Interviews

As Derek Jarman was shooting his acclaimed 1991 feature Edward II, young cinematographer Seamus McGarvey was chronicling the whole production process verité-style. Thirty years on, the footage that McGarvey shot forms the spine of Queer Edward II, UK director Theo Rollason’s feature documentary which has been screening to acclaim this week in Venice. Rollason discusses his new work - as well as the late, great Jarman - with BDE.

Julia Loktev’s new film begins just two days after its predecessor (My Undesirable Friends: Part I - Last Air in Moscow) ended, the point at which the last remaining independent media outfits in Russia were shut down. Some of the journalists head to Istanbul, others to Israel or Georgia. Some ended up in Prague or Vienna. “History happened and I kept shooting directly, when everybody fled Russia. I followed them and I just kept shooting,” Loktev tells BDE. “I had this incredible opportunity to capture this historic moment as it was happening.”

With precious little source material to work with – a mere 5 seconds of footage, a few photos and a handful of letters – how do you make a documentary about a woman who headed up one of Italy’s leading galleries, had a towering intellect and displayed uncommon wartime bravery, and whose influence over the culture and politics of post-WW2 Italy was substantial? Filmmakers Francesco Clerici and Mattia Colombo, whose Anatomy of a Portrait world-premieres at Venice FF, explain how to BDE.

Erik Shirai unveils the secretive world of sumo in his new feature documentary, world-premiering in Venice and opening the festival’s Spotlight section. The film is, in equal parts, refined, elegiac and minimalist. “Two men on a dirt ring trying to fight each other, half naked. There's nothing more minimal or simpler than that.” Shirai tells Business Doc Europe.

Ryan Holliger dreams of making a film about his chaotic life, one in which he served 4 years in prison and fathered six kids with five women. Fellow school dad Robert Greene decides to help him in this quest as he feels a special kinship with Ryan, both having grown up in broken homes in working-class areas. “But the difference between he and I is he likes to fight, so he punched someone in the face a bunch of times and went to prison. I don't like to fight. I like to write poetry and make paintings and eventually I made movies, and that's where our lives diverged,” Greene tells BDE.

In her new doc, world-premiering in Venice before its North American premiere at TIFF, the revered double-Oscar winner is back on the picket line, focusing on the UPS drivers, Amazon employees and app-based bike delivery workers who are keeping the city of New York ticking over. Their working conditions, however, are often deplorable. “It’s a world where the ‘deliveristas’ have absolutely nothing. They have to buy their gloves, their motorcycles or their bikes. Beyond that, they have to look over their shoulders now to make sure that ICE is not trailing them,” Kopple tells BDE.

Filmmakers Vasarhelyi and Chin discuss their audacious new feature doc in which mountaineers Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson plan to climb, together with Chin, the North Face of Mount Everest, before skiing back down the way they came. “You can shape and define your fate to a certain degree. We all think that as humans we get to decide everything. We don’t,” Chin tells BDE. “There is only so much you can control…”

Sophie Fiennes is back with her latest Pervert’s Guide, once again made with the maverick Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and movie lover, Slavoj Zizek. “I think the absurd is something he embraces,” Fiennes says of Zizek’s freewheeling approach. “It’s a reflection of him being a person who is an outsider, a free thinker - and the deadpan comedy of it is particular to him. I never know what is going to happen when I put him in those situations. I have no idea. It’s an experiment.”

Filmmakers Juan Francisco Donoso and Aline Juaréz discuss their urgent new feature documentary, about the existential struggle of two communities on either side of the globe against lithium extraction, and the far-reaching ambitions of one of the world’s largest mining corporations. “We feel immense relief and proud that we overcame significant hurdles to bring this story to the big screen,” the filmmakers tell BDE. “We fulfilled our promise to the communities to present their struggle with dignity, rigour, and cinematic care.” The film was the headline title of Sarajevo Film Festival’s Human Rights Day.

Veteran Israeli artist and director Amos Gitai returns to Venice with his latest feature documentary, The Road to Jericho, a poetic meditation on conflict in the Middle East and the diminishing prospects for peace. The director tells Business Doc Europe how he regards culture as “one of the only channels which is remaining to create a dialogue.” That is why he so opposes cultural boycotts. “If you block any form of dialogue, then, OK, let’s go to the next war. I think channels of dialogue always should remain open.”