Clint Eastwood As a Changeling

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Interviews

Published on Saturday, 10 July 2010 06:05

Written by Brad Balfour

An avowed Republican in Hollywood is nearly as rare as the Komodo Dragon -- and with the spiteful bite of one as well. But with Barack Obama's victory, GOP adepts have made themselves pretty scarce since election day.

Hell, even a straight-shooting, no bullshitter like actor/director Clint Eastwood -- long known as a registered Republican who supported Richard Nixon in 1968 and who has made other forays into politics (he won a term as mayor of Carmel in 1986; was on the the California State Park and Recreation Commission from 2001 to 2008 and is on the California Film Commission) -- distanced himself from the party before this election. At a recent press conference that Eastwood gave at this year's New York Film Festival, where Changeling, his latest directorial effort premiered, it was uncanny how even he wanted to clarify his position away from them.

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A Different "Elvis & Madona" Hits the Fest Circuit

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Interviews

Published on Friday, 02 July 2010 00:32

Written by Brad Balfour

Among the films seen during the 8th Cine Fest Petrobras Brasil in June -- and earlier at the Tribeca Film Fest -- was Elvis & Madona, an off-beat, low-budget, sort-of-romantic comedy that's timely in a special way. Like the recent GayPride celebrations and the-soon-to-be-released The Kids Are All Right, it envisions an alternative family set up, Brazilian style. Enhanced by a serious social message, with a lathering of soap (think telenovela rather than Almodovar), Elvis & Madona is more than a broad domestic rom-com.

Though promoted as a comedy with its share of quirks, the film, starring Igor Cotrim and Simone Spoladore, stirred controversial reactions from some members of the gay and lesbian crowd and garnered a few critical razzes as well.

Written and directed by straight director Marcelo Laffitte, the film lightheartedly posits an enduring romance between a transvestite-maybe-transsexual hairdresser and his young bi-sexual lover who gets knocked up -- and shacks up -- while struggling with his entertainment career. Success would mean an end to their financial troubles and the start of a functional family.

Set in the vibrant Copacabana district of Rio de Janiero, Elvis and Madona's unlikely love help them chase dreams, face down the obstacles that arise along the way and fulfill Madona's plans for a spectacular drag show that redeems everyone.

At audience Q&As, the film prompted a mix of contention and praise for its unique sexual stance. Though Laffitte was bothered that so many descriptions of the movie presented Madona as a drag performer, he pointed out that Brazilians would consider Madona a transvestite, not a drag queen -- though it wasn't clear if the director would distinguish between transvestite and trannie.

Through the haze of a terrible interpreter and some prickly journalists, Laffitte tried to set the record during a small roundtable held in May.

Q: So what prompted you to make this as your first feature film?

ML: This film had been [brewing] in me for a long time. I came out of doing documentaries; I even used to be the president of the Association of Documentary Filmmakers, but I also did four shorts before Elvis & Madona. Though my name is so strongly associated with being a documentary filmmaker, for seven years I have been doing fiction films. I did the four fiction shorts because I thought it was important before I did this feature film because all the learning I acquired.

Q: But why this theme?

ML: I wrote the script for Elvis & Madona a long time ago, in 2001, when I did my first short film. That’s when it came to me. I had been to a show with a transvestite and there was this story about a transvestite that had left his hometown as a man and years later comes back and he's a [drag queen]. His father had remarried and he falls in love with the daughter of his father's new wife and he’s madly in love. That's how I [got the idea] for Elvis & Madona back then.

At first, my idea was to get a real transvestite/transsexual to do this, but then it was like where is the right one? I was searching and it was in the air but 10 days before the date when I had to have someone cast as Madona I was introduced to Igor [Cotrim] by a common friend, and there you go.

Q: The chemistry between Elvis and Madona is the whole fabric of the film. Was the audition process complicated?

ML: It was of no use to find the ideal Elvis or ideal Madona if there was no chemistry between them. At the end of the day, it had to be Elvis and Madona. They go together.

Q: So this has been a long process?

ML: It's taken 10 years to make this movie. This is a movie of a lot of struggle and making dreams come true. And in a way, the film also talks about this: people trying to find and realize their dream.

Q: So whom is this movie made for? Is it for heterosexuals to enjoy lifestyles of people they may not understand?

ML: It's [trying to] reach for this social inclusion. And yes, there is this tendency in society to look at this issue and bring about the need for the social inclusion.

Q: Though many people feel they're born a homosexual or a lesbian, it does not mean that they're incapable of having sex with the opposite sex, and yet your comedy is about how that can happen. But in the eyes of some viewers, it could be seen as though you're saying, "Oh, they just have to find the right opposite sex person to balance them out."

ML: My gay and lesbian friends in Brazil love the movie because they feel that it shows it as normal. The way it’s treated, the way it’s shown, it’s like everything is normal. Not only in Brazil, in Melbourne too, where the film has been seen, the gay and lesbian communities, and friends, they all liked it because they like how the normality, how the issue is approached. But in Sao Paulo, one lesbian came to say, "You are homophobic! Because at the end of the day what you’re saying is that a man can only be happy with a woman."

Q: You were confronted by someone who is offended by the film, she's making a serious critique. Without sloughing it off, how do you as an artist and filmmaker -- trying to do something serious in this movie -- reflect upon that kind of criticism?

ML: Maybe this person didn't really get the idea of the film. Or maybe even she didn’t even get the idea of herself. If 99 percent of the people got it or enjoyed it and 1 percent was offended and hurt by it, there's something being said right there.

The one thing that is the mission of this film, and my mission as an artist who created it, is that it's bringing about the debate, the issue to be approached. My mission as an artist is not to create the truth, a truth that he doesn’t even have himself, but just being able to bring the issues up to the discussion table and have people face it.

Obviously Madona's tale is like a fable, that maybe in real life you’re not going to find a story like this, but maybe there will be a story like it. So it's like a reference.

From Torino to Brooklyn comes BIFF Director Marco Ursino

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Interviews

Published on Thursday, 03 June 2010 01:40

Written by Lise Millay Stevens

The Brooklyn International Film Festival (June 4 to 13, 2010) was established in 1998 as the first international competitive film festival in New York City. Ever since, its goal has been to connect filmmakers with distribution companies and to give first- or second-time filmmakers exposure to the public and the media. No films are accepted that already have a U.S. distributor.

As Executive Director Marco Ursino explained, year one was a three-day affair that only attracted 150 submissions. Recalling his path to BIFF, the Torino, Italy native talked about his early dreams of being a filmmaker, which were felled by industry nepotism; none of his family was involved.

In 1988 he came to New York on a supposed vacation, not speaking a word of English, and found himself living in the then-Williamsburg of cheap rents, warehouse artists and filmmakers. The film he ended up making “went nowhere,” he said, but he conceived of the Festival to promote it and the work of other Brooklyn filmmakers. The rest, as they say, is history.

Ursino spoke about about independent film, Brooklyn and the Festival, then and now.

Q: I must of course ask—why Stunt as the theme of this year's festival?

MU:  We live in the times of political, social and economic stunts. Filmmaking is a stunt. The festival itself is a stunt: a rehearsed, organized move with a percentage of risk. More and more we are moving towards films that are controlled by sponsors, by the people with the money. But independent film is one of the best checks on that trend. The works are...a collaboration between the filmmaker and community and friends, a labor of love.
 

Q: Which films were you particularly proud to include?

MU: Gabi on the Roof in July, The Prospects, Ten Stories Tall. Why? Because they are local films that can compete with our international lineup; they have a very specific and unique flavor.
  


Q: Iraqi filmmaker Jafar Panahi was supposed to be a Cannes jurist, but was detained prior to the festival for his film work and political views. Do you specifically seek films from filmmakers whose countries censure their art?

MU: Touching upon the most controversial issues of the year has always been our trademark and drive. We like very much to bring forward political topics, to give those filmmakers a voice in the festival.

Q: Obviously the economy has impacted many businesses, especially the arts, but what are the particular challenges for film festivals in 2010? How do you attract crowds?

MU: I don't know if I would start a film festival in 2010, but for a 13-year fest like ours, it has been a great year so far at all levels. Great movies, strong sponsors, competent staff, a truly reliable team of volunteers and more general interest than ever before.
 


Q: Although there has been a lot of gloom and doom about where the industry is going, box office sales are consistently higher than revenue from pay-per-view and DVD movies. Can anything replace sitting in the dark with strangers in the cavernous darkness, the big screen experience?

MU: I still believe in the magic of a dark room shared with friends or strangers. And I like the big screen (if the projection is at its best) together with a real sound system to enhance the experience.
 
Q: There is a paucity of celebrities at the festival. Is this deliberate or just a lack of involvement from locals such as Gabriel Byrne, Paul Giamatti, or Steve Buscemi?

MU: No, we welcome anyone and everyone to come to the Festival, but we don’t want it to be a Tribeca. We want the unknowns, the filmmakers, to speak and hold the discussions. Funny you mention though -- David Byrne was first celebrity who attended our Festival, in 1998.

Q: How do you compare the Festival and Williamsburg in their early days with the crazy boom that has gone on in Brooklyn over the past few years?

MU:  What we envisioned years ago was to draw attention to Brooklyn as a center for the arts, and through filmmaking, to create a clear stamp of what living in Brooklyn is. It has a real identity, a freshness. There was a moment when it came for cheap and was full of painters, sculptors, film people.

Q: Does that mean you’ll have to start looking in other non-hipster neighborhoods for the next wave of filmmakers?

MU: Yes, maybe we did too good of a job promoting the arts in Brooklyn. (Williamsburg's) Kent Avenue looks like Miami Beach now. But you can’t stop progress. And with the economy, some people have actually been crossing back over the river for cheaper rents, so who knows? Maybe we’ll be looking for the next wave in Bushwick.

Q: Speaking of Kent Avenue, why was indieScreen added as a Festival venue?

MU: indieScreen will eventually become the permanent home of BIFF; it was built with that intention. The Festival was originally held in Williamsburg and was the Williamsburg/Brooklyn Film Festival. We want to appeal to two distinct populations: the younger art crowd that hangs in the area and the more mixed crowd in Brooklyn Heights, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens.

But as I said, BIFF was born in Williamsburg, and we had our first three years of the Festival here. I say here because our offices were and still are in Williamsburg. We love the crowd.