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Director Gar O'Rourke talks to Fest Track about genuine cultural experiences, approach and finding the right atrmosphere for his film "The Siege Of Paradise" playing the Documentary Competition section of the 2026 Tribeca Film Festival in New York, New York.

#OverTourism #TravelDocumentary #CinqueTerre #TribecaFF
Transcript
00:25This is Tim Wadsworth from Best Trek Uncertain TV.
00:28I'm here in New York City for the Tribeco Film Festival.
00:31And I think for me, there's many reasons why I wanted to make this film, but one of the
00:36big ones was I was noticing how with tourism, people were just all around the world, not
00:44just in Cinque Terre, but like people just experiencing tourism like this, just like
00:49that, you know?
00:50Yeah.
00:51Taking a photo.
00:52Yeah.
00:52And then just on the phones, on the phones all the time.
00:55And I felt like, you know, the reason why we should travel is to make a connection.
00:59Hopefully it learns something about where we are, be curious about where we are, be culturally
01:03curious, talk with people, you know?
01:07I think Irish people are great.
01:09We talk too much, I think, particularly in pubs.
01:12But Irish people love to connect with other people.
01:15We love to talk with other people.
01:17And I just felt that, you know, as much as this is a film about over-tourism and a film
01:22about the challenges of a local community, it's also a film about how we are as tourists,
01:28I think.
01:28And I'm not casting judgment on anyone.
01:31I'm not saying that I'm better or worse than anyone.
01:34We're all tourists, you know?
01:35Um, but I think, uh, digital life, phones, social media, in a way it's made us more connected
01:42than ever, but also more disconnected than ever.
01:45Um, so that was really important to, to kind of explore that.
01:47So, the autostrada, there's a lot more people there.
01:51Come with my bestie and me to a pesto making class in Cinque Terre, Italy.
01:56Influenza.
01:57What is an influenza?
02:17You know, but the one thing you do do, it's not all sunshine.
02:23You have to show both sides and I think there are some shots on the boat and they're sort
02:27of a, or boating.
02:28Yeah.
02:29You know, so you're able to bring that edge.
02:31For me, I try to be playful, you know?
02:34I think it's my nature, it's who I am as a person.
02:37Um, uh, you know, there's a, there's a, a sequence, a scene in the film where there's
02:44the invasion of the tourists, you know, and this is all by design, you know?
02:48I mean, like it, of course it happens every day where there's so many tourists visiting,
02:54uh, thousands, thousands do arrive at once.
02:57I wanted to have a bit of fun with this and make it feel like it was almost like a
03:00war
03:01invasion, you know, a military assault, D-Day landing, you know, uh, use the, use the grammar
03:07and kind of the, the language of the genre of, of war films and things like that.
03:12Um, but at the same time, you know, you're trying to say something that is serious, but you're
03:18trying to deliver it in a way that is with some entertainment as well.
03:21So I don't, I don't take, take things sometimes overly serious, you know, like there's bigger
03:26issues in the world than, than tourism.
03:28Let's be honest, uh, much bigger issues, but at the same time, uh, we all have an impact
03:33on what we're doing.
03:34Um, but yeah, we, we, we had a bit of fun making, uh, editing and filming some of those
03:39sequences.
03:39And, uh, yeah, that's what it's all about.
03:42As a filmmaker, you're trying to, uh, create an atmosphere.
03:45You're trying to design emotion.
03:47You're trying to make people feel something.
03:49Um, and I think as a documentary filmmaker, I probably, I'm a little bit cheeky sometimes,
03:54but how I bring things together, you know.
03:57Have you ever had a travel swing?
04:00Look here.
04:01Look with your eyes.
04:08In your state, do you have wine?
04:10No, we have corn and we have hot dogs.
04:14Orthodoxy.
04:15Yeah.
04:18And it's sort of that idea of that.
04:21How does this reflect who we are both as a society, but also you as a filmmaker?
04:28Yeah.
04:28But then us as an audience.
04:30Yeah.
04:30I think like in some, in some way the film is trying to explore this idea of like, is beauty
04:36the only thing that matters these days, you know, not just, not just like, um, uh, capturing
04:42beautiful content, but like beauty seems to just have such a high value.
04:47Uh, but like sometimes we forget the substance that is needed with things as well.
04:53So what I'm trying to say is Cinque Terre will always be beautiful.
04:56It will always look great, but it could arrive to a point where it feels like a backdrop for
05:03photos.
05:03And it's, unfortunately it's, it's fast becoming that, you know, um, we wanted to show that
05:09there is still local people living here.
05:11There is still people who have a cultural identity, who have families, who have heritage,
05:15who have this generational connection to this land, but what's keeping them staying?
05:23Because the tourism is, has become so powerful and so tempting and so, you know, financially
05:32bountiful.
05:33Um, if you want to make great money, tourism is fantastic industry to be in, but you might
05:40you sell your identity.
05:42Once it's gone, it's gone, you know, it doesn't come back.
05:45So I think it's a cautionary tale.
05:47Uh, we don't have, I don't have the answers to how to navigate that situation, but I think
05:52two parties are complicit, us as tourists, but also locals and how, uh, they decide what
05:58version or, uh, do they want to play?
06:02Do they want to, you know, sell, sell the products, the souvenirs and all that stuff
06:06like every other place in the world?
06:07Or do you want to offer, you know, a cultural exchange?
06:11You want to offer something that has value, you know?
06:14And, um, in our film, we have the wine grower and fishermen, you know, these are ancient
06:18jobs.
06:18I mean, you could say these are jobs of the past.
06:20Nobody does that anymore, but it's not true in that place.
06:23There are people doing this work and we wanted to shine a light on what, you know, sustainable
06:27tourism can look like.
06:29Yeah, that's good work.
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