The Beijing International Movie Festival Kicks Off

Those of you who blew town for the week are lucky nothing too exciting happened in Beijing while you were gone. I was looking for things to rub in people’s faces but sadly, there’s not much to say. To make matters worse, a great film festival is kicking off starting Sunday, October 9, just as all you deserters are making your way back with your glowing tans and revived lungs. (Me, bitter? Nooo … ) We caught up with several of the directors who are showing their films on opening night. Read on for a sneak peek of the movies and an inside look at how they came about.

Piano Fingers, by Nicholas Carmen
Carmen’s short film is a bittersweet Americana tale of an old couple reliving their glory days as musicians during the 1950s golden era of tobacco jingles. As May’s mind deteriorates, their reminiscences gain meaning and urgency.

TBJ: I love the depth and nostalgia you manage to build in the 25 minutes of "Piano Fingers." Can you tell us a little more about your inspiration for this film?
Nick Carmen: Piano Fingers is based on the personal story of my great aunt and uncle's love in the face of Alzheimer's Disease. My great aunt suffered from a severe case of the disease at the end of her life, and I have tried to capture the poignant struggle that my great uncle had to endure, loving a woman who no longer remembered his name.
The image that solidified my desire to to tell their story on film was watching my great aunt, just months from her death and unable to to recognize the faces of loved ones around her, still able to play note for note the Debussy preludes and Chopin nocturnes she learned on the piano as a child. The music that poured out of her left an indelible mark on me and I hope to similarly inspire and console others with my film.

TBJ: The jingles and musical TV performances of the 1950s seems a very American experience, but have you found that your film still calls up a strong sense of nostalgia in non-American audiences?
NC: This is a great question and I'm not sure exactly sure of the answer! I've screened at several international film festivals outside of the US, but have never asked audience members this exact question. Hopefully it can be answered from the reaction Piano Fingers receives at BIMF.

Nemesis, by Jesper Troelstrup
In this short, three boys terrorize another boy for his secretive trips to the bathroom. They nickname him Wanky – a not-so-subtle reference to their suspicions about his time in the loo – and soon their bullying goes a little too far.

TBJ: Have you screened your films as part of the BIMF before? What draws you to submit your films for the BIMF?
Jesper Troelstrup: I've had Nemesis at several international film festivals around the world, and think it's really interesting to get your film out to other cultures and see if they also like Nemesis. Since there are only 5 million live in Denmark, I think it's fun to get it into the big world. And so I sought also to come to Beijing with my film.

TBJ: How do you hope the audience here will respond to your film?
JT: I hope audiences will welcome my film and that they understand the issues about what it's like being a teenager announce the 2011th I think it's the same problems teenagers have everywhere in the world.

TBJ: "Nemesis" reminds me of the stupidity - and darkness - of adolescence, yet I like the almost light sense of irony in how the story ends. What inspired you to make the film this way?
JT: The inspiration for the movie I got from a true story a youngster told me. I like to work with irony, since we often use it in Denmark. But it is probably a special Danish tradition. [Is he being ironic here? –Ed.]

Cultures of Resistance, by Iara Lee
Lee traveled through dozens of countries, recording how (often underground) groups of artists, musicians, poets, etc. were creating in the midst of socially or politically unstable circumstances. The result: a fiery, inspiring film about art as a way of standing up against injustice.

TBJ: What makes you want to show your film in Beijing?
Iara Lee: The film is very international. We filmed in nearly 25 countries, though only 11 made the final cut. For this reason, it’s great for us to get feedback from people in as many countries as possible, making different connections between their situation and what they see in the film. We’re really looking forward to what people in Beijing connect with.

TBJ: We get so much coverage about different regions from a purely political standpoint, but your film allows us to see the art and culture that people are creating in these contexts. How did this idea come about?
IL: In 2003, in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, out of outrage with the war, I decided to travel to the Middle East to assess the perspective of people there. I wanted to live there, meet people, learn their histories and cultures, and gather with those who chose not to sit down in the face of violations of their human rights. This was the first step in the making of this film. In the years that followed, after witnessing more militaristic aggression in various places that were often backed by my adopted country, the United States, I felt a need to show the human cost and human response to such actions. And I felt like the best way of doing so was to document and support creative forms of resistance.
It is easy to forget that the arts have always existed as a form of dissenting political expression. It was a pleasure for me to connect with and film the artists who appear in Cultures of Resistance, who hopefully will serve as reminders of all the incredibly talented and dedicated artists out there who are truly working to make a better world.

Candy, by Davy Giorgi and Samantha Pineda
This story rides a razor-thin edge between sweet and cynical. As you watch the heroine Candy struggle through a disturbing upbringing and general anti-social malaise, then fall in love with a clown (no, not the urban dictionary type … just a real clown), you’re never sure which way it’s going to fall.

TBJ: How did you come up with the story and concept for this film?
G&P: It is inspired by the idea of wasted talent and the stigmas of having a family that is completely oblivious to a child´s needs. For us, it was very important to tell a story through Candy, who has a distorted perception of life. What she becomes as an adult is the direct result of her broken family structure and her lack of social contact with the world. The main concept of the film is that no matter how different you are there is someone made for you, just like Pierre is made for Candy.

TBJ: Is there a real-life Candy and Pierre that this film is based on?
G&P: There is no real Candy or Pierre but both are constructed from people we know. The different details such as the wrapping in cellophane plastic to get thinner or living a double life as a circus performer are exaggerations of existing behaviors of those people.

TBJ: So what other projects do you have coming up?
G&P: We just finished another short film named The Fisherman about an old Fisherman named Leni who uses photographs to fish his best memories out of the sea. It is a very romantic and touching story that explores the desire to relive the most precious moments of our existence.

Gilles Corporation, by Vianney Meurville
An enterprising farmer in rural France decides that in order to survive, he must breed Parisians and sell them to a Chinese market. As the gag develops, it gets both funnier and more disgusting.

TBj: "Gilles Corporation" is hilarious, nauseating and great commentary on globalization: not an easy combination. Can you tell us how you achieved this?
VM: Thank you for the compliment. Basically, I've grown up in the French countryside, as have most of my crew members. People in the countryside are pretty exuberant, so it wasn't difficult to create the characters. For instance, the character of Old Gilles is inspired by a real farmer we met once as we were looking for a place to shoot another movie. I've always kept in mind that funny guy.
For the Parisian character, it's a similar story: I sometimes work for the commercial industry, and some of the people I work with in that world are also pretty funny because of their stereotyped vision of the countryside and because of their addiction to technology.

TBJ: Do all Parisians wear argyle sweaters and use cell phones?
VM: Most of them, but especially in the entertainment industry. Yet, I think those kinds of clichés between farmers and urbanites are quite international. For instance, Gilles Corp. would have worked using a New Yorker and a Texan farmer.

So there you have it, folks. These films and more will be showing at Yugong Yishan Sunday night, starting at 6.30pm. Those of you who are really observant will notice that we featured the BIMF in our October issue, along with a full spread of the festival’s schedule from Oct 9-18 in our Events section (p69). You can also find out more about schedules, venues and the films showing on other nights at the festival’s website.

Photos: Courtesy of BIMF