This Thursday, April 27, finally, premieres in movie theaters in Venezuela “Me and the beasts”, Nico Manzano’s first film. In view of the arrival of the tape in the country, we are publishing again this interview with its director, carried out last July. From this date to the present, the feature film won the prizes for Best Film and Best Original Score at the Soundscreen Music Festival of Ravenna, Italy; and was selected by Cinema Tropical among the 25 best Latin American films of 2022
The fact that me and the beasts not being selected for some script workshops did not prevent Nico Manzano (Caracas, 1986) insisted on it. Neither did the Venezuelan crisis of 2016 or the protests and wave of repression that the country experienced in 2017. After some setbacks, and quite a few successes, the film finally premiered last year at two class A film festivals, simultaneously: Tallinn Black Nights, in Estonia and sea of silver, Argentina; and recently won five awards at the 18 Venezuelan Film Festivalincluding best fiction film.
The feature film, debut feature of the Caracas director currently residing in Mexico City, tells the story of Andrés Bravo, who, after leaving his alternative rock band, starts a solo project from scratch. Feeling separated from an environment that reflects the first symptoms of the Venezuelan crisis and isolated, because most of his friends have left the country, the young musician meets two masked entities (the beasts), who make him feel as if he were not there. only.
“A story that travels through informal and authentic places of creativity is awarded (…) A moving and fragile universe that is sea, color, music and search”, reads the verdict of the Venezuelan jury.
Here the moment. The jury announces that we won Best Fiction Film in 18 @Fest_CineVzlano
?✨?? pic.twitter.com/ZdwlzN28cL— Me and the Beasts (Me and The Beasts) (@yoylasbestias) July 22, 2022
Best direction, best sound, best music and best debut are the other awards he received at the Mérida event. Also a special mention for Jesús Nunes, main actor of the film.
The film is a fantastic tragicomedy, filmed between Caracas, La Guaira and Falcón; that brings together many experiences of its author, who is also a musician –he was a member of the bands Boom Boom Clan and Sexy Bicycle –, from their colleagues in the media; a “very personal film, which was born organically”, indiewith a charming aesthetic, who speaks Caracas and pays homage to the masters Carlos Cruz-Diez, Jesús Soto and Ramón Vásquez Brito, and of course, to music.
SuchWhich spoke with Manzano, director, screenwriter, musician and cinematographer of I and the beasts; about the film, its production, tour of festivals and next steps.
—How did this story come about? How long were you working on it?
—In 2016 I set myself the goal of writing a film on my vacation. At that time I was teaching at the National Film School and the school holidays were between December and January. 2016 was a year of scarcity and of resolving life, this perhaps triggered in me certain creative reactions to what was happening; I think also the fact that this film did not enter a script workshop.
«At that time I met a friend, Rafael Giner, who had been producing a double album for seven years. I kept thinking about it, I began to imagine what it would be like to make that double album in Venezuela today. From there the story began, although the music and the beasts arose ten years ago, when he was recording with Nika Elía».
«The film was born organically, I wrote it very quickly, because I have a very broad baggage of experiences, my own and those of friends. Since I was 15 years old I’ve been in a band. It is a very personal film, although I feel that I am not the protagonist, he (Andrés Bravo) lacks a social envelope that I do have ».
«Then in 2017 we located an office to start pre-production and the protests started immediately. There were people who left the project, because they said they couldn’t conceive of leaving their house at a time like this. Those of us who stayed had status meetings in the morning, then those who wanted to demonstrate would go and do so. In times of conflict and war there are people also doing things, creating; and that is a bit what the protagonist lives, who is going through a difficult time, but for him creation came first ».
«The protests delayed things a bit, but just when we decided that we had to start recording, even if we had to jump barricades, everything went dark: the first day of shooting was the last of protests. We shot in two months ».
—The film has many scenes that look like Edward Hopper paintings. Is there a nod to the work of the «painter of the loneliness” in the film?
—Cinema is a conglomerate of all the arts. me and the… It begins with a yellow chromosaturation chamber, which references Carlos Cruz-Diez. Then it goes on to a saline landscape (Las Cumaraguas, Falcón) that reminds us of paintings by Ramon Vasquez Brito. There are also the penetrables of (Jesús) Soto. The visual references that are in the film, many of them have to do with tributes that I pay to other disciplines of Venezuelan art.
me and the beasts it has a dialogue of colors that speak of moods, of presences; and there are also elements that speak of a rickety middle class.
—The feature film has had a good tour of festivals. How has the experience been? Did you expect this response from the Venezuelan Film Festival?
“You never imagine how far you can go. When you’re making the film you can project yourself or think about certain festivals, but in the end you don’t know where it’s going. I never thought that I would come to Estonia. We were going to open in the rotterdam festival, but the pandemic took us out of the exhibition. then came Blessed Films, who is the one who has been in charge of submitting the film to festivals.
«A month ago I was at the Festival of Kimolos and I saw an Irish couple laugh out loud at the jokes from the movie. It caught my attention that such a local film can reach other audiences, here that is fulfilled Describe your village and you will be universal. What I saw in Greece is also a demonstration that you don’t have to wear a suit to try to be understood, I think that when you are truthful with what you want to say, you don’t have to be afraid, not even in the way you speak.
«As for the Venezuelan Film Festival, it was very exciting. We thought we could win first feature, but not best feature film. Having international recognition is important to me, especially because it indicates that our narrative can be universal, but being recognized at home is comforting… There are people who have a stigma with Venezuelan cinema, they do not see themselves represented in the narrative of Venezuelan cinema and many have come to thank me and tell me that they saw themselves reflected in the film, in the story ».
—me and the beasts Did you have the support of the National Autonomous Cinematography Center (CNAC) or any other State institution for its production?
—No, the film was not financed by the CNAC or any other Venezuelan institution. At that time the projects were not having enough financial support. That’s why we don’t travel that path, but I don’t think it’s something that shouldn’t be touched.
«The film seems to have a bigger budget than it really did, but no. First I only had money to shoot the film and I said: we shoot it and then we see, without knowing everything that was coming. Then I moved to Mexico and spent two years investing half my salary in the film. Fortunately, the prize was achieved south windowwhich is for film post-production financing, this gave him a huge boost, and he later joined three cinematographieswho also supported us in post-production.
—What are your future projects? Are you working on a second feature film?
—Yes, I have three projects in mind. I usually always have several projects at the same time. I am working on a film that I write together with Claudia Lizardo, singer of The Little Rematch: is a feature film more or less in the same tone of me and the beastsbut here the protagonist is a dubbing actor.
«The second is an animated documentary. The third is a I still don’t know what it will bebut it has to do with a book of poems from my grandmother, it’s called Illusion and contact. I discovered it recently, the last time I was in Caracas. I read the poems and was frozen. I feel a tremendous responsibility to do something with it.”
It is estimated that me and the beasts I hit the Venezuelan billboard at the end of September 2022. The actors Jesús Nunes, Eduardo Bol, Gael Gaviota, Gabriel Agüero, Jorge González, Carolina Leandro and Estefanía Quijada make up the cast of this 77-minute piece.
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