For the last few weeks, we here at Mazibel have had a lot of irons in the fire. We are currently in development on three projects simultaneously: two in Haiti that are slated for production later this year, and one in the UK that starts production in just two weeks.

Emily has been back in Haiti for the last ten days working with some incredibly talented artists in Jacmel and Port-au-Prince, developing the Art Direction for Passaj Anba Dlo-a or On the Backs of Mermaids – a short film about the passage from life to death as observed by Vodouisants. We have had the great privilege to work with internationally acclaimed Vodou flag maker Myrlande Constant, who has made five unique pieces for us, and to work once again with the artists at Grand Rue – E Pluribus Unum and the Atis-Rezistans – in designing the essential Ghede sequence, featuring Alexi Ducarmel as Bawon Samdi. The artists have made a series of masks for us, which they will wear in the extremely stylized Ghede sequence, showing the dance of Bawon Samdi and his wife Gran Brigitte as they are surrounded by the Ghede – the only lwa or Vodou spirits to have once lived as human beings.  They are delightfully creepy, made of broken mirrors, recycled oil containers and car tires, and we think they will contribute a curious edge to the film – referencing as they do the process of spiritual recycling as each person passes through the sixteen phases of life as a human in the Vodou faith.

Emily and long time collaborator Sean Roubens Jean Sacra (Serge to us) have also been in the North of Haiti researching material for our upcoming documentary on Bwa Kayiman, the site of the origin of the Haitian Revolution that lead the slaves imported by the French against their colonial ‘masters’ to independence, and set a precedent for the rest of the free world to resist the exploitative influences of colonialism, and to break the fetters of slavery.  Sadly, one of our key sources and collaborators, Zaza, the Houng’an or Vodou priest in charge of the peristyle at Bwa Kayiman, has recently been imprisoned for reasons that have yet to be made clear.  The charges appear to be related to a dispute over land, but there is a more obtuse political undercurrent to his arrest, and its coincidence with the recent amendments to the Haitian constitution that have stripped the rights of Vodouisants and rural landowners to protection under Haitian law.  After visiting with Zaza in prison, and discussing the details of his arrest and detention with those involved, we are confident that he will be released and will continue to do good work in maintaining the historic site, and providing the community with a central hub, and we look forward to continue working together once he has been reunited with his family.

While Emily has been in Haiti, Geoffrey has been hard at work organizing our next project, entitled ‘The Mawkin‘ which will take us back to the Kent coast and its shingle beaches, and to some new territory in Suffolk. We are currently in conversation with the National Trust, Suffolk Council, and the Dungeness Estate Trust, strategizing our next shoot.  This new project will take us into the abandoned nuclear test site at Orford Ness, where we will combine the mediaeval story of the Merman of Orford with a cautionary tale derived from a Ballardian apocalyptic near-future in which the earth walkers and sea dwellers are at odds with one another once again. We have been lucky enough to work with writer and storyteller Robin Herne on this project.

This year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest is well underway and we have been privileged enough to participate in the Videotheque, screening Achante for those interested parties. If you are in Sheffield and would like to see the film, please contact Emily if you’d like to arrange a private screening.

So far there have been several films that have generated some excitement for us. Namely:

Tonight we are off to a screening followed by a punk gig by the self styled superstars Pertti Kurikan Nimipäivät.  Never heard of them?  You will.  The doc is Called the Punk Syndrome, and we are sure it will be a good night.  We have met some absolutely lovely people, and exchanged some good strategies for getting ideas up on screen, although the one thing that everyone is saying is ‘money is tight.’  What will this mean for our next project?  We will have to be creative, and persistent.

And so it ends – we are packing this early Sunday morning for our flight to London out of Nice airport.

Last night we saw one of the last films in the competition: Mud. Starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon we found it to be full of potential as it was shot beautifully and paced well but it lacked any sort of depth in the acting or plot. A predictable film, it nonetheless elicited cheers from the audience at the end. Perhaps we were most disturbed by the underlying proposition that women are untrustworthy and real love can only exist between men, platonically.

The Cannes Film Festival has been quite an experience and we have lots of people to thank for making it so enjoyable. We feel very encouraged by our experience and can’t wait to get started on our next projects.

Until next year, goodbye Cannes and thanks.

It is our last day here in Cannes, and despite constant promises of impending storms, it is yet another beautiful day.  Most of the crowd has subsided, and most of the pavilions have closed, so today is our last chance to catch as many movies and as much sun as possible.  A watery near disaster on Thursday night left my mobile phone in the drink, taking many of our photos with it, but luckily we all survived and had an incredibly productive couple of days, happily unfettered by tel-comms.  On Thursday, a chance pair of last minute returns meant we got into the World Premier of Post Tenebras Lux, a Mexican competition film, and although brutally hard to watch at times, it was the best film we have seen so far.  The opening sequence was one of the most beautiful and powerful moments we have seen on the big screen.  Following the film, we beelined over to the festival pier with a bottle of rose for a barefoot business meeting, and wrote a script for what may well be our next short film, but we’ll keep that one under our hats for now.

We have noted this year that egregious violence toward and killing of animals  is becoming startlingly popular in art house films, and while its affect in unquestionably resonant, we had a lengthy discussion about whether or not this kind of material actually cheapens a film rather than lending it critical depth.  As we have scenes of animal death in our film as well, we had a long conversation about the conflict between dramatic effect and documentation, and whether or not there is a difference.

Yesterday, the disturbingly prevalent theme of dog-murder in this year’s festival was offset by the ‘Palm Dog‘, and event now in its 12th year, organized by the UK pavilion, that honours the contribution of the competition’s canine thespians.  A star studded affair, we hobnobbed with former bond girl Imogen Diamonds who had glitz enough for the rest of our motley crew, and her celebrity chien James Bond.  It was his birthday.  We also demonstrated just how quickly we can flip the switch from friendly convo to celebrity stalker when we realized the lovely lady we were chatting with was actually Dr Liz Asher from Garth Merengi’s Dark Place!!

A beautiful day in the south of France. We took a day of rest, walking the glittering streets and soaking in the sun (and in one case a little too much sun).

We received two bits of good news. First, we have been invited to screen Achante at the ‘In the Palace‘ Short Film Festival in Bulgaria in June and July. It is, as the title suggests, located in a palace in the town of Balchik on the Black Sea. Secondly, the Cyprus International Film Festival has invited us to submit Achante for their festival in October of this year. Both invitations came about as a result of our award for Best Experimental Film at the ECU earlier this year.

Coming up we have a few films that we are very excited to have an opportunity to see. Namely, Cosmopolis by David Cronenberg and Holy Motors by Leos Carax. We will report back soon!

One week since our arrival in France and our swag bags overfloweth. The sun finally fought off the rain and the International Village was buzzing as a result – although the cocktail parties may have also had a hand in that.

We visited the Short Film Corner in the afternoon to access the enormous (around 2000 shorts) database and hand out fliers. In doing so, we were put in touch with two Canadian filmmakers, Marie Ange Barbancourt and Michael Sullivan. We caught up with them at the Quebec pavillion and discussed our projects over rose.

Our film of choice this evening was Like Someone in Love by Persian director Abbas Kiarostami. A tepid affair, with little in the way of development beyond a fixed Volvo.

The highlight of the evening was to greet us on our exit from the Cinema:

We were touched that the festival wanted to honour us with such a nice display but it really didn’t need to go to such lengths. Nonetheless, we were very pleased.

So pleased in fact, that we decided to make an appearance at the artist’s entrance:

The Werners Herzog were well received.

Our Monday got off to a courageously early start – an 8.30 red carpet screening (pre-premiere!) of the new Alain Resnais – a rethinking of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice which, by the way, was horrendous.  Darting back and forth with the glitterati in the pouring rain, we managed to catch one of the Critic’s Week screening programmes of Short Films and noted, through alternating impressions of heart wrenching beauty and peals of laughter that we are really going to have to up our game if we want our next film to be seen in such stellar company.  We recommend in particular Song Hong (Red River), a French/Vietnamese animated co-production that is one of the most beautifully creative and tragic films we have seen to date, and, as a counterpoint Dickslap (“La Bifle” – yes there is a word for that in French) – a French pornographic Kung Fu Rom-Com that outdoes itself in all three genres.  Genius.  We did some workshops and got some advice from pros about how to finance and distribute our next projects through UK and International resources, adding to the catalogue of interesting people with good ideas whose business cards we now possess.  Failing to access the final showing of Audiard’s new work Rust and Bone (featuring the gorgeous French starlet Marion Cotillard) settled for the incongruous second choice Germ – a low budget zombie flick that summons a nostalgic longing for the early days of Ozploitation, and though it has us all in stitches, we’re fairly certain that was not the desired effect.  Great fun anyway, and suitable fluffer for the TAKASHI MIIKE!  We really can’t recommend this one highly enough.  Go and see Ai to Makoto (For Love’s Sake). Imagine Battle Royale meets Grease, with oodles of violence and post-teen coups de foudre, where all the punches land like car crashes and the class-themed choruses are guaranteed soon-to-be karaoke night hits.  Brilliant!  Sorry, still no pics – but they’re coming, we promise!

So, a day of rest became a day of fun and turmoil. A last minute gift from an utter stranger, due, of course, to the weather, lead to a surprise arrival on the Red Carpet for the two of us at the world premiere of Michael Haneke’s Amour.  Though thrilled to be invited, the last minute madness lead to make-up being applied with fingers in the taxi and a shuffle of clothes and luggage from seaside to city centre in the midst of what feels like the laid-back French version of a hurricane – Le Mistral.  Hair whipping and black tie fastened on the fly, we made it into the screening with seconds to spare, racing up the steps to avoid the deluge with such scroddy sodden companions as Isabelle Huppert, Vanessa Paradis and Gael Garcia Bernal.  Haneke said, in his press conference today, that he was relieved to have made such a simple film, and it was only after watching that we understood what he meant – this was an exercise in sentiment and abject horror, but without any interjection from Haneke’s usual wagging finger or cautionary glare.  Haneke’s Amour is, simply stated, the inevitable horror of the end of a life well-lived.

All the mad dashing and streaky licks on finery of various kinds lead us to a too-hip local where we hatched a healthy plan for tomorrow.  Rainy Red Carpet pix to follow, we have a big day to plan, starting with Alain Resnais’ Vous n’avez encore rien voir at the ungodly hour of 8am.  À demain!

Woke up early to be poised and ready to book for Dario Argento’s midnight premiere screening of Dracula (in 3D!), and Michael Haneke’s premiere of Amour at precisely 0800.  We got lucky with Argento, less so for the Haneke, but made our way into town early for a very full day of cinema related activities.  Our screening, although not full, went well and we were heartened by the presence of all those who came out at 9.30 on a Saturday morning after the host of crazy parties (we tried unsuccessfully to crash) the night before.  Everyone who saw Achantè said very nice things about it, and we were pleased to find that people continued to request to view the film throughout the day.

Making a beeline from our screening to the final-run of Benh Zeitlin’s first feature Beasts of the Southern Wild, we were absolutely stunned by what we saw.  A beautifully acted and directed movie about a little girl living with her homeless father in the swampy outer regions of New Orleans, Beasts was by far the best film we have seen here to date.  For a very difficult subject, and an obviously limited budget, Zeitlin’s first film has inspired us tremendously and ensured that we will be following his career very closely.  From the screening we darted over to the UK pavilion to catch a fundraising seminar hosted by a spectrum of funding bodies that was packed, and very informative – equal measures of encouraging and daunting as far as actually finding funding is concerned.  Starving now, headed over to Apeechatpong Weerasethkul’s open discussion in the Court Metrage conference where we listend to one of our favourite directors (yesterday’s Mekong Hotel is also among the highlights of our trip so far) talk about his process – his most emphatic piece of advice for young directors: if you want to be successful, don’t fall in love!  Presented with a wistful smile of course.  AW spoke calmly and openly about focus, commitment and the necessity to continue to make work when you’re skinnt, and most importantly confirmed some of our suspicions about the benefits of the crossover between conceptual art and feature filmmaking.  This was perhaps the most encouraging.  We hung around a bit at the end, and spoke with him again about our project.  He remembered us, and our project, so let’s hope he actually watches it!  We would be so honoured to have his eyes on our work.  Finally, after an entire day of fingerfood eaten on the run, we sat down to dinner in what is quickly becoming our favourite hole in the wall restaurant in Cannes.  Delicious and much needed nourishment was topped by a lovely convo with some young British filmmakers who have just completed their first feature.

Flash forward a few hours, and there we are looking fabulous on the Tapis Rouge for the world premiere of Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D.  A very late and bumpy start meant that we will never beat ourselves up again for technical difficulties experienced at screenings, and the film was, of course, ridiculous and wonderful.  Let’s call it a non-traditional retelling of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (unless – was there a giant Preying Mantis in the original? we forget), that demonstrated once again just how weird the Argento family dynamic must be.

The film Mekong Hotel by Apeechatpong Weerasethakul is terrific and well worth a watch. At 57 minutes it is an non-standard length for a film, something we are familiar with (Achante at 35 minutes was difficult to schedule into many festivals). Emily met with Apeechatpong after the screening and chatted briefly about our similar approaches to filmmaking.

In a strange set of coincidences we met RAM in the evening shortly before they were meant to perform for some assembled glitterati. We are very pleased to see Haitian music embraced by a wider audience.

We are very excited to screen on Saturday morning at 9:45 in the Short Film Corner!