Short Sweet Film Festival (Best Documentary) / AmDocs 2019 – Lost In Carranza
A true story of struggle and hope shot in San Francisco starring Pablo Carranza.
Interview with Writer/Director/Producer/Editor Marin Troude
Watch Lost In Carranza here:
Congratulations! Why did you make your film?
Thank you very much for featuring me. I really hope you will like Lost In Carranza but more importantly, if this film can help some people to stop doing drugs, that would be my first victory.
Imagine I’m a member of the audience. Why should I watch this film?
On the night of October 12th 2015, Pablo Carranza falls back into hard drugs despite his sobriety and battle against years of addiction. Alone in his apartment, filled with regret and guilt, he decides to confess by leaving a final voice message for his first love.
The shooting was very complicated and some scenes are hard to watch. It is different from what we usually see, I think because we made it with our heart. It's an art project and a short film at the same time, a timeless moment in Pablo Carranza's life between fiction and reality.
How do personal and universal themes work in your film?
This film, true to life, depicts the story of Pablo Carranza, a young skater from San Francisco from the ghetto, lost and cut off from a system where everything goes too fast for the most vulnerable of us. Struggling in life and prisoner of his own environment, we follow him finding refuge in solitude, religion and hard drugs, anything that could give him the strength to face the harshness of a relentless daily struggle.
Through this story of addiction, I wanted to talk about how drugs can affect our dreams, hopes, career or our relationship with others. Even if Pablo's story stays very personal, I think it can talk to anyone because we all have a dark passenger or different weaknesses to fight every day. The question is how to do it. We all have our own story, Lost In Carranza is just one of them.
How have the script and film evolved over the course of their development?
Three years ago, when I met Pablo Carranza in the streets of San Francisco, I instantly knew that I should make a film with him. We didn't talk a lot but I saw that more than just a good actor, that there was something about his dark past deep inside him.
Without any budget, we started to make a short film together. I expected the best from him because I didn't want anything superficial. Only the best or nothing. I tried to enter his soul to understand who he was in order to identify his weaknesses. And he didn't like it. So I started to be hard on him. And it was getting worse and worse. During 16 days, I tried to push his limits as far as he could bear.
Every shot in this film is true. The next year, I could barely go near the editing because I learned that Pablo had really fallen back into hard drugs in real life thereafter because of me. I blamed myself a lot and I started to experience some drugs as well for the first time. Through this bad experience, I discovered what addiction really is and I then understood that I was finally ready to edit this film.
What type of feedback have you received so far?
The first feedback has been very positive. For now, Lost In Carranza got six nominations and won three awards in different film festivals around the world in only one month, and I couldn't have dreamed a better outcome. Today, the film works well and I am truly honored to get so much love, support and recognition from the public.
Has the feedback surprised or challenged your point of view?
Yes, I was very surprised by the first feedback because I worked on this film for three years, and my biggest fear was to make it too personal. When film directors work too long alone on a project, they can easily get lost, especially when the editing part will define their entire narration. That's what happened to me. So at the time, I had absolutely no idea of how the audience will react to my work.
Making a complicated film like that is like being pregnant. I have to admit I was very nervous during the world premiere, but when I saw the first standing ovation after the screening, I suddenly felt released, because I knew that day that the public finally understood my vision.
What are you looking to achieve by having your film more visible on www.wearemovingstories.com?
I would like to share a message of hope and love to anyone who sees this.
Who do you need to come on board (producers, sales agents, buyers, distributors, film festival directors, journalists) to amplify this film’s message?
Lost in Carranza is already distributed by a French company and the outreach is doing well. But I am actually working on my first feature film and looking for new co-producers...
What type of impact and/or reception would you like this film to have?
Today, Pablo is sober and now the time has come to let go of the film... It's yours. I just hope it finds you and brings you joy and hope.
What’s a key question that will help spark a debate or begin a conversation about this film?
Making a film is a life experience, and sometimes reality may, unfortunately, exceed fiction... I'm proud of Pablo but I'm not proud of myself. Not as a filmmaker but as a human being, because I know I crossed the line to make this film. But where are the lines when it's all about making art? Here is the question that I will ask myself for the rest of my life. I won't probably ever get the answer because it's very subjective, but a debate on that topic in festivals would definitely be very interesting.
Would you like to add anything else?
I would like to advise the new generation of upcoming film directors to always create with the heart, to break the rules and follow their instinct. It’s not the camera which counts but the soul of the film and the story we really want to tell. It’s not a free ride, but never give up and always fight to pursue your dreams. Everything is possible, the only limits are the ones we self-impose by being afraid of the unknown.
What other projects are the key creatives developing or working on now?
Besides my first feature film, I am also working on a new short film with The Louvre Museum in Paris but can't say much more at this time...! Thank you very much.
Interview: April 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
Lost In Carranza
A true story of struggle and hope shot in San Francisco starring Pablo Carranza.
Length: 22:24
Director: Marin Troude
Producer: Marin Troude
Writer: Marin Troude
About the writer, director and producer:
French photographer and film director MARIN TROUDE makes films that graphically depict unconventional teenage activities. Most of the time, Marin’s work suggest the crossing of boundaries, the loss of innocence and no way to return. His art, inextricably linked to memory, allows him to stay in a perpetual world of adolescence. Martin has been a TV and cinema producer for two years in Paris before becoming a film director. He is also a consultant and script advisor for different advertising agencies around the world.
Key cast: Pablo Carranza (main actor)
Looking for: journalists, film festival directors, producers
Facebook: Lost In Carranza
Instagram: @marintroude
Hashtags used: #lostincarranza
Other: Vimeo
Made in association with: Hell, It's Paradise / Born Wild Agency / Bon Enfant Production / AV Superfly SF
Where can I watch it next and in the coming month? Lost in Carranza has been submitted to many new film festivals around the world and will be available for free on Vimeo in a few months.