Cecilia Neant Falk

Intervju med Cecilia Neant Falk i P1, Sverige Radio i programmet “Människor och Tro”. Klicka här för att lyssna

INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR CECILIA NEANT FALK :

With Your Mind is Bigger than all the Supermarkets in the World, I want to challenge both the cinema audience and myself. I want us to experience something other than the usual movie experience – a transport, a flight from ourselves. I want to widen the spectrum of possibilities and expectations of what we might experience in a cinema theatre, and what film “should” be.

By largely abstaining from editing the image or the sound recordings, I am not giving in to the spectator’s (or my own!) desire for a new image, or urge to move on to another place. I do not want to entertain, nor do I let the spectator sink into the story, forgetting him – or herself.

Actually, in this way, by only combining these few pieces of raw documentary material, I seem to get closer to reality than in traditional documentary film-making.

In fact this project is also the result of a research I made on violence (and non-violence) called “The Patterns of Violence”. After reading about and seeing so much cruelty and selfish behaviour in reality, and also in fictional films, games and “normal” entertainment I suddenly felt that my film on violence should be a non-violent film. I thought; since the absolute beginning of violence and aggression lies within us, or in the lack of love we feel for ourselves,  this research on the patterns of violence have to start within myself, with my own confusion (and self-aggression). So by documenting my own quest for sanity and happiness at the meditation centre at Nilambe, I was hoping to gather tools for others to handle their confusion, and aggression.

And what if life is not a war? I experienced a shift from almost aggressively wanting to change people’s minds into giving the audience an alternative experience. Of contemplation, of calmness. Of peacefulness instead of reports of violence and war. An inspiring film on making friends with oneself and others, a film on love and communication. I do believe we need more of this kind of input in our minds!

Pema Chödrön, an American Buddhist nun, has been very inspiring: “When we perceive the spaciousness in our lives, when we sense a gap in the continual conversation we have with ourselves, when we suddenly notice what’s in front of us, when we take a fresh, clear, unedited look at reality, we can recognize it as egolessness.”

So I have tried to adopt an attitude of openness, of ”relaxing with ambiguity”. In terms of filmmaking this means I have tried to reduce the power of my own tools: the cutting in the conversations and in the image , or the use of music to create emotions. Of course I have also reduced my own power to manipulate, control and direct the audience’s feelings about the film..! In this way Your Mind is Bigger than all the Supermarkets in the World is in fact, an attempt to give a fresh, unedited look at reality.

As Upul Nishanta says in one of the conversations ”You can use the life to understand about life. Life is a great school, a great laboratory for doing your own experiments.”

In short, I am experimenting.

Cecilia Neant Falk

FILMOGRAPHY:

DON´T  YOU  WORRY  IT´LL  PROBABLY  PASS (DU SKA NOG SE ATT DET GÅR ÖVER)

COMPANIONS – TALES FROM THE CLOSET  (Väninnor-berättelser från garderoben)

Short Biography:

Cecilia Neant-Falk is a director and producer of documentary films. She is also a visual artist working with video and digital photography and work occasionally as a teacher in film and video.

Riot Reel AB is her production company.

“I shoot slices of real life and go really close up, for a long time… Filming time, states and deep human psychological processes is what interests me the most.”

Working with the project Your Mind is Bigger than all the Supermarkets in the World has been such a source of joy that I almost didn´t want the work ever to end… And is has taken time. The first shooting at Nilambe took place in 2006. Then I returned in 2007 to re-shoot it all in HD format together with Johan Rydberg.

Links to my other projects:

Documentary films:

Nowhere, but Here
Don´t You Worry it´ll Probably Pass
Companions – Tales from the Closet

Education:

Konstfack, BA Fine Arts, (video & digital art) 2005-2008
Nordens folkhögskola, Biskops-Arnö documentary film, 2000-01
Poppius School of Journalism 1999
Filmvetenskap, Film Theory, Stockholm University, 1994
Ecole Superieure de Realisation Audiovisuelle ESRA,1991-92 Paris, France

Riot Reel AB

is run by Cecilia Neant Falk. Riot Reel AB work to enable the production of creative, artistic documentaries which deal with human psychological processes over time. The company has produced “Don´t You Worry it´ll Probably Pass” in 2003 and has two other film projects in development; Nowhere but Here and Patterns of Violence.

The film Your Mind is Bigger than All the Supermarkets in the World is one part of the “Patterns of Violence” project, supported mainly by Stiftelsen Framtidens Kultur.

Contact: Phone: +46-739961191

E-mail: cecilia(at)neantfalk.se

www.neantfalk.se