expect from your next film?

Our next project is a dark/vulgar comedy series, we're shooting the pilot this summer. At this point our next feature film is tentatively a Christopher-Guest style mockumentary, but that's a ways out, summer/fall 2019 and subject to changes in the wind and tides. We might find something before then that strikes our fancy and change course if we think it will be a fun journey.