BoyLovers as film producers/directors
Iván Noel has demonstrated that films can be produced very inexpensively, and that these films can carry messages counter to those which are socially acceptable (and "politically correct") about young people and their sexuality.
- "Each genre in the cinema can be characterized using a few selected titles. A few years after its release – En Tu Ausencia (the independent feature film [by Ivan Noel]), earned its place among the films that first comes into one’s mind when the coming of age genre is mentioned. The film attracted a lot of attention and interest, which resulted in its becoming one of the Spanish films with notable sales in North America.[1]
Quotes from Iván Noel
"There was no marketing campaign at all [for "En Tu Ausencia"]. Not of any sort. The reason for its relative success I guess has to do with the fact that I told a story no one would ever touch with a 10-foot barge-pole. Talking of preteen (and even teen) sexuality is wrecking your film’s chances at larger release. The odd thing is that, in actual fact, many people seek out the different, the true, the honest, and also pretty boys, though they don’t admit it. And the very few films that avoid those adult, socially correct, and moralistic filters tend to get noticed."
"…Dear God, today taking a picture of your own baby child in the bath is controversial! Silly, silly values of a society gone slightly nuts: complete loss of references: hysteria that is causing voluntary amnesia about what being young was about. Again, the predominance of morally regressive values, from a bored and overly wealthy society that has nothing other to do than point fingers just to exist, and score more socially correct points than the neighbor.
The worst of it, the most inexcusable and shocking, is that even artists these days partake of that silly game. We live in a new type of Victorian age, and as we now laugh at how they used to cover the legs of pianos, and dress horses up, we will be the laughing stock of future generations."
"If you mean by coming of age that moment in life when one ‘discovers life, sexuality, betrayal etc.’, then of course it is quite impossible for a mainstream film to portray that. Telling the truth, in some instances would have the director shipped off to some shock treatment. I mean, tell the truth about preteen’s discovery of sexuality? Impossible! There’d have to be at least five masturbation scenes daily for it to come close to any sort reality."
"When I was 11, me and all my friends would spend weekends happily playing with each other. When’s the last time you saw that in a film? To put in film what young teens ACTUALLY think, feel, and do is something probably not yet fully achieved, and will be for another country, in another age, on another planet, with another religion."
"You deal with films starring youths. Your audience is sensitive and empathetic towards such characters and stories. The complaints are always the same: there are too few movies that actually tell REAL stories. Too many ‘candy floss, peck-on-the-cheek’ stories, which in actual fact, only nuns relate to. Real films are subject to too much ridiculous censorship. My message is this: make the films anyway!
Make REAL films! To hell with the stereotype nonsense. You enjoy movies, make one yourself now. In case some have not noticed, cinema has just undergone a fabulous new complete makeover. A major event has happened, a turning of the tables. The one most important moment of history of cinema has just taken place! It’s called ‘digital’! You can make a feature, and an award-winning feature, with a simple SLR camera (I did, in all my films!). You don’t need an army to make a film, that’s nonsense invented by an industry that had too much money on its hands. I’ve never made a film with more than five people on the tech team.
No film of mine cost more than the price of a ‘Ka’ car. Brecha in fact, cost less than nothing, as I had to steal the DVD tapes to make it. Never has making films been this accessible, and with such outstanding tools at our disposal. Let’s not complain anymore, let’s not find reasons not to make it (moral reasons, finance reasons, etc.). Create a new purely 100% indie market which will, finally (since the 70’s and 80’s) offer us some REAL stories, daring ones, necessary ones. Art changes things in life more than anything else!"[2]
References
See also
- Ivan Noel
- En tu Ausencia (film)
- Brecha (film)
- ¡Primaria! (film)
- Vuelve (film)
- Limbo (film)
- Ellos Volvieron (film)
- Rodillas Quemadas (film)
External links
- Exclusive Interview: Director Ivan Noel of "En Tu Ausencia"
- More information about Iván Noel (including many quotes from him) and about the production of his films (all in Spanish) may be found here:
- $30 Film School: How to write, direct, produce, shoot, edit, distribute, tour with, and sell your own no-budget DIGITAL movie by Michael W. Dean (Read on-line):
- What They Don't Teach You at Film School: 161 Strategies For Making Your Own Movies No Matter What
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