Author: Dreamate Demo

The Brazilian filmmaker discusses his new feature project, a psychological and political drama about intimacy, ideology, surveillance, and the fragile boundaries between love and power.

Brazilian filmmaker and writer Davi Kinski works across cinema, theater, and literature. His debut feature documentary, Poemaria, premiered in competition at the 52nd Gramado Film Festival and later received international awards, including Best Feature Documentary Director at the Tokyo Film Awards, Best Documentary at the Search Light International Film Festival in Mumbai, and the Audience Award at Cinema e Transcendência in Brasília. His short film Alice, Five Minutes Before Sunset also built an international festival career, earning awards abroad and nominations in Los Angeles. In 2026, Kinski was twice highlighted by The Hollywood Reporter among independent filmmakers during the Cannes and Venice film festival periods.

He is now developing Hearts in a Trance, his new fiction feature — a psychological, political, and erotic drama set between Ipanema, in Rio de Janeiro, and the idyllic coastal city of Maricá, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, where desire, ideology, and surveillance collide.

At the center of the story are Gabriel, a melancholic literary editor; Marina, a provocative filmmaker with whom he shares an open relationship; and César, an enigmatic former military man whose arrival disrupts their emotional balance. Marina begins a documentary experiment about the lives of the three of them, turning Gabriel’s home into a space where their intimacy is constantly filmed. As the experiment unfolds, desire, performance, and ideological tension begin to blur the boundaries between art and life, intimacy and control.

The screenplay has already won Best Original Screenplay at the New York Movie Awards and Best LGBTQIA+ Screenplay at the Indian Independent Film Festival, while also becoming a finalist at screenplay festivals in Cannes, Oxford, and Cambridge. The project is being developed with Rio de Janeiro-based producers Chris Mattos and Thales Calazans, with Ícaro Silva and Luísa Micheletti already confirmed for the cast. At this stage, the production is also open to new collaborations and international co-production partnerships.

Wild Filmmaker: Hearts in a Trance brings together sexuality, politics, surveillance, and cinema itself. How did the film begin for you?

Davi Kinski: It began with the feeling that, in today’s world, the political and the intimate can no longer truly be separated. Politics has entered our homes, our relationships, our language, and even the way we desire one another.

I wanted to make a film in which this fracture was not discussed from the outside, but experienced through three bodies sharing the same space. Gabriel, Marina, and César desire and provoke one another, and gradually become trapped in a relationship where affection, ideology, and control are almost impossible to distinguish.

So the film was born from a simple question: what happens when you invite into your intimacy someone who represents almost everything you believe you oppose?

That contradiction became the heart of the screenplay.

Wild Filmmaker: The film revolves around a bisexual and polyamorous relationship. Was it important not to make sexuality itself the central conflict?

Davi Kinski: Absolutely. Their sexuality is not the problem.

I was never interested in making a film in which bisexuality or polyamory had to be justified, explained, or punished.

For Gabriel and Marina, an open relationship is already part of their emotional vocabulary. César enters that space naturally, at least at first. What destabilizes them is not the fact that three people desire one another. The conflict comes from power, manipulation, jealousy, ideology, and the possibility that intimacy itself can become a tool of control.

The characters are free in their desire, but they are not necessarily free from fear, vanity, political violence, or the need to possess one another.

That distinction is fundamental to the film.

Wild Filmmaker: Marina is a filmmaker inside the story, and the camera gradually shifts from a creative tool to an instrument of surveillance. What interested you in that transformation?

Davi Kinski: Marina believes that filming is a way of understanding reality.

At first, her camera seems liberating. She records their intimacy almost as an artistic experiment and transforms Gabriel’s apartment into a laboratory where everyday life becomes performance.

But the film gradually questions that belief.

The more Marina films, the harder it becomes to know whether she is documenting reality or producing it. We are always performing to some degree — for lovers, friends, cameras, social media, and sometimes even for ourselves. The presence of a camera simply makes that performance visible.

Then surveillance appears without consent.

The same device that represented artistic freedom becomes an instrument of domination.

For me, the camera itself is morally neutral. What matters is who controls the image, who authorizes its creation, and who controls its meaning afterwards.

Eventually, the distinction between filmmaker, participant, and voyeur collapses completely.

Wild Filmmaker: The title clearly evokes Glauber Rocha’s Terra em Transe (Entranced Earth). What does that connection mean to you?

Davi Kinski: It is very important.

The title is both a tribute and a displacement.

Glauber’s Terra em Transe transforms political collapse into fever, theater, and delirium. I wanted to take that idea of political trance and bring it into the intimate sphere.

Instead of a country represented through politicians and revolutionaries, I have three people inside an apartment.

The country enters through their bodies.

Their desire becomes political. Their jealousy becomes political. Their fear becomes political.

So perhaps the film asks what happens when the historical trance of a country becomes an emotional trance.

That is where Hearts in a Trance comes from.

Wild Filmmaker: The screenplay has already received international recognition, and the project is now moving toward production. Where are you at this stage?

Davi Kinski: The international response has been very encouraging because the screenplay is deeply Brazilian, but its themes seem to resonate beyond Brazil.

It has won Best Original Screenplay at the New York Movie Awards and Best LGBTQIA+ Screenplay at the Indian Independent Film Festival, and was a finalist in Cannes, Oxford, and Cambridge.

We also have Ícaro Silva and Luísa Micheletti confirmed for the cast, which is very exciting because this film depends enormously on chemistry, silence, physical presence, and what happens between the lines.

I am developing the project with Chris Mattos and Thales Calazans, two Rio-based producers who are working closely with me on the production and financing structure.

This is precisely the moment when new partnerships can make a real difference. Collaborations and international co-productions are extremely welcome at this stage. We are open to conversations with producers, co-producers, financing partners, sales companies, and institutions interested in independent auteur cinema.

Wild Filmmaker: Besides Hearts in a Trance, what other projects are you currently working on?

Davi Kinski: I am currently developing Cortez: No Coração do Palco (Cortez: At the Heart of the Stage), a documentary about Raul Cortez, one of the great actors of Brazilian theater, cinema, and television. In terms of presence, versatility, and artistic stature, I believe he occupied a place in Brazilian culture comparable, in many ways, to someone like Anthony Hopkins internationally

But the film is not intended simply as a portrait of his career. It will be narrated by his daughter, Maria Cortez, who, twenty years after her father’s death, begins with a question that is both simple and profound: who was this man, really?

Through her memories, the recollections of people who knew Raul, archival material, and his body of work, the documentary becomes an investigation into memory — into what remains after someone is gone, and into the way an absence can remain deeply present.

That idea fascinates me. Sometimes a person disappears physically but continues to inhabit spaces, affections, objects, stories, and even silences. In a way, the film is not only asking who Raul Cortez was, but how someone continues to exist in the lives of others after they are no longer here.

At the same time, I am in post-production on No Armário (In the Closet), my second feature documentary, co-directed with Franthiesco Ballerini. It is a film about sexuality, identity, and the different ways of living between visibility and concealment.

These projects are very different, but they all connect to questions that deeply interest me as a filmmaker: identity, memory, intimacy, absence, and the way we construct ourselves — and others — through images.

-Who is Starry Venus?

Starry Venus is me, I’m an artist. I have a multi-discipline approach to figuring out who I am and exploring that as part of my path. I’m a lifelong musician and artist, passionate about being in nature and experiencing the world, from a deeply felt, organic place of contemplation and questions. Starry Venus is my exploration of my own consciousness here on this planet and in this universe. It’s a daily communication in many ways. It is a consciousness I chose to be. I’ve always had a deep passion and love for film. I especially like films that go beyond our mainstream perception of what we think film is, as an incredible art form. I have experience with performance art, sculpture, and other things, playing different kinds of music, and even touring in a different incarnation. Starry Venus is the culmination of my path and stepping into my identity.

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

I took a German film class when I was in grad school and became very excited and passionate about Werner Herzog’s work. It might be strange films to reference, but the way his early work was put together was so visceral, so powerful, so fascinating to me. It captured me in that moment and showed me something that was possible, because he had a way of bringing something so visceral, so deeply felt, into a story that involves nature. His films always have nature as a character. That was a very transformative experience for me, and it’s what awakened me to what’s possible with film.

-Tell us about your project “Do You Feel It (Eric Kupper Remix).”

This short film / music video is very much a journey, set to Eric Kupper’s trance remix of my song “Do You Feel It.” I’m taking it to another level, weaving together multi-dimensional aspects and a narrative story that expands off the original video. With this one, I decided not to hold back. It’s fast-paced, like the dance song, and visually beautiful. Each character has a story
that’s unfolding, an identity of its own; the various narratives are speaking to each other — giving the viewer an experience as much as telling a story. I intentionally referenced many intense things that are going on in the earth right now, in nature and animals, as well as the character of Anastasia of the Ringing Cedars. I included myself as the creator and artist who moves through these extremes that become the container from which we create. Those same extremes are playing out in the world: life and
death, creation and destruction, love and loss, inspiration and the past and present. I’m weaving something that shows how all these pieces are interconnected, and it’s the song that carries it. I’m presenting these extremes, but it always comes back to showing beauty, moments of connection, the way the light moves. This video is a love story to creation — very connected to the earth itself.

-Which director inspires you the most?

Beyond Herzog’s early work, I’d say David Lynch. Everything he pioneered in his work, such as Mulholland Drive, there are incredible aspects to how he brings wild elements together, so successfully that it reached the mainstream. I feel inspired by the way he figured out how to do that in such a fascinating way. It gives permission to remember, as a filmmaker, what is possible, and that there’s a limitlessness there that I really admire. When you can take that limitlessness and put it into form, that’s the beauty of art.

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

What I dislike about the world is how there seems to be a constant push from all different types of influences to give up our power, to give it away, without first understanding what our power is, as the human beings and spirits that we are, walking this planet in these bodies. There’s so much influence in this world that seems designed to push us out of our power centers without us
even realizing what we’re doing, whether that’s through religious programming, media, or whatever the newest influence is. I don’t like that this world comes with a preset to give that away first, instead of understanding who we are. If we didn’t give our power away, would we even be fighting? Would there be problems? Imagine if everybody was walking around feeling totally empowered, totally embodied, and at peace in themselves. What I would change is that we don’t come into the world forgetting everything. If I could change one thing, it would be that we get to be born and remember who we are: our multidimensional
identity, our cosmic identity, our human identity, our Earth identity, our travels through all the different aspects of the full-body consciousness that we are. That we remember we are that beautiful, powerful light, that all the information is already within us, everything we need, and that we can share that, so we can walk into the world and express that light to one another without having to give it away, take it, or forget it.

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

Given how things are going right now, that’s almost painful to answer, because I don’t want to see cinema become some kind of artificially operated system. To me, the beauty of cinema is working hands-on with the tools and the elements, with nature, the scene, the people, bringing the dreams we fall asleep with to life with our instruments. That tactile artfulness is what I love
about cinema as it’s already existed, and now we’re watching that change. I don’t want to see an AI agent making a movie, because I don’t want to watch that movie. That’s not the art. Maybe people will get tired of that and it won’t happen, but I’m a little concerned about the direction things are moving right now, and I think it’s important to hold on to that sweet spot of where art
in all its forms, cinema, music, painting, community, happens. I think it’s still possible in 100 years, but I’m a little concerned that if that art isn’t there, how can you even call it cinema? Cinema is the place where dreams come to life, where we can speak
and share that dream and communicate. I don’t want to see something artificial running that. This is why I feel publications like this one, and the people holding these spaces where the art is actually getting made right now, matter so much. If we get to hold on to that, I think there could be a really beautiful, amazing part of cinema in the future, one that can involve technology and
still be futuristic. But I don’t know if people will even care about cinema if we’re merged with something virtual. At that point, for me, I’m going to be out in a field somewhere, lying down, watching the sky. I don’t want to merge with that. I want to keep exploring and having that artistic conversation. I think it’s unknown exactly where the direction goes, what art will even be
in 100 years, and whether people will have forgotten where cinema came from.

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

My impression of WILD FILMMAKER is like when somebody’s out there mining, treasure hunting in a big field, and when you find that treasure, you’re weaving it and putting it into a presentation that helps other people recognize what those treasures are. I feel like WILD FILMMAKER is celebrating the art within filmmaking and cinema, and it’s important to find that wildness and speak to it. I think it perfectly describes what WILD FILMMAKER is doing, helping people recognize why that wild part matters so much. That’s very important to me, and it’s refreshing.

–Who is Alicia Fall?

A woman who built herself up. I began my career more than twenty years ago in journalism and French television. Today, I have chosen cinema as another way to express myself and tell the stories that are close to my heart.

–Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

Yes, it was while watching Steven Spielberg’s E.T. That film is a masterpiece ! It was released in 1982, I was one year old, and its direction remains, even today, an incredible cinematic achievement. I admire its ability, at the time, to make us believe in the impossible while speaking about deeply human feelings.  I actually watched it with my 10-year-old twins, who act in my short film, they loved it, laughed, and cried, just like the rest of us.

–Tell us about your project “Hopscotch”.

Hopscotch is an autobiographical short film that addresses the domestic violence experienced by children. I want to open a dialogue, encourage those who carry trauma from childhood and/or adulthood to speak out, and invite us to pay closer attention to the people around us. Sometimes, an outstretched hand can save a life. Thanks to its festival journey, more than 21 official selections around the world, from New York to Los Angeles and Miami, through London, Cannes, Paris, Barcelona, Verona and Montreal, including an official selection at the Reel Sisters of the Diaspora Film Festival, which is Oscar-qualifying, I am able to open up these discussions, and that is what matters most.

–Which director inspires you the most?

It’s difficult to choose just one! I love the sensitivity and commitment of Ava DuVernay and Alice Diop. Christopher Nolan inspires me with his boldness and vision. I like Ryan Murphy’s aesthetic, his ability to give horror a disturbing beauty is as fascinating as it is unsettling. It’s a real achievement ! A little nod to the French Alice Guy, the first woman director in the history of cinema worldwide, and her very first work, “La fée des choux”, a 51-second short film made in 1896 ! Each of them, in their own way, reminds me that it is possible to create a distinctive cinematic world while saying something about our society. Tyler Perry, who tackles important subjects with genuine dramatic depth while still making room for humor. In my view, this ability to bring the two together is one of the qualities that makes him a great filmmaker.

–What do you dislike about the world, and what would you change?

Our inability to live together as brothers, because we are in the process of dying together as fools. For those who don’t recognize the reference: Martin Luther King Jr.

If I could change one thing, I would erase ego from the palette of human emotions. That would solve a lot of problems.

–How do you imagine cinema in a hundred years?

I wonder whether it will still exist in the form we know today. Perhaps audiences will want to live stories rather than watch them on a screen, through immersive experiences like those in the series Westworld, featuring, among others, Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris, Thandiwe Newton and Tessa Thompson. That is obviously not what I wish for, but artificial intelligence is already transforming our professions at a dizzying pace. Forms of entertainment will evolve too. I simply hope that the desire to tell stories and share emotions between filmmakers and audiences will remain at the heart of that evolution.

–What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

It is a media outlet that gives independent filmmakers a space to talk about their work and share their vision of the world, whether artistic, personal or socially engaged. Thank you to you Michele Diomà for giving us that freedom to speak!

-Who is Billy Mitaritonna?

Billy Mitaritonna is a hard working, selfless human being. He is a devoted husband, loving father of 3, a veteran history teacher and a championship high school basketball coach on Long Island New York. But who he is in the year 2026 is evolving into a creative screenwriter. That evolution didn’t happen overnight. For most of my life, storytelling lived in the background, in the way I’d tell a story to my players before a big game, or the way history came alive in my classroom when I could connect a lesson to something real. I spent decades showing up for other people’s stories: my students’, my athletes’, my own kids’. Somewhere in there, I started paying attention to my own. “THE WALK ON” is a tribute to my father who never let me quit on anything in my life. He is the inspiration for my screenplay.

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

May of 1977 when my father brought me to see STAR WARS at age 5. It taught me the difference between good and evil, taught me to never give up- no matter the odds, and opened my eyes to a new world that I had not seen from my small Queens apartment. I found comfort and joy in the movies I loved in the 1980’s and cinema was an inexpensive way to forget about life for a while.

-Tell us about your project “THE WALK ON”.

It started with my memoir, Last of the Redmen in 2018 that I self-published on Amazon books. Writing down what it actually felt like to be a kid who got cut from his high school basketball team four years in a row, and what it meant that my father never once let me believe that was the end of the story. I wasn’t trying to become a writer when I wrote that book. I was trying to make sense of something that shaped my whole life. But once it was out in the world, and once people started telling me it moved them, something shifted. I realized the story wasn’t just mine anymore, it belonged to anyone who’d ever been told they weren’t good enough. Turning that into a screenplay, THE WALK ON, felt like the natural next chapter. I’m 54 years old, a Gen Xer telling a story from an era I lived through firsthand, and there’s something I hope resonates in… that it’s never too late to become who you’re meant to be. I spent my whole career teaching kids that history isn’t just something that happened to other people. Somewhere along the way, I started applying that same idea to myself. “THE WALK ON”.

-Which Director inspires you the most?

There are a lot of very talented directors out there today but the one who inspires me is Gavin O’Connor. I’ve had a chance to meet Gavin and he is as real as it gets. His movies are always enjoyable and he is not afraid to take chances. In his film, MIRACLE, about the amazing US 1980 Winter Olympic Hockey team, Gavin had to make big choices in finding the right angles and casting decisions while keeping this story true to form. He got it done with great care and the movie is one of my all time favorites.

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

As a social studies teacher, I am an active learner about the world around us. The easy answer is to have everyone get along in harmony but that is “pie in the sky” thinking. I can only control what I can control and that is what I have pledged to do with my family. If each person can control what is in front of them and their family, maybe we will be able to get along in society without drama.

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

With the advent of A.I. in the last few years, I can’t imagine where we will be in 100 years but to put things in perspective, the first talking movie was The Jazz Singer in 1927. Look at how far we have come in the last 50 years with C.G.I. and A.I. The next 10-15 years will be eye-opening.

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

I am impressed with the reach of Wild Filmmaker and their ability to promote rookie and veteran film makers. As far as screenwriting, it is a hard business to get into without the proper representation and that is my goal for right now.
Thank you to WILD FILMMAKER for giving me the opportunity to share THE WALK ON with the world!

Angelo and Billy Mitaritonna

-Who is Jasmine Buchner?

“I’m an independent publishing entrepreneur, author, and photographic artist, born in Munich, Germany, on August 29, 1978. Without the backing of a literary agency or traditional publisher, I have built both my publishing career and an international
platform for my work. I publish under my artist name, which is legally protected as both a registered word mark and a figurative mark by the German Patent and Trade Mark O ice (DPMA). My German-Austrian heritage is an important part of my identity; my
father’s family comes from Vienna. My work is shaped by a distinctive blend of creative writing and psychological inquiry.

I studied linguistics at the Open University, focusing on English, Italian, and French, and completed a creative writing program at the Open College of the Arts. On August 1, 2026, major German news outlet Merkur.de published an author profile titled “Jasmine Buchner Takes On Romance Scammers—Worldwide.” The profile has since attracted more than 50,000 views on Instagram alone, further expanding the international reach of my work. My background in social psychology, together with my ongoing studies in clinical and criminal psychology, informs both my fiction and my analysis of how emotional manipulation and cyber-grooming operate in the real world. I’m currently completing a new dark psychological thriller with an American noir sensibility, which is being prepared for submission to a leading literary agency in Germany. My goal is always to transform raw, lived trauma into gripping, powerful stories that confront the stark realities of our digital world.”

-Tell us about your book, The Romance Scamming King.

“The Romance Scamming King is a distinctive blend of psychological thriller and true crime. Conceived as a fictionalized case study and grounded entirely in my own lived experience, it combines narrative suspense with raw authenticity. The book exposes
how international syndicates systematically weaponize empathy to pull people into the machinery of digital organized crime.
The original German-language edition has sold steadily for two years and has gained recognition for its treatment of the subject. Without the infrastructure of a traditional publisher or agency, I have independently developed, positioned, and marketed the
book, turning its reach into an entrepreneurial achievement as well as a literary one. My analysis of these manipulative tactics has also attracted attention from feminist publications, including a Vienna-based magazine, extending the discussion beyond the
book’s original readership.
The e-book recently reached No. 2,280 in Amazon’s Private Investigators category and No. 3,743 in Psychological Thrillers. The international response extends well beyond those rankings: my November book tour, organized by Nicola Winters and Ace Book
Tours, filled every available spot within 48 hours and will feature more than 20 book bloggers from the United States and the United Kingdom. The book has also generated more than 172,000 organic impressions on my instagram account and entered Amazon UK’s overall Top 10,000.
My writing is intensely cinematic. I want each scene to unfold with such visual immediacy that it plays like a film in the reader’s mind, drawing them fully into the characters’ experience. At its core, the book delivers one unequivocal message: victims
are not naive; they are survivors of a deliberate and highly sophisticated psychological attack.”

-Which writer inspires you most?

“I’m deeply inspired by Julie Clark’s exceptional psychological suspense and her ability to build intricate, high-stakes plots around resilient characters confronting profound deception. The way she layers tension while exploring both the vulnerability and strength
of her protagonists closely reflects what I strive for in my own work. I’m also drawn to the brooding atmosphere and grit of classic American noir, as well as the structural rigor of traditional German analytical prose. That combination keeps me attentive to precise detail and ensures that every sentence carries weight.”

-Which director inspires you most?

“Visually and atmospherically, I’m a great admirer of David Fincher and Martin Scorsese. Fincher’s command of shadow, precision, and sustained tension in films such as Zodiac and Gone Girl closely aligns with the visual identity I pursue in both my photography and my writing. Scorsese’s work draws me for a di erent reason: his portrayals of criminal networks retain their human complexity without softening their violence. Together, those influences capture the psychological control, moral tension, and American noir energy that drive my work.”

-What do you dislike about the world, and what would you change?

“What troubles me most is the superficiality of modern digital culture: how easily empathy can be performed and how readily victims are blamed. We live in a world fixated on surface-level fame, while insidious, largely invisible forms of manipulation are
too often met with silence or scorn. If I could change one thing, I would break the taboo surrounding psychological abuse. I want to replace disposable entertainment with stories that matter—stories that give people the awareness to recognize deception
before it destroys their lives.”

-How do you imagine cinema 100 years from now?

“A century from now, AI and virtual reality may have transformed the way films are made, but our hunger for genuine psychological depth will be greater than ever. Cinema will no longer be something we merely watch on a screen; it will become a fully immersive experience. Technology, however, is only a tool. The heart of cinema will always be the raw human soul. Great films will not be defined by digital e ects, but by the courage of their creators to reveal the unvarnished truth of human nature.”

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

“WILD FILMMAKER gives independent artists and arthouse filmmakers a platform without asking them to dilute their vision for mainstream expectations. Its presence at festivals such as Cannes, Venice, and Toronto connects distinctive work with an international audience. For an artist working with dark, psychologically driven material, that commitment to substance and individual voice is what makes the platform especially relevant.”

-Who is Patrycja Skawska?

I am a Polish director and filmmaker, but above all, a curious observer of life. I am fascinated by people who devote themselves to something with extraordinary passion, especially those whose stories might otherwise remain unnoticed. My films often explore loneliness, the need for belonging, human connection and the search for meaning. I am particularly drawn to people who create their own worlds through their passions, sometimes in circumstances that seem impossible to overcome. My path to filmmaking began with a background in acting, followed by a professional course in directing and cinematography. Working across different countries and cultures has shaped the way I see the world and deepened my curiosity about how we experience life, find meaning and relate to one another. My directorial debut, Rap Like Grandma: Suni & 7 Princesses, took me to South Korea, where I encountered a group of elderly women who, after learning to read and write later in life, began transforming their poetry into rap. The documentary has received numerous international awards, including the Audience Choice Award at the Vindhya International Film Festival, Best Documentary Short at the Milestone International Film Festival and Best Women Empowerment Film at the Milan Indie Film Festival. In Greece, I directed Like a Rolling Stone, a documentary about Panagiotis Manikis and his lifelong dedication to natural farming. The film explores our relationship with nature and reflects on contemporary ideas of progress, consumption and the ways we choose to live. It received the Grand Prize at the International Taygetos Film Camp. My third documentary, Passions, brought me back to Poland and to the story of Tadeusz Modrzejewski, who spent more than thirty years hand-copying the works of Nobel Prize-winning author Władysław Reymont. His extraordinary devotion became a starting point for a reflection on artistic vocation, cultural memory and what it means to dedicate a life to something deeply personal. The film has received three international awards at the Pageant Film Festival, London Indie Film Festival and Mei International Film Festival. Although these stories unfold in different countries, cultures and circumstances, they are connected by my fascination with people who follow their own paths and remain deeply devoted to what gives their lives meaning. I am interested in lives that are not necessarily defined by conventional ideas of success or recognition, but by commitment, curiosity and a sense of purpose.
I believe documentary cinema can preserve not only stories, but also memories, values and ways of seeing the world that might otherwise disappear. Through my films, I want to create space for voices that are rarely heard and invite audiences to reflect on their own ideas of purpose, belonging and the different ways a meaningful life can be lived.

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

I fell in love with cinema relatively late, and it happened gradually rather than in one particular moment. For half of my life, I didn’t have the opportunity to watch films, and cinema was never my favourite art form. I started with short documentaries, then moved on to psychological films and longer forms, which expanded my perception of the world. Through paintings, art exhibitions and photography, I began to see reality in frames, experimenting with images myself and carefully observing the world around me.
What fascinates me about cinema is its limitless creative potential. It allows multiple narratives to unfold simultaneously, exploring various issues and events through different layers. Sound, imagery, screenplay and narration offer distinct ways of conveying meaning, while metaphors introduce additional depth. Cinema can evoke emotions in countless ways and stimulate the imagination, allowing viewers to discover interpretations that the filmmaker may never have consciously intended.

-Tell us about your project “Passions”.

“Passions” is a documentary about Tadeusz Modrzejewski, a man who devoted more than thirty years of his life to hand-copying the works of Polish Nobel Prize-winning writer Władysław Reymont and bringing the world of his novels to life through painting. I met Tadeusz just three months before his death. What began as a film about an extraordinary dedication to literature became something much more personal: a reflection on solitude, the passage of time, the meaning of creation and the invisible forces that guide our lives.
The story begins with a dream, which becomes the first thread connecting two lives separated by time. Reymont, who preserved the spirit of rural Poland through his writing, and Modrzejewski, who devoted decades to preserving and reinterpreting those words, enter into a quiet dialogue. Built around Tadeusz’s last recorded interview, the film is not a conventional reconstruction of his life, but an exploration of the choices, beliefs and passions that shaped it.
I was fascinated by the question of what makes someone dedicate decades to an activity that may never bring recognition or material reward. Where does such devotion come from? Is it passion, a sense of mission, a spiritual calling, or perhaps something we cannot fully explain? How does passion become a way of living rather than simply an interest?
The film moves between memory, imagination and reality, exploring the relationship between an individual and their inner world. Solitude becomes the beginning of creation, while the candle, a recurring visual motif, symbolises both the fragility of life and the persistence of the creative spirit.
For me, “Passions” is also a story about cultural memory. Tadeusz’s work became an act of preserving not only literature, but also the Polish language, traditions and a vision of life rooted in simplicity and a profound connection with nature. Every culture survives because there are people who quietly decide that it is worth carrying forward. At the same time, the film raises questions that extend far beyond one man’s story. What gives life direction? Is creative freedom still possible in a world increasingly shaped by visibility, constant noise and the need for approval? What does it mean to follow one’s own path, even when it leads away from
conventional ideas of success?
One sentence accompanies the entire film: “In hopelessness, there is hope.” I have never understood it as blind optimism. For me, it speaks about the courage to keep searching for purpose, even when the way forward is uncertain. It reminds me that life is never simply black and white, and that meaning can sometimes be found where we least expect it.
Ultimately, “Passions” is an invitation to slow down and look at a life measured not by recognition, but by dedication. It is a reflection on creative independence, the preservation of memory and the courage to remain faithful to one’s own values. Above all, it asks a question that has no single answer: what gives a human life meaning?

-Which director inspires you the most?

I admire Almodóvar for his unconventional visual language, bold use of colour and expressive compositions. His ability to combine melodrama with dark humour while exploring human relationships, desire, identity and the contradictions of human nature makes his films particularly compelling to me. I appreciate how he uses imagery to express emotions that dialogue alone cannot capture. On the other hand, there is Miyazaki, who inspires me through his approach to storytelling, the construction
of his screenplays and the way he guides the unfolding of events. His films are rich in metaphors, symbolism and hidden messages. I particularly appreciate how he portrays reality through his unique visual language, exploring profoundly human experiences, our relationship with nature and the delicate boundaries between good and evil. His stories embrace the complexity of life, leaving room for mystery, reflection and meanings that reveal themselves differently to each viewer.

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

What troubles me most is the system that shapes modern life. How time is spent, the lifestyles that are encouraged, and how the human mind responds to activities and forms of entertainment designed to capture its attention. I find it disturbing how little space is left for searching for truth, connecting with nature or questioning the purpose of existence. So much time is devoted to choosing professions, pursuing careers and building social status that the spiritual journey and the fundamental questions of why we are here and what gives life meaning can easily be forgotten.
I believe in our capacity for self-sufficiency, yet the pursuit of wealth, power and social status has led us to spend much of our lives earning money only to buy things that, at least in part, we could provide for ourselves. Growing food, cultivating plants for natural remedies, making cosmetics or simply understanding what the earth can offer us are examples of knowledge and independence that have gradually been pushed aside. Instead, consumption has become an integral part of everyday life, while our connection with and responsibility towards the very thing our existence depends on, the nature, has weakened.

I believe there is room to reconsider this relationship, to understand the value of the soil beneath our feet and recognise how closely our own well-being is connected to the health of the planet. These questions are also reflected in the stories I search for in my films. I am drawn to individuals who follow their inner calling, question conventional definitions of success and refuse to let material possessions determine the meaning of their existence. Their dedication, independence and search for purpose fascinate me, particularly when their choices challenge the expectations of the society around them.
If I could change something, I would want to challenge the systems that shape our desires and our relationship with time, creating more space for reflection, independence and a renewed connection with nature.

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

I imagine cinema becoming increasingly immersive, with technologies allowing audiences to experience stories in ways we can barely imagine today. The boundaries between film, virtual reality and other artistic forms may gradually disappear, opening entirely new possibilities for storytelling. At the same time, I wonder whether technological progress will make us appreciate simplicity even more. Perhaps, surrounded by increasingly sophisticated images and artificial creations, we will develop a deeper
longing for authenticity, imperfection and genuine human experiences. I hope cinema will remain a space for experimentation, artistic freedom and personal expression, rather than becoming entirely shaped by algorithms and commercial expectations. Whatever form it takes, I believe its essence will remain connected to our desire to understand ourselves and others, to imagine what we have never experienced and to discover new ways of perceiving reality.

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

What I appreciate most about WILD FILMMAKER is that it gives independent filmmakers a voice and creates opportunities for their work to be seen and heard beyond traditional industry structures. I particularly value the space it offers to share not only films, but also the ideas, experiences and personal perspectives behind them. Through its interviews and international community, it allows us to discover filmmakers more deeply, understand their creative journeys and encounter different ways of seeing the world. I believe there is great value in exchanging ideas, learning from one another and finding inspiration in perspectives we might never otherwise encounter. For me, WILD FILMMAKER represents something important: a space where cinema is not simply about recognition, but also about connection, dialogue and the freedom to express an individual artistic vision.

-Who is Daniel McEwan?

Well, I’m many things, a son, brother, friend, writer, filmmaker, triathlete, a recovering alcoholic and drug addict, a man of God, but above all else, I’m just a guy trying to do the next right thing. Trying to be of service and help where I can. Trying to be a better man than I was yesterday and hopefully I can inspire someone, or give them hope. When I see that smile, or look in someone’s eyes, how grateful they are for something I did, words can’t describe. Then they want to ask how they can repay me? Seeing them do well means more to me than they can ever know. Giving love to people will always feel better than receiving it. I love when I get recognition for something I worked hard on but when I get to help someone, truly help someone, there is no better feeling in the world!

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

The first movies that got me into story telling and nerdy things were The Avengers (2012) and The Dark Knight. The Dark Knight is still my favorite movie and The Avengers is still in my top 5. They are definitely movies that I’ve watched the most in my life. But the movies that got me to want to write and make films are, Whiplash, Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction. They showed me that movies can be so much more than just big action set pieces. They can be dramatic and tell a grounded, human story and be just as inspiring, and amazing as a big action movie!

-Tell us about your project “Anguish”.

Anguish is a fictionalized vision of my addiction and mental health journey. I’m currently in recovery myself from alcohol and drugs as well as struggling with depression. I had the idea for the film and thought it would be really emotional and powerful. I wrote about 20 to 30 pages, then kinda set it aside and went off to other projects. I had a really bad relapse and when I was beaten up and coming off all the horrible things I put into my body, I had a big rush of inspiration. I wrote for two days straight, while the pain of yet another relapse was still fresh. I wrote most of the script in those two days but as I learned more about my own recovery, I would add and remove things. That probably went on for a few months and I finished it up once I got out of treatment and to see it do so well is amazing! I’m now coming up on 6 months sober and the fact that this specific work of mine is doing so well, means the world to me! My hope is it gets made and helps someone who is struggling. I love how art can say things that are hard for people to say. So when I start a new project,  I ask if it can help someone, and I think Anguish can!

-Which Director inspires you the most?

Christopher Nolan for sure. I love his work and as I said, The Dark Knight is my favorite movie. I also love Interstellar, Oppenheimer, Inception and his new film The Odyssey, OH MY GOD! Seeing that in IMax was so amazing! I love how he blends practical effects with CGI to make things feel as real as possible! Also his first film, Following, the story of how it was made and seeing where his career has gone, that inspires me to make movies!

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

I wish people loved more, there is too much hate. I don’t want to push this on anyone, it’s just my opinion, it is okay if you disagree but I think it’s because people have moved anyway from God. When I was out there doing my thing, drinking and drugging, I didn’t have God in my life and I was hateful, resentful and angry. But once I got sober and started working my recovery program, I found God again. And I realized that God never left me, I left him. He didn’t move, I did. So I just wish we could be more empathic with each other and help where we can. You don’t have to do what I did but I think we can all work on ourselves in our own way and try to be a better person than we were yesterday. We are all a work in progress and for sure I am! 

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

100 years is a long time. AI scares me for sure but I also think it can be useful. I hope that film keeps telling the stories that should and shouldn’t be told, you know? I hope movies keep making people laugh, cry, think and most of all, feel. That’s what great art does, make you feel something. And just because you or I don’t feel something from a film, someone else might! Which is why I think all films and art have a place in this world! Keep making people feel something!

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER? 

I think WILD FILMMAKER is amazing! I’m truly honored that they wanted to give me an interview and I hope they like what I had to say! They do great work and I’m blessed to be a part of it!

-Who is John Snell?

I’m retired and spend my time as a screenwriter and inventor from California.

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

I watched a lot of Saturday morning cartoons growing up. Johnny Quest, Space Ghost, and Shazzan to name a few, that first caught my attention with TVcinema. I suppose I really began to fall in love with cinema when I was old enough to start going to the movie theater as a young teen with my brother and sister, and friends my age and began to experience the big screen theatrical experience. Watching blaxploitation films like Shaft, Superfly and Pam Greer movies like Coffee. I also liked the spaghetti westerns with Clint Eastwood, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Also, things like Mission Impossible,
and the first James Bond movies. Drive-in movies were also a favorite growing up.

-Tell us about your project “N-W-G (New World Gangsters)”.

The (New World Gangsters) concept came to be when I was discharged from the Army in 1982, and moved in with mother who was living in a low income neighborhood in east Oakland, California at that time. It was the beginning of the crack epidemic, so I was seeing a lot of brown on brown violence and kids being killed over turf wars, and family members and friends becoming addicted to crack and crack related deaths in elevated numbers, which I’d never known or seen anything like that in Oakland, before I joined the Army. I was witnessing a lot of lives being destroyed.
I began to feel the brown community and the young people in the brown community were being led in a self destructive direction. One day I thought, what if the gangs and these kids who had lost all sense of self respect for themselves, and seemingly for life itself, became the solution to the problem, instead of being seen as the problem. That’s when New World Gangsters was born. An organization recruiting and training gangs to fight crime instead of committing crime.

-Which Director inspires you the most?

That would be Ryan Coogler. I love his work and what he’s been able to accomplish. And, we’re both from Oakland, so I feel that kinship.

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

I’d say racism, inequality and others feeling they’re somehow better than others. As the bible teaches, all men were created equal.
I feel those who fear that teaching, and feel they are somehow better than others are taught to fear inclusiveness, unity and equality, and being secure in their own skin with that knowledge. The fact that they are no better than anyone else. My motto is to, live and let live, and don’t worry about what someone else is doing, as long as they aren’t attempting to do you harm in some way.
I feel racism is a sickness that is taught and learned. People are taught to be divisive, hateful, and uncomfortable with ourselves. Or, to want to control or limit another person’s freedom, and say that you have the right to be free, but someone else doesn’t
have the same right to freedom. I’d say, people need to learn how to think for themselves when they’re searching for their truth about reality, and not let others make those critical types of decisions for them.

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

I can’t say that I would look that far ahead. I suppose cinema will evolve with the evolution of humanity, whatever that might look like in a 100 years. My focus would be on how do we make cinema better one day at a time.

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

This is my first encounter with Wild Filmmaker. I feel any platform looking to help industry professionals progress in their journey is a valued asset to the industry. I think it’s great. Thank you for the opportunity

-What is your earliest memory of cinema?

I was nine years old. It was summer, the heat was beating down on the streets, and my father was often away for work.
Around that time, many Blockbuster stores had already begun selling off their stock as they prepared to close.
I remember rows of DVDs at home. I spent that entire summer watching James Bond, Bruce Lee, Sergio Leone, Michael Mann…
The following year, drama was added to our school timetable.
Perhaps I still had the images from those films in my head. I remember the class being quite shy and, by contrast, how naturally I kept suggesting things: “Ms Corona, what if I deliver the line while crossing the stage from one side to the other?”
I never felt uncomfortable putting myself forward. Quite the opposite — I enjoyed it. I liked coming up with ideas.

-And after high school?

I studied at DAMS in Rome, but I immediately began looking for experiences outside university.
At nineteen, during a writing course, I met a girl who was involved with an association dedicated to the memory of Alessandra Bisceglia, a young journalist who had passed away prematurely. She suggested that we write a play together.
Il volto della normalità was staged on September 5, 2016, at the Teatro Portone in Senigallia. I remember the theatre being full and, above all, the feeling of watching something come to life in front of an audience when, only a few months earlier, it had existed solely on the page.
From that moment on, I looked for every opportunity that would allow me to experiment, observe, make mistakes, and learn. Even my thesis, which explored the possible meeting point between arthouse and commercial cinema, became the basis for a documentary.
I had the privilege of interviewing Lina Wertmüller, Neri Parenti, and Vittorio Giacci.
That film also won an award, but the award is the least important part of that memory. Being able to listen to people who had devoted their lives to cinema was infinitely more formative.

-At a certain point, you decide to apply to the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. What led you to that decision?

Covid forced me to stop, and paradoxically, that pause forced me to make a decision. I remember thinking, “Damn, am I really heading in the direction I want to go?”
The selection process was particularly tough: the previous admissions round had been suspended, which had practically doubled the number of applicants.
Getting in meant, above all, meeting other young people who shared the same obsession, measuring myself against talents very different from my own, and understanding that you don’t learn cinema simply by listening to someone teach it, but by constantly testing yourself against the way others see things.
It wasn’t always easy, but I have good memories of it. Sometimes you have to fight to make them.

-In those years, the first festivals also began to come along. What did they mean to you?

I was very happy about them, of course, but I still see them as part of my training. Through the Centro Sperimentale, I worked for two years on the Campari web series, which was presented out of competition in Venice. In 2025, three short films I had written — Kushta Mayn, L’acqua sotto la pelle and Dissidia — were presented at the European Film Festival in Lecce, and that same year Kushta Mayn, my graduation film, was selected for the Orizzonti section of the Venice Film Festival.
They were important opportunities, and I’m grateful to the people who chose those films. But I’ve only just started. What mattered to me was getting as much practice as possible, moving between genres, and working with different people and different approaches to filmmaking.
What worries me a little is when recognition turns into a kind of accounting exercise in art: selections, awards, results. They matter, of course, but a work is born first and foremost because someone feels the need to make it exist. Everything else, when it comes, deserves only one word: thank you.

-The stories you have written are very different from one another: how much of yourself has to be in a story for it to feel authentic?

I don’t think a story has to be autobiographical in terms of what happens. But the feeling behind it has to be real.
I can write about someone from another era, another country, someone who has lived through none of the things I have lived through myself; but somewhere, I have to recognise their desire, their fear, their shame. If I can’t find that point of connection, I may build the character perfectly, but it will remain an exercise.

-And when that story reaches the audience, do you prefer them to recognise what you wanted to say, or to find something in it that you never anticipated?

I’d rather lose control of it. I’m much more interested in someone feeling something I never expected than in knowing whether they understood exactly what I meant.
That is one of cinema’s most beautiful mysteries: you create an image, give it a meaning, and then someone looks at it and places a part of their own life inside it.

-How do you imagine cinema a hundred years from now?

I think the cinema of the future will end up resembling the cinema of the past far more than we imagine. The tools will change, but it will continue to do the same thing: preserve the feeling of an era. Films do not simply tell stories; they preserve the way we desired, feared, loved, and looked at the world. They are the emotional record of our time on earth.
And I do not believe at all that everything was better in the past. Quite the opposite: the average quality of images has risen enormously. Today, a thirteen-year-old can pick up a smartphone and shoot images that, technically, would have required enormous resources only a few decades ago. And that is because they grow up surrounded by images. They absorb them, developing an instinct for framing, rhythm, and editing at a very early age.
That is where the great difference from the past lies.
Before, making a film meant going through years of work, and that difficulty forced you to learn how to master the image before you could produce it. Today, the opposite often happens: we can produce images before we have learned how to master them. And we end up being mastered by them.
But I think it is mainly a matter of time: learning to master them as quickly as we produce them. That, I believe, is where part of cinema’s future will play out.

-And now?

At the moment, I’m working to secure the funding to bring my next short film, La Roma Bene, to the screen.
The fact that the screenplay has received attention from Slamdance, BlueCat, and Outstanding Screenplays means a great deal to me, but there is still a long way to go…

-Who is Paul Fischer?

I am an author and screenwriter, primarily based in the United Kingdom.

-Do you remember the exact moment you fell in love with cinema?

I remember being very young, maybe four or five, and going to my dad’s shelf of VHS tapes on a rainy day, and pulling out the cassette of Raiders of the Lost Ark, because I was intrigued by the cover artwork. I put it on and was completely overwhelmed by it. The music, the swashbuckling, the adventure, the melting faces. I was into movies from then.

-Tell us about your book “THE LAST KINGS OF HOLLYWOOD”.

THE LAST KINGS OF HOLLYWOOD is about the friendships and early careers of Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Francis Coppola, and how they set out to take on an American film system that, at the time and in their eyes, was failing and dying. They wanted to make personal films that were also popular films, or popular films that were also personal films — where to draw that line was part of the dilemma — and they wanted to find a way to have creative and financial control over their work, like artists, instead of being essentially studio employees. The book follows them from the moment they meet, in the late 1960s, to about the mid-1980s, when they were the biggest filmmakers arguably in the world. 

-Did you expect this book to make it onto The New York Times’ list of the most successful film books?

I didn’t, partly because I try not to worry about anything other than writing the book. If people like it, amazing, if it sells, great. If people don’t like it and it doesn’t sell, it is what it is. It takes me several years to write each book and I just want to write something I’m proud of. I remember someone once saying you can do this kind of work for the process or for the results, but not for both, and that’s true for me. So I do it for the process. You can’t control the results.

-Why didn’t you include Martin Scorsese among the last kings of Hollywood?

Scorsese is kind of 1B to the Spielberg, Lucas, and Coppola in the book, who are the 1A main subjects, the titular “kings.” He’s very important but he doesn’t fit in the centre of the prism. Essentially, he did not have any interest in taking over the system or running a studio or having that form of power, like they did — Scorsese just wants to make films, and to make every film like it’s his last. And he was a New York guy, not a California guy, which the other three were. And he had great success but not the kind of unprecedented success those guys had, that transformed the industry and how it made films and what films it made. So in the book, as far as cultural history, Scorsese serves more as a contrast, a filmmaker who was influential in other ways, went about things in other ways, while being a very close friend and collaborator to all of them. 

-What do you dislike about the world and what would you change?

I’m middle-aged and grumpy, so there’s plenty about the world I dislike. Right now, mostly, it’s everything the fat cats on the hill are trying to push on us — so-called AI, consumerism, precarious work to live, division and prejudice, digital dishonesty and misinformation, treating everything about being alive like it’s something to be earned through work in the global factory rather than a right we all have. We don’t live in the world most of us want, or a world most of us would thrive in, but we’re all prisoners of this system manipulated by the very few to benefit the very few. I grew up in France, and though there is plenty about French culture I don’t particularly love, I am a great admirer of resistance, of the protest and of the barricade. 

-How do you imagine cinema in 100 years?

Another hundred years is almost as long as cinema has existed already, so who knows? I hope it remains a collective experience. I hope it remains centred around work you go see on a big screen in a dark room with other human beings. It’s about being overwhelmed.

-What is your impression of WILD FILMMAKER?

I was not familiar with the publication before we spoke, but anyone fighting to remind people cinema is special and worth preserving is fighting the good fight!