2024-03-01 20:15:28
Yasser Rashad – Cairo – The Ismailia International Festival for Documentary and Short Films was held this Friday evening, on the third day of the festival’s activities, a Master Class by the film director, Steve James, and it was moderated by the director and programmer of the festival’s programs, Marwan Amara, and in the presence of the film critic, Issam Zakaria, the head of the festival.
In the beginning, Steve James is an American documentary filmmaker born in 1954 in Hampton, Virginia. He has won many international awards, and his recording career is also receiving international acclaim. The Ismailia International Festival presents 3 of his documentary films: Dreams of Basketball, and Stevie, the Virgin’s Paradise. .
Mr. James expressed his happiness at being honored by the festival administration, and took a souvenir photo for the attendees as an expression of his gratitude for the presence of a large number of people interested in his films.
Steve James said regarding his films regarding the movie “Basket Dreams” that it was produced in 1994, and it is considered one of the most important films of documentary cinema, meaning “Let’s film the event and not tell the event,” and the film’s strongest scenes depend on observation.
Pointing out that the story of the film began to change when one of the heroes went to the camp, and many dimensions to the film appeared following that, and through it it was able to reserve a place for it among the major makers of this type of films following its first showing at the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.
James said that it is important that the heroes of the film feel that they are part of the work, pointing out that the film is made in partnership with the heroes, but they do not have the ability to control the final director of the film, and it is also necessary to show the final product to the heroes before the audience, which is a story between two unknown people, playing football. The basket.
Regarding the movie “Stevie,” he said that it was produced in 2002, and its idea is that when there are family disputes, there are older brothers, and the movie is regarding Stevie. After not seeing his younger friend for several years, documentary filmmaker Steve James decided to catch up with the Illinois boy who was once mentoring him. No longer the nerdy teenager James once knew, Stephen Fielding is now a damaged adult who has repeatedly had trouble with the law. While berating himself for not maintaining a closer relationship with his old friend, James tries to understand Fielding’s evolution from an abused child to a man convicted of serious crimes, but the producers pitched the film’s idea in the trailer in a funny way that the character wanted to talk regarding.
He pointed out that it was necessary for the director not to go out in front of the camera because it is considered a type of propaganda, and he decided during the film to play the role of the older brother, as the film had a great impact on the heroes and on him, which was the reason for a self-simulation of what your reaction would be when you were the older brother, and who It is important for viewers to go through these stages.
Regarding the movie “Pristine Paradise”, it is regarding the life story of a producer and critic, James Pearson, on Tafioti Island, a Georgian tourist country located in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean. He described the experience as a crazy experience in the life of anyone obsessed with films, and it was a transitional stage that completely changed Pearson’s life. He is a lively person and helped him with what he wrote regarding his films, and it was a good project.
James said that the means of communicating with Pearson, through emails and witticisms, he used to write in a poetic way, which helped him direct the film regarding his life story, and the film was a mixture of Verité cinema, acting shots, and dialogues with the different characters.
There was a problem in the production of the film, and I was fortunate enough to screen many and varied films. Regarding his upcoming projects, he said: There are two artificial intelligence projects, and the other is regarding Chicago, and there is a challenge he faces in production, but he is working to remove the obstacles.
James concluded by saying that it is important that the work reflects reality and credibility, not neutrality, and that the film tells reality and realistic problems through which we can confront ourselves.
It is noteworthy that the Ismailia Festival for Documentary and Short Films is held by the National Cinema Center, headed by Dr. Hussein Bakr. The Ismailia Festival is one of the oldest festivals in the Arab world and one of the first festivals specialized in documentary and short films, as its first sessions were launched in 1991.
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