Montreal International Documentary Film Festival 2018 - Beautiful Things
A symphonic journey into our obsessive consumption.
Interview with Director Giorgio Ferrero
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
This movie is dedicated to ourselves who could not endure a life without collecting useless objects, to ourselves – bulimic of plastics and noises and afraid of silence. It’s dedicated to ourselves who fall asleep with Netflix in our ears hoping that night might fall without notice, to us, who accept the idea that life can go before but not that objects can survive us. This film is a way of dispelling our lifestyle from which we can not escape in any way.
Beautiful things is a journey into our consumption ‘bulimia’. The many objects we accumulate and we believe to be essential begin their production cycle in silent secluded industrial and scientific sites.
Van, Danilo, Andrea and Vito are monks inside temples of sand, steel and concrete. They repeat the same liturgy every day. We don’t even know that they exist. Van, Danilo, Andrea and Vito for the first time will be able to meet and look virtually in the face of the audience to whom they have devoted a whole life of work.
The film was written and directed with a musical approach, like a score where notes and images are conceived together. Words, music, sounds are part of the same language and carry a single symphonic tale. The very short slice of daily life that opens every act is the photograph of our life, our home, our terrace, our objects, our melancholy. This film is a way of escaping a lifestyle from which we can find no way out. In the film we have tried to express all our sadness, the urgency of the need to go back to breathing in silence, free from the constriction of a life swallowed up by noise. This is our howl and we have tried to turn it into a song.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
Because it's a trip into our contemporary world where maybe we can travel understanding more about us.
Because for one hour and half we'll be in an other planet in our planet. We'll meet people and places who nobody knows.
Because it's a song about beauty. Because it's a musical, a documentary, a fiction film. It's simply a crazy film.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
I started from my life, from my childhood room, from my college room at university, from the house I’m living in, from the objects of my life to tell one of the most interesting hidden stories of our contemporary world. The cycle of life of the objects through memories of incredible men who are leaving and working in solitude in silence without objects. These men are the triggers of our society.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
The film was produced by the Venice Biennale because this project was the winner of the important international contest for first and second features called Venice Biennale College. Every year 500 projects are submitted and only three of them are produced by the Venice Biennale and premiered at the Venice FIlm Festival.
So I wrote the first subject in May 2016. In July 2016, we won the first international call of the Venice Biennale, and I wrote the first draft in October 2016 after the first workshop in Venice. We started to shoot in February 2016 and we presented the film in September. We did the film only in 6 incredible and crazy months of shooting in Texas, Switzerland, in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and on the ocean in front of Morocco, and finally in Italy. It was an incredible journey, an incredible experience.
The Venice Biennale helped us with very talented tutors from everywhere: Europe, North America, South America, Asia They didn't want to put their ideas into the film; just pushed us to do the best that we could. They were very very helpful in therms of production, organization, location scouting. I am, first of all, a music composer for films, and the Venice Biennale helped me to follow my unconventional approach to tell a story through sounds and notes.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
Amazing. We won at CPH DOX, we won an award in Venice, the film was presented in a lot of film festivals and in prestigious programs and institutions like: Edinburgh FIlm Festival, Lincoln Center In NYC, Sydney IFF, Viennale, Taipei IFF New Talents Competition. The film has been translated in 14 languages at the moment. We have more than 50 festivals planned in the next 6 months. Now we are working on a limited release in some countries, with soundtrack playing during a live show. We didn't imagine this wonderful world tour at the beginning, and also this success with critics and press, so it's a little dream that we are lucky to live out.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Yes, I met thousand of people during this world tour who are sharing their hope about the future, who are sharing their emotions with me. I understood that the film can be helpful for the audience and for me to find a new existential start point. So I am very glad about it and now I am more positive, plus, I found a great community around me.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I really hope that Canadian and American audiences could enjoy it.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
I hope to find a Canadian distributor for the film and to show it in more programs in the USA and Canada.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Like in the other festivals, a warm hug and an enthusiastic sense of empathy from the audience.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Beauty, hope, future, ourselves, dreams, world, music....
Would you like to add anything else?
At RIDM, I will also present DENOISE, a short VR film we produced during the shooting of Beautiful Things. It's a way to be there, with the characters immersed in their incredible places.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
I am working on a live performance of the film and I am trying to lose myself in a new film. I am also working to compose music for others directors.
Interview: November 2018
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
Beautiful Things
A symphonic journey into our obsessive consumption.
Length: 94 min.
Director: Giorgio Ferrero
Producer: Federico Biasin (co-director)
Writer: Giorgio Ferrero
About the writer, director and producer:
FEDERICO BIASIN is a dop, producer and film maker and GIORGIO FERRERO is a composer, director, film maker and photographer: the Italian winners of Biennale College 2016 at Venice Biennale. Giorgio has composed soundtracks for dozens of films, theatrical performances and installations, he collaborated with authors and artists such as Paolo Giordano, Daniele Gaglianone, Alba Rohrwacher, the De Serio brothers, Marzia Migliora, Irene Dionisio, Stephen Fingleton. He made many sound and visual installations presented at the Bordeaux Biennal, MAXXI Museum, Lisbon Experiementa Design Biennal, Palazzo Madama in Turin, Museo d’Arte Orientale in Turin, Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze. Together with Rodolfo Mongitore, they run the multidisciplinary studio MYBOSSWAS where they are creative directors. They have realized graphic displays, photographic campaigns and commercials for publishers and brands like Condé Nast, Mondadori, Il Corriere della Sera, Einaudi, Nike and Alfa Romeo. At the 74th Venice Film Festival they presented their first feature film ‘Beautiful Things’, for which he signed direction and music. The film won the award for Best Italian Film according to the young under-26 jury and the best first feature award at Cph:Dox in Copenhagen. In Venice they also presented his first short film in virtual reality Denoise made during the shooting of the feature film.
Key cast: Van Quattro, Andrea Pavoni Belli, Vito Mirizzi, Danilo Tribunal, Vittoria De Ferrari Sapetto, Andrea Valfre
Looking for: buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists
Facebook: Beautiful Things Film
Instagram: @ferrerog
Website: www.beautifulthings.it
Funders: VENICE BIENNALE
Made in association with: MYBOSSWAS
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? all the screenings available on beautifulthing.it