SÁNDOR LAU – What was the best thing about being in Cannes?

DAVID RITTEY – The moment my film was on screen was the kind of thing you always dream of happening. It was just incredible sitting in a cinema with my film up on the big screen at the Cannes Film Festival. I had to kind of pinch myself.

S. Did you meet anyone you'd been dying to meet?

D. I was sitting two or three rows in front of Michael Moore when he won the Palme D'Or. It was pretty exciting to just turn around and see his reaction.

Another of the highlights of the festival for me – I was lucky enough to attend the Fahrenheit 9/11 screening. It only had one screening so the entire room was packed. Probably about 2000 people in the cinema. The feeling and the energy in the cinema! When it finished there was applause for about 20 minutes straight.

For me as a filmmaker, it felt great that a film can have that sort of impact on people, and can be that important. I think it's going to change a lot of people's minds and actually have an impact in the world.

S. A lot of short films that do well internationally, especially NZ short films, are silent or mostly silent, not dialogue driven. Infection was at Cannes in 2001. I know from my short films, the ones that have done best overseas have been silent. Your thesis film at VCA (Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne), Out of Darkness, was mostly silent, as is Closer. Were you thinking about how silent films can be understood all over the world when you were planning Closer?

D. No, that wasn't actually my intention. I think for short films, I like to use dialogue sparingly. Although I like watching films where there's a lot of dialogue, like Woody Allen films, for me, I like to tell the story through the images, and through cutting – through what people are doing rather than what they're saying. I don't like a lot of exposition. I like to keep it sort of mysterious.

I read somewhere that the story is the most important – if it's like a cake, dialogue is like the Hundreds and Thousands or the sprinkling on the top, rather than the base of the story.

I think it's actually important to engage the viewer's mind. I think a lot of typical Hollywood films don't require a lot of thought from the viewer, whereas I'm sort of interested in films where the viewer has to participate and use their mind and piece things together.

S. There are a lot of excellent short films made in this country; the Film Commision does an excellent job of marketing them overseas. Your film is playing in the NZ and Melbourne film festivals this winter. And it should because NZ taxpayers have financed this film and every NZFC short film to the tune of what, seventy, ninety thousand dollars?

D. Around that. It was seventy the year I got funded.

S. And for this, a few thousand people will see it at the film festival, but is there any chance that a larger audience of the people who financed this film will get to see it?

D. It's a tricky one with short films. The idea is to give up-and-coming short filmmakers a chance to learn so they can progress on, so they can make a feature which in return will make some money and then put some money back into the economy.

Obviously big films like Lord of the Rings pumped a lot of money into the NZ film industry. Getting back to the poor old taxpayer, they are getting something back. It sort of comes around.

S. In 2002 I shot a student film with Elizabeth McGlinn who plays Rachel in Closer. It was great working with her, a total professional. What was it like working with your cast and crew.

D. One of the best things about making the film was the people I worked with and the feeling on set. It was a really positive feeling. My DOP (Vincent Taylor), he was brought up in Auckland, but been living Melbourne for about seven years. He's worked with a lot of different crews over in Australia, but he said this was the best crew he'd ever worked with. It was fantastic.

Toby Agnew, who played the main character, Nathan, he's actually deaf himself. We wanted to make it authentic and cast a deaf person in the role. He was just the most amazing person. He had this incredible personality. He was always joking and wasn't daunted by anything, and the communication barrier was almost non-existent. He formed friendships with the cast and crew and joked with them. By the end of the shoot just about everyone on the set knew a bit of sign language and felt totally comfortable with him.

There were a lot of experienced people on my shoot, people like (sound recordist) Hammond Peek, and even though he was working for less than he would normally get paid, I think he got something out of that shoot through that experience and getting to know Toby and the way he negotiates his life.

I think for Toby, in terms of his performance, this is his first time (acting in a film). Michael Lawrence who plays his father is quite an experienced actor and was really good for Toby. I think he looked up to Michael and respected him and felt comfortable giving his best performance because he could see that Michael was doing that. They worked really well together. They're both into motorbikes so they bonded over that. Guy stuff, that's what they had in common.

S. To make Closer, a film about a deaf boy coping with the death of his sister, you drew from your own experience working as a disability support worker. Can you tell me if this film drew from a specific encounter or experience or person you worked with?

D. I didn't work with anyone who was just deaf because deaf people don't need someone to help them. I worked with quite a few different people and clients. After a while you forget about the means of communication and you still find a bond and get to know them, share a joke and work out what they want. People still connect, and sometimes it's deeper without words. Sometimes words can confuse things.

S. Do you speak sign language yourself.

D. No, just a few basics. I worked with an interpreter during rehearsals and throughout the shoot. That was the best way of doing it. I would speak directly to Toby so we had one-on-one eye contatct. Then she would translate. It's kind of a slow way to communicate but sometimes that's better. You have to keep it simple and direct.

S. I'm interested to know how deaf audiences have received the film.

D. We haven't had a proper screening for deaf audiences. We want to have a cast and crew screening and invite people from the deaf community in Christchurch along. But people have seen bits and pieces on the news and TV and responses from the deaf community have been positive all along. With the script, I wanted to make sure it was all ok, that it was all accurate the way I was depicting the deaf experience. We had really good feedback; people are quite pleased with the way we've done the whole thing. I think it's a really positive thing for the deaf community. I think I've really done it justice. The Deaf Association in Christchurch want to use it to do a fundraiser.

Initially, a few people were a little bit skeptical. As you would be. You want to protect your world and your community. You don't want it to be exploited. I was very much aware and didn't want to be this outsider who came in and exploited the deaf experience. I really wanted to put the research in, talk to deaf people, deaf teachers, and make sure I approached it in the right way.

Even the way I dealt with Toby, at rehearsals, it was really important not to offend anyone or exploit anyone. Everyone's really excited about the fact that deaf NZ culture has been represented in a film that has done so well internationally. I've talked to a deaf teacher who knows Toby's family and the general buzz is that a lot of people are saying it was great for Toby to offer him this opportunity. Hopefully the experience has given him some confidence in the abilities he has and the potential he has for the future.

S. Since last year you've been doing a lot of ad work at Silverscreen. What's up your sleeve for the future?

D. I was asked that question a lot when I was in Cannes, but I went over there and literally had two reels of film in my bag to carry on the plane with me. We'd just finished the film for print release onto 35 the day before I went over there. Early days yet. Obviously the natural progression is to do a feature, and naturally the success of Closer will definitely help me get to that point. But I just need to put the work into writing and knuckle down. I would like to do another short film in the meantime. Now's the time for me to get into it and start the steps. I love short films as an artform in themselves. I'm quite happy to do at least one more short film in the meantime. The ad thing is fantastic, doing commercials, getting to play with the look and editing and direction. And the instant gratification. You finish something in a month and you see the result.

S. It doesn't pay too badly either.

D. It's a way of earning some money as a filmmaker, which is a first for me. Getting paid for something I do rather than pouring my own money into it.

–Sándor Lau

Originally published in: Lumière 4, Winter 2004, ISSN 1176-4082

(1) Closer played in the Homegrown Films programme at the Telecom New Zealand International Film Festivals. For more about Closer and David Rittey, check out: www.ajfilms.co.nz, www.silverscreen.co.nz (view David's short film Out of Darkness), or www.nzfilm.co.nz.

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