WomenCinemakers vol V WomenCinemakers vol V | Page 37

When someone touches you there is a message that
goes direct ly and deeply into your unconscious: “ I
accept you” and vice versa, avoiding touch contributes
to a low self-esteem, which is the birthplace of
violence, addiction and mental disorders. In
Skinhearts, most people are born already in the
“untouchable society” and don’t know what it is to feel
someone else's skin on theirs.
But Zoe, the main character, having received caring
and loving touch as a kid (by rebel parents), is looking
for that same feeling, without really remem bering what
was the source or how to get it again. It seems rational
to think that going as deeper as possible into someone
else's body would be the solution but it isn’t. Just as
much as one night stands can’t cover for the needs of
loving touch we all need and many people are seeking
in the wrong place. The more I got into the research,
the more I shaped the characters to my discoveries
and finished writing the rest of the short film.
We have been deeply impressed with your
enigmatic approach to narrative and characters.
How did you develop your filmmaking style?
Well, thank you! This is my first film so it might be too
soon to speak about having a filmmaking style of my
own.
I think my approach to narrative and characters has
been very personal, and that might be the only reason
why it looks rare. One of the things that I was
determined to stick to was to make the film I wanted to
make even if that would mean making mistakes in
narrative or storytelling. And I listened to inputs from
others and looked for tips from more experienced
professionals, I love collaboration! But I was very
careful to find the line between a good correction that I
fully agreed with and a tip that would have made my
film just by the rules and average. I don’t know that
much, I’m just starting out, but I do know that that is the
only way to make something worth watching and some
thing that would look and sound like me therefore tell
the story in a way I can only tell it.
Stills from Skinhearts (Frnace, 2015)
Kleber Mendoça Filho
cinemakers// 13
Most people have no idea how incredi bly
important quality, caring touch is in their lives as
human beings. Through my research I learned that
it is our most basic sense and primal way of
commu nication. It is crucial for babies to survive
and for adults to have a healthy body and mind.
playing in my head, I saw Zoe looking for
something, using sex as a tool to find something
else and not finding it. That end scene was the
center of the film and then I wrote the rest of the
short and created the characters to reach that
scene. When I started analysing that scene to
know what it was that I wanted to say, to speak
about, is when I started my research on touch
deprivation in the western society. And that was it.
That was what my heavy feeling was about, why I
felt so shocked about that conver sation and the
reason why I wanted to do this film. Then I also
realised that I knew on my own skin what Zoe
would feel and what it was she was looking for.