Cannes Film Festival (Israeli Pavilion & Main Palais H Film Market) 2019 – The Moon in Deep Winter
There's a point, around the age of twenty, when you must choose to be like everyone else the rest of your life or to make a virtue of your peculiarities. This film follows Parker's journey as he confronts his past as a new man coming home.
Interview with Director Stefano Da Frè and Laura Pellegrini
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Thank you, Carmela! Laura Pellegrini & I are honored to be in this year's edition of We Are Moving Stories. Our film The Moon in Deep Winter is a very personal story about a boy coming home after many years. This theme resonates strongly, particularly in a lot of the films we admire, like Gus Van Sant's My Own Private Idaho & Vincent Gallo's Buffalo 66. The main characters in those films are in constant pursuit of finding their home, whether that's a physical place or a person. They are also told in bold artistic ways, which inspired us in the process of making this film. Also, the intimacy among the characters and their interactions spoke to our sensibilities as filmmakers. In any work we do, it's important to make the material both personal and universal. We were drawn to the prospect of exploring all these elements on film.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
All of us share a human experience of what "home" is. As young adults, we often long to explore the world. There is a moment when we come back to our place of birth, and recognize in an instant, how much our family has 'not' changed but we ultimately have. Laura & I longed to make a film that deals with emotions of coming home: the dysfunctions of our family members that we cannot change as adults. We want our audience to understand, through this film, that all families are dysfunctional in some way. That this process of growing outside your tribe is part of the pains of adulthood. We want our audience to see themselves in Tolstoy's famous quote: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way".
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
The universal theme of coming home binds each characters' points of view. Each character grapples with the dissatisfaction of how the years have played out in their own respective lives. Another way to say this is, the unfinished part of their lives. This can often mean regret. This is a bridge between us as an audience & the authenticity of each character. Viewers can identify with Parker, Rita, and Burke - maybe just one character, or maybe all three in the same vein. That's one of the beautiful things about cinema: the spirit of connectedness.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
In the original stages, the script had too many characters and conflicts. This made it difficult to explore within a pilot short, so we had to make cuts. After extensive rewrites, the story then boiled down to three characters and three essential conflicts: Parker & Rita, Parker & Burke, and Parker and himself. The film itself developed more texture & clarity from pre-production to when we started shooting. Blue became a vivid color, a recurring motif. There became less dialogue, which created more opportunity for meaning to emerge from the gestures and the spaces between the words. Human behavior. What’s left unsaid. It never ceases to amaze us how much a film shifts and changes from the pen to the editing room.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The film has provoked a strong reaction from viewers. Many touch on the nostalgic tone of the film. One person was moved by the sequence of Parker seeing his room for the first time in years. His initial reluctance that slowly transforms into warm familiarity. Others have remarked on how much they appreciate that the film is open-ended. How it doesn't wrap up things in a neat little bow at the end. I would say that for Laura's & my favorite reaction was at the Chelsea Film Festival in New York City, where the film screened last year at the AMC theatre. At the Q & A, a young man said the film looked like a vintage image from his childhood, captured in time just how he remembered it. His response really stayed with me.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
It made me realize how unique everyone's childhood experiences are. How equally bound we are as humans to those experiences. That's a powerful reminder.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
We Are Moving Stories continually showcases rich and bold content. It has a wonderful mission to promote films with complex characters who undergo powerful and relatable human conflicts. It’s important that The Moon in Deep Winter is visible on here because it shares the same aim and philosophy. It’ll make people aware of its presence and hopefully, that will evolve into an opportunity to sell the film.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Having distributors on board and giving The Moon in Deep Winter more play in the festival circuit will elevate the film and provide a platform for its message. We have partnered with Goffer Productions in Israel - that is our Sales Representative for the film. Our film will be playing at the Israeli Pavilion at the Cannes Film Festival at Eleven A.M. on May 21st, 2019. In addition, it will play a second time on Friday, May 24th at 1:00 PM in the main Palais at the Cannes Film Festival.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
We would love people to take away what speaks to them, truly. To recognize a part of themselves in the film. As long as viewers can extract something pure and meaningful from the story, then on a human level, we’ve done our job as filmmakers.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Why is it so easy to leave but so hard to come back to the life you once knew?
Can we reconcile the child we are at home, with the adult we've become later in life?
How do we forgive our family members living in dysfunction, among which we were raised?
Would you like to add anything else?
Hope to see you at Cannes!
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Laura & I are currently finishing The Secret Dream, a feature film about a blind painter, co-starring Ewan McGregor's daughter, Clara McGregor.
Also, we are in post-production with Emmy Award winner Krysia Carter Giez on an NBC political documentary about youth activism in America. Krysia, our editor, has been the backbone of our company. Working among the past four films with us, her experience from the BBC, and documentary filmmaking has been one of the most precious gifts Laura & I have received over the past five years.
It's certain: 2019 will be a busy year for Rosso Films International and that's how we like it. Onward & Upward!
Interview: May 2019
We Are Moving Stories embraces new voices in drama, documentary, animation, TV, web series, music video, women's films, LGBTQIA+, POC, First Nations, scifi, supernatural, horror, world cinema. If you have just made a film - we'd love to hear from you. Or if you know a filmmaker - can you recommend us? More info: Carmela
The Moon in Deep Winter
There's a point, around the age of twenty, when you must choose to be like everyone else the rest of your life or to make a virtue of your peculiarities. This film follows Parker's journey as he confronts his past as a new man coming home.
Length: 13:33
Director: Stefano Da Frè and Laura Pellegrini
Producer: Charles Randolph
Writer: Lee Polevoi
About the writer, director and producer:
Filmmaker STEFANO DA FRÈ is the President and owner of Rosso Films International. won the Coup de Foudre at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. Alongside his co-director, Laura Pellegrini, their documentary, The Girl Who Cannot Speak, was screened at NBC's Meet the Press Film Festival (in collaboration with AFI) and at the Academy Award-qualifying Festival REGARD. His production company Rosso Films International creates emerging political documentaries & narrative feature films about women, people of color, and disabilities.
Filmmaker LAURA PELLEGRINI is the Vice President and co-owner of Rosso Films International. Two of Laura’s films have premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Alongside her co-director Stefano Da Frè, their film Tu Me Manques won Best Short Film at the Silk Road Film Festival in Dublin, Ireland. Their documentary The Girl Who Cannot Speak, was featured on NBC's streaming platform and was last screened at the Oscar-Qualifying Festival REGARD.
LEE POLEVOI is an American writer who wrote the novel The Moon in Deep Winter. His short fiction has appeared in Witness, Sonora Review and elsewhere. He is a graduate of Amherst College and the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers.
CHARLES RANDOLPH is an American Screenwriter & Producer. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and first began producing films with Academy Award winner Ang Lee and James Schamus, a professor whom he met at New York University. He recently has a film that was distributed by Amazon Studios called American Fango, directed by Gabriele Altobelli. Mr Randolph’s other credits include Love and Other Drugs, Taking Woodstock, and American Fango.
Key cast: Russ Camarda (Burke), Katya Martin (Rita), Carson Coughlin (Parker)
Looking for: distributors, journalists, buyers, sales agents
Twitter: @StefanoDaFre
Instagram: @stefanodafre
Hashtags used: #rossofilmsinternational #themoonindeepwinter #chelseafilmfestival #festivaldecannes #cannesfilmfestival
Website: www.rossofilmsinternational.com
Other: IMDb
Made in association with: Goffer Productions
Funders: Private equity
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? T-Port and Cannes Film Festival