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Film is the best way to express myself | by Margit Tönson for »Eesti
Päevaleht«|
Estonia, 2004, November 30
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Film is the best way to express myself
Margit Tönson: First of all, how did You found Your way to filmmaking?
Fred Kelemen: After practicing and studying different arts like music
and painting, studying philosophy, science of religion and science of
theatre and working as a director’s assistant at different theatres,
I found out that the film art is the closest to what I was looking for.
It is the best way of expression I could find for myself, and it is a
wonderful one, even though I never gave up the other ones.
M. T.: What is, what drives You to teach and make workshops all over
Europe?
F. K.: Nowadays the influence of the fast and easy going products of the
TV and the US-American mainstream cinema and entertainment industry is
getting more and more dominant, it manipulates more and more the thinking
even of filmmakers. The attention to real life, the voice of our inmost
being and the sound of the original cinematographic languages is fading
away and are in danger to disappear. As someone, who loves the art of
film, it is just a consequence of my thinking and as well of my filmmaking,
to work with students, with young people who decided to discover the beauty
and human value of film art and its unlimited possibilities. It is a pleasure
and an adventure to open doors to this art instead of accepting the limitations
which are artificially build by the industry. I deeply believe that a
fully realized filmmaker is an autarcik and authentic artist and human
being and not just a servant of the ideology of the market.
M. T.: What do You personally get from it? Or is it more like sharing
Your own experiences with other cinephiles?
F. K.: It is very healthy to go away from the own ego and to serve others
for a certain time, to help them to realize their visions, to know more
about themselves and the art they decided to practice and to become more
strong and open. As well, I learn a lot about my self, about human beings
and I understand more what film is and can be. To say it very short: It
has to do with love. That’s what you give, and that’s what
you may get.
M. T.: Is it at all possible to study filmmaking at school, or could
you learn only technologies, but not vision and creativity?
F. K.: For sure it is possible, to study filmmaking at a film school as
it is possible to study it out of a film school. The most important is
that you do not learn it from books but from someone who helps you to
understand yourself a little better and who opens your eyes for what film
can be by practicing it. A film school can be a good place for studying
if it is a place where people come together who are willing to share,
to give what they know and to be open to get what others know. It is not
a one-way-road. It has to be an exchange. A film school is as good as
the people are who are there, it is as good as the spirit is which is
concentrated there. For sure, technology can be learned. Talent, creativity,
visions can not be learned, but they can be trained, and the skilful handling
of tools can be learned to open closed doors and to dig deeper and liberate
creativity and visions. The process of learning is a process of liberation.
Liberation from fear for example.
M. T.: What was teaching in Latvian film school like? How did it differ
from Spain, Geneva, Switzerland and other places you've been teaching?
F. K.: This year’s work shop in Riga was the second after the first
one in 2002. I worked with the same students from the Latvian Culture
Academy (LKA) and additionally with five new students from Germany. Knowing
the Latvian students already helped to build up a continuity with them.
Knowing our different personalities, ways of thinking and acting, knowing
our different strengths and weaknesses, knowing the movements of our souls
and minds gave us the possibility to go further and deeper than in 2002.
And as well some methods and tools, which I had shown to the students
before and which they could use in a very efficient way, helped to move
faster than during the first work shop.
Even though I believe in individuals, there are some general differences
between students from Spain, Switzerland, Latvia etc. But this is not
important. Important is the personal way of each student.
To work with this group of Latvian students was a special, extraordinary
experience because of the atmosphere being created due to the special
mix of personalities which destiny had brought together in this group.
It created a very human, warm relation between them in which they let
me take part and from which our work could profit.
M. T.: You made your latest film, “Krisana” (“Fallen”),
in Latvia? Are there any certain influences? Was it so different environment?
F. K.: For sure, the atmosphere and reality of Riga and Latvia influenced
the film. I never would have made it somewhere else. Nevertheless it is
not a film about Riga or Latvia but about basic human questions and behaviours
like guilt, remorse and forgiveness, the cruelty of desire and greed and
the never ending hunt for love, release and salvation. The essential occurrence
shown in the film can happen everywhere.
M. T.: Have You seen any Estonian student films or any other Estonian
films?
F. K.: No, I have not seen an Estonian student film except the ones of
the very talented Elina Bandena, who is of Estonian origin living on Riga
and who was a student of the LKA and participant of our work shops. And
as member of the jury of the Festival of East European Cinema in Cottbus
/ Germany, I just saw the film “Somnambuul” by the Estonian
director Sulev Keedus, who received the award “Best Director”
there.
In general it is very difficult to watch European films in European cinemas
except some films from bigger countries like France, England or Spain
e.g. which are swimming more in the mainstream It is an absurd situation.
Festivals like the Festival in Cottbus and others are the only possibilities
to watch different kinds of films and that’s why they are such an
important oasis in the desert of the common film market.
M. T.: If there would be an invitation to come to Estonia to share your
knowledge, would you come? (Next year a new film school will be opened)
F. K.: If the conditions would be right to realize a creative work, it
would be a pleasure and an honour for me to work with Estonian students.
M. T.: And last, but not least, You have said, that you don’t believe
in hope and also you don’t think, that any films could change a
person. Why do you still keep making films and teach others to do the
same? What ‘s the purpose?
F. K.: We are mortal creatures. We should not hope. We should create and
realize our life as a human being in its most complete way which includes
our fleeting physical existence and our transcendental essence. I did
not say that I don’t believe in hope, I said that hope, as I understand
it, is a passive attitude, which keeps us in the position of waiting.
We sit and hope and wait and while we wait life happens and others act
and determine our reality. Hope is a very popular political instrument
to keep people calm and to control them. Hope has to be based on something.
This could be called vision. I would rather prefer to replace Hope with
Vision. A vision is charged with energy and passion, it is not passive,
it asks for realisation. In a time, in which the end of utopias is proclaimed,
it is extremely important to have the courage for utopian thinking, to
open the mind to be able to go beyond the very limited pragmatism, which
focuses our thinking and feeling on the very material level of our existence
and ignores our intellectual, emotional and creative abilities and possibilities.
To live without hope, to believe in life and its possibilities without
hope or desperation, to move beyond these illusions and enter the space
of reality where we can see with an unspoilt look how life really is,
to think the thinkable without limiting ourselves, to act authentically,
not to be afraid of Utopia even if there is no promise of fulfilment,
to widen our mental and emotional borders, to love without expectations
and reward would be an act of human dignity and beauty. – Even though
it is terribly difficult.
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An abridged version of the interview had been published in
„Eesti Päevaleht“, Estonia, 2004, November 30 |