Mo Scarpelli
DIRECTOR & DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Mo Scarpelli is an Italian-American director and cinematographer of mostly-non-fiction cinema. She also happens to be the partner of Jorge Thielen Armand. See here for more about her connection to this story. This film is Mo’s third feature documentary. Her previous movies have screened at festivals such as the Berlinale, IDFA, SXSW, Hot Docs, BFI London Film Festival, Thessaloniki, Durban IFF, Dokufest and in cinemas, on television broadcasts, and online. Her last film ANBESSA (watch it here) was nominated for both the Crystal Bear and Glashütte Documentary Prize at the 69° Berlinale. Mo is based in Rome.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I started out to make a film which could observe what happens when a son rewrites his own father’s story, thus flipping the power dynamic of father above son, upside-down.
What are the limits of cinema in representation of those we love?
What does this process unearth, and where does that leave us when it ends?
As what I observed - a fictional film production - became more and more raw, the tensions around the son growing up outside of Venezuela, far from his father, and what emigration ripped from their relationship and their lives, were brought to the fore. The film thus became a grappling with the unanswerable question of how to mend what migration has torn apart.
There is no life for Jorge with his father in Venezuela. There is no way for Father to be present in his son’s life outside; the only life he knows is in Venezuela. Neither of them have ever found a way to approach the pain of this separation, until they create a place to safely express raw emotion: a “fictional” film set. But even this cannot last. Films end, filmmakers leave. Sons grow up, they leave, too, sometimes. The cleaving of father and son is universal, but here was rapidly expedited by time. The film production, their opportunity for wrestling these lifelong regrets, was 42 days long; then, Jorge would leave again. What this cleaving in this time of Jorge and Father unearths is unsurmountable — the hollow
pain of separation, the isolation of becoming a man. We are left with two men vastly opposite in personality and demeanor, but sharing one essential thing: a clinging to a past, the desperation to distill memories in stories, in a work of art, in a film, in order to try to keep them alive.
The intention of my films is to linger, to study faces and reactions, and ultimately, to allow people to betray their own or others’ versions of themselves. Every man is a contradiction; some of us are ready to see, and ask why. Father is this way. EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF is the process of watching a father be seen, finally, by his son, and in a totally different way be seen by me; his daughter-in-law, a woman, his friend. I leave much to be interpreted in what is “right” or “wrong” about this particular process of representation. What I do hope to impart is my solidarity with the human being, a camera’s validity of their fear of the world and their place within it. The root of all shades of machismo is fear. The root of family is love. EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF is this fear and love colliding.
THE FILM TEAM
Manon Ardisson
PRODUCER
Manon joined EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF from the start, having previously produced Jorge Thielen Armand's first film LA SOLEDAD (Venice 2016) and his latest film LA FORTALEZA (Rotterdam 2020). Manon is a BAFTA-nominated producer who launched her company Ardimages UK in 2016 to develop an international slate of films and TV that challenge the norm and spearhead change through entertainment. Having received a Vision Award in 2020, the company is supported by the BFI’s Film Fund. Manon's second feature film GOD’S OWN COUNTRY (2017) premiered at Sundance, winning the Special Jury Award for Directing in the World Dramatic competition, then went on to win 4 British Independent Film Awards in 2017, including Best Feature, and was BAFTA nominated for an Outstanding British Film Award. She also recently produced the SKY-commissioned TV pilot HEART TO HEART (SXSW 2020) written by IR Bell-Webb and directed by Lilah Vandenburgh. Manon is based in London.
Rodrigo Michelangeli
PRODUCER
Rodrigo is cofounder of La Faena Films with Jorge Thielen Armand. He did a lot of things to make EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF happen, alongside his shooting, co-writing and producing Jorge’s film LA FORTALEZA at the same time. Rodrigo helmed the same three roles in Jorge's first feature LA SOLEDAD which premiered at the 73° Venice International Film Festival and screened at over 50 film festivals. As a director, Rodrigo just premiered his short documentary OF MEMORY AND DEBRIS at the Camden International Film Festival, Bilbao's 62° ZINEBI and Bogoshorts. He’s an alumni of RIDM's Talent Lab, Hot Docs Accelerators Program, Venice Biennale College, BAL and the Berlinale Talents Camera Studio. Rodrigo is Venezuelan and based in Toronto.
Juan Soto Taborda, E.C.C.A.
EDITOR
Juan Soto is a Colombian filmmaker and film editor. He studied the three years MA of Documentary Filmmaking at the EICTV in Cuba and has focused his practice in the archives. Has worked with artists and filmmakers such as John Akomfrah, Phillip Warnell, Mo Scarpelli and Katharine Round, among others. Juan has also been nominated twice for the Colombian Film Academy and won the Best Editing Award for Phillip Warnell's INTIMATE DISTANCES in 2020 at the Black Canvas International Film Festival in Mexico. Has been a visiting professor of editing at University College London, Kingston University and the EICTV in Cuba and a regular member of the Jury in the Colombian Film Fund.
In Juan's words: "Working with Mo in the making of EL FATHER PLAYS HIMSELF has been entering inside a very sensible way-of-seeing driven by intuition and force. The editing with her is, therefore, a matter of modulation of those energies, rather than a frigid construction of stable structures and consistent plots."
Roberta Ainstein
SOUND DESIGNER
Roberta Ainstein is an Argentinian Sound designer and composer. Her main interest has always been related to explore and find relations between music and sound, integrating both into film language. Working with textures and delicate sound elements that create layers of subtle sensations and develop them in the scenes, bringing the audience a new dimension, another perspective that deepens the awareness of the experience. She has collaborated in films that have participated on festivals such as Rotterdam, Locarno, San Sebastián, Visions Du Réel, FID Marseille, Jeonju, FICUNAM and has been nominated for Best Sound on the Fénix Awards.
Roberta's favorite part of working on this film? "The sound of the rocks, cracking, goes through Father’s dreams. Ants work untiringly in the vibrant jungle. The lake on the Tepuy’s slope covered with dark wind. Tense silence on the cableway. Desperate screams in mobile messages. Fights, drunkenness and the click of a broken bone. Sunset insects."
FILM CREDITS
Featuring
Jorge Thielen Armand
Jorge Roque Thielen
Director
Mo Scarpelli
Producers
Manon Ardisson
Rodrigo Michelangeli
Executive Producers
Edward Power
Gordon Culley
Justin Madhany
Bart van den Broek
Associate Producers
Phoebe Hall
Joe Torres
Zane Dawood
Director of Photography
Mo Scarpelli
Editor
Juan Soto
Sound Design + Mix
Roberta Ainstein
Colorist
Joel Sahuleka
Picture Post Production
Feverfilm NL
a production of
with support of
