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 Emiliano Sette & Raúl Koler

"Anacronte" by Emiliano Sette y Raúl Koler

Emiliano Sette

Raúl Koler

- First of all, congratulations for your remarkable short film!

Your film tells a strong story! How did the idea come about?

Well, this is an original idea by Raul Koler who thought in the first time in making big paint with this concept. The first picture in his mind was all humanity walking in an infinity plane and behind them were Anacronte and the sorcerers of evil, that transforming their bodies become in bows and arrow, they shoot to the humanity their evil.  

Later Raúl talked with a common friend and he finds better the idea to make a film. We began to work building the dramatic arc with the writer Sabrina Pace while we start to explore the firsts characters' design with our art director Nelson Luty, another big process on this trip.    

- How was the relationship with your team?

Anacronte has a big family. The project was a co-production Argentina-Mexico and we had to find the best workflow to articulate both teams. We made in Argentina all the creative phases (script, character design, storyboard, environments, original score, sound design), and in Mexico with Exodo animation studio´s friends, we work modeling, textures, animation and render. Today we have the possibility to work big projects and a long process with an online workflow without hesitation, the first time 4 years ago this was a big challenge, but we had the luck to find the correct artists to do it.      

- In addition to a great story, the animation is impeccable. How has the process of creating the settings and characters been? (inspirations, times, details)

Anacronte is a Universal story and that pushed us to create environments that represent different places worldwide, like a refugee camp, a Chinese circus, a street of Buenos Aires among others. We were looking for a realistic look and in this sense the concept art of Nelson Luty and his team and the textures in the final look were fantastic. But I think that the real challenge for us was the Anacronte´s character design because we needed to find a design without a reference´s realistic element. This character represents humanity´s evils and that don't have a similar in life. After many drawing sketches of Nelson, we could know the spooky Anacronte´s face.   - How would you define your personal experience with cinema as a filmmaker?

Maybe like in other art expressions the cinematographic projects say a lot about ourselves, each phase of our life has a project that represents us in some way. My experience as a filmmaker is about learning because the set is a great crash in where a lot of artists from different places collision in an event that has some map for making the way, but really the result is a big mystery.

- What is the life of the filmmaker like in Argentina?

The life of the filmmaker in my country is like hunting, here we need to find the lifestyle that give us the possibility to make our personal projects, instead of that our projects be our style life. The filmmaker life is that I think, but Argentina has a deficit of opportunities for its artists among a lot of other priorities stuff.  

In other hands, we are living times where the projects have the possibility to find fertile ground in more than one place, don´t just for the co-production budget but also for the possibility to find a workflow with people all over the world with the same necessity of you, and the communication tools for that are in our hands.  

- Has the film met your expectations when planning it?

Definitely and more, yesterday we arrive at 100 festivals won worldwide this was unexpected for us.  

We believed in this story and when we began to find the visual concept we had a lot of expectations, but we are so surprised for the great reception, the festivals trip, and the audience's words after each screening. This was a very emotional project for us and when the people and the juries talk about their own experience after the screenings we go back to connect with the creation´s moment.

We have one year of distribution front us and we are excited to see what´ll happen with the short. - Can you tell us something about your next job? Do you have in mind the making of a feature film?

Well, the short film is having its echo. We are working in Anacronte´s spin-off that became in Tv series, we are writing the project with the compromise of the show it this year. This project gave us big know-how, we create a fantastic team and all that synergy full us of energy to make new things.

In other hand, we hope that the feature film landing soon.  

- 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 Toma Enache

“Between Pain and Amen”

Written and directed by Toma Enache

1 - First of all, congratulations for your remarkable feature film!

How were your first steps as a director?

Thank you! I m happy you liked it! I made my debut with a feature film spoken in the Aromanian language, a film entitled I'm not famous but I'm Aromanian. It was released in 2013 and it was the first film ever made in Aromanian, an old language still spoken today in parts of Greece, North Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania. We shot parts of the film in all these countries and in the US.

All my grandparents were from Greece, my father was born in North Macedonia and my mother in Bulgaria, and their language was Aromanian. So I wanted to make this film in honor of their origins and language. Let's not forget that the Manakia Brothers, the first filmmakers in the Balkans were Aromanian. They shot their first film 10 years after the Lumiere brothers – a silent film, of course. So I had a very strong drive to make this film spoken in Aromanian, 108 years on. We got some national and international awards and the film was very well received by audiences at home and abroad. All these gave me the confidence to go on, so I continued with two documentaries and, in 2019, with the feature film BETWEEN PAIN AND AMEN.

2 - What is the life of the filmmaker like in Romania?

I don't think the life of a filmmaker in Romania is much different from that of filmmakers in other European countries. We are dealing much or less with the same challenges, the biggest of which is having a reasonable budget for our productions. I am glad that we have many young and talented people here, passionate about making films. I worked with some of them on my latest production and I think they did a great job.

3 - Tell us about the backstage. What were the most complex or difficult things you had to solve during filming (technically and/or emotionally)?

Most of the film was shot inside an actual prison. I wanted to present the horrors of the communist prisons as faithfully as I could. The inmates used to be held in cold, wet cells, with the windows barricaded, as they were not allowed to see the sunlight. One of the challenges was to recreate that dark atmosphere inside the cells. Being a film about torture and pain, based on true events, I was constantly trying to strike a balance between sufferance (life in prison) and joy (happy memories, freedom), so as to make it bearable for the audience to watch it. Even so, many people tell me it is hard to watch. But in the memory of the prisoners who were tortured and killed there, and in honor of the survivors, some of whom were present at the premiere, I had to tell the truth, even if some find it unbearable. Then, the fact that we shot in an actual communist prison, fully aware of the fact that innocent people were tortured and killed there, was very challenging emotionally for the entire team. We felt we had to give it all, to be our best version in our attempt to tell their extraordinary story to the world.

4 - Which directors do you think have influenced you in your work?

Innaritu, Fellini, Almodovar, Orson Wells and more recently Bong Joon-ho are some of my favorite directors, but there are many others.

5 - Your movie has a great reflexive approach. Do you have another project in mind with a similar approach?

I usually pick a theme that has a powerful meaning, about extraordinary people or extraordinary events. I want the story to be based on, or connected to the reality. Usually, a strong story reveals a powerful or painful truth that in most cases is kept in the dark. In my films, I like to bring the truth to light, no matter how hard this is or how much some people might resent it. This is the only thing that gives my work a meaning.

6 - How was the relationship with your team during the filming?

I carefully select the team I work with, because we have to get along like a family in order to get the expected result. So I surround myself with talented people, who are at least as passionate about making films as I am. I worked with the same DOP on my both feature films, Alexander Sachs from Germany. He is extremely talented and intuitive. We speak English on set because I don't understand German and he doesn't speak Romanian, but we need very few words to understand each other. I get deeply involved in the work of all departments, such as set design and music and I have a very clear idea of how I want the film to look like, from the scriptwriting stage.

7 – Can you tell us something about your next job?

I have started working on the script and I get more excited by the day. Just like Between pain and amen, it will be deeply rooted into reality but it will be very different from my first two feature films. I will definitely submit it to the MFA. I think you do a great job with the festival.

- Thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak with you! We will be attentive to your next jobs!

Thank you for having me!

-- Madrid Film Awards I Press Team

madridfilmawards.com