Piotr Stasik, director of 21 X NEW YORK (nominated for EUROPEAN DOCUMENTARY), talks about his filming experience on the New York underground, how this and other impressions influence what is being created, and about the state of documentaries in general.
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Can you briefly describe what your documentary is about and how you got interested in the subject? The brain and the cable hanging from it – this is the vision of the man from the future I present in my film. 21 people I have met accidentally on the New York subway [or underground] are the protagonists. They talk about their lives, human relations, about their confusion. New York, however, is just an excuse for telling the story about who we are. It’s the trance-like essay about the human condition in the 21st century. |
The idea for the film came to my mind when I entered the New York subway for the very first time. It reminded me of a game I used to play in high school. Together with my friends, I was hanging out on the streets trying to guess, just by looking at people’s faces, who they are, how old they are, their professions.
The camera turned me into one of the angels from Wim Wenders’ WINGS OF DESIRE, an angel who can read other people’s minds. I could ask strangers on the subway about issues important to them. I could get to know what they crave for or what they are afraid of. I combined this with my personal notes and excerpts from travelogues I used to write on my journeys. You can say that this film is the record of the contemplation, a confession from a journey all around the world.
Was it clear from the beginning that you want to make a documentary rather than a fiction feature?
Someone once said that in case of a documentary the script is written by God. There is something true about it. We can’t really predict many situations or dialogues. And that’s good. Through the protagonists and coincidences we are transgressing our imperfections. We can create something that is larger than us as individuals. I used to say as a joke that a documentary filmmaker is like a vampire, instead of feeding on blood he feeds on other people’s stories and emotions.
How did you develop the concept and the style of the film? And how did you get all these people in front of the camera?
All of my films I start with music. I find a piece of music or a genre which evokes the style of shooting, rhythm, or even the story itself. With 21 X NEW YORK it was also like this. From the very beginning it was a kind of trance music that blends organically with the sounds of the city, techno music mixed with noises of the subway and with classical music.
I read a lot, I visit galleries, I watch many photographs and films. This is a long process of collecting information and inspirations the process of getting soaked with images and thoughts of other people.
Another important element was the decision of shooting the film with an unscrewed lens. This made the film look more organic. I wanted to achieve an effect as if seeing with other people’s eyes, the effect of being in their heads. This unscrewed lens became a part of my body, like my bone.
My small camera set enabled my participatory observation – I was the filmmaker but also the participant of most of the recorded situations. I felt like an anthropologist, like Bronisław Malinowski creating “The Sexual Life of Savages” but instead of the pencil and notebook, I had my camera as the tool.
How detailed was the script before shooting?
My film was like an anthropological experiment. I, a stranger in the city with my poor English, step down into the subway to ask people what they are doing for a living, what they are dreaming about, why they are crying. I assumed my film would be about people who live like they want, who can express themselves and fulfil their dreams. The final effect was to me a total surprise and until now I can’t explain how it happened.
Though I hadn’t known my characters I wrote a script with imaginary figures, sometimes I even wrote dialogues. It helps to build a plan, some structure of the film to be ready to improvise and be open to surprises during the shooting.
What was the biggest challenge in making your film?
The number of characters: In the final film we have 21 characters but I recorded more than 40. I had to step into their lives very quickly in order to find out something essential, intimate. Very often I’ve become friends with my characters, I took on the role of their confessor or psychoanalyst. This is already very hard with five, ten people, but with 40 it can kill you. You are so overwhelmed with personal stories, very often you want to help but you know you are making a film – you have to move on.
How would you describe the state of documentary cinema in Europe right now?
I have the feeling that nowadays films are more and more interesting and that there is an increasing group of viewers, still a niche but very significant. On the other hand, television that used to be the main sponsor for documentary cinema is getting commercialised. TV stations are growing stupid in competing with the Internet. This stupidity is endless but complaining won’t help. That’s why recently I got an idea – documentary cinema should have the same status as obligatory school reading.
Documentaries are presenting condensed knowledge about our world – in so many different fields. I am talking about building a list – 100 or 200 documentaries as a database for teachers to choose from. The world is changing very fast – no teaching programme is able to catch up with it.
In recent years the borders between documentary and fiction have blurred. What do you think of this development and where do you see yourself in this development?
For many years I have been making documentaries, but with time, elements of fiction have been more present in my work. When the classical documentary is not enough for me I allow myself to transgress into fiction, yet constantly mixing and juggling with documentary footage.
It’s like swimming in a river with two different drifts. It should all serve for the condensation of reality. I’ve made a calculation and in average, to make one hour of the film I use 100 hours of material. It’s three years of work. It’s a bomb of energy and emotions. I would like to make a fiction film about my childhood in the countryside applying methodology and structure I have developed in my documentary cinema.
