Filmmaker Baz Luhrmann talks to Fest Track about social context, local filmmaker ideas, inspiration, story and style in regard to his role as President Of The Feature Jury at the 2023 Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 This is Tim Walsh from Fast Track OnStreet TV.
00:28 I'm here in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the Red Sea International Film Festival.
00:32 >> You know, young people, they go, what do I do to make a movie?
00:35 I said, your camera is capable of taking a movie.
00:37 It's such a quality.
00:38 Don't wait for permission to make a movie.
00:42 Go and do it.
00:43 >> Well, you have to have the right stories to tell.
00:44 >> That's right.
00:45 >> Everybody.
00:46 >> That's right.
00:46 >> You know, and that's what's interesting about here.
00:48 I was talking to a Saudi filmmaker the other day.
00:50 I've been here for the past three years.
00:53 And it's just about seeing how they're getting a hold of how to tell the story.
00:57 >> Yeah. >> Tell it right.
00:58 >> Yeah. >> Can you talk about looking at
00:59 stories over here?
01:00 >> Yeah, yeah I can.
01:01 >> Because sociology is so different from what we.
01:03 >> Yeah, 1,000%.
01:05 And I did my own investigation six months ago.
01:09 I saw enough, I felt enough, I talked to young filmmakers.
01:14 I was convinced that the best thing that we can do in a time when there is so
01:22 much oppression, when we are failed so much by politics,
01:27 that the best thing we can do is help those new emerging voices be heard.
01:32 Now that's a caveat to saying something that's much more informed now.
01:38 I've seen the movies.
01:39 I've been sitting here.
01:40 I've been watching movies from, I call it the region, because it's not just Saudi,
01:44 Pakistan, the Islamic State of Pakistan, all right?
01:49 >> Mm-hm.
01:51 >> Jordan, India, Japan, Asia.
01:56 But specific to this territory and this region, one, I've actually seen a movie
02:04 where the sophistication of the storytelling and the cinematic language is,
02:08 I believe, and I can't say which one, unfortunately, but
02:11 one where we're like, that is something new.
02:13 That blending of a populist form, but
02:17 with a very, very hot button topic, it's really working.
02:23 >> I think the one I knew were the ones you're talking about.
02:24 >> You're right.
02:25 I went, yeah.
02:28 I mean, it's really working, really working.
02:31 And that's one thing.
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03:02 And then what you say about the sociology, there's another underlying thing, and
03:19 I really can't lean into it.
03:21 I can't wait for the festival to be over where I can speak.
03:24 Several of the films from this environment had some of the same plot elements.
03:31 And it led you to, while there are many issues in the territory,
03:37 it led you to this one that's not that present or not that well known.
03:42 I mean, we know about things like the rights of women to drive cars and
03:46 things like that.
03:46 And, but I mean, wow, and what is so
03:51 good is that it proves the dictum that storytelling humanizes.
04:00 And when you see, for example,
04:03 I'll be general because I'm in the middle of the process.
04:07 But when you see, say, a woman who, and
04:11 I can say this because it's in different movies, but has loss.
04:16 And just the amount of, like the unbearable
04:22 lack of rights, you know, unbelievable.
04:28 But done in a way in which the characters are humanized and
04:32 done in a way in which it's also, when I say entertaining, I mean it's good cinema.
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04:48 Film is community.
05:02 That's the thing is that I can come over here and talk to so
05:04 many different people and they know Leo.
05:07 They know, but they also know their own stories.
05:10 Can you talk about film as community?
05:11 Because obviously you're here.
05:12 >> Yeah, I can.
05:14 Okay, so look, just being here, there's a, someone's talking about a film that's
05:18 not in competition, it's a Saudi film, I'm like, I don't care, I wanna see that.
05:21 But more importantly, I can't remember, I think last year with Avatar,
05:25 a local Saudi pitcher pipped it in terms of box office.
05:31 What's mine?
05:32 Look, you're here, I'm here.
05:33 We're walking out here in this cinema.
05:35 I mean, 30 years you couldn't go to the movies.
05:38 Five years ago, Black Panther's there.
05:40 There's a giant poster for Barbie in the foyer here.
05:45 I forget, I am not in any way, by the way, softballing
05:52 that there aren't issues in the territory that need to be addressed.
05:57 But I think it's one thing for outsiders to say something, it's another thing for
06:05 local storytellers, both older but also the young, to address it in storytelling.
06:11 >> I do wanna say one thing on behalf of the jury.
06:15 We had an incredible journey.
06:20 And when we sat together, the one thing we all agreed was that when it comes to
06:24 film, when it comes to art, really at a certain point,
06:29 with different selections of movies,
06:33 you get to a point where you go, great, but one is roast and one is sushi.
06:41 How do you choose?
06:43 >> It's wonderful to see the young, cuz they wanna talk, men and women.
06:46 >> Men and women, yes.
06:47 >> It's about educating the next generation.
06:49 >> Yes, yes.
06:50 When I came, I met with a young female filmmaker.
06:54 And what's kinda interesting is back when you couldn't make movies,
06:58 one of the heroes, Mansoor, she, she, Mansoor,
07:02 she had to direct from within a van, and this is only a few years ago.
07:07 And makes a success, like literally guerrilla,
07:10 guerrilla filmmaking, makes a success.
07:13 So she becomes an icon.
07:15 Now, a kind of a generation, almost a generation later,
07:18 there is, it's really female-led actually.
07:21 There's so many female filmmakers, and because she's a hero.
07:26 I mean, doesn't that just say it?
07:27 And they are, and I think that's why a lot of the movies really focus on
07:32 those issues, and you think you know those issues, but
07:35 it's actually the ones that are under the, the kind of the slightly
07:40 less glamorous, less, less dramatic, less kinda easy to make noise about
07:47 issues where you go, oh, that's just not right.
07:49 >> They're really humanizing.
07:51 >> Humanizing.
07:52 >> You know, I've been, I've been in those chairs, going,
07:56 will you please get on with your speech, I wanna know if I can't, right?
08:00 I'm lost, but there is no winning and losing, and what I do wanna say to you,
08:05 is that it may sound a little rusty, but of all the thousands of films that
08:10 have been made, every person here tonight has had a film selected and embraced.
08:18 >> You know, humanizing, and then, and then the performances, two things.
08:21 The performances, like I'm saying, really just, I mean, you know,
08:25 Meryl Streep level of sophisticated performances.
08:30 And then, the cool thing, the thing I didn't know if I'd see, but
08:37 is actual cinema language that while influenced by other movies,
08:41 like I'm influenced by my heroes and cinematic styles, but
08:46 is nonetheless its own thing.
08:48 That's pretty damned exciting.
08:51 >> Yeah, and you don't find it everywhere.
08:53 >> No. >> Awesome, thank you very much.
08:54 >> Great man.
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