5 Short Questions...

0 Comments POSTED: September 13, 2007 19:34 | By: Jay Dart

SEBASTIEN PILOTE, Director, Dustbowl Ha! Ha!

1. Where do you come from?
Je viens d'un petit village producteur de patates appelé St-Ambroise. D'ailleurs, quand j'étais enfant on a tenté de me faire croire que j'étais une patate. Mais je vis aujourd'hui à Chicoutimi, tout près du fjord du Saguenay. C'est au Québec...

2. What influenced your film?
La réalité. Une fermeture d'usine et Les raisins de la colère de Steinbeck.

3. Why filmmaking?
Parce que je n'ai pas assez de vocabulaire pour être poète et j'aime la poésie. Si je fais du cinéma c'est parce c'est vraiment devenu pour moi la meilleure façon de dire des choses autrement qu'avec des mots. Même s'il peut y avoir des mots dans mes films.

4. Who is your creative hero?
Dans le cinéma c'est François Truffaut, je pense. Sinon, j'aime vraiment Leonard Cohen. Et Napoléon...

5. What are you most looking forward to at TIFF?
Prendre une bière, jeudi, avec Bernard Émond que j'ai rencontré une première fois au festival de Locarno. Et prendre une autre bière.

RAHA SHIRAZI, Director, Four Walls

1. Where do you come from?
I was born In Tehran, Iran and immigrated to Canada with my family at the age of eleven. I have been living in Toronto ever since.

2. What influenced your film?
About six years ago I took a trip back to Iran and my experience there was the inspiration for my film.

3. Why filmmaking?
I grew up in a country that allowed very little access to the outside world; my only contact to the world that existed outside of my immediate surrounding was through films; in films I could see different places, people, and cultures.

4. Who is your creative hero?
My Uncle

5. What are you most looking forward to at TIFF?
Meeting other filmmakers and watching films

CHLOE LERICHE, Director, Les Grands

1. Where do you come from?
Montreal but I've lived in Trois-Rivières till I was 17. In a poor area close to the St-Laurent. My adress for 15 years was 71 Place Joly, now my adress has many numbers and letters in it. Before Place Joly, I lived in the woods in a small house with no electricity.

2. What influenced your film?
I guess my main influence for this short film is my youth - I remember recently going back to my old schoolyard and being impressed by how everything was small. It felt so big at the time. The film is inspired by this shift in perspective and how children sometimes make a big deal out of small things. When you are the victim of a bully, it is a stressfull experience and suddenly everything else in life seems to be part of a larger conspiracy against you.

Part of the film is also influenced by memories of my brother and I fighting after watching Rocky or the WWF. We were really impressed by Jake the Snake and those mean, strong characters. We didn't understand then why people fight, it just looked like a fun game.

3. Why filmmaking?
I wanted to do a children's film that would be different. I wanted to show an audience of children a smart film in which they would question the form as much as the content. In this regard, I chose to use a documentary style as much as I could given the challenges of using child actors. I am not sure I did what I wanted to do, but I'm happy with the result anyway.

4. Who is your creative hero?
One of my favorite filmmaker is Harmony Korine. And there's Peter Watkins, Lyne Ramsay, Donigan Cumming, Amos Kollek, Mike Leigh and Ulrich Seidl. I'm also a big fan of Nietzsche and Beethoven. I guess I like dark atmospheres full of strange obssessions.

That is a good question, my creative heros...My mom always wanted us to become artists. If I wanted a doll, she would buy me the head of the doll and told me I could "create" the body myself... It was quite disturbing at the time. We would wear the neighbors old clothes - but we had musical instruments and art material all over the place. So I guess she could be one of my creative heros.

5. What are you most looking forward to at TIFF?
See the latest Harmony Korine film and the first feature of Stephane Lafleur.

CLAUDIA MORGADO ESCANILLA, Director, No Bikini

1. Where do you come from?
What an odd question. Do I think "culture" influences story telling, absolutely, but not just your culture of origin, but the cultures you have experienced. Where did you first fall in love? Who broke your heart? Who nurtured you? Who do you admire? What was the worst job you ever had? Anyway I was born and raised in Santiago Chile

2. What influenced your film?
See the answer to the first question and more specifically, women.

3. Why filmmaking?
It is the only way I know how to express my self creatively. If I could paint, I would be a painter.

4. Who is your creative hero?
Every filmmaker whose films can only be theirs. I love to look at all the different styles and storytelling forms and how each filmmaker makes it their own.

5. What are you most looking forward to at TIFF?
Watching films and running into lots of people I haven't seen for a while.

ROBERT KENNEDY, Director, I've Never Had Sex

1. Where do you come from?
Toronto

2. What influenced your film?
The Surrealists--who also used "Game Playing" as a structure/content engine.

3. Why filmmaking?
It's a powerful medium--by which I mean it grabs you by numerous senses at once, completely monopolizes your mind and substitutes itself for reality.

4. Who is your creative hero?
It constantly changes -- right now it's Billy Wilder.

5. What are you most looking forward to at TIFF?
This may sound like a suspect answer but I'm actually looking forward to seeing tons and tons of movies!