- 1 hour ago
The Hollywood Reporter's Brande Victorian sat down with the contenders for a nomination for best Oscars short this year including Victoria Warmerdam ('I'm Not a Robot'), Daisuke 'Dice' Tsutsumi ('Bottle George'), Tusk: Olivia Mitchell and Kerry Furrh ('Ripe'), Kelley O'Hara ('Ripe'), Francisco Lezama ('An Odd Turn'), Moshe Mahler ('The Art of Weightlessness') and Hélène Hadjiyianni and Shanice Mendy ('Anaïs') in a THR Q&A powered by Vision Media.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00:00Hello and welcome to THR Presents Oscar Shorts. I'm Brady Victorian and I'm joined today by six
00:00:12early favorites for best Oscar shorts. Thank you all so much for being here. Let's begin with
00:00:17director Victoria Warmerdam from I'm Not a Robot. Thank you so much for being here and for chatting
00:00:21with me. Thanks for having me. Of course I want to start you know I love when a music when the music
00:00:32in a film or a series feels like it's telling you something about the show before you get into it
00:00:37and I think that's spot on with the song Creep by Scala and Calanti Brothers. Can you talk about
00:00:42finding that song and deciding to have that for the intro and outro of I'm Not a Robot? I was actually
00:00:47listening to that version of the song when I was writing the script and I was when I was writing
00:00:52it and I heard that song I was like oh my god this is so perfect for the film you know it's like
00:00:58the theme of it and like you know the the text of the song it's just so spot on what the film is
00:01:06so yeah pretty early so before the film was financed we we started to like clear the rights for the song
00:01:14because it's such an important part of the film. Yeah. I'm really happy that producer Trent from
00:01:21Oak Motion's pictures could make it work yeah. Absolutely and you know I feel like the opening scene
00:01:27of this movie might be the most frustratingly relatable thing I've watched all year as this
00:01:33woman tries to correctly enter her capture data but then the comedy aspect really turns into this dark
00:01:38suspense when Lara thinks she might be a bi and finds out she is. How did you come up with this concept?
00:01:44Well that was literally how the film starts because I was trying to get through some
00:01:49class and I was like failing for three or four or even five times and I was like oh that would be
00:01:56interesting if this is actually how I find out I'm a robot and then you know I had to laugh at first
00:02:04at that thought and then I was like oh but you know my imagination took such a dark turn on that
00:02:10you know what if you are suspecting that your partner bought you as a robot and what if your life
00:02:18is you know not what you thought it was but it turns out to be a lie like it's so creepy and fascinating
00:02:26and I think I really like the whole like sort of Truman Show aspect of it like you know what if
00:02:32everything around you is not what it seems like that was really intriguing to me yeah. And there's this
00:02:38interesting kind of commentary about actually conversation about feminism that happens between
00:02:42Lara and Dan when he kind of explains you know the bot design is for what men want you know which
00:02:48feels like a very pertinent kind of global topic you know at the time were you at all inspired by
00:02:54real life global events? Yeah yeah I think because you know it's such a at first it's such a funny
00:03:02thought like what if I'm actually a robot and I find out through a capture but when I really start
00:03:07writing the script and think about it like it is about you know the patriarchy and feminism and you
00:03:14know what if you're not in a way in control of your own body you know and and I think that's really
00:03:21like especially now it's such a you know you know unfortunately it's such a still such an important
00:03:28topic to to talk about and I think you know in a way like a genre film like this like when it's a bit
00:03:35of like a sci-fi dark comedy I think that's the perfect vehicle to actually you know address topics
00:03:41like that. There's also this idea of Dan not wanting to grieve Lara that's really baked into her
00:03:48inability to choose whether she lives or dies and I thought that was really an interesting element and
00:03:53we don't kind of fully explore it is there like some backstory to Dan that lends itself or what does
00:03:57that nugget kind of inform? Yeah yeah it's it's it's funny that you mention it because it's such a small
00:04:03nugget of information you know but you know in the backstory he had to deal with a the passing of
00:04:10his wife like his late wife you know and I think that's that's also what makes us human is that you
00:04:19know we have mortality so you know and that also makes him like sort of understandable like that's the
00:04:26only you know proper way you can like buying a woman is never like a good idea but when you have
00:04:34to deal with grief it makes him more like relatable and more like you you can understand it like for
00:04:41example like if I I don't know if I would buy my partner but you know I have a dog but of course my
00:04:49dog can die like that's that's the thing that when you buy a dog you are aware of the fact that
00:04:55you know you will probably outlive your dog and I would definitely buy a robo dog if it was a
00:05:01so yeah. And I also want to talk about you know Pam who seems to be the orchestrator of this unique
00:05:10bot service she's quite a curious figure you know at least from my perspective you talk about her a bit
00:05:16what does she represent in this narrative? Well she represents the company that provides
00:05:24robot partners um and I'm just very curious to to hear from you like when you saw the film did you
00:05:31did you think that that she might be a robotist? I did yeah I did I think so too yeah
00:05:39yeah yeah yeah yeah so she's like sort of like the label of like I don't know how to call this in
00:05:49English but like the the face of the company yeah yeah but she has this like stoic presence I'm like
00:05:56kind of emotionless in a way of a body so it's like maybe she is like yeah yeah um and with that you
00:06:04know I want to then get to the ending which is I mean kind of a cliffhanger but then I'm like maybe
00:06:09not because you know it seems um that Lara may not make it when she decides to jump off the parking
00:06:14garage how did you decide on that ending? Well it's funny because you know usually I'm not super keen
00:06:23on like dark endings like that but when I had the like the idea of the film like the start like with
00:06:30the captures I sort of immediately thought about that ending for some reason I just visualized that
00:06:36ending um which is quite dark of course um and you know from that point it was really you know the
00:06:44challenge for me as also the screenwriter to work towards that ending and to like because it's it
00:06:50goes from zero to a hundred in like less than 30 minutes like 22 minutes um so it was really
00:06:57challenging to go from that starting point to this point um but yeah yeah
00:07:05kind of to that point of you know zero to a hundred like you said in such a short amount of time
00:07:10how did you find the right tone because I feel like this hit so many different notes
00:07:15um in that short amount of time yeah yeah well it's funny because you know I'm I I'm always drawn
00:07:24to comedy like I don't think I could ever write like a full-on drama thing because I'm I'm always
00:07:30looking for the comedy you know also in life I think life is already hard enough and difficult enough so
00:07:36please let's find the comedy in it so I think tone of voice that comedy is it's something that it's
00:07:42like that's how I roll in a way um but I was really interested in in like blending that with like
00:07:49more like the darker themes and and also the absurdity and and sort of like I think it's it's
00:07:56it's it's always important to find the right balance you know between drama and comedy because I think
00:08:03those line is so thin in a way I think drama and comedy like are super related in a way and you can
00:08:11find drama in in humor and humor in drama um so yeah I don't know if that answers your question
00:08:19no it does because I mean even as you're looking at Lara Khan at the end like it's not funny but you
00:08:26don't feel so heavy given what happens yeah so I think yeah um and you know this sure I mean has
00:08:34just kind of swept film festivals for the past years and gotten so many accolades uh what has that meant
00:08:40to you what kind of direct responses have you gotten um that have most stood out to you from the film
00:08:45community um well it's funny because when you start to make a movie it's not like you you are making the
00:08:53movie to win awards but when you do like it's just it you know let's be honest it's such a nice
00:08:58recognition and like it really really helps you know um but I'm I'm I'm just always like
00:09:06in my best you know I just love it when I'm in the audience and I just really can feel like
00:09:14especially with comedy is it's so rewarding when you're in the audience and the audience is actually
00:09:19laughing um you know you know when you make a drama like it's it's much harder to grasp like
00:09:25you know what the people around you are thinking and I think you know comedy is so um you know
00:09:32tangible in a way um so I think that's and you know after that talking with people who saw the film
00:09:38you know and and I feel like it's I can sense that it's it's such a relatable thing also in terms of
00:09:45like how do I you know fit into a world and and you know what is it to be like an outsider and not
00:09:53you know feeling like that I fit in in society or whatever so that's that's also yeah really you
00:10:00know touching in a way to yeah and you know that hinges so much on the actors who bring you know
00:10:07your vision to life how did you find um your three leads for this yeah well um for the main character
00:10:14for Lara I uh casted Ellen Parra um and she is such an amazing actress and she was on my radar for a
00:10:22long time because I love her you know her timing and her ability to approach comedy in such a serious
00:10:29way um and uh so when I was writing the film actually before writing I asked her like if if she
00:10:38wants to be in in this film if I could write it for her and she was super flattered by it and she was
00:10:43like yeah you can so that was really like a luxury for me like so I could like tailoring the script
00:10:49for her specifically um and that is how I actually usually like to work like I really like to think
00:10:56about the actors before I start to write and like really bring it to life with them in my mind so the
00:11:02boyfriend for example um who is played by Henry van Loon he's a Dutch comedian and I worked with him
00:11:08before so my previous two shirts were with him as well um so you know that was yeah that was a easy
00:11:16easy choice um and then for Pam for the Robobot company lady um she was also on my wish list uh so
00:11:25yeah it was just very uh very able to work with all these amazing people yeah
00:11:31well you know lastly I want to ask you know as soon as uh Lara found out she was about I was like
00:11:40oh this is a series and I would binge watch this all day on a Saturday or Sunday but then I saw
00:11:45you know the great news that this is planning to be adapted to a full-length feature um what can you
00:11:51tell us about that and kind of how you might build out that narrative yeah well when I was done with the
00:11:57short like we finished it last year um but I wasn't done with like the characters and the whole
00:12:03universe and I was just so curious to see what happens next but also what happens you know how
00:12:09did they get there like how did they get to this point and how was their relationship built in a way
00:12:14um so yeah I just I just you know started to think about expanding that universe and I think it's it's
00:12:22really interesting to see like how Lara's journey becomes a journey of like self um exploration and
00:12:30and of course she's like sort of thrown into this identity crisis and she really needs to
00:12:35find her own autonomy as a robot and that's such an interesting journey to to explore yeah
00:12:43I'm excited to see more for sure so I want to thank you so much for being here and sharing your
00:12:50insights and congratulations thank you so much thank you take care now we're going to welcome
00:12:56Bottle George director Daisuke Dais Tsutsumi hello Dais thank you so much for being here and chatting with
00:13:03me thank you so much for having me of course so I want to go back to the inception point I was reading
00:13:09that the original concept for this film which was developed by Japanese comedian Akihiro Nishino was
00:13:15going to be more comedic in nature and take on this form of a miniaturized human kind of stuck into
00:13:21this bottle um after a night of drinking too much but the story you actually tell is much more somber
00:13:26and one of addiction through the eyes of a child can you talk a bit about that first idea and how it
00:13:31morphed into what we actually see in Bottle George well when I first uh you know read uh Akihiro's uh
00:13:41initial idea I I was fascinated by this um fun idea of a character who's stuck in a bottle of alcohol
00:13:48um it took us a little while it was it was initially a children's book project and um uh but then over time
00:13:58um you know uh we said let's turn it into a short film and when I asked Akihiro that I think there is
00:14:08more to this story that we can dig into and um I shared my personal experience um which I believe
00:14:17a lot of people might have directly or indirectly of you know uh uh someone close to you who struggle
00:14:25with a problem of addiction and I certainly had a problem with someone who was very close to me
00:14:32was struggling with it and uh I asked him if he is willing to uh turn the story into something
00:14:40a little bit more meaningful to a lot of people's lives and when I shared that story Akihiro too
00:14:47had a similar personal experience and both of us said hey let's make a short film
00:14:54um that is meaningful to our personal lives and hopefully to a lot of people in their lives
00:15:03yeah and kind of an extension of them you've just explained the why but I was so struck that
00:15:09Akihiro almost entirely self-funded um this project and you know I'm curious you know why that piece was
00:15:15even so important for you to also take this on and and the equal importance to direct
00:15:20for me uh you know Akihiro was uh someone as a director who can't ask for a better partner
00:15:29because uh he he goes for something he believes in it wasn't necessarily uh something he calculated
00:15:37commercially how this is gonna you know bring back the investment or anything like that he felt
00:15:43there was a meaning to this project and he and I kind of hit off really well in terms of like just
00:15:49hey not you know running away from this very very sensitive subject matter that being said we both
00:15:56said it has to be entertaining it cannot be like sad and and so depressing like it was very important
00:16:03for us to reach the audience of all ages uh that uh that this subject matter can be in their
00:16:11conversations you know not to turn away people so Akihiro being a comedian and me being an animation
00:16:17director a lot of times family stories uh we tried really hard to make sure Bottle George is palatable
00:16:24for people of all ages and I'm just realizing is that the figure behind you from the film that's it
00:16:31yeah um the actual puppet um and uh of uh of the girl Chaco and you can kind of see how
00:16:41you know um we changed the the the parts of her face uh every frame to make expressions move and
00:16:52our animators just animated frame by frame with this beautiful puppet wow well I want to jump right
00:16:59into a little bit more about the animation process then you know how did you decide on stop motion
00:17:04um what were kind of what were kind of the unique challenges and opportunities with that approach
00:17:08I think in today's day and age where a lot of things are going digital and I myself come from uh
00:17:183D graphic animation uh background um
00:17:23and in a way it's the motion where you really have to have animators real fingers and and and
00:17:31tactile sort of uh a quality to realize uh became so rare in a sense and uh in a sense but also uh
00:17:41we felt it it's uh it's more of a sustainable model moving forward because we need human touch
00:17:48to continue to you know uh live in the world of artificial intelligence you know dictating over what
00:17:57we do in our lives and um uh I just wanted to do a stop motion project just period before even
00:18:05we started this project uh I asked Akihiro like hey you know a character stuck in a bottle
00:18:12and uh this beautiful world of uh um of all the hills sort of symbol symbolizing how difficult it is to
00:18:21climb up the the life issues and all that stuff I think it would be amazing it would be perfect to do
00:18:26stop motion only to find out later that you know when we worked with Dorf studio they said
00:18:32this is like the most challenging story for stop motion uh and of course Dorf our Japanese uh stop
00:18:40motion partner in in made creative incredible creative solutions to uh make realize this film
00:18:48beautifully what was what made this so hard I imagine I mean the character in the bottom might have
00:18:54been a big kind of challenge but can you speak to that a bit we animated pretty much everything in
00:19:00this film um stop motion so the one of the most challenges uh one of the biggest challenges we had
00:19:07was the liquid uh the the the the whiskey inside the bottle and that uh I didn't know how they would
00:19:15have done like we thought about oh should we just do that part cg or should we do that in 2d
00:19:20but they actually animated water on glass and composited uh a liquid on on top of the glass
00:19:31uh later to make it look like there's a liquid inside and it was a bit beautifully done but it was a
00:19:35very very very challenging project yeah and you talk about even settling on the name bottle George
00:19:41and kind of what does that creature in the bottle represent I believe it's it's the sort of a
00:19:48symbolic darkness that the child actually her uh she sees uh uh in her father so uh it's a symbolic
00:19:58character does it exist even we don't know I kind of leave that up to the audience but uh she sees it
00:20:04and she's waiting for the little character George to come out of the bottle symbolizing for her father
00:20:11to come back to her life okay well talk then about you know the ending very emotional um kind of moment
00:20:18where the father comes and embraces her uh you know what are you communicating in that scene
00:20:23I think it's really important um for us Akihiro and I in particular uh said uh we're not trying to
00:20:33solve the problem of addiction in this story because we don't know how uh we both had experience in our
00:20:39lives that we didn't really come up with a solution to it was really important for us to recognize
00:20:45that is a part of our lives in our society and it's very human but what was really true in this story
00:20:54and I think in our lives is the power of family power of love the loved ones um who no matter what the
00:21:03problem you might have they might be waiting for you so that's what we are trying to convey in the story
00:21:08and I was really struck by the fact that you know there are some kind of verbal expressions but there
00:21:15is no dialogue um talk about coming to that decision and how do you think that strengthens the narrative
00:21:20you know we love especially in the form of a short film narrative uh that that we can bring a lot of
00:21:29that sort of uh pantomime uh to tell the story but in particular of this story Chaco this girl who is
00:21:38not necessarily a very expressive character because of the circumstances that she has she has to uh
00:21:44endure um and George himself you know it's the symbolic character of her projection of her father
00:21:52who doesn't even understand what he is himself so for them to not being able to express verbally
00:22:02kind of fit for their story um and hopefully we were able to communicate what we needed to communicate
00:22:09with the audience without dialogue yeah absolutely um and I was reading one of your earlier interviews
00:22:16and you said you know maybe some people will be upset kind of that you're telling this story
00:22:21what actual response have you gotten from audiences to the story um even within our crew there are some
00:22:28people uh who felt uh this story was a little too difficult for them to process you know um which
00:22:40is totally understandable uh but a lot of people we felt uh watching by you know watching this film uh
00:22:50communicated with us that that they they were ready to talk about it they were ready to just recognize that
00:22:57that is a problem that is a problem that we all face uh one of the most misunderstood things about
00:23:02addiction is that the people don't know it is a disease it's it's it is a medical condition that
00:23:09people need proper professional you know care um and uh just that realization alone i feel like we achieved
00:23:19even if people might have felt uncomfortable watching it we feel like we have achieved that that the things
00:23:27that we wanted to share uh with our audience well that was what i was going to ask last of what you know
00:23:32you're most proud of accomplishing with this movie i think the uh the you know the artistry you know of the
00:23:43the stop motion and and the artists each artist's kind of love and passion that went into the story
00:23:50it was alone that alone to me just makes me so proud and i i could cry just thinking about it you know
00:23:57but also um film is always a way of having a conversation you know between creators and the audience the
00:24:06filmmakers and audience and um it's not even about like making a statement or uh you know sharing our
00:24:16opinion that's absolute you know i i think it's really important for us to just have a conversation
00:24:22and just to hear sometimes the reaction from the audience is enough for us to feel like oh it was worth
00:24:28it it was worth it well thank you so much for being here with us and sharing i appreciate your time
00:24:34thank you very much thank you congratulations thank you appreciate it next up we have ripe
00:24:39directors tusk olivia mitchell and carrie furt and executive producer kelly o'hara well hello thank
00:24:46you all so much for being here um i want to start with the cinematography because i think this is just
00:24:53such a visually beautiful project um it literally looks like a painting come to life um so i would love
00:24:59if you could talk about you know where did you film this series what was your guiding principle
00:25:03in terms of the look and feel of ripe yeah thank you so much it's so funny you said that because
00:25:08right before this we were actually talking with our dp doing some before after like he sent us
00:25:14a bunch of really beautiful spanish impressionist paintings as we were going into our prep and we're
00:25:19just thinking we were putting yeah we're like putting them next to each other it's really cool to see
00:25:23it's funny you said that it's like you're a part of our comment but yeah no um we shot in really
00:25:28beautiful catalonia which also helped our cause you know we had the most gorgeous towns and scenery
00:25:35to capture and it was it was really cool to be able to do that yeah and i think like we i mean we we
00:25:39were working with like limited resources limited budget and we we really wanted to like heighten we
00:25:44didn't want it to feel so naturalistic i think a lot of times when you think of like a coming of age
00:25:49film or even a lesbian coming of age film it's very naturalistic um and we wanted to like heighten that
00:25:53to some degree partly because that's our style and what we really like but also because it's
00:25:58something we hadn't seen and so we're trying to discover that together but with limited resources
00:26:01we're like how do we get this like high key lighting look in some areas and so we ended up
00:26:05using a lot of mirrors which is a fun thing to play with and we used the sun and we'd shoot it at the
00:26:11mirrors and it became this big giant light that would cost so much money but we were able to kind of
00:26:15get it into the specific spots that we wanted and really just use the resources we had like
00:26:19in in the location to to work with amazing oh and i want you know tell us what is ripe about
00:26:27the concept what inspired this story yeah i mean we really wanted to see we're obsessed with this
00:26:33kind of like niche genre of like a dreamlike romance which is like you know calling by your
00:26:39name and like before sunrise and these like these these romance stories that kind of take place in
00:26:44this like limited amount of time in like kind of a space that feels real but it feels like it's
00:26:48detached from the world and we hadn't really seen something like that for lesbians and we
00:26:53wanted to make something and you know we were we were um traveling and had we're really inspired by
00:26:59the the like landscape and we really loved that that type of architecture where we were and ended
00:27:03up writing the story and then we also met um rita who was who plays gloria when we were traveling
00:27:09and we were like she's so interesting and we love like her energy and just like how confident and
00:27:16and how much pride she had in herself as like a young person and so those kind of things came
00:27:21together and and and we we we came back to shoot the film yeah and to answer your question about what
00:27:25it's about it's basically about an american teen who goes to spain and accidentally breaks someone's
00:27:30arm and then falls for her yes hey kelly you know when did you first um come on board what made
00:27:38you want to come on board for this project as a producer yeah so i came on board what was it i'm
00:27:44like so lost in even what day of the week or year or month it is but um spring of 2023 right guys
00:27:53yeah that's right yes yes correct um and i got brought onto the project by the other executive
00:28:01producer one of the other executive producers luke anderson he's a good college friend of mine and he was
00:28:06already on the project and he called me up and he said listen i have something that might interest
00:28:11you it's a lesbian film with soccer ties and you're the first and only person i can think of to call
00:28:18and um i said i've never executive produced before but it sounds amazing and i'm interested and then um
00:28:26my fiance and business partner cameron we sat down with tusk and with luke and they ran us through their
00:28:32vision of the project and when we got off that call cameron looked at me and said that's
00:28:37incredible i want to be a part of it we need to do this and here we are today so can you talk about
00:28:43as you brought up you know soccer the importance of this queer coming of age love story against the
00:28:49backdrop of football and what it adds to the genre of lgbtq plus stories yeah i think for me i
00:28:56i wanted to be a part of it because i am a gay woman i've played a lot of soccer and the story
00:29:04really resonated with myself and with cameron and how soccer allowed these characters to express
00:29:13themselves in a way that they weren't doing off the field and i just think that the way tusk used
00:29:19soccer in this film was really interesting and for me i like i'm all for however much lesbian um
00:29:29cinema and content we can get out there the better so but the fact that it had soccer was kind of the
00:29:36kicker for me okay and what inspired that element for you two um you know the soccer thing was an
00:29:42interesting piece because we feel like we've seen a lot of it you know where it's this pretty like
00:29:48triumphant story of like trying to go pro and like win medals and we hadn't really seen it in
00:29:54like a pickup soccer way that we really wanted to see that that we felt was more relatable because we
00:29:59played soccer um you know throughout our lives but never at like a professional level and so we wanted
00:30:04to portray that in a film and and also yeah what kelly was saying to like show these characters
00:30:09dynamic and the element of soccer that doesn't require language that you could be anywhere in the world and
00:30:14the rules apply and you don't have to speak um to each other to know what's going on and so he's
00:30:21just such a shy character and it's like we always joke it's like you can be the shy person who then
00:30:24goes on the field and like gets the most yellow cards you know it's like yeah just don't know what's
00:30:29going to come out and and physicality is such a great way to show suppressed tension and you know at
00:30:35the end of the day this is a story about somebody who's trying to come out with with who they really
00:30:40are in a fuller sense it's something that all of us can relate to and you know carrie and i had our
00:30:45own version of that story we date each other and it took us like a decade nearly to come out and
00:30:50actually tell people that and so having met when we were teens and now being 32 with a queer coming
00:30:56of age story shows that sometimes it takes a little push a little extra effort and we wanted soccer was
00:31:02just such a great way to show kind of something that you're not ready to verbalize but are kind of
00:31:07inside of you and i love i mean the title right and like you know we see sophie with that peach
00:31:13you know from time to time that certainly feels like a nod to the film's name but how did you settle
00:31:17on ripe as the title no it was a long it's funny because at the end of the film there's like a
00:31:24clapper board that you can see on it um but but don't look at it um but yeah i mean we the old name
00:31:34used to be a little bit more of like a negative connotation um it had like a little bit more like
00:31:38pain to it and we wanted something that felt optimistic and olivia ultimately came up with
00:31:42it but i think it was like we liked how it felt like it was it the word feels like coming of age
00:31:47in itself and this idea of like ripening into yourself and it just feels so optimistic and we
00:31:52felt like the film felt pretty optimistic and it felt like it related well it didn't used to be
00:31:57though like carrie and i like i mentioned earlier we've had such a long journey that it's like when we
00:32:01first started writing this film it wasn't so vibrant it wasn't it didn't have the ending with the
00:32:09how joy and the hope that the short has now and it we rewrote the script time and time again kind
00:32:15of like fighting our natural instinct because all we really see is lesbian stories ending in pain and
00:32:20it's so strange because we just found ourselves kind of doing that and then we had to really sit
00:32:25back and question ourselves and be like wait a second like we want to write the ending we wish we had
00:32:30when we were 17 so i don't know we just um we went from a painful story with a painful title to a
00:32:36story that felt a little bit more hopeful and triumphant and changed the title to fit that you
00:32:44know my title change came at the end of our end like yeah we were towards the end and it was the whole
00:32:51thing was we were able to see and and that's where the name came up poor kelly we were calling every few
00:32:56weeks like okay there's a new one idea no i i i i like think back fondly on how we traverse in the
00:33:04journey we went on around the name and i love that we ended on right because i just think that it
00:33:09encapsulates everything that the story is and is about and is i just i love that it's called right
00:33:15and that we ended there it feels right i know for many months i also want to kind of talk about
00:33:23behind the scenes a bit a bit because i read that a lot of the cast and crew crew i'm sorry um were
00:33:30also queer and kind of just having that safe space i think for people to tell their stories in that way
00:33:35too and how unique of an experience um was that for you all as creators you know what did that bring to
00:33:41the story yeah yeah there were i mean there's a so cookie lucas who who is the producer on it um
00:33:48was like we've been producing stuff with her for such a long time and she was really pushing us to
00:33:52do a narrative story because we were doing commercials and music videos and she was working
00:33:54with us and so she like really helped bring us into that narrative to force us into that narrative
00:34:01space and then like once we started working with spain and bringing producers on there we were
00:34:05finding other queer people and there there's this one moment that that i think was like really
00:34:09really impactful on set with like it was after the first day which we shot the kiss first it was
00:34:14the first scene we shot and we were like in back we also were living in the house that we shot at and
00:34:19so we were back at the house with some crew and it was like completely dark and we were watching the
00:34:24footage on a laptop and everyone was crowded around the computer and we look over and laura who is
00:34:27another one of our producers from spain was just like crying and she's like i've never seen this before
00:34:33like this is like an image that just doesn't exist and it was it was it takes a queer person
00:34:39around to kind of point out sometimes when we're making something karen and i are so suppressed at
00:34:43times that we just kind of like power through our scenes and like move on and like we need people
00:34:47around us who are like guys wait like that was really yeah that's why we're doing it's just a
00:34:52new image and yeah it was it was really cool and i think that that like started off the rest of our
00:34:58shooting with this like everybody just felt like we had something to say together and something for
00:35:03queer people around us yeah encouraging us and i think naturally like queer people gravitated
00:35:10to the project too like a lot of the crew who came out of the woodwork to help us because
00:35:15you know it's it's a hard project it's a short film you know you have to really want it to work
00:35:19on a short film i think naturally we were so lucky to attract a really um queer diverse group of
00:35:26artists that made this possible and made this better than we could have ever dreamed of
00:35:30yeah and to that point talk about then once you put it out into the world i mean from my searches
00:35:36online such a strong positive response people are like i want more of this story i want more from
00:35:41you um what is it our rabbit yeah we need content like people are nothing i mean oh my god we're just
00:35:49we're like it's so simple for this campaign it's just queer joy women joy it's such a void in
00:35:55culture and it's when you really look for it it's like oh my god like i don't know the bar is low
00:36:02we're like excited to to enter the conversation i know it's cool hearing people come up and and
00:36:06and say how much they're related and it's also cool too there's a lot of not queer people that
00:36:10come up and say that they can relate to it because i think at the end of the day it's about having a
00:36:13crush at like as a teenager and no matter like whether you're gay and closeted or straight and just
00:36:21like don't know how to express your feelings it's kind of a similar universal experience you wouldn't
00:36:25believe how many older white men came up to us after screenings at festivals and they're like
00:36:30i can relate to this and like that's that's the goal right that anyone can the whole world it's and
00:36:34i think it's even broader than a crush i think it's just about a story about not being able to express
00:36:38your feelings like trying to say what you mean yeah like getting to your subtext yes absolutely well
00:36:44on that note very last question will we see a future length uh story are we gonna finish this
00:36:50narrative yes we're manifesting yes okay 100 yeah yeah we're trying to shoot in the the early
00:36:58summer 2025 and we're we're in the middle of some really exciting conversations and have been very
00:37:05excited by the support this little gay short film has gotten so hopefully we will be bringing a future
00:37:11to you guys we so appreciate the support and the questions and just the engagement with it it means
00:37:17more than you know well thank you we appreciate you sharing with us and congratulations thank you so
00:37:23much thank you yeah next up we have director francisco lazama from an odd turn well hello francisco
00:37:32thank you so much for being here thank you very much for listening the short film this film is such a
00:37:40unique story of intuition and romance and money how did the concept for an odd turn come to you well the
00:37:47concept came up from reality here i live in argentina and the film that i i made i wanted to when i was
00:37:57writing it i i wanted to depict the inflation situation here in argentina that it's really extreme
00:38:04um and this like relationship with the or the the things that are related within with clairvoyance
00:38:14intuition and romance were because i was like working with some elements but that here are really common
00:38:20like when since we are struggling with a lot of inflation there's a lot of like adivinatory and clairvoyance
00:38:29elements in argentine society and and that's was something that i wanted to to relate now the the
00:38:35system like the economy with the divination the divination and the clairvoyance system so it's a
00:38:43little bit weird the short film but but i wanted to do that and that was the idea and and the the idea of
00:38:50the main character that it's a security guard it's something that i it came up because i i used to live i
00:38:56used to work uh in a museum and inside the museum i used to work in a in a film theater that run inside
00:39:04a a museum like a film society and when the the museum closed its doors the security guards were there
00:39:13and i was like working for the film the film theater and and i used to observe the security guards and
00:39:19everything that passed with them that they were like relaxing a little bit because they the security
00:39:25guards when when the the museum was active and the people was coming they were like like acting like
00:39:31responsible yeah earth and when the museum closed its doors they relaxed so it was the idea of like
00:39:39depicting a security guard that was also playing with the pendulum came from me from observing that
00:39:48kind of characters you know okay got you um and i wanted to well i was gonna ask because i've read
00:39:55that some of the it's a mix of biographical and kind of fantastical elements um but also that you were
00:40:01watching silent films for inspiration um how did that assist your writing process yes that's because i i
00:40:09worked in the film society here in argentina as a projectionist and this is like one of the theaters that
00:40:15screen films in celluloid like and and screen films that are silent films silent american films silent
00:40:24french european films and that's something that i'm really interesting on because i'm a film history
00:40:31teacher here in argentina too because because we have inflation we have to to have like plenty of
00:40:37of the job no so uh i kind of started to relate with these kind of films that are more about like
00:40:47like documenting actors you know like the silent films they are not much about the the plots that are
00:40:56totally complete with a psychology and the arcs but are more about like trying to document some like
00:41:04sparks in the in the in the actors like some moments i don't know if you felt that when you saw the
00:41:12short but i tried to work with this kind of method like to to to register something that is exceptional
00:41:19in the gaze of the actors like something that is alive you know like the city the elements of the
00:41:26of the of the chaos of the city the cows of the of the little gestures in the in the actor's gaze it's
00:41:34something that i i learned by projecting and i learned by watching silent films okay i don't know yeah
00:41:42well i mean to that point like lucrucia i think is just fascinating like i want to see more of her i want
00:41:48to know more um about her story you know who is she in your words um and why was leila months the
00:41:55right actors to portray her well i'm i'm also an actor so i trained in an acting school for years and
00:42:02years and and i used to train with her so we know each other like into intimately we know like a lot
00:42:09of ourselves because when you train acting you expose the things that are really really private you know
00:42:16and and she's a friend of mine and i know that she's really capable of expressing interiority
00:42:22through exteriority so what i wanted to do with this film that it's about inflation and it's about
00:42:29how inflation affects somehow the possibility of projecting something into the future it's a film
00:42:35that it's about the struggles in in in economic crisis and how the character starts looping you know
00:42:43like there's no there's a structure of it's like a loop the the actors start like doing the same
00:42:50thing over and over like in charlie chaplin comedies that are like charlie chaplin or buster keaton they
00:42:58always do the same mistake no there's not a transformation of the characters and i wanted
00:43:04to do this and to relate it with the economic rise economic crisis and inflation and i thought training
00:43:11with lila malts that she was a great actress because she somehow like buster keaton she expressed
00:43:18with her saving the distances obviously i'm not comparing myself or lila with buster keaton but i
00:43:24i sense that in lila that she can express something with little little little gestures
00:43:31that the spectator have to do the the math or the lecture of that gestures and i i'm more eager to work
00:43:40with these kind of gestures that blends documentary with fiction than on the arc or the psychology of
00:43:49the birth of the character so for me lila was uh was super chaotic you know and organized as the at the
00:43:58same time that she's death and alive at the same time as a character no and i wanted to to depict that
00:44:06that kind of young people that it's struggling with inflation and they can't project any future and
00:44:13they are like sleepwalkers or automatons with a humanist point of view so what i try to do with lila the
00:44:22the protagonist is to work with like a neutral like mask kind of acting but to work on the interiority and the
00:44:33little little expressions and and she's like death and alive at the same time you know i don't know
00:44:41if you feel something like that absolutely yeah because i didn't even think she was into pacco
00:44:47necessarily but then i was like oh there is you know there's something there yeah and as you mentioned
00:44:54you used to work at a museum i read i think that you shot actually at the museum where you worked
00:44:58is that right of latin american art of buenos aires what was that like for you how affirming did that
00:45:04feel for you as a filmmaker well i i as an independent filmmaker that i am i i'm trained to film and shoot
00:45:12things that are near to me like to work with an actress that it's near from me because i trained with
00:45:19her and i shot in the museum where i used to work at the time so that was really like natural
00:45:28and and it was it seems like really difficult because the the the the short film has a lot of
00:45:34of locations of places and and everything but they are near to me they are really near to me so it felt
00:45:42it felt uh really really natural for me to do that and i was like obsessed with the with the artist that
00:45:49appears in the in the short film that it's an argentine artist that used to the big the crisis in the 80s
00:45:56and i wanted to do a short film about the crisis now so somehow it it made a connection in me and i
00:46:04wanted to then shoot a short film about lila a friend of mine that is a security guard in the
00:46:10museum i i used to work so it was natural for me i love that well tell me you know lastly about the
00:46:17response for you you know to be tapping into what's going on in your country now you know what reaction have
00:46:23you gotten to this film well i guess like some years ago maybe inflation was a mystery for other
00:46:30countries but now many countries in the world are struggling with inflation not in the same terms that
00:46:37we argentinians are struggling because we have like a 100 not what i don't know like 100 percent of
00:46:45inflation per year since the really deep crisis but for example in berlin when i when i presented the
00:46:53short film the first time the short film won the golden bear there that berlin is used to inflation
00:47:00because of its history with the second world war and what happened later with inflation and the bema
00:47:08republic you know like well history so i think they they kind of understood that there was something
00:47:15there that was not uh like near to them because argentina is really extreme but there was something
00:47:24in in the in the like atmosphere of inflation that could be like read or read by by for example the
00:47:34the berlin audience you know like because what i i think is that there are like plenty of films about
00:47:41for example language like in a philosophical way if you want the matrix for example no but there are not
00:47:49many films about economy because like the the the countries that produce more films like do not suffer
00:47:57much inflation they are starting to suffer it now uh and and then somehow i think that like we argentinos
00:48:07can see economy as a language like as a kind of language and that was what i wanted to explore and then
00:48:16i served myself with the screwball comedies the american screwball comedies of the 30s for example
00:48:23they they are they are related with the atmosphere of the great depression there's something in that
00:48:29comedies with catherine hepburn cary grant and and all of that great actors of of america that kind of
00:48:37traffics the atmosphere maybe it's not in the in the plot but it's in the atmosphere you know like and
00:48:43in the neo-realist neo-realist films of italy there's something similar and and for me like working
00:48:51as a film history teacher professor and as a projection too there's something about film
00:48:57history that i want to to use in favor of my my short films so i think it's some it's something
00:49:04really argentinian but i use some elements of the history of cinema that are readable yes for a wider
00:49:12audience i think it works like that absolutely i agree yes thank you so much for being with us and
00:49:24sharing your process and congratulations thank you very much now we're going to welcome director
00:49:29moshe maler from the art of weightlessness hello thank you so much for being with us
00:49:36i want to start i'm kind of love the backstory that i've read about how this film came together which
00:49:42is you you know setting up a studio in your basement um and interviewing a dancer and
00:49:47skateboarder bill shannon how and when did you connect with him um or were you approached you
00:49:52know to tell his story yeah uh we met in i'm gonna say 2017 and he was doing a uh an artist in residence
00:50:01at carnegie millen university and was interested in utilizing motion capture to document his performance
00:50:09art the way his way of moving on the crutches and just interested in the prosperity of of that
00:50:14movement style and uh when i when i was introduced to him uh and i saw what he was capable of and a
00:50:22little bit of his story i was like oh you know are you interested in collaborating and and bill is an
00:50:27artist himself so he's just kind of a champion of all things creative and and was kind of into it from
00:50:33the beginning and i read you know in an interview you said at the time you were also looking for something
00:50:37different to work on at the time and kind of creating art for art's sake how did this check
00:50:42that box for you yeah well at the time i was still with the walt disney company i was working for disney
00:50:47research and was working on a you know a line of of projects that were fun and engaging and professional
00:50:54way but uh kind of different than something i would want to make for myself for you know art so i was
00:51:02looking for kind of like that side project and and uh that's about the time we were introduced
00:51:07to each other and then since then i've i've held three other jobs so it's this is really truly it has
00:51:14been a passion project that i've kept alive over the years yeah well talk about interviewing bill and
00:51:21kind of sharing your story i mean how much time did you spend together how much you know did you capture
00:51:25and what captivated you about his story yeah well initially um i was interested in just doing kind
00:51:33of this abstract homage to uh arcs which is a principle of animation because bill moves in these
00:51:41sweeping arts and and so that that would have been interesting enough for me we went out for a coffee
00:51:47and kind of had a creative meeting and you know i was interested in his backstory how did how does someone
00:51:53end up so good at using the crutches to break dance or skateboard it was was kind of a question in my
00:52:01mind and he talked about um you know his evolution from childhood to adult and the evolution of his
00:52:07crutches and so like from there it became clear that that was the direction i was more interested in
00:52:14going uh is is really the storytelling aspect of of his backstory so yeah yeah how much interview time
00:52:22did you spend capturing and and how were you yeah yeah it was it wasn't that long you know bill is a
00:52:30professional storyteller right um and he we probably captured about four hours of him telling his story
00:52:37in different ways and we like well we kind of need a beginning we need the ending so we'd we'd iterate
00:52:42on it and then from that four hours of footage i cut it down to maybe like 15 minutes and then from
00:52:47there 11 minutes and the final piece is about nine minutes so yeah well can you kind of walk us
00:52:53through your animation process and kind of some of the stylistic choices they are kind of breaking it
00:52:58into parts also including um bill in this kind of animated narrator way yeah uh so there's a lot of ways
00:53:06to make things move in modern animation right um and i think audiences tend to lump these categories
00:53:13together like motion capture may not be very different from hand animation to uh the average
00:53:19audience member but as an animator uh we try to consider what is the best way to tell the story
00:53:27um so there's a lot of different animated styles in my piece uh so we certainly do use motion capture
00:53:35because that that is true in authenticity to bill dancing and working with his crutches um but uh you
00:53:44know animation is this medium of opportunity so a lot of the uh more fantastical sequences of him as a
00:53:53kid for example was done through hand animation and then as you mentioned uh uh the parts where bill is
00:54:02narrating it's kind of like a talking head sequence those uh are from the studio session in my basement
00:54:08and those were hand drawn but rotoed on on top of film but all done all done by hand so again i'm just
00:54:15trying to look at the opportunity that the medium presents at each moment to best tell the story
00:54:22and i think you were able to bring some students kind of on board to help with this creation as well
00:54:26can you talk about that a bit yeah sure um so i'm a professor at carney mellon university now and so
00:54:33it's great to be able to offer students uh you know professional experience on a production even
00:54:41though maybe a modest production uh so i i think i had the help from about nine different students along
00:54:48the way um and definitely believe in trying to get funding to pay for students i'm trying to teach my
00:54:55art students like you should not work for free so they were all they were all kind of like paid
00:54:59apprenticeships or internships over the years to uh help me get the film made essentially yeah
00:55:05it's huge because now it's an oscar conversation it's amazing um and within kind of that process
00:55:13with animation as you kind of talked about your choices what were some of the challenges or even
00:55:18well you kind of spoke to opportunities of why the making those choices but were there specific
00:55:23challenges um within some of those choices yeah i i mean i think when you kind of had this collage
00:55:30of animated styles the question is can you make that work um because motion capture does feel
00:55:35different than hand animation so it was like one of the first things we set out to prove um well you
00:55:40know when you make a film you don't necessarily make it in chronological order especially an animated
00:55:45film i like working backwards from like what is least likely to be true and then trying to prove that
00:55:51first um so the the sequence where he's in this fantasy land as a child playing with his brother
00:55:59is followed up immediately by bill's actual performance dancing on the crutches and i needed
00:56:05to make sure that that transition worked well so that was the first sequence i made okay i love that one
00:56:12um what was bill's reaction when he saw the finished product bill bill was i i think he's happy with it
00:56:20uh for sure um and uh i think he saw kind of a unique opportunity to work with someone with kind of a
00:56:26different expertise and in terms of medium and he was really easy to work with he gave me a lot of
00:56:33creative freedom and i just would check in occasionally and make sure that i was doing justice to the
00:56:38storytelling and not misrepresenting anything in any way or anything like that so he was he was
00:56:43really great to work with what do you feel is an important takeaway from this project in terms of
00:56:49you know representation of identity and ability yeah so part of my filmmaking process trying to figure out
00:56:55what the story is right like i think a lot of filmmakers go through that uh process and what
00:57:01i arrived on is is really that it's a story about evolution through circumstance and i think
00:57:06we think of evolution as this macrocosm of human species over the millennium right um but i think
00:57:14we all go through like an individual evolution over the course of our lives and and that was an
00:57:19interesting idea to me so i try to tell that story in in different ways directorially um like
00:57:25for example the complexity of the film changes from the beginning it starts off fairly simple and then
00:57:30gets quite complex towards the end both in you know the visuals and the sound design and the music
00:57:35um as you know subtle things too like the film moves left to right uh and at the beginning it
00:57:43actually moves right to left because he goes to the doctor to get his diagnosis and that's the point
00:57:48where he can start moving forward if you've ever had a medical diagnosis sometimes like that could be
00:57:54or you know obviously a weighted point in life but allows you to kind of like okay well this is
00:57:58my situation now i can start living the rest of my life right um and how did we settle on the name the
00:58:06art of weightlessness uh i think that so bill had a show in new york uh that it was titled the art of
00:58:17weightlessness where you know he would he would do his performance art and and things like that so i always
00:58:22loved that title and he mentioned that to me so i always kept that in the back of my head but also kind of
00:58:27motivated that evolution really well too where you start start you know for example there's um
00:58:34a robot a toy wind-up robot yes as a as a theme in the piece and this is like one of the simplistic
00:58:42forms of locomotion there is on earth like this thing can barely walk forward and gravity is against
00:58:49it at all times and by the end of the film bill is just like moving you know almost effortlessly
00:58:57not effortlessly but looks looks second nature to him and so that again that spoke to that evolution
00:59:05well and i kind of liked having a title that was more intriguing yeah as well yeah as someone with a
00:59:11sprained ankle right now i was like he's doing so much and i'm flipping around yeah i've been on
00:59:19crutches for a long period for two long periods in my life and yeah i can relate yeah well lastly you
00:59:28know you've said before you know you don't set out to make something that's potentially oscar contending
00:59:34um but certainly i imagine it feels great you know to kind of be in that conversation you know how have you
00:59:40felt about the response to this project so far uh yeah you never know you know when you put something
00:59:46out there you never know how it's going to do and i think like a lot of filmmakers you have your ups
00:59:50and downs you're like oh wow i get accepted this festival and i win this festival and then the next
00:59:54one you just get rejected from so i'm i'm glad that it's found an audience and you know you make you
00:59:59make these things um to share with people because they're the things you would want to see um so it's
01:00:05fulfilling in that way for sure and you mentioned you know now kind of taking on some other projects
01:00:10how has this kind of changed your trajectory um yeah i'm i am a person who kind of equally loves to
01:00:20explore art and industry and research so i kind of always kind of ebb and flow and dabble in all those
01:00:28worlds so now that i finished this more artistic endeavor i'm going back and focusing on research a little
01:00:34bit too but it does make me very excited i i can't stop myself i still have started collecting
01:00:39footage for my next film so i can't you know that's just the way it's going to always go yeah
01:00:44well hopefully we get to chat with you about that later well thank you so much uh for being with us
01:00:50and for sharing all right thanks so much you take care appreciate it and now for our last oscar
01:00:56short we have annais welcome please director helene hadjiani and producer shanice mindy
01:01:04hello thank you both so much for being here with us hello i want to start you know in the beginning uh
01:01:11as you set up kind of the story of annais you see her that she has been running since she was seven
01:01:17years old when did you both first learn of her
01:01:19well it was um for me it was uh october 2022 and during winter i started to dig a little bit
01:01:30about the woman she is and everything she's been through in terms of sports but also the challenges
01:01:35of life she went through and at the time chanice you were in in new york and we were talking a lot
01:01:41and by talking about this idea of doing a short documentary about her you told me that you
01:01:47were already aware of her yes yeah yeah it was she's she's well known um in the running and track
01:01:54and field uh world in france um and when when she got sick actually that was painful for everyone um
01:02:02and so i i had heard uh about her and her story i think in 2016 yeah yeah and quite quickly after
01:02:11that in january 2023 we met with annais we just had a quiet moment uh in the french cafe
01:02:20we shared a cup of tea and we just started talking about this idea of doing a documentary about her and
01:02:26if she was okay about you know us following her and and filming her and also her intimacy how much she
01:02:34would be willing to accept or not and it was a beautiful moment and from that day i think the three of
01:02:40us we we navigated through a beautiful journey together well talk a little bit about her
01:02:46reaction was she immediately like yes follow was she nervous you know what what's her response
01:02:53i think she was very uh open and and happy and always smiling like you saw in the in the film she's
01:02:59always like that in in general every day of her life uh it's more about us being able to follow
01:03:07her because not only she run fast but every day she's really having a very like she every day her
01:03:15life is going very fast yeah and maybe she wasn't really aware of what it takes to direct a film which
01:03:23was a challenge but she was so open with us to everything it was just a challenge for us to to jump on
01:03:31everything she has already planned and the first thing was we didn't know but when we talked with
01:03:38her she said oh in two weeks by the way i'm i'm flying to la reunion island and i'm gonna run over
01:03:44there and so i looked at chinese and i said i need to take a plane and go in your highland and so that's
01:03:51how it happened yeah i'm gonna skip ahead then i was gonna ask when you started uh also what it was like
01:03:58like um for those meets the reunion island um the cross-country race and the mud and the rain and
01:04:04all of that of course the 22 23 marathon you know what was it like being in the moment of those meets
01:04:12i i remember um in la reunion the first time i saw an ice running i almost cried and i i don't know how to
01:04:21describe that i think it was just this movement towards life that we could really feel she's really
01:04:27carrying that uh in her with her smile and also with the family the grandparents marcel and joffrette
01:04:35that welcomed her so warmly it was maybe the second day the first day um we shared a lunch all together
01:04:45and we could feel welcomed and and yeah what do you think that was special um that was obviously a
01:04:54a family time and we like i felt like i was part of the family we were part of the family really
01:05:01quickly um and that is extremely rare because like we just met them in the morning and then
01:05:08we had lunch with them um and so obviously we asked them is it possible to film this moment and and we had
01:05:14to explain also what we were like going to do because and i did not really tell them that a documentary was
01:05:22shot on her and all that so that was magical and when she runs um i mean under the sun or in the mud
01:05:31it's the same it's the same she is uh she's just like a sunshine i would say like yeah and then her
01:05:39father is her trainer right and did i get that right or okay that was i mean and talk about also
01:05:45capturing you know that relationship um what stuck out to you most about kind of that dynamic
01:05:51oh wow um i think jean-yve played a so precious role in her life at the time but also every day now
01:06:04um he's the one who when she was about to die um told her get up and let's go and move and even if
01:06:13it's just walking for a little bit let's go let's have like let's stay in movement and she often told us
01:06:20like this is really the momentum of our relationship as a daughter and father but also in my life to
01:06:26survive this is really where we switched something and that i understood that i could stay in movement
01:06:34and and and run and i i wasn't feeling sick when i was running and staying in movement so he was really
01:06:42really really yeah a precious yeah a foundation of who she is and how she overcome challenges in life
01:06:50and um we can feel the positivity and the optimism she has and she carries comes from him also yeah
01:07:00exactly he's also like the one gathering everyone around annais as well the moots and the running club
01:07:08that she's part of um and and same with the doctor actually like that was a team really all together
01:07:17yeah um and annais like most of the time she says if i had another doctor maybe i wouldn't be like here
01:07:27um because obviously like at first monsieur denarno was not really keen on letting her run um because
01:07:37obviously the chemio and all the treatments are heavy heavy um but he said yes um and he trusted her
01:07:47and so she trusted him as well and and they worked on her body as a team and that worked so that's beautiful
01:07:54in that sense i want to spend some time on putting together that part of the film um annais was
01:08:02diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in 2015 um so you obviously weren't following her at that
01:08:07time but you put together um that story with her doctor and i was really struck by like the tattoos
01:08:13showing her different treatments and all of that can you kind of talk about putting that together
01:08:17visually um and and story-wise um and story-wise yeah it was quite challenging this part because i felt
01:08:25like it was really a necessity to speak about it but how can we speak about something that's already
01:08:31happened and um to honor in a way um everything she went through without falling into something that we
01:08:42we would uh fabric or build um and so i thought about her medical files uh that she kept and i gathered
01:08:55every pieces and i analyzed every pieces i analyzed the the bed scans the mri um and i thought about
01:09:04doing a little bit like the documentaries uh french director alan renee is doing uh or even when he's
01:09:13directing uh hiroshima mon amour he's talking about uh and he's building a story that based on um a fact
01:09:22that's already happened and he's trying to craft um a story based on archives and that's what i wanted to
01:09:32to in a documentary to try to build to stay honest with the the audience and so i put together all the
01:09:40archives and um and with the voice over also it was a desire to um be very cold as cold as what the
01:09:52the files were saying about her treatments every month um and the volcano who from the beginning to
01:10:00the end was like a desire to build a skeleton to have um like um a reminder and maybe like a metaphor
01:10:11of what it is um when we have chemotherapy inside of our bodies and and how it burns the cells the
01:10:18the good ones and the bad ones and how it um creates marks on our bodies and so i wanted to try to
01:10:27mix all of that um very simply um yeah with the voiceover with also um the images of her skin and
01:10:40her body with marks and scars because it's also as women and and our bodies something we don't see very
01:10:48often and yet it's something we go through uh in life uh whether it's with a disease or anything else
01:10:56in our lives we are marked and our bodies too and i think it's something we should celebrate deeply
01:11:01um and it's a force and uh so and also the desire to bring that in the middle of the film
01:11:09to because she's it's really how she felt it it was a moment in her life it went through and then she
01:11:17went on to something else so yeah and even like for the volcano part um her grandfather talked about
01:11:27fire all the time as well um that is something really in their roots yeah it's something related
01:11:34to her roots profoundly regarding her grandfather and so the fire and the volcano is um an image of
01:11:42everything she's been impacted by but also the release of a massive energy and movement she's
01:11:49also willing to give yeah no matter what and how she's able to overcome every challenges she yeah she
01:11:56went when you ask people okay give us one word about ananas they all always say fire fire yes yeah
01:12:04yeah well what was her reaction when she saw the final film she cried we were the three of us um you
01:12:15and me were a bit scared because it was a lot of course to it was an honor but also big responsibility to
01:12:23to direct the film about her because we had to do it right that's what i felt and so
01:12:29when she sat down and and the movie starts very quickly she started crying yes and she said at the
01:12:39end of it she said i'm happy because i'm seeing myself and i'm seeing the team and i'm seeing the
01:12:43people i know uh it's not a lie so that's the best compliment i think we can hear yeah we can hear
01:12:53i love at the end um you know that her dad's kind of summation is like continue and everything will be
01:12:59fine you know they've overcome just these monstrous obstacles what were each of your personal takeaways
01:13:05from this project wow like an ice i would say stay in movement um when anything is happening
01:13:16we will always be able to to find a solution that's what i felt directing this movie with you actually
01:13:22having a producer who's listening to your ideas when your director is very precious and i felt like
01:13:30even when it was hard we always had solutions to find and and yeah just try to stay positive and and
01:13:39always smile like marcel said to avoid blood pressure always quite true
01:13:49and i also said like at the end of it she said now that you did this movie maybe we should run a
01:13:54marathon together oh my goodness i'm gonna take her up on that we'll see that would be amazing an amazing
01:14:02challenge we'll see
01:14:08well lastly i want to ask you know we end with this triumphant moment you know of her finishing first
01:14:14female um did you have a sense that that might be where you ended the story or how were you thinking
01:14:19you know the narrative would end up well an ice always said that um she's running because she loves it
01:14:28no matter the outcome yeah and so we weren't afraid about what's gonna happen april 2nd and what time
01:14:35she will do will she break her record or not and i think when you're an athlete and in life in general
01:14:46i think we learn even more when we fail i don't really like this word because i feel like failure
01:14:52it's just growing and learning how to grow even more um so i'm sure she would have been able to
01:15:04enjoy it anyway yeah and she was like the same yeah the same amount of joy with her team with lamut
01:15:13um it's it's always in sharing the moments with her team that she enjoys everything so the
01:15:22celebration of breaking her own record was just the cherry on the cake yeah yeah amazing well thank you
01:15:30both so much for being here um and sharing with you and i use the story thank you so much oh we have
01:15:36another sherry on the cake actually she's pregnant now oh yes oh my goodness yes are there plans
01:15:45to continue to continue to follow her story in some way or
01:15:52she's expecting a little boy and so she said um i'll take the time to rest and to have she doesn't
01:15:59rest she's still running even with the baby yesterday she ran at 10 kilometers again
01:16:08um but no she's uh she's gonna take some moment to have this baby and then she would like to try
01:16:16training for la 2028 yes okay thank you thank you all for joining us for thr presents oscar shorts
01:16:28congratulations everyone and good luck
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