Whistler Film Festival / NewFilmmakers Los Angeles 2018 - Three Centimetres
Four Lebanese girls go on a Ferris wheel ride to make their friend feel better about her breakup. Their conversation drifts to a less fun place.
Interview with Writer/Director Lara Zeidan
Watch Three Centimetres on GagaOOLala
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
‘Three Centimetres’ started with some “girl conversations” when I was growing up in Lebanon. During these intimate conversations, I was very shy and silent most of the time, as I didn’t really know what to say. However, the conversations stuck with me and inspired me to write this script!
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
It’s 9 minutes with four girls on a Ferris wheel in Beirut. I hope you would like to join them on this one-take ride!
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
On a personal scale, it is an intimate conversation that four Lebanese girls are having on a Ferris wheel. However, I believe that the Beirut context in which they are having this conversation plays an important role, since I find it relative to growing up in a certain place.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
‘Three Centimetres’ was the first script I ever wrote back in 2014 when I was applying for the London Film School. A few years later, I decided to make it as my graduation film and invited some of my classmates to be part of my crew in Beirut. The script evolved a lot, especially when the actresses came on board. I wanted them to feel free and confident to improvise and take ownership of the roles, especially that we were planning to do a one take film and I wouldn’t be with them on the gondola.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
I’ve been extremely pleased with the feedback the film has received so far! Mostly, I was very touched to see how very diverse audiences could relate to my four characters’ story and engage with them.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
One of the most interesting Q&A sessions I had was with a group of teenage students within the Mo&Friese program at the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. The teenagers had a lot of interesting questions about the themes explored in the film. Most importantly, they wanted to understand why certain things that are revealed throughout the film created a problem for these four Lebanese girls, since they weren’t used to these problematic conversations.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I am hoping that the film will reach more audiences and that readers and viewers can find out more about why and how my collaborators and I made this film.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
So far, the film has had a very exciting festival life and I have been lucky to have the opportunity to screen it to audiences in many different countries. At the moment, I am most looking forward to being able to screen it to a Lebanese audience and give the film a distribution life beyond film festivals.
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
To be honest, when I was in film school making ‘Three Centimetres’, I didn’t really plan for the impact or reception my film would have. In that sense, this year has been a very new and incredible experience to me! Being able to share my film with an audience has made me realize the importance of the conversation it sparks, and I hope it can somehow inspire more people to open up about any subject that they feel is silenced.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Why on a Ferris Wheel?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
In October, I had the honour of receiving the Iris Prize in Cardiff, which will enable me to make my next short film in the UK in 2019! I am currently getting ready to start pre production on this exciting project. In parallel, I am writing my script for a debut feature, which is is set 10 years ago in a politically unstable Beirut, where the mundane meets the unexpected on the eve of a young girl’s 14th Birthday.
My producer John Giordano has just returned from Cuba where he was working on a documentary about Cubans converted to Islam and has finalized the script for his debut feature ‘Clorofilla’ that is in the process of getting funded. My cinematographer Piero Cioffi has been busy working on many short films, commercials and music videos, and is planning to spend time in his hometown Ravello next year to shoot his first documentary project.
Interview: December 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
Three Centimetres
Four Lebanese girls go on a Ferris wheel ride to make their friend feel better about her breakup. Their conversation drifts to a less fun place.
Length: 9:00
Writer/Director: Lara Zeidan
Producer: John Giordano
About the writer, director and producer:
LARA ZEIDAN is a Lebanese/Canadian filmmaker based in London. Her graduation film ‘Three Centimetres' premiered at the Berlinale 2018, where it won the Teddy Award for Best Short Film.
JOHN GIORDANO is an English/Italian filmmaker based in Rome. His short film AMIAS (2013) had a successful festival run and he is now in preproduction for his feature film ‘Clorofilla’.
Key cast: Mira Choukeir, Joyce Abou Jaoude, Bissan Ahmad, Melissa Dano
Looking for: Buyers, journalists
Facebook: 3cm film
Twitter: @larazeidan_
Instagram: @larazeidan
Other: https://www.larazeidan.com/three-centimetres
Funders: The London Film School
Made in association with: The London Film School
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? UK: London Film Week - December 8 / Out at Clapham, December 13; Germany: Furora Film Festival, December 8; USA: NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, December 15