Participants of the Short Film Competition of the 45th Moscow International Film Festival spoke about their films, production funding, and the attitude to the short film format.
The director of the film "Honey Island" Zhou Yan: "My film is very simple and very Chinese. I wasn't sure it could be close to European and Russian audiences, so I am very grateful to Moscow Film Festival for the opportunity to show it here. I thought a lot about this film and was inspired by Virginia Woolf's works. The protagonist in this film wants to complete his 10-years' work and I reflected there all my changes and thoughts as an artist, which have happened to me during that time. The short-film format is, essentially, very free and this is what gives space for such reflections. I'd like to see more young directors making short films".
The director of the film "Everything" Lu Helai: "This is my first filmmaking experience, and when I was writing the script for "Everything", I wanted to make a "marketable" project right away. For me as a recent film school graduate, it was very important, as I needed money to live on and keep making films. I was lucky to get a grant for this film. And the producer of this film – he is my age – chose the project based on the script".
The director of the film "Elsa" Jean-Marc Guillier: "I worked in cinema before, but "Elsa" was my real debut. Although I like short films, I'd like to switch to the full-length format to tell a story with many characters, which is quite difficult to squeeze into just 20 minutes. And I even think the main flaw of "Elsa" is that I wanted to say too much".
The director of the film "Gentle Hum of Spring" Simon Garez: "This is my second short film, but it is my first experience using national grants in Canada. The final scene of the film takes place on my parents' farm. And I guess you could call my film very personal, although I tried to make it in such a way such comparisons would not turn up".
The director of the film "The Hole. Story in 9 Scenes" Pavel Korolko: "We made a very family film: my mom and dad played the lead parts, and my girlfriend was its cameraman, film artist, prop master and costume designer, and my childhood friend was the sound engineer. Probably the only thing we spent our film budget on was buying toys and things in a secondhand store. But they didn't cost too much".
The director of the film "Where It Begins" Amirhossein Talebi: "We came a long way before making this film, but, as the whole team and all the actors believed in us, we managed to make it, and my friend Mohsen took the producer's function".
The director and producer of the film "Where It Begins" Mohsen Asdaghpour: "Not everyone trusts young filmmakers. When we had just finished the script, we tried to find investors, but ended up using our own capital, although, at some point, the money we had saved for the shooting ran out, and we had to look for ways to resume it. I hope our efforts were not in vain".
The director of the film "Honey Island" Zhou Yan: "My film is very simple and very Chinese. I wasn't sure it could be close to European and Russian audiences, so I am very grateful to Moscow Film Festival for the opportunity to show it here. I thought a lot about this film and was inspired by Virginia Woolf's works. The protagonist in this film wants to complete his 10-years' work and I reflected there all my changes and thoughts as an artist, which have happened to me during that time. The short-film format is, essentially, very free and this is what gives space for such reflections. I'd like to see more young directors making short films".
The director of the film "Everything" Lu Helai: "This is my first filmmaking experience, and when I was writing the script for "Everything", I wanted to make a "marketable" project right away. For me as a recent film school graduate, it was very important, as I needed money to live on and keep making films. I was lucky to get a grant for this film. And the producer of this film – he is my age – chose the project based on the script".
The director of the film "Elsa" Jean-Marc Guillier: "I worked in cinema before, but "Elsa" was my real debut. Although I like short films, I'd like to switch to the full-length format to tell a story with many characters, which is quite difficult to squeeze into just 20 minutes. And I even think the main flaw of "Elsa" is that I wanted to say too much".
The director of the film "Gentle Hum of Spring" Simon Garez: "This is my second short film, but it is my first experience using national grants in Canada. The final scene of the film takes place on my parents' farm. And I guess you could call my film very personal, although I tried to make it in such a way such comparisons would not turn up".
The director of the film "The Hole. Story in 9 Scenes" Pavel Korolko: "We made a very family film: my mom and dad played the lead parts, and my girlfriend was its cameraman, film artist, prop master and costume designer, and my childhood friend was the sound engineer. Probably the only thing we spent our film budget on was buying toys and things in a secondhand store. But they didn't cost too much".
The director of the film "Where It Begins" Amirhossein Talebi: "We came a long way before making this film, but, as the whole team and all the actors believed in us, we managed to make it, and my friend Mohsen took the producer's function".
The director and producer of the film "Where It Begins" Mohsen Asdaghpour: "Not everyone trusts young filmmakers. When we had just finished the script, we tried to find investors, but ended up using our own capital, although, at some point, the money we had saved for the shooting ran out, and we had to look for ways to resume it. I hope our efforts were not in vain".