Filmmaker Mikel Guillen (NESIA)

Nesia, 15min., Canada
Directed by Mikel Guillen
An avant-garde film about trauma and how a little girl connects through dance with her surviving Hungarian grandmother who was a Auschwitz survivor.

http://mikelguillen.com/
https://www.facebook.com/mikelguillenfilm/
https://www.instagram.com/mikelgb/?hl=en

Get to know the filmmaker:

1. What motivated you to make this film?

I am very interested in how trauma travels through generations and cultures and how it affects many people around the globe.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this film?

7 years. The film was part of a massive installation with a huge budget, 2 museums, shot in all formats.

3. How would you describe your film in two words!?

Travelling sadness.

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Museum institutions in Europe.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

Very pleased, people got it and in some ways, i was quite pleased with their comments.

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

When i was a teen and saw Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Mirror.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

The Werckmeister Harmonies by Béla Tarr.

8. What other elements of the festival experience can we and other festivals implement to satisfy you and help you further your filmmaking career?

Hired cultured and sensible programmers and curators.

9. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway. How has your experiences been working on the festival platform site?

Quite successful and user friendly.

10. What is your favorite meal?

Ramen.

11. What is next for you? A new film?

A big budget film about Female mutilation to be shot in Africa and how that trauma travels through out the world.