FILM
What is death? A young woman is facing her first loss. She desperately tries to understand what it means when someone ceases to exist, what she is supposed to do, to feel, and how she is supposed to live from now on.
Hey Chiara, thanks for talking to TNC, how is everything going?
Hello! I am having a little break after my final year at the Royal College of Art here in London, slowly looking for a job in the UK, so I guess ups and downs?
With this being your UK Premiere are there any nerves ahead of the screening?
I do wish people are going to enjoy my film because that’s the most important thing for me. My biggest fear is to bore the audience to death!
What does it mean to be screening The White Spot at Raindance 2018?
Screening your film is always a great joy because you get to share it with other people and to talk to some of them at the end of the screening as well, to hear what they thought of it, how you could improve, and so on…also, watching your film in a cinema is quite amazing!
Tell me a little bit about The White Spot, how did the film come about?
Well, the story is one of loss, how to survive grief and the power of memories. I started thinking about these topics because I really wanted to answer the question ‘what is death?’, and I thought that trying to build this question into a story would make it easier to break it down and understand. And that is when I started thinking about The White Spot.
What was the most challenging part of making this film?
The challenge came when I had to actually make a very complex film, consisting of three short stories, each one depicting the development of a concept, into a simpler, short animation. The pre-production has been quite intense.
Have you always had a passion for filmmaking?
I have always wanted to tell stories, and comics were easier to make when I was young, but then, I was 12 years old, I discovered Windows Movie Maker, and combined with Paint, I thought I could make animations, right? And later on, when I was around 13, a friend of mine bought a camera, and we started making a film (which we never finished, we weren’t very committed). Those were the years when I started thinking that I could do it as well if I wanted to.
How much has your style and the approach to your filmmaking changed since your debut?
I am still improving, my skills as an animator, editor and writer are constantly changing because I am constantly trying to learn new things, especially through small tasks I give myself. However, my style in terms of storytelling and drawing hasn’t changed much, I guess it’s much deeper and slower at developing.
How would you describe The White Spot in three words?
Haunting, Surreal, and Sorrowful
"...keep learning from yourself but most importantly from others..."
Do you have any advice or tips for any fellow filmmaker?
Do what you like, do not think ‘will people like this? Should I do this instead so people will like it?’. Also, keep your mind open, keep learning from yourself but most importantly from others, and be willing to work in a team.
And finally, what do you hope people will take away from this film?
I hope it will start a reflection upon death, how this culture (mine, mostly, the Italian culture) has given so much power to death that now we fear it upon everything else. I want some concepts to be associated with loss and grieving, such as fear given by mortality, the paradoxical life of memories, and a glimpse of immortality, reflected in the endless, never changing, concept of humanity.