They don't believe my true story!

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Willy
Posts: 711
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:42 pm
Location: Antwerp Belgium

They don't believe my true story!

Post by Willy »

A true story
I am making a new film. It's based on something that really happened in the block of flats where I lived before. A young African asylum seeker could open the door on the groundfloor. On the groundfloor there was a shop next to the corridor. So he went upstairs. To the first floor. He was hungry. He looked desperate. He rang the bell. The lady, who was a widow, opened the door but she closed it immediately. She was afraid. It was about 11 pm. The African rang her neighbour's bell. It was the door opposite. Also that lady was a widow, but that night her 15 year old granddaughter stayed with her. She opened the door and the African boy forced his way into her living-room. He even locked the door ! The old lady was seized by panic, but her granddaughter stayed calm. The boy opened the fridge and took some food. The girl even offered him a cup of coffee ! Half an hour later the police arrived. They arrested the asylum seeker. The neighbour, who had a judas in her door, had seen the boy rushing into her neighbour's flat. Therefore she had called the police. Unbelievable, isn't it ? But our former neighbour told us what really happened.

The police helped me
My brother-in-law is a police inspector. From time to time he has to arrest gangsters. Actually "traffic in women" is his "speciality". Some weeks ago he had to go to Bulgary to arrest a gangster. In the airoplane he had a nice chat with this man ...

I asked Walter to show me how someone is arrested. He wanted to put me in irons. I asked him not to do this with me, because I didn't trust him. Therefore my wife Vera had to stand against the wall ... He told me that a policeman must always be calm, but firm. Together we wrote down the dialogue for the film.

Walter accompanied me when I was filming in Yorkshire. Some English friends know him.

A week ago I showed him the result. He was very happy with it and he even said that the film could be used in a training school for policemen ! There was no overacting in it and it was not exaggerated.

Film against racism
I showed the first try-out in my club. In my opinion some members of my club are racists. One of them often sends ractist jokes to members of our club and to members of different clubs. Once he had problems with it. A Dutch protestant member of our club, a faithful Christian, left the club because he didn't agree with the atmosphere anymore. An other filmmaker from a different club even wanted to contact the National Organisation Against Racism.

They don't believe me
I feared that my film would create some discussion even before having finished it. I must admit that in Antwerp, one of our biggest Flemish towns, people do not feel safe in the streets anymore... You understand why. Maybe it's also in England like that. Anyway some clubmates said that the policemen in my film were too friendly. They had to be more aggressive "just like in American police films". They don't believe that my film was based on a true story either.

You can't make a film on your own. Therefore I asked members of my second club to help me.

Who's the African boy?
After all it is good that they talked about my film. The African asylum seeker that I could find for my film is a young man. He's 27 years old. His name is Idrissa, but people called him Idy. He was a member of a theatre group that had a performance in Belgium last year. The play was called "Serise". Idy was the only boy in that group. The girls went back to Senegal. Idy, however, fell in love with a Belgian girl. I met his future parents-in-law. They helped me to stop the traffic when I was filming a scene. The young man is a maths teacher. He studied at the university of Dakar. His niece did as well, but she couldn't find a job in a school. Now she is a taxi driver ... ! Is that the reason why Idy fell in love with the Belgian girl? Is it true love? I think so, but the distant future will tell us.

I wonder what the audience will think of my story. That's one of the reasons why I am making films.
Willy Van der Linden
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Dave Watterson
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Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 11:11 pm
Location: Bath, England
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Re: They don't believe my true story!

Post by Dave Watterson »

There is reality ... and then there is cinematic reality.

Most people can tell stories of something that really happened - and end the narration with "you wouldn't believe it in a film" or "you couldn't make this stuff up".

For the makers of short film this can be a big problem. There is little time to get to know characters. If they do not act in the way we have come to expect from films and tv, that surprises us and makes us lose contact with the story for a moment. In longer films we can get used to the idea that, for example, the teenager wearing a hoodie is kind and generous.

It will be good if your film sets people talking. There is a lot of fear and racism around and we tend to look away rather than confront it.

At BIAFF 2010 Howard Smith entered three versions of a film about a ruthless lady who was campaigning for political office in the BNP (British Nationalist Party). There was praise for the actress, but I did not hear any discussion of the theme afterwards.


Dave
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Willy
Posts: 711
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 10:42 pm
Location: Antwerp Belgium

Re: They don't believe my true story!

Post by Willy »

Dave Watterson wrote:There is reality ... and then there is cinematic reality.

Most people can tell stories of something that really happened - and end the narration with "you wouldn't believe it in a film" or "you couldn't make this stuff up".

For the makers of short film this can be a big problem. There is little time to get to know characters. If they do not act in the way we have come to expect from films and tv, that surprises us and makes us lose contact with the story for a moment. In longer films we can get used to the idea that, for example, the teenager wearing a hoodie is kind and generous.

It will be good if your film sets people talking. There is a lot of fear and racism around and we tend to look away rather than confront it.

At BIAFF 2010 Howard Smith entered three versions of a film about a ruthless lady who was campaigning for political office in the BNP (British Nationalist Party). There was praise for the actress, but I did not hear any discussion of the theme afterwards.


Dave

Last week my new film was shown in an other club. I was not there, but the chairman told me what his members thought about it. There was one part of the film that some of them did not understand. I am sure that one shot with a length of only three or four seconds was crucial to understand that part of the story and his members were not attentive all the time. It means that watching a short film is sometimes very demanding. One moment of unattentiveness could lead to confusion. Maybe it was also my fault. That crucial moment was not long enough. Anyway I am very grateful to the chairman of that club to tell me this. Thanks to talking about my film I learnt something more. Making feature films is very fascinating. I am not an expert, but I enjoy it. A pity that I have big problems with my camera now. If I buy a new one I take some risks. Maybe in a few months the new camera will already be out of date. I will also have to buy a new casablanca in that case. As I only make films for fun it is very expensive, but that's a problem that we already talked about on this forum.
Willy Van der Linden
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