Over the next week, we at IDA will be introducing our community to the filmmakers whose work is represented in the DocuWeeksTM Theatrical Documentary Showcase, which runs from August 12 through September 1 in New York City and August 19 through September 8 in Los Angeles. We asked the filmmakers to share the stories behind their films--the inspirations, the challenges and obstacles, the goals and objectives, the reactions to their films so far.
So, to continue this series of conversations, here is Pawel Kloc, director/producer/writer of Phnom Penh Lullaby.
Synopsis: Ilan Shickman left Israel dreaming of a new life. He now lives in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, with his Khmer girlfriend, Saran, and their two young daughters, as he tries to make ends meet as a street fortune-teller. Ilan works at night, near bars frequented by prostitutes and drug dealers. He decides to place the older, 2-year-old daughter with Saran's family in the countryside, but the family doesn't want to care for Marie for free. Ilan and his family have to return to Phnom Penh, and he still must decide about Marie's future. Phnom Penh Lullaby is about people entrapped in their lives as they struggle to realize the dream of a happy, loving family.
IDA: How did you get started in documentary filmmaking?
Pawel Kloc: I think it was the opposite. Documentary filmmaking got me started. I was never thinking my first feature would be a documentary. As Ilan Shickman, the protagonist in Phnom Penh Lullaby, says in the film, "Reality goes beyond imagination." Contemporary philosophical discourse addresses the blurring of the boundaries between fiction and reality, interprets fiction as reality and seeks out the elements of fiction in reality. This is in the center of my interests. I believe documentary film can be constructed and received as a fiction film. This is what I am experiencing with my film during Q&As in festivals around the world.
IDA: What inspired you to make Phnom Penh Lullaby?
PK: I think inspiration can be a drive, something existing in reality; or it can be a ghost, something hiding, something impossible to describe. The everyday life of Ilan and his family, from my point of view as a filmmaker, carries a difficult, very symbolic, multi-layered story. Saran, Ilan's girlfriend, is a victim of a post-colonial Cambodian reality, and Ilan and Saran are victims of post-war trauma societies. Ilan, as a white Jew, is trying to make ends meet as a street fortune-teller, against a backdrop of mass prostitution and drugs; their young kids are in danger of following their mother's fate (married at 15 then abandoned, her children taken from her, her struggles with alcohol...); and Ilan and Saran never formally learned English, making their communication difficult and fraught with misunderstandings.
I made the decision to make this film after the first night I spent at their home. That experience can't be described.
IDA: What were some of the challenges and obstacles in making this film, and how did you overcome them?
PK: I don't like to talk about obstacles; they seem very natural in everything we do, including filmmaking. The biggest challenge was getting so close to a human soul and assuming the responsibility for someone's life. The camera is like an invisible guest, in front of which the theater of life is played. What's said and done is not forgotten, and sometimes it is only said and done because the camera is there.
IDA: How did your vision for the film change over the course of the pre-production, production and post-production processes?
PK: I should write an essay about it. In terms of numbers, I organized production in two months, shot the film in three-and-a-half weeks, and edited for two-and-a-half years. From the very beginning I knew I wanted to make this film as a fiction: Take real life and make it universal. The pre-production was the easiest part. I knew what I wanted to shoot. Ilan told me what was going to happen in his life. Filming was much more difficult. There was a moment I was thinking we shouldn't continue. We were surprised many times. The film of which we were the first viewers was breaking. Not only did the question "What's the next question?" come up, but also, "What was the meaning of what had already happened?" These surprises, misunderstandings, these moments of change in real life were for me an inspiration to create a dramaturgical structure in the editing process. I wanted the audience to experience my experience at the time, to change their perspective from viewers to participants.
The whole process changed my point of view on filmmaking. There are many things left to try. Why not take a risk?
IDA: As you've screened Phnom Penh Lullaby--whether on the festival circuit, or in screening rooms, or in living rooms--how have audiences reacted to the film? What has been most surprising or unexpected about their reactions?
PK: I've been very lucky with this film to have had the opportunity to meet with audiences all around the world-at Vision du Reel in Nyon, Switzerland; Hot Docs in Toronto; Doc/Fest in Sheffield; Krakow Film Festival; Festival of the Two Riversides in Poland; Moscow International Film Festival; Palic International Film Festival in Serbia; San Francisco Jewish Film Festival; and DokuFest in Kosovo. The audience reaction was very strong. I had long Q&As that finished on the street outside the cinemas, with people sharing their time with me, telling me their private stories, asking detailed questions, being very emotional. This was my big lesson.
I saw a film once and I had a dream to give someone what I had received by watching that film. That's how I decided to become a filmmaker. And the audience made me feel like my dream has come true.
IDA: What docs or docmakers have served as inspirations for you?
PK: I am very interested in both fiction and documentaries. I think that the space between those two is the most interesting cinematic dimension. With everything I've seen that was important to me, after I leave the cinema, I don't know my name or the way home.
These filmmakers are my inspiration: Maciej Drygas, Kazimierz Karabarz, Andriej Tarkowski, Sergo Paradjanof, Pier Paolo Passolini, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Derek Jarman, Teodor Dreyer, Werner Herzog... to name a few. I wish we could see more contemporary documentaries in cinemas; there are many masterpieces. The list would be too long.
I am very proud to show Phnom Penh Lullaby in New York and Los Angeles for DocuWeeks; thanks to IDA and the Polish Film Institute.
Phnom Penh Lullaby will be screening August 26 through September 1 at both the IFC Center in New York City and the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Los Angeles.
For the complete DocuWeeksTM 2011 program, click here.
To purchase tickets for Phnom Penh Lullaby in New York, click here.
To purchase tickets for Phnom Penh Lullaby in Los Angeles, click here.