Today, I did a lot of subway riding for some reason. So in the interests of traveling light and knowing I would need something to occupy my hours of commuting time (seriously, Sunday's a bitch), I took along the Fall issue of FILMMAKER Magazine. Good decision. It's chock-full of great stuff, particularly the interviews. Here's my favorite, favorite thing I read in there today.
It's an extract from the interview Nick Dawson does with Waltz With Bashir director Ari Folman (his film has been nominated for best picture from the IDA Awards):
Dawson: Why did you specifically conceive this as an animated documentary? It seems that almost anybody else would not have tackled the story in this way.
Folman: Well, frankly, it isn't important to me. I'm kind of tired of film formats and if I would have declared this film five years ago as a fiction film, I would have raised the money much easier and I'd be more secure and I would have completed it a year ago, at least. I don't know why I declared it an animated documentary, but I did. I mean, who decides? Is there a committee who decides when a specific film starts off being a documentary and turns into fiction, or the other way around? I wouldn't know. I just don't know what to say, and I don't care. I mean, this is the film, okay? You're the journalist--you decide. If you decide that for you it's a fiction film, I'm happy for you. If, for you, it is in the structure of documentary or what you define as documentary, I'll go with you as well. I think it's great that you can choose. Why should I choose?
Dawson: When I was scribbling notes on the film, I called it a "recalled documentary."
Folman: I mean, would it feel more convenient for you if it were a fiction film based on true stories? I don't think so.
Dawson: I don't feel there's one easy way to categorize this film, and I think that's a real strength. This was obviously the way that you felt you needed to handle the material, so the label that other people put on it is not important to you.
Folman: Totally.
Does anyone know if this man's single?
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