CINEJOY FEATURING CINEQUESTDIRECTOR LAURA PLANCARTE
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SILICON VALLEY, CA -- Recognized as one, among the Top Film festivals in the nation, CINEQUEST FILM & CREATIVITY FESTIVAL attracts the most talented filmmakers from around the world. And this year, running Online from March 20 through March 30, was no exception. But, because of the pandemic, this year's films send to the Festival featured by CINEJOY, instead of being projected in theatres will be be streamed to our computers at home, the amount of Links to films, e-mailed to Cultural World Bilingual for our perusal was enormous. And because the quality of the films was excellent and their subjects so broad, to select the filmmakers we wanted to interview, and the works we wanted to review in our online website, was challenging. As we publish our first interview, we would like to thank each one of the Public Relations people who e-mailed Links of their films to us. and let them know that being unable to review them all in our Online Website, we chose to review only those films that their subject matter was relevant to the problems we are facing today, that excelled in their technical effects, and which depicted a subject matter that pulled the strings of our heart. Our first choice was NON WESTERN, a Feature Documentary, described as "A Story about displacement." It caught our attention immediately, because is a documentary based on the true inter-racial Native/Non Native couple in Montana between a man and a woman, which is visually presented in a perfectly edited film, which gives the audience the impression that the plot is being "acted" but it is not. What we see is what it is actually happening to this couple, when it is happening, being recorded on camera. Unique about this documentary, is that as spectators, its direction allows us (the audience) not only to get to know these two characters intimately, but to get to learn some aspects of their culture, the challenges their interracial union is already facing and through their struggles witness the on-going chain of oppression, their exploring their gender roles, according to their tribes' traditions and their identity issues already affecting the different generations in Montana. Watching the couple, we the audience, have also the chance to observe their different cultural clashes as they are evolving. To listen to their dialogue as they expose their different points of view to each other, and learn how racial and gender differences may be resolved with proper communication. Directed by Mexican Directora (As women directors are called in Spanish) LAURA PLANCARTE, the documentary will premier in the USA during CINEQUEST 2021 so anybody who holds a ticket to the festival will be able to watch NON WESTERN Online. On our part, and because after watching it we also wanted to discuss it, Cultural World Bilingual interviewed Directora PLANCARTE from Mexico City, by phone. When asked to describe NON WESTERN in her own words, this is what she told us: L. P.: "NON WESTERN is a film, set in Montana, about an interracial couple who are going to get married. In the film, we (She and her crew) accompanied them to explore their cultures' clashes and got to know them so well, that they allowed us to observe how they were discussing their differences among themselves and try to resolve them, to determine if they were going to be able to get married and become a family. " Now LAURA gets personal. "But for me, this film is much deeper that the portrayal of these characters. I think that what this film really is, is an exploration of human behavior. How we choose the things we decided to choose and how what we choose had a lot to do with our past, our own baggage, our childhood traumas and the oppression of our generations. C.W.B. How did you become familiar with their story? C.W.B. As a Directora, of the documentary how did you decided how to display their Conflict? "On her part, Nanci is Mexican, so she is a white woman, but when she was 13 years old she saw her mom, being used not only by her father but by other men and needed to flee away with her mother. When, after fleeing, they got homeless, they were "adopted" by the Lakota tribe. (A Native American Tribe also known as the Teton Sioux one of the three prominent subcultures of the Sioux American Indians, whose reservations is in North and South Dakota) so, for the first time, Nanci had a father in the Lakota tribe. was raised as a Lakota, and taught to practice Lakota traditions since she was a teenager." "And because both Thaddeus and Nanci had been "adopted" by another culture, when they met, they got attracted to each other and believe that they belonged together. They are now in love and both want to get married, even knowing that they will have to face many challenges in their lives because of their difference in cultures. By discussing their problems with each other, they are trying to solve them. That is the story I presented in the documentary.
C.W.B. How did they first meet? Because that part was not clear to me in the documentary. CWB. What is a "Sweat Lodge? C.W.B. Why did you not include the ritual in your documentary? C.W.B. And to end our interview, Laura, how did a Mexicana become a Film directora? (The reason for our question is because as a rule, the film industry in México is run by men). L.P. "I worked as an Artist in México, doing installations related to visual and Performance Arts, and wanted to evolved in my practice, so I began looking for a grant, and I was given the opportunity to go to London, to do the equivalent of an intense diploma in filmmaking and the idée was that I was going to use my knowledge in my Video Art. But, when I arrived in London, I felt in love with filmmaking, and because some times in life unexpected things happen, I ended up finding jobs in London, so I stayed. I have been living there for twelve years and I am working almost full time as a filmmaker."
FEATURE DOCUMENTARY For tickets and for more information go to:https://creatics.org/cinejoy.
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