Meeting the directors

Everywhere you go, always take the weather with you. The Crowded House song is a good tune but a lie! Considering we’ve got filmmakers from all over the world, a lot of them from really warm places, I would have hoped that one of them had packed a bit of sun in their luggage. But no, the weather is freezing and it’s not looking good: winter is just around the corner.

Today started bright and early, well 11 is early for me on a Saturday, especially if you went out the night before for a couple of drinks with friends and some festival people. The day started with a breakfast conversation with as many of the international directors they could get. The festival had set up two couches with a plate of sandwiches for them. And what better way of making someone feel like a deer in headlights then ask them questions when they’ve got food in their mouths in front of 30 people.  Why not next year ask the filmmakers to talk about their childhood when they’re on the toilet?  No, I’m just kidding. The breakfast went pretty smoothly. The moderator had good questions and there were very few awkward silences.

Josephine Halbert from the UK was there to talk about her film, Time Travel Boyfriends. The film is a love letter from a woman to all these important and grand men through history, like Marlon Brando and Orson Wells.

David Mabille from France was there to talk about his movie Stockholm Syndrome. The film, which is really funny, is about a man not accepting that his girlfriend has left him so he decides to kidnap her until she falls in love with him again. David talked a lot about the difficulty of making something funny about a topic that really isn’t.

Then it was time for my good old interview victims, Severin Fiala and Ulrike Putzer, from Austria and they were asked almost identical questions to what I asked them the other day. Has the moderator read this blog? Hah, who am I kidding, who hasn’t read it?

And This Is Belgrade director Corina Schwingruber Illc was there to talk about her 11 minute film and what she did with the 14 hours of raw material she had from the start.

Vanessa Lépinard talked about her motivation behind her movie, On The Quiet, and about open endings in films.

The Finish directors Hannes Vartiainen and Pekka Veikkolainen talked about their experimental documentary about the destruction of a power plant. The film, Hanasaari A, is based on about half a million photos and mixes real live action with animation.

Anything But Sound director Peter Hecker talked about his research that took about seven weeks and the actual filming which span over three months. In the film, which is about a deaf family, there are no subtitles when they sign to each other and he explained the motivation behind that choice.

Vika Kirchenbauer answered questions around her film Reproduction, one of the very few films in the festival which I haven’t seen yet.

Last but not least the producer of Oli’s Wedding was there to talk about production, keeping the story on track, budget cuts and working with the good actors of Romania.

Now I’m off to watch some animated films and then it’s time for the award ceremony. Let’s see what country wins. I’m of course hoping Sweden but now, after all these days of film, I’m thinking France or Germany will bring it home.

Final question. Where are all the Swedish filmmakers? We’ve got people from all around the world that have travelled here to stand behind their work so where are all you Swedes? I’ve only seen very few of you but almost all of your films.
Har ni fest eller?