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Film Fiesta
We speak to Brazilian filmmaker Pedro Rossi; in town for the Sydney Latin American Film Festival.
"I brought my camera to Australia to record some things," says filmmaker Pedro Rossi. "I'm always travelling, I'm always searching. I like to record everyday life. The small details. The small things that people do. The small differences."
The Brazilian director is in town as a guest of the Sydney Latin American Film Festival. He's sitting in FILMINK's offices; Rossi's been in Australia for just 30 hours but there's no trace of jetlag. He's excited. He's talking fast. He's impressed with Australia - the mix of cultures and influences. "Everything's new to me," he enthuses.
Rossi has come with his excellent short film, The Last Opium Den. Starring American actor David Rasche (Burn After Reading and TV's Ugly Betty), it's a 21-minute tale about a man who "was born to smoke opium", specifically in an opium den. But the lead character's no addict, as he says in his first person narration, and Rossi volunteers that he himself has never tried the stuff. But this is not about drugs. The Last Opium Den is about dreams and how different they can be when they hit in reality. "I think the movie is about expectations," Rossi explains. "Sometimes, it's not what you expected but it's good anyway - it's good in its own way. Sometimes, reality is better."
Based on the book of the same name by Nick Tosches and shot in five days, Rossi also gathered inspiration from his literary heroes - Thomas de Quincy, Charles Baudelaire and, with its almost stream-of-consciousness narration, William S. Burroughs.
The 29-year-old Rossi, whose day job is as a film editor, financed The Last Opium Den with the $US25,000 he won in a scriptwriting competition. He also designs film posters, works as an assistant director, and has a connection with Brazil's Oscar nominated 2002 film, City Of God. That film drew many of its actors from the Nós do Morro Theatre Group, a community organisation located in a favela - or slum. It's here that Rossi taught art and design and his connection with the theatre group "continues to this day".
Explaining that in Rio the slums and the penthouses sit side-by-side, Rossi - who describes his background as "middle class" - cannot overstate the importance of City Of God to Brazil's film industry. "It changed the life of these guys a lot," he adds. "They are my friends. At one time they were living in poverty. Many still do, but some of them have achieved a better social status. It changed their life because they started seeing that through art you can really achieve a change. It's not about getting rich, it's about living better; about looking at life with a new perspective."
City Of God was a box office success - in Brazil and internationally - and it remains one of the few locally-produced films that Brazilians flocked to see. "In Brazil - maybe I'm being hard - it's a sick industry. We are making a lot of movies, but they are not being watched at all. You do a good movie, and it turns out to be a real box office failure."
Ironically, Australian audiences are highly attracted to the wealth of Latin American gems on show at the Sydney Latin American Film Festival with audiences coming in equal parts from the Sydney Latin American community and the wider community.
In its fifth year, the festival is bigger than ever, taking in works from 20 countries, with over 60 feature films, shorts and documentaries in the program.
Festival Highlights
Optical Illusions (Chile) - pictured
A quirky but moving film about a man who regains partial sight after a lifetime of blindness - only to wonder if he was better off blind. Optical Illusions screens at the Casula Powerhouse, September 16 at 7pm, followed by a Q&A session with producer Andrés Waissbluth. The celebratory opening night for the festival in western Sydney, the evening features a fiesta with Cuban seven-piece Armandito y su Trovason.
A Matter Of Principles (Argentina)
An engaging modern-day morality take, A Matter Of Principles screens at the Casula Powerhouse on September 19 at 6pm.
Havana Surf (US/Cuba/Spain)
Surf's up in Cuba during this enlightening 55-minute documentary that intertwines the stories of young Cuban surfers with Australian surfing legend Bob Samin. Havana Surf screens at the Mu-Meson Archives, Annandale, on September 12 at 8pm.
The Sydney Latin American Film Festival runs until September 19. For more information, visit the festival website.