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Filmmaker Interview by Chris Olson
Your latest short film Greykey just won International Documentary at the Cheap Cuts Documentary Film Festival! Congratulations. What does this award mean to you?
It is always a pleasant surprise that your work is liked and rewarded, especially because the Cheap Cuts selection it’s really powerful and we are proud that the jury gave us this recognition.
Why did you want to make this film?
With this Documentary, I wanted to show two thematic lines, first of all paying tribute to the more than 9000 Spanish republicans deportees in concentration camps (a fact even now little known by the new generations of the country) and the other, self-acceptance, resilience and difficult family transmission of the horror that each of the deportees spent in those Nazi hells. Bringing these two lines together with poetry and sensitivity is what we try with Greykey.
What have the challenges been getting it made?
When telling a story like this I think you have to have the utmost respect and dedication, families open their hearts, they put on the table their most suffered experiences but also some the most beautiful once. The documentation process and the interviews with deportees of advanced age and with their families was hard and enriching. And those moments are going to always be with you regardless of film work.
What's next for you?
I am currently in the final pre-production phase of my next project, it is a hybrid film that mixes reality and fiction, which has as its starting point a short film I made three years ago, Singing from the rooftops. https://vimeo.com/205021741
Who are your filmmaking influences and why?
Difficult question, I have a lot of influences, I find it very difficult to make a selection, but I would mention 3 film movements that I think are still very current today due to the form and themes: Neorealism, Nouvelle vague and Free cinema. An honest, pure cinema, mirror and reflection of realities that often go unnoticed or that we do not want to see.
What would be your advice for new filmmakers?
For me, cinema is a mix of passion, dreams and dedication, the humble recommendation would be to think that we are in a long marathon, not a fast race or 100m, this profession is a long-distance race with a lot of pain and some moments of glory, making a simile with the film of the maestro Pedro Almodóvar, Pain and Glory.
Where can people see Greykey?
Now we are in a festivals route, we are very proud with the reception that Greykey is having.
What would you say if you were a dolphin?
They say that the dolphin is one of the most intelligent mammals that exist, I think it would not say anything and would continue to swim "less talk and more swim" can be applied to everything...
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