Melbourne Documentary Film Festival 2019 – Breath (Aliento)
Fear, breathing, movement, presence. Breath, an inside look at Margarita Cardoso’s process to climb one of the most technically difficult and beautiful sport climbing routes at Los Dinamos, Mexico City.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer Ulises Fierro
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
With Breath (Aliento is the original title in Spanish), my main focus was making a film about the complex physical-emotional experience of rock climbing, through the personal experience of Margarita Cardoso, who is such a great climber. Also, for me was important doing it in a very intimate way and in a very raw style.
For me, climbing is a big part of who I am, so I tried to made a rock climbing film where you really feel the climbing itself, the deep experience of it.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
This film leads the viewer into a perspective about climbing that is not often shared. An approach into the whole physical-mental process of this complex activity that was born from the very basic, but never-ending, the conflictive relationship between human and nature, which is the rock climbing.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
What moves deep inside of us, the emotions, the very primal feelings, the possibilities of the body and mostly the discoveries about ourselves, for me that are the very important things about rock climbing.
Breath tries to dig deep inside this point of view, to explore it in a very subtle and humble way.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Like many of the projects that I've done, at first, it comes as a mix of ideas and sensations that ideally I would like to share with the viewers. In this project specifically, getting the visuals filmed was by itself a project, nevertheless, the values that were guiding the process were clear from the start; sharing an intimate and emotional perspective that most of the climbers experiment during their practice.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
To begin with, the idea of knowing that the film is being shared and viewed among some of the documental festivals around the world already overcomes the expectations that I had about the project when I started it. Knowing that on top of that, is going to be shared in other types of platforms, it encourages my motivation to keep on doing this kind of personal projects.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Why we do what we do? and, how we do it?
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Regarding the rock climbing theme.
I am developing a project that will explore vulnerability, creativity, and resilience, as catalysts for climbing.
This will be a journey into a beautiful and unique big wall climb at La Huasteca, Nuevo Leon, in the north of Mexico.
Interview: July 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
Breath
Fear, breathing, movement, presence. Breath, an inside look at Margarita Cardoso’s process to climb one of the most technically difficult and beautiful sport climbing routes at Los Dinamos, Mexico City.
Length: 17:00
Director: Ulises Fierro
Producer: Ulises Fierro
Writer: Ulises Fierro
About the writer, director and producer:
ULISES FIERRO. 12-31-1985, Mexico City. Mexico. Filmmaker focused on the documentary genre for more than ten years; interested in deepening and researching in a sensitive and creative way what defines us, the idiosyncrasy, the popular culture, the human body —its forms and possibilities—, as well as our conflictive relationship with the environment, the nature/human being dichotomy.
Key cast: Margarita Cardoso - Climber
Looking for: film festival directors, producers
Funders: Self-funded
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia/Cinema Nova - 20th July 2019