Ivan Noel
Ivan Noel is an Spanish producer and director, known for They Returned (2015), In Your Absence (2008) and Primaria (2010). He originally started in the arts by writing and performing his own musical compositions. The transition from music to film came from his love for combining and juxtaposing the two art forms in order to make something greater than the two by themselves.
“I was having a hard time finding the sort of films to put my own music to, so I began shooting small scenes for specific pieces of mine. From small scenes I made short movies, then eventually went on to write and produce feature films. All that just to showcase my music! There must have been a cheaper way, but it was more fun this way.”
–Ivan Noel[1]
Since those first small scenes, he has gone on to release six feature films. All of the movies, despite their different plots, characters, and other thematic elements, share the commonality of confronting moral issues without yielding to the conventions of political correctness.
Early Life
Noel was born in 1968 in Beruit. His mother is Australian and his father is French. He speaks four languages.[2] His family was well-to-do but nomadic resulting in him attending 8 different schools and living in 12 different countries."[3] "I started taking pictures when I was about 9 or 10. Then I bought an 8mm camera, and started shooting immediately. It was a very violent film about social injustice, acted by a crazed (11-year-old) beggar who had had enough. He took out his frustration by banging his head against tree trunks. It was a rather loose script and involved about 200 children from my own school (Lancing College), and was shot during playtime. It ended with the protagonist’s insane run through town and forest, ending when he (my best friend) bangs against a dead-end traffic sign."[4]
He has a BA in education and composing soundtracks from the University of York and began his career as professor in the field of music, composing and giving concerts as a solo classical guitarist and piano player.
Film making
Noel entered the audiovisual world first through the production of short films. He won important prizes in Europe both for his photography (Best New Artists at the Petit Palais’ ‘Salon d’Automn’ exhibitions, Paris), but also his compositions (finalist winner of the British Songwriting competition in 2006.[5] In 2006 he decided to sell his house to finance the filming of his first feature film, In your absence ( 2008 ). About that film he said he is in debt to the realism of director Ken Loach . This film was shot between Jerez and the Sierra de Cádiz. It was a low budget production made with unknown actors, but it woke the interest of critics. The film was featured in several festivals, including Vancouver , Palm Springs , Chicago, Bahamas, Athens , etc. In Vancouver the film finished fifth out of more than 200 films. Vanguard International Cinema distributed the film in North America, and it came to be among the top ten Spanish best sellers DVDs by this company. Interestingly, the film has not been released or distributed in Spain. In 2007 Ivan was interviewed by Destroyer Magazine for issue 03.[6]
For the next project, the director moved to a town of Seville, Lebrija. He lived there for a year to study the local people so that cast them correctly. For funding, Noel, lacking a budget, raised the money through sponsorships and donations. He arranged free rentals of shooting locations and the actors volunteered to work for free. It was recorded during the summer of 2008, and was released in 2009 with the title of Brecha. The film was received with great enthusiasm in it's early premieres.
In 2010 he released Primary!, his third feature film. He shot it in the school San Francisco de Paula in Seville. He spent a year there teaching the children art. Since it was the first time in film making history that the same teacher of the children was also their director in a film, Noel believed that this would increase the naturalness in the representation of scenes by the child actors, creating a very favorable context to get real emotions and situations experienced. In this sense, Noel likes to say this film is "a story with children where nothing is invented, even the most unlikely thing."[7] Noel defines the film as "a comedy about the bowels of the primary starring three students, Jose Joaquin, Carlos and Carmen." The film also portrays the life of the faculty, focusing mainly on three of them. Noel manages to convey the personal lives of these teachers beyond their work without reaching the use of narration.
With Vuelve, released in 2012, Noel gives a twist to his career with a thriller horror. Filmed in Argentina , it is about a boy who loses his mother under strange circumstances. She communicates with him from beyond the grave, seeking a reunion. With this film Noel departed from his realistic and intimate style, seeming to seek commercial success.
His next project, Limbo, released in 2013, follows the same style as Vuelve. In these last two films, childhood is no longer the main theme but rather he is using his films as a means to impact the viewer.
Noel has also made video clips. In 2012 Sigur Ros had a contest asking film makers to shot a video of a song from their new album. The winner received $5,000 and international exposure by having the video shown on the band's site. Noel's video won the contest.
When asked about how he responds to the controversy surrounding his films he said:
So why is my film deemed controversial? …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.[8]
List of Films
- En tu Ausencia (English: In Your Absence) (2008)
- Brecha (2009)
- Primaria (English: Primary!) (2010)
- Vuelve (2013)
- Limbo (English: Children of the Night (2014)
- Ellos Volvieron (English: They Returned) (2015)
- Rodillas Quemadas (English: Burnt Knees)(Currently in production)
Films by Ivan Noel | ||
|---|---|---|
| Most recent and last film | ||
| Films | ||
See also
BoyLovers as film producers/directors
External links
References
- ↑ http://www.noelfilms.com/about/
- ↑ http://www.semanarioprimerdia.com.ar/2012/03/con-ninos-actores-locales-se-viene.html
- ↑ http://www.artsploitationfilms.com/film/children-of-the-night/
- ↑ http://www.theskykid.com/exclusive-interview-director-ivan-noel-of-en-tu-ausencia/
- ↑ http://www.artsploitationfilms.com/film/children-of-the-night
- ↑ http://destroyerjournal.com/about
- ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/http://www.noticiasaljarafe.es/noticia.php?id=2490
- ↑ http://www.theskykid.com/exclusive-interview-director-ivan-noel-of-en-tu-ausencia/
