Interview with Ulisses da Motta Costa, the Brazilian director of Kassandra, the black-and-white short film that was awarded at the 41st Gramado International Film Festival (2013) in the Curta-metragem Gaúcho section for Best Cinematography (edited by Plablo Chasseraux).
L: Hi Ulysses, tell us a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? What is your background? What drew you into the world of filmmaking?
U: I will try to be concise. I was born and raised in southern Brazil, in the countryside. I lived on a small farm until the age of 22, in a small town called Montenegro, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. Like most Brazilians, I am the result of a crossbreed of very special races, so I am part Portuguese, Arabic, Guarani, German, French, and, of course, part Italian! A whole part of my family still uses the surname of our Italian ancestor, Manfredini.
Anyway, about the cinema: my favorite game as a child was to imagine movies. There was an old movie theater in town, but it was far from home and I only went there a couple of times in my childhood. So when my mother finally had the money to buy a VCR in the early 1990s, I started watching as many movies as I could. It didn't take me long to decide that I was going to be a filmmaker, which was a problem then: Brazilian film production was experiencing its worst crisis ever, with only one feature film a year being released. At that time people were saying that our cinema was almost dead. The only universities with a film degree program were in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, more than 1,000 kilometers from where I lived.
So, I had to wait until I was an adult; wait to move to São Leopoldo, a larger city near the state capital; wait for Brazilian film production to pick up; wait for digital cameras to come on the market, to finally arrive in 2004, when at the age of 25 I started producing my first short film, O Gritador. Yet it took me almost three years to complete my first 15-minute short! But since then, I have always worked with film, sometimes as a film critic, sometimes as a film teacher, sometimes as a producer, director and writer in small projects.
L: You are the director of Kassandra, a refined black-and-white horror short. Did you make this film for yourself or for the audience?
U: I think we make films that we would like to watch. Nobody would devote days, months, years of their life to make something they don't want to watch, I think. But I also think that the films we create are a kind of liberation, or at least a projection of our fantasies. Movies are both a representation of how the world should be and a good therapy. Kassandra is a film of the second kind. But, the moment I decide to make a film, I start thinking about the audience. We use the Portuguese word "Espectador" a lot, which just means a person in the audience. Someone you don't know, a faceless man or woman. I like to think that this person just wants to be part of a story, regardless of whether that story is short or epic. So, I want the "Espectador" to go hand in hand with the characters and the story we are telling. Even if it is a difficult story.
And I always wanted to work with black and white. When the idea for the film burst into my brain, it was already without color. From the beginning it was a story to be told only with light and shadow.
L: Your film deals with anxiety disorders (post-traumatic stress disorder, mutism and agoraphobia). Why these themes?
U: Well, as I said before, a film can purify the person who makes it... I took care of a person who had psychiatric problems for some years. It was a complicated, painful and intense experience for both of us. After seeing the film people usually ask me: how did you come up with this idea? Of course, Kassandra does not tell a true story or anything like that. Maybe it is the revenge that is never there in real life, hehehe. But these ideas came from my observation and experience of what was happening to someone I was close to.
L: Tell us something about the title. Why "Kassandra"?
U: Let's say that the idea of Kassandra took my mind in a massive and coordinated attack. Most of the main concepts of the film came about at the same time, one winter night, along with the name of the main character. She has visions that no one believes are real, so I remembered Cassandra from Greek mythology, a priestess who was condemned to predict the future but not to be believed. The K in her name is a reference to this legendary character, although it is definitely not a modernization or modern adaptation of the myth.
L: Cassandra has had a lot of supporters. What do you think about crowdfunding?
U: This is a wonderful thing. The proof that this is something important is the fact that, more and more filmmakers and artists already known by the media and the public and with available resources are preferring crowdfunding, because it frees them from society or government bureaucracy. The artist does not have to negotiate to achieve his or her creative independence, does not have to hold up the game of interests within a studio or record company. The public decides what is worth supporting. It's like an "artistic natural selection," if you can call it that. Of course, if you are an independent artist, or a beginner, you cannot ask for a million dollars. You have to find your way with $1,000. But that's $1,000 from people who believe in you, or at least believe in your project. This kind of support is more important than the money itself.
L: Have you made any other films before this one? If so, how many? Can you tell us about them? What can you tell us about "O Gritador"?
U: Yes, Kassandra is my third short film. I don't like to repeat myself, because I have interests in different subjects. And I also like different kinds of cinema and its countless genres. So, "O Gritador" (2006, I think we can translate as "The Screamer" in Italian, "The Screamer" in English), was supposed to be a kind of adventure film but some people consider it a horror film. My second short film, "Ninho dos Pequenos" ("Little People's Nest," 2009) is completely different: it is a family drama with only one scenario and two actresses talking the whole time.
"O Gritador" was a crazy project, not only for a first-time director but for an entire fledgling team. As I mentioned earlier, it took almost three years to make it.
I shared the screenplay and direction with a friend, Carlos Porto. The film is about a folkloric legend in our country, Gritador. It is a kind of screaming ghost that roams the woods and fields at night. And if you respond to his scream, the ghost gets closer and closer. Well, the locations were more than 200 kilometers away from our town in hard-to-reach places-we broke at least two cars during the research and filming. We also decided to use visual effects, with the actors facing a blue screen and with handmade drawings and CGI elements. All this, of course, without money. There are some things that only ingenuity can provide... If you want to see it, there is an English subtitled version on Youtube.
L: How do you feel about the growing popularity of independent films?
U: I think it's an inevitable phenomenon. It's easier to learn about different kinds of artistic expression on the Internet. So if you are interested in a certain topic, you can do different research on it. You will always find something new. You can go deeper into things that don't have access to the media. This includes not only film but also music, visual arts, photography, etc.
L: What are your biggest film influences? What are your top five favorite movies of all time?
U: That's a difficult question-I think everything we watch can influence us. I think Bruce Lee is in my artistic DNA as well as Fritz Lang but some directors are examples for me. Let's say that Spielberg taught me to surround myself with talented collaborators, that Kubrick taught me not to repeat myself, that Hitchcock taught me the importance of planning first what I'm going to shoot, and that Werner Herzog taught me that you have to be a son of a bitch to make movies.
About the top five... It will look completely weird, I assure you: "Ben-Hur" (1959), "Before Sunrise" (1995), "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), "Metropolis" (1927) and "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly" (1966). And my favorite director is Akira Kurosawa.
L: Who is your favorite Italian horror director?
U: Let me tell you first about my relationship with Italian cinema! When I was a kid, a lot of movies that I didn't know were Italian were shown on TV (because, of course, these movies were dubbed in Portuguese). So, I spent a lot of Saturday afternoons watching old peplum films like "The Giants of Thessaly," or "The Last Days of Pompeii." And, of course, some horror movies at night, such as "The Island of the Fish Men." I saw many times on VHS an Italian-Brazilian production from the 1980s, "Naked and Wild" (aka "Cannibal Ferox 2″). So, when I decided that I was going to be a filmmaker, I started looking for books and magazines about cinema. At that time, all I found about Italian films were the works of Fellini, Antonioni and Visconti, or about neorealism. No trace of the giallo, peplum or spaghetti western, not even of Mario Bava, Ruggero Deodato and Luigi Cozzi. Only years later did I become aware of this fantastic universe. Only then did I discover that these profoundly funny films I saw as a child were Italian.
My favorite Italian horror artist is not a director, it's a band! I really like Goblin's work in "Suspiria," "Profondo Rosso," and "Dawn of the Dead." What they have accomplished and achieved is absolutely unique in terms of film scores.
L: José Mojica Marins is a beloved Brazilian filmmaker. What do you think of his character Coffin Joe (Zé do caixão) created for his film À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma?
U: Mojica is a colossus. He is a great influence and example not only for Brazilian horror fans but for all filmmakers in the country. He was a guy with no film education and was simply revolutionary for the time, especially in the 1960s. He was persecuted and some of his works were censored during the military dictatorship. One of his most intriguing films, "Awakening of the Beast," was made thanks to his friends who produced it. Yet, the original print was stopped by government authorities. It was unearthed only a few years ago.
He also made all kinds of films, not just horror films. He made experimental films, westerns, and to survive in the 1980s he also directed porn films. About the character Zé do Caixão, I think he is one of the greatest horror icons of all time. Do you know how he was created? Mojica once dreamed that his man with a cape and hat took him to see Mojica's very grave. He woke up scared and decided to make a film about this terrible man. This is how "À Meia - Noite Levarei Sua Alma " was born, a surprising and powerful film for the years in which it was made.
L: Who are the best current Brazilian directors?
U: In the horror genre, the main independent name is Rodrigo Aragão who recently made a trilogy with zombies and monsters "Mangue Negro" (Mud Zombies), "A Noite do Chupacabras" (The Night of the Chupacabras) and "Mar Negro"(Dark Sea). My friend David de Oliveira Pinheiro also did a curious mix of genres in "Beyond the Grave" (Porto dos Mortos). Outside of the fantasy and horror universe, there are a lot of good directors, such as Fernando Meirelles, Afonso Poyart, José Padilha (who directed the new version of Robocop) and Jorge Furtado, who works in my country and has been a big influence on my work since the 1990s.
L: Who are your favorite horror writers?
U: I confess: I've never been very interested in horror literature. But the idea for Kassandra came when I was reading At the Mountains of Madness. So as preparation for the film, I devoured Lovecraft's works. And I even had the cast and crew read some of his stories!
L: What is your next project?
U: I have a lot of projects! Who doesn't? These days I am working on my latest short film, "Luz Naturale" ("Natural Light"). It is an experimental work, shot entirely without artificial light and with only two actors on stage conversing after having sex. It is definitely not a horror film! I was in Rio de Janeiro recently to work as assistant director for my friend Victor Fiuza on a social drama called "Os Olhos de Cecilia" ("The Eyes of Cecilia"). We shot most of this work in the favela and it was a really intense experience. I am also producing "Pelos Velhos Tempos" ("For Old Times," I think), a script written by Roger Monteiro (the screenwriter of Kassandra) and to be directed by Pedro Barbosa.
And there is a feature film. One such project is a science-fiction film divided into episodes about the same universe, each of which is directed by a different director (including me). The working title is "The End of History." Another project is "O Pecado da Carne" ("The Sin of Meat"), an adaptation of a play that in turn is based on the story of Brazil's first serial killer, a man who turned his victims into sausage and then sold it to the entire city in the 19th century.
Oh, yes. Roger Monteiro himself is trying to convince me to make another horror film, but with more blood and intensity. "Kiumba" is its name and it's about an Afro-Brazilian entity that is invoked when someone wants revenge. But I'm still thinking about it...
L: Leave a message for the DarkVeins community!
U: I want to thank you for the opportunity and I hope that Darkveins will grow more and more. It is an awesome virtual space. Greetings from Brazil to all of you!
L: Thank you Ulisses! We wish you the best of luck!
