The Omnipotent Resolution project profoundly captivated the jury of the 2024 Swedish Critics’ Choice Awards! This short film, which can also be considered a music video, possesses extraordinary spiritual power, where music and dance become a pathway to understanding the human soul.
Artists Uniqueness Heiress & Azia managed to move and provoke thought in our jury, and unanimously, we decided to award the project the highest marks. We are very pleased to have formed a partnership with the Wild Filmmaker platform, which allowed us to discover this fantastic Artwork!
-What has been the greatest difficulty you faced in producing your project?
The most significant challenge I faced was overcoming my own resistance, opening up to the world in a vulnerable way, and sharing my truth, hopes and discoveries. It proved difficult to emerge from the wreckage of shattered dreams and expectations. I frequently repeated to myself an Albert Einstein quote, “You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it.”Throughout the post-production process, my mind and heart expanded, gradually reducing the emotional scar left by the story. Inevitably, I reached acceptance. But the experience of finding the way back to self has been a powerful challenge.
-Do you think the film industry today has been damaged by political correctness?
I understand your meaning. I admire the courage of the Wild Filmmaker for addressing a social issue that remains largely unexplored within the societal framework. Thanks to your unwavering support and interest, we’ve grow in an organic grassroots way to 85 festivals, 55 awards and 24 nominations. Despite the entrenched focus of mainstream media on infertility success stories with vague statistics, ‘Anything You Lose’ managed to connect with audiences and critics through the fertile ground of Indie Film Festival Network.
-What was the greatest source of inspiration for creating your project?
It serves as a memory bank for the time when I was young —a time when I exuded confidence and believed I could tackle any problem. The challenges of the story cracked me open. I was shocked and surprised to know how painful, raw, unearthing and unsettling this infertility struggle may become. It’s far more powerful and psychologically complex than commonly portrayed. My goal was to create a documentary account, both as a personal record and to raise awareness among those who might be traveling in my footsteps unaware of challenges ahead.
-If you could ask a question to a great director from the past, who would you like to talk to and what would you ask them?
I’d like to speak with Charlie Chaplin. I’m curious about the pivotal moment in his life when he chose to perceive the world through the lens of comedy. His mother, Hannah Chaplin, battled mental health issues, and his early life was fraught with hardships. However, after he rose to stardom in Hollywood, he brought his mother to America and ensured she received the necessary care.
-What do you think of the Wild Filmmaker platform?
I love you guys. Thanks for championing my work and being a beacon of the new era. You are a credit to your profession!
-What has been the greatest difficulty you faced in producing your project?
As a fashion designer, that has stepped into the roll of writer, to screenplay writer and so on. I’ve found the difficulties to be numerous and eye opening. When creating a fashion line, I’m old school in my creation, I believe in sewing what I sketch. I like to be hands-on from the inception of an idea to its development. In the case of Thankful, I’m doing my best to build this project with that same concept in mind. While the creative side of me prefers to build everything myself, I know that is impossible with a project of this caliber.
-Do you think the film industry today has been damaged by political correctness?
ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! My prospective, plain and simple…political correctness has gotten way out of control. It has gotten to the point that there is no story to tell unless it is build around a political push of some sort or another. Which leads me to believe that people focus more on the stories they know as those stories are regurgitated. Sadly, some with political correctness worked into their modern versions. I can not tell you how fortunate I feel to have created Thankful and not have anything politically alienating connected to it. A clean story focused on life, loss and living again while growing to understand the importance loving one’s self, without the need of overtly selling nudity, violence or politics.
-What was the greatest source of inspiration for creating your project?
I would say there are three main sources for Thankful: Family, Friend/kinship, and Love. It all comes down to not knowing what the highs and lows do to a person. The moment when everything feels like it’s happening at once. For example, Thankful covers topics such as suicide of close friends, sudden death of family members, divorce, tsunami while pursuing a career in fashion. It opens the door to seeing the true nature of the impact of all these situations at once. All the while focusing on the main character and how he deals with sadness, happiness, love, heartbreak, and trying to create a beautiful world of happiness through art. And all this in, just before the tsunami devastated the Indian Ocean. It’s very impactful.
-If you could ask a question to a great director from the past, who would you like to talk to and what would you ask them?
George Cukor, from RKO Pictures, would be the director I’d love to speak with the most. For those unaware of George Cukor, he was the third director hired for the Wizard of Oz. I would love to speak with him and ask what his full version of the Wizard of Oz would have been. Being that he cleaned up the look of the yellow brick road along with a number of other technicalities. I’ve often wondered what his version and vision of the world of Oz would have been. The Wizard of Oz was the first movie my mother took me to see at the age of 5. I never belonged to any Dorthy or Oz groups. I just remember being in love with these amazing characters while I was going through recovery. It wasn’t until my 20s that I understood the amount of directors the film actually had.
-What do you think of the Wild Filmmaker platform?
Wild Filmmaker Platform is a gem and a blessing. There’s no doubt that many people are doing their best to bridge the gap between indie and mainstream groups through movies, music videos, and even books. Wild Film Platform fills this gap better than most forums in the world. Creating a mind map is always the easy part; Bringing that map to life is a process that can make or break someone’s success. The Wild Filmmaker Platform seems to have achieved its goal.
-What has been the greatest difficulty you faced in producing your project?
“The Girl Who Faded Away” took more than a decade to fund and produce, but has proven to be worth the wait. It is a continuation of my collaboration with songwriter and guitarist Tom Guernsey, who left this world before his time from ALS. After we completed the video for Tom’s “On the Road (At 17),” Tom told me that I would have “carte blanche” on the next one. Adrienne, Tom’s widow, was very supportive and introduced me to Tom’s former bandmate George Daly, today an iconic music executive/artist who joined me as Executive Producer and Co-Writer. The coupling of Tom’s past with the very experienced George Daly was almost a miraculous bit of inspiration. So thanks Tom. The Girl Who Faded Away will now never fade away.
-Do you think the film industry today has been damaged by political correctness?
Political correctness is not inclusive enough to be truly effective. “Do to others as you would have them do to you” are better words to live by.
-What was the greatest source of inspiration for creating your project?
My inspiration arose from the lyrics of this melodious song. Since the heroine, the ethereal girl “faded away” when the “night is day”, I envisioned her as an apparition, and one representing a lost love. Because the recording of the song has scratches and pops, I decided to have the protagonist listen to a vinyl record on a phonograph. Having met the male lead Eric Schopmeyer in his persona of DJ powerless at a party, I made Eric the first hire and primary counter basis for everything that follows, with the “Girl” and him.
-If you could ask a question to a great director from the past, who would you like to talk to and what would you ask them?
I would ask Jean-Jacques Beineix for an apprenticeship.
-What do you think of the Wild Filmmaker platform?
George Daly and I are honored to be included in this class act among so many talented artists.
-What has been the greatest difficulty you faced in producing your project?
For me, it is always a great effort to start the work and then to finish the project. It feels like a ollercoaster, with huge self doubts at the lowest points and a euphoric feeling at the top points. Getting through the rollercoaster, adjusting my ideas so that they become realistic is a big struggle.
-Do you think the film industry today has been damaged by political correctness?
I don’t think so. On the opposite I think political correctness was much needed. I’m happy that there are more female directors and more diverse movie subjects now thanks to political correctness – I.e. films about feminism, lgbtq+, people with handicaps, but also films about grief.
-What was the greatest source of inspiration for creating your project?
My own grief for my husband. He died when I was 38, and through my grief for him I learned to appreciate life a lot more. Today I’m very aware that life can end on any day, so that it feels very precious. That makes me live a lot more conscious and grateful.
-If you could ask a question to a great director from the past, who would you like to talk to and what would you ask them?
I’d like to talk to Alfred Hitchcock and ask him whether he had self doubts as well. And if he had a trick to get through them.
-What do you think of the Wild Filmmaker platform?
I think this platform stands out and I’m proud to be one of your winners.
It was born from the need to plumb the depths of my profound human nature in a period in which I had decided to bring out into the open all the rot I felt I had inside. A sort of self-therapy in images, texts and sounds.
-Who are your influences?
Many and of various nature. Not just films or directors but also music, painting and art in general. If I really had to choose a director I would say Tarkovsklj for his ability to expand the human soul to the point of touching the divine and his ability to make you feel part of everything.
-What fascinates you about WILD FILMMAKER?
The possibility it gives directors to be welcomed, listened to and not judged a priori for their proposals and the message they try to convey. Which is very rare these days.
-What is the mission of your art?
Try to bring out some aspects of people’s inner lives while watching my films, giving them the opportunity to ask themselves questions and possible answers which should always be individual and never definitive. A very pretentious goal, but I think it is the main purpose of art.
-What has been the greatest difficulty you faced in producing your project?
For many years Giuseppe Vincenzo Sciarra and I had been thinking about this “Canovaccio” project and in 2023 we finally managed to produce it; post-production was completed this year. We had little time to make the short film, the constantly changing weather conditions forced us to make some changes in the shooting, but in the end the strong feeling between the three lead actors Gino Curcione, Brando Improta and Giovanna Asia Savino, allowed us to achieve the magic we were looking for. Moreover, the original music composed by Gianluca Erriu is an added value for the film.
-Do you think the film industry today has been damaged by political correctness?
Today, many projects are held back by this ‘political correctness’, what is ostensibly done to promote inclusion often has the opposite effect. I have always dealt with social issues and diversity is a wealth that must be valued and included in more realistic and lighter stories… Cinema must be courageous to convey a feeling, a sincere emotion.
-What was the greatest source of inspiration for creating your project?
The setting, Naples, from a particular point of view, i.e. a terrace of a house in the Posilippo district, was strongly desired by us and important to create a certain type of atmosphere. My colleague Giuseppe Vincenzo Sciarra and I initially tried to recreate a project close to French cinema and Italian genre comedy. But I think we made a very different film. This question should probably be put to the audience.
-If you could ask a question to a great director from the past, who would you like to talk to and what would you ask them?
I have always had a passion for Fellini’s Cinema and there are many questions I would ask the author. His work is still topical today, and above all his approach to the genre of the “fake documentary”, an aspect that is perhaps a little less well known, is also interesting. If I had to choose just one, in particular I would ask him if I could attend the shooting of one of his films.
-What do you think of the Wild Filmmaker platform?
I think that this platform is one-of-a-kind, and it’s good medium for artists to make themselves known. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers who selecting my project for the Special Event at 81st Venice International Film Festival exclusively on Wild Filmmaker.
