Exclusive Interview with Andres Ramirez

Jose Andres Ramirez Ortiz is a Mexican independent filmmaker known as Andres Ramirez. While growing passionate to the world of cinema and literature, Andres started writing short stories at a young age. Later, in Monterrey, Mexico, while he was in high school, he started his filmmaking career shooting short films and music videos. At this point, writing and filmmaking became more prominent in his life, and during a summer, he went to the Pre-College Program at CCA in San Francisco. At the end of high school, he went to Vancouver Film School, where he directed and produced the first short film as a student in a film school, "Why? (2016). He is currently working on distributing his successful short film "Frame," which was presented at the Cannes Short Film Corner in 2018. At the end of 2019, he started a festival circuit run for his two more recent short films, “Shutter” and “From Charlie, with Love,” which are currently seeking distribution. Andres is currently in post-production for his first VR project, “Scars and Voices: A VR Experience.” He is currently developing and looking forward to completing his next short film while he continues his film studies at New York University with the hopes of graduating in May 2022. IMDb Profile

Synopsis: Anders and Natalie, a modern couple who has been dating for at least two last years and supporting each other dreams. Soon to be graduating from college, they begin to face uncertainty about the upcoming changes in their lives. Two weeks before graduating, Anders receives an opportunity to work in his dream job in Los Angeles, in the process of jeopardizing his relationship with Natalie after his commitment of moving to China with her supporting her dreams, seemingly putting aside his career. Suddenly the young couple is forced to choose between their dreams or the relationship itself. IMDb Profile / Ig: @isthisitfilm --

Andres, first of all, it's a pleasure talking to you!

Let's talk about your most recent work “Is This It?”. How did the idea for this project come about?

The story is personal, mainly inspired by how certain relationships have shaped and impacted my dreams. The movie has been in development for over four years. I began writing the scrpit in December 2018. The movie also reflects the uncertainty and many multiple changes I experienced during my early twenties, especially after moving four times to land in my dream school and once again becoming anxious about the future upon graduation. In essence, this is a film of exploring my maturity as I question the value of my dreams while creating a love letter to the people who have influenced me in the most organic, honest, and personal yet universal way.

Tell us about the preparation processes of the film, as the creation of the script (are you also the screenwriter?), the casting, etc.

We’ll we are very early into the pre-production process that said I could speak about the casting and what I am most excited for as we go into production. As I mentioned above, this film is very personal and has been in Development since 2018. As you can imagine, I am very excited to finally share this story with the world after it being stuck in my head. At some point, I thought the film would never become A reality, especially during the Covid lockdown. In many ways the idea of making the film helped me navigate through these difficult times. Hence, I feel blessed and delighted every time I work in pre-production and talk with my collegues and crew about the film. Honestly, I cannot wait for us to shoot! The casting process itself has been very interesting, and I am very lucky to be working with such a generous, kind, and talented cast. In Nathan’s case, I had worked with him on a set before. However, we didn’t stay in touch. Then by an act of fate, we ran into each other and re-established contact after. I offered him to do scenes in a directing class, but little did we know that Covid would cancel the plan. During the pandemic, we engaged and realized how similar we are. After discussing the “Is This it?” project and working on a crucial scene on a Zoom workshop, I casted Nathan to play Anders in April of 2020. In the case of Sidney, things were a little bit different. I had another actress that unfortunately had to drop the project. Luckily, Nathan was able to connect me with Sidney. I remember feeling nervous because of her strong resume. After our first conversation, we connected and realized that we would work together. In addition, and very important to the plot, Nathan and Sidney had strong chemistry read within the first few minutes. They were perfect for the roles of Anders and Natalie. I am so fortunate to have them as actors in this project, and I can’t wait to start the production with them and hopefully continue working with them in future movies.

What can you tell to the future viewers, who are reading us, about the film? What things do you want the film to generate in them?

Firstly, I hope the film’s drama will entertain the audience. Secondly, I hope the audience will relate to the characters based on their own experience: nostalgia and a sense of bittersweetness about what is lost and further question the value of their dreams and the sacrifices they made to accomplish them. In addition, we will shoot the film entirely in Kodak’s Motion Picture Super 16 and Super 8 formats. I hope that people will appreciate the cinematic organic, naturalistic lighting look of Super 16 for the developing drama, contrasting to the nostalgic bittersweet feel of Super 8 for the memories the couple has.

What makes this project especially different from your previous works? What goals do you have for the film when it is premiered?

Well, I hope that the film finds its audience and people are able to connect with the film and ultimately be entertained. Like every filmmaker, I hope the film has a successful festival run that will reward my team and me for our hard work and help us fund future movies and get better working opportunities in the future.

I believe that is an evolution in certain stylistic styles such as shooting or having the look of the motion picture as seen in previous films From Charlie, with Love (2019) and Frame (2017) and further continue my evolution in the format, just as some of my favorite filmmakers like Spielberg who moved from amateur 8mm towards the more professional 16mm format. Thematically this film will continue most of the themes that I have explored in Frame, further questioning relationships and the meaning of our memories concerning our dreams.

A question for the lead actor and actress (Nathan Vincenti and Sidney RoseAnn White): Tell us about your decision to join the project and what you expect from it.

- Nathan Vincenti (first picture): Andres approached me about this project 2 years ago when the script was still in development. Our fast friendship made it obvious we should work together and andres felt our trust made me capable of portraying this character which in many ways takes heavily after Andres himself. What started as a scene for a directing workshop in a class at NYU Tisch, became a partnership and a process of telling this story about lost love, following your passion, and learning to let go. all I have ever expected from this project remains what I expect from it today, to hopefully realize Andres’ vision & truthfully explore the human experiences which Anders gives me the opportunity to go through.

In doing that, I’m hopefully a vessel for another person, another artist, to feel fully seen and heard—to express the things about the world and what we all go through that they wish to express.

I hope to create with this project a lasting and honest portrayal of what it means to live and love in your 20s in New York City today. In working on this project I have gotten the opportunity to play with some of the most amazing and talented people all while learning about myself in the process, that is the greatest gift—something I never expected but feel very grateful to have received from my time working on this project. IMDb Profile

- Sidney RoseAnn White (second picture): Andres first pitched this project to me back in October of 2021. Although I initially knew absolutely nothing about the man, we quickly became acquainted and have grown closer and closer with every talk. Andres is not just a director to me but a friend; someone I can rely on on a rainy day.

His ability to talk so openly, honestly, and passionately was one of the driving forces in my decision to join the project. I have never met a director so invested in not only getting to know the actors but also cultivating a safe, freeing environment where we are all able to collaborate and connect beyond the normal actor/director surface level.

When Andres first introduced me to the character Natalie, he spoke with such passion and love, which made my decision to join the film easy. I could tell he wanted, no, needed to tell this story. And so do I. My co-actor Nathan, who has been on this project far longer than I, is also one of the reasons I decided to take part. I first met him only a few months before I met Andres on a set for a scene called High Fidelity. Not only is he one of my favorite actors to work with but he is also one of my favorite people here in New York. The man is driven, fervent, and hilarious. With these two lovely people and our amazing crew, I expect nothing but love and authenticity from Is This It? We can’ t wait to show you our story.

IMDb Profile

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Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak with you!

We will be attentive to your next works!

Madrid Film Awards I Press Team

madridfilmawards.com

Exclusive Interview with Julia L. Rosengren

Biography: Julia L. Rosengren is a trailblazer and a fearless entrepreneurial creative. As the middle child of four, she and her siblings grew up living with their parents in poverty in the tiny northern Brazilian town of Timbaúba. When Julia was a young girl, she would walk a couple miles to town each day to pick up the two largest jugs of fresh water that she would carry home, as her loving family’s household had absolutely no electricity or running water. Although times were rough, these very difficult living conditions motivated Julia to desire a better future for herself and family. As an adult, Julia made her mark in the highly competitive world of modeling, which opened the opportunities to visit numerous different countries across the globe. With each new adventure Julia embarked on, she would immerse herself in the country’s culture, and to date she speaks Portuguese, English, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, French, Russian, and Danish. Always reinventing and challenging herself, Julia hosted a London talk show and later signed on as a fashion consultant for the iconic French department store chain, Galeries Lafayette. From there, she enrolled in a master chef class and rose to become an in-demand executive chef for her own catering brand called “Julia’s Cuisine Exotique,” located in the Golden Triangle area of Europe. Despite successes in a broad array of business ventures and explorations, Julia felt like she finally found a home for her soul when she had an opportunity to lean into the world of philanthropy. It was then that she decided to make a direct change in her life by helping to raise money for underprivileged children. Julia's passion willfully took her to the United States, where her love of languages persisted. She enrolled as a student of Russian in the Modern Languages Department at the University of Central Florida, and there, became a part of the academic culture by granting scholarships for deserving students. Julia and her husband also did a lot of joint philanthropy work at the University, helping to build the locker rooms for the UCF football team, as well as the soccer and volleyball teams. Additionally, Julia also helped a non-profit organization in North East Brazil, where together with her friend, Anderson Ribeirao, have created a project called “United Changing Lives” allowing women the opportunity to learn how to become manicurists in order to provide jobs and help them sustain themselves. Official Website: www.juliarosengren.com Ig: @julialrosengren

Most recently, Julia has been working on writing and producing films, where she was the producer on Before Sunrise (2020). Julia’s latest work is her screenwriting and starring debut, LEAVES (2021), a mesmerizing environmental-awareness short film that showcases issues with climate change, global warming, wildfires and deforestation. The movie chronicles the story of an academic-minded woman, played by Julia, discovering an epiphanic connection between herself and an ailing massive red oak tree in her backyard. Threaded through the narrative are ties between the infirm tree, the out-of-control west coast forest fires, and our disappearing rainforests. LEAVES marks the beginning of a creatively fertile and purposeful era for Julia, where her humanitarian interests intersect with her artistic pursuits.

Watch the Trailer! https://juliarosengren.com/projects/leaves/

Mini Biography of the Company: ManoelFerreira Productions, LLC Born during the early ravages of the Covid 19 pandemic with the ambitious idea of making films to send a positive message to the world. Films and special projects already accomplished are: ‘BEFORE SUNRISE‘, an award winning short film, shot in Texas on an iPhone but directed remotely from Brazil, ‘UNIAO GAIA’ a viral music video with contributions from people all over the world, and now LEAVES, the new short film to be released soon. MFP, was created by myself and my husband James Rosengren, in honor of my beloved father, MANOEL FERREIRA. Growing up, he believed so much in me and my dreams when, as a family, we had so little and even less opportunity. Sadly, he is no longer with us, but left behind a beautiful love for the planet, as you see on the logo of MFP. I hope our work can be a positive contribution to the world while also honoring his life and memory. For future projects, some are already in the early writing stages and MFP is always open for positive ideas that send a message.

- First of all, it's a pleasure talking to you!

Let's talk about your most recent work “LEAVES”. How did the idea for this project come about? I have always felt a great closeness with nature and trees in particular. From when I was very small I would hug them, I still do, and it always makes me feel a great sense of peace and communication. I have always had this recurring image in my mind of a woman, maybe it was always me, maybe it was someone else, but it was of this woman becoming one with a tree. That was really where it all began.

- How was the relationship with your team? Well, firstly I took the idea to my friend Paul Davis, who is a writer-director that I had worked with before, and I asked him what the image suggested to him. He had some ideas and then I had some more ideas and before we knew it we had a script and we were shooting in East Texas where we hired a very small local crew. It all came together very quickly.

- Tell us about the origin of the production company (Manoel Ferreira Productions, LLC), what vision and goals does the company have for the future? I come from a very small town in Brazil and we were very poor when I was growing up. Even so, my father always encouraged me to live my dreams. His name was Manoel Ferreira, so I named the company in his honor. Unfortunately, he passed away before seeing it come to be but I know he would share our vision of leaving the planet in a better place after we are gone. That was something very close to his heart and is now both our visión and our goal.

- What can you tell the future viewers, who are reading us, about the film? What things do you want the film to generate in them? Ideally, I would like the film to make them think. It is an environmental film, I suppose, but it doesn’t seek to preach and I don’t pretend to have all the answers. Who does? But I hope it will make people consider that we are part of nature and our environment, not ‘apart’ from it. To me, that carries great responsibilities.

- Tell us about the preparation processes of the film. What were the most complex or difficult things you had to solve during filming (technically and/or emotionally)? There is something I have learned about making films. It is that you are never really dealing with just one film. In fact, there are three. The first is the one you conceive of and write. The next is the one you film and the third is the one you edit in post-production. They are all the same and yet they are all different because the process is always evolving.

For example, on Leaves, the most difficult part was that we knew there would be a certain amount of special effects (SFX) that were critical to the film. So although of course, those elements are there on the page in some form, they are not present when you film, which makes it quite a challenge and demands a lot of preparation to allow for them. This is what I meant by the ‘three films’ you make. The circumstances you face when you actually shoot, be it weather, exterior lighting, or whatever, can necessitate quite a lot of changes to different scenes in the film.

On Leaves, the SFX was quite demanding and took a very long time as we had such a small post-production crew. Most films go through some versión of this. There is a lot of back and forth as some things in the process work well and others do not and have to be changed. That time on Leaves was certainly quite demanding emotionally but well worth it in the end.

For more Julia L. Rosengren´s projects visit the Official Website: www.juliarosengren.com Ig: @julialrosengren – Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak with you!

We will be attentive to your next works!

Madrid Film Awards I Press Team

madridfilmawards.com

Exclusive Interview with Johanne Chagnon

Biography: For more than thirty years, Johanne Chagnon has adopted a diversified artistic practice that calls on several mediums, in addition to exploring various forms of distribution and various types of presentation venues, often unconventional. More recently, she has turned to art video in which she can bring together her past experiences. Her videos have won several nominations in various festivals around the world. She also writes articles for the Silver Mask Live Festival website (Los Angeles) and is a jury member of the Paris Film Awards. She has been involved for over 15 years in the art magazine ESSE as coordinator and editor. From 2000 to 2017, she also developed Engrenage Noir, an organization which works to support community action art. Last year, she published the monograph «Naviguer malgré tout [Navigate anyway]» which traces her practice from 1986 to 2015.

Official Website: johannechagnon.quebec/

IMDb: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm12593014

Fb: https://www.facebook.com/johannechagnonartiste

Ig: https://www.instagram.com/johanne_chagnon/

First of all, it's a pleasure talking to you! How has your relationship with cinema been throughout your life? It has been changing? I would first like to point out that I am an interdisciplinary artist from the visual arts community, and have been for more than thirty years. I dedicate myself to video art (also called experimental video). In the beginning, the video served me as a documentation tool, especially for performance art. Little by little, I became interested in this medium, which is interdisciplinary by its essence. In 2017, I set aside all collective activities in the field of community art to do nothing other than my artistic practice. At this pivotal moment, video imposed itself as an opportunity for combining different disciplines (photography, drawing, writing, sculpture, voice, movement). And since I no longer present live performances in front of an audience, I can at least continue that practice in front of a camera.

How would you define your experience as a filmmaker? What things do you think you have found and what things have you lost along the way? I naturally create by experimenting in my studio, alone with my intuitions and obsessions. I manipulate all the elements of my videos: accessories, sets, costumes, lighting, etc., and I embody the characters who evolve in them. In addition, I also do the editing (footage and sound). Like an open channel, I let myself be guided without being bound by realism. The "story" unfolds gradually with the integration of the different components. If I was to deal with a team, even a small one, I would have to structure in advance my process by preparing a strict work schedule, which is not my way of doing things. Which would make me feel less free to experiment. What I have found : * I discovered personal universes that I could not create otherwise. Mastering all the steps of a project has led me to unearth other facets of my interiority and to encounter the dark corners that I carry. * I was able to reach out to new video art networks and meet inspiring people. * I have deepened my knowledge of the history of experimental video and cinema, which fuelled me to push the medium in unexplored ways. What I have lost: * I no longer have direct contact with an audience during exhibitions or performances. And with the pandemic, it’s worse: the viewers of my videos, which are shown online or in festivals where I can't go, are an abstract entity.

What were the first films (or figures) that achieved a high effect on you?

There are many, but I will mention two. Several years ago, I had been impressed by Robert Wiene’s « The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari » (1920). Its dark and twisted visual style conveyed the emotional state of the characters more effectively than realistic locations or conventional design concepts. Later, at the Cinémathèque française in Paris, I saw elements of the real set of this film and I was fascinated by the rustic quality of the materials used which, when transposed to the screen, could thus seem magically transformed. A few years after, the video artist Bill Viola showed me that I should not be afraid to go where my experiments led me, no matter how dark they were (at the time, I was making short humorous videos, for fear of annoying the audience). And as a master of slow motion, he also taught me to be confident and to adapt all the time required by the artwork.

Tell us about the preparation processes of your projects. What were the most complex or difficult things you had to solve during filming (technically and/or emotionally)?

Initially appears an intention that is still unclear. I set up the camera and take a test. Then I print stills from the captured footage and examine them. Two tools come to my aid: writing and drawing. I write freely according to what these images may suggest. This exercise allows me to glimpse possible "narratives", which contribute to enriching the developing universe. I also draw while looking at these pictures. Drawing brings out other types of ideas than those generated by writing. Based on these creative reviews, I go back to the camera and shoot again. The same process is repeated until the final result. However, I do not work in a linear manner, but rather in phases, sometimes successive, sometimes parallel. A draft of editing develops simultaneously. I also outline some sort of storyboard based on the images, in order to give me a visual overview. I constantly place and move them to create a poetically coherent ensemble according to my personal logic. Therefore the video takes shape through an incessant and dynamic dialogue between an idea and its realization. The most complex or difficult things, technically: Becoming friends with the camera, developing confidence in front of the editing software. To overcome this sort of paralysis, I pushed myself to make a short video every day. I ended up producing 200! This challenge enabled me to show more spontaneity and to freely explore various creative avenues. The most complex or difficult things, emotionally: Be more myself, regardless of the outcome. Without thinking about how my work will be perceived.

Are you preparing the next project? What can you tell us?

I am always experimenting and preparing projects, often with several drafts at the same time. This is an ongoing process, with ups and downs, but I persist, always interested in pushing further the characteristics of video graphics language. My immediate goal is to better integrate the disciplines that interest me in the same video project. For example, I began adding watercolor drawings and inserting text fragments, and I intend to better blend these elements in my videos.

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak with you!

We will be attentive to your next works!

Johanne Chagnon´s Filmography: Watch the trailers!

2022 FIND RELIEF, color, 4: 59

2021 SCRAGGLINESS, color, 5:00

2021 FASCINATION, color, 4: 47

2020 DISRUPT, color, 2: 00

2020 NATURE FOUND DEAD IN SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCESS, color, 6: 00

2020 A MOMENT OF WHITENESS JUST BEFORE..., color, 5: 56

2020 A WORLD TURNED AROUND, color, 1: 12

2019 A WALK IN THE FOREST, color, 7:39

2018 CARING FOR YOUR CARCASS, color, 11: 11

2018 UNEARTH THE LANDSCAPE, color, 11: 17

2018 AT HE DAWN OF SPEAKING, color, 1:00

You can contact her through the following official means:

Official Website: johannechagnon.quebec/

IMDb: https://pro.imdb.com/name/nm12593014

Fb: https://www.facebook.com/johannechagnonartiste

Ig: https://www.instagram.com/johanne_chagnon/

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Madrid Film Awards I Press Team

madridfilmawards.com