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- You are here: Home > WATER AND SALT
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Tuesday, November 24, 2020 - 21:00
Cinematography:
Hanna Hovitie
Editing:
Luisa Mello
Sound:
Domenico Centrone
Producer:
Luisa Mello
Production:
DocNomads
What is it that can sink a person? Away from home, where the infamous Brazilian elections of 2018 take place, a young woman floats on the surface of the water in a swimming pool. Down at the bottom of the water lies Brazil, seen as a volcano ready to erupt. How’s the situation over there, she asks her mother on the phone. Everything else seems frivolous. How's the situation there, she insists. LUISA MELLO's hybrid film translates a panic attack into cinema – fiction, nonfiction, a concrete here and an uncertain elsewhere. But elsewhere means home, and the panic attack is not a generic one, but rather the one of the expats, who lives the paradox of feeling vulnerable even though they are safe. (Călin Boto, BIEFF 2020)
Director:
LUISA MELLO is a documentary filmmaker and cinematographer from Rio de Janeiro. She holds a bachelor’s degree in cinema and a master’s degree in art and philosophy from Pontifical Catholic University. Furthermore she specialised in documentary filmmaking, studying at EICTV in Cuba and at DocNomads, from which she holds a joint master’s degree. She describes her filmic approach as one that combines observational cinema with fictional elements.
Contact:
LUISA MELLO
Festivals, awards:
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020 / Vienna Shorts 2020 / Film Festival Netzhaut 2020 / IFEMA 2020 / Curta Cinema 2019
“Choosing an unusually quiet route, the film takes the viewer on a trip to the depth to the ocean and back. The mounting tensions within Brazilian politics is equated with the underwater turmoil of a volcano about to erupt, as the people still float calmly at the quiet surface. The smooth soft waves, whooshing over the screen in a velvety neon-blue dance, at first bring peace to a young woman in a floating pool. She tries to relax, becoming one with the water. But there is no long-lasting peace when the rumbling under the sea starts, the noises of news broadcasters, demonstrating women and Bolsonaro all merging into a frightening tune. “I’m fine, I’m fine”, she insists, but how can she be?” (Susanne Gottlieb, ubiquarian)