BISFF Correspondence 通信计划
This program involves conducting brief email interviews with the directors of the international films featured in the festival, in lieu of the traditional Q&A session that follows the screenings. Through this program, we hope to provide a platform for filmmakers to discuss their work and share their insights with our audience in China.
为了跨越种种障碍，开辟更多交流空间，我们设置了“BISFF Correspondence 通信计划”，对部分国际单元的参展作者进行系列访谈，这些访谈将在作品放映后发布在联展各个媒体平台。
Children of Cement｜Hijos del Cemento｜水泥之子
Santiago Quirama M.
2023｜0:21:24｜Colombia｜Castilian Spanish｜Asian Premiere
Director: Santiago Quirama M.
Interviewer & Translator: Berger
Coordinator & Editor: Suliko
导演：圣地亚哥·奎拉玛·M.
采访、翻译：杨士博
统筹、编辑：苏丽珂
Q1: In the opening and ending of the short film, you designed two driving sequences in opposite directions. They gave me a sense of flowing consciousness and thoughts when I watched them. Could you talk about the intention behind this design?
您在短片的开场和结尾分别设计了两段不同方向的驾车画面。在观看时，这些影像给我一种流动的意识和思绪的感觉。您能谈谈这样设计的用意吗？
A1: First of all, I’d like to tell you that I’m using ChatGPT to check my spelling because I’m still a bit insecure about my English, so sorry in advance for anything that isn’t 100% clear haha. And second, my answers may not be as thoughtful, artistic, or poetic as you may want or expect, but I’d rather be honest with you.
This film was little to non-planned at all. At a certain moment I thought that it could be nice to film the road that goes to the factory (called El Cairo), that decision was influenced by the films of Colombian filmmaker Rubén Mendoza, particularly Señorita María, which starts with the same image. Honestly, I just wanted to copy that image, but it turned out to be great, poetic and esthetically, for our film. We first filmed all that we could in a couple of journeys to El Cairo and its surroundings and then we wrote the script. I don’t remember when exactly, but we realized that the image of the road corresponded to the routine of the workers, because most of them lived in a town nearby, so they had to travel every day for an hour before getting there. Afterward we started to create the character and set those questions about the meaning of work.
About the ending, it was a simple decision to finish the film as it started, close to that idea of routine, you get to the factory in the morning and leave in the afternoon. Honestly, I don’t like the ending, but I guess it works.
首先，我想提前说明我使用了ChatGPT来检查我的拼写，因为我对自己的英语还是有点不自信，所以如果我的回答中有什么不清楚的地方，我提前说一声抱歉。其次，我的一些回答可能没有大家期望的那么有想法、艺术化或者是很诗意，我希望能够诚恳地回答这些问题。
我在拍这部电影前其实没有什么计划。我认为El Cairo工厂前的这条道路十分适合拍摄，这一想法受到了哥伦比亚电影人鲁本·门多萨（Rubén Mendoza）的电影《山上穿裙子的玛利亚小姐》（Señorita María）的影响，这部影片的开场部分和我的电影是相似的。事实上，一开始我只是想模仿那个画面，但最终发现它既有诗意又有美感，对我们的电影来说非常合适。我们首先在工厂及其周边地区进行了大量的拍摄，然后才写了剧本。随后我们意识到，这条路和工人们的日常工作有关，他们大多数人都住在附近的小镇上，而抵达工厂往往需要一小时的时间。之后我们开始构思角色，并设置了这些关于工作意义的问题。
关于结局的部分，我的想法也很简单，我想让影片像开始时那样结束，类似于“上午到工厂，下午离开”的想法。事实上，我并不是很喜欢这样的结尾，但我想它仍然发挥了作用。
Children of Cement, Santiago Quirama M., 2023
Q2: I watched this short film in a very quiet environment, and your sound design left a deep impression on me. I noticed many delicate sounds, like birdsong, whistles, and even the flick of a lighter, but I didn’t fully grasp their meaning. Could you share the intention process behind your sound design?
我是在一个非常安静的环境中观看这部短片的，您的声音设计给我留下了深刻的印象。我听到了许多细腻的声音，比如鸟鸣、口哨，甚至打火机的声音，但我没有完全理解这些声音的内涵。您能分享一下声音设计的思路吗？
A2: I can’t tell you the meaning of those, or any, elements because I don’t know it either haha. When I sat down with the team that created the sound design, I just told them to do whatever they wanted, and I only explained to them that the film was constructed on a narrative structure based on the four elements: earth, fire, wind and water, in that order.
Earth being the roads that goes to the factory and a feeling of introspection (a state of being down to earth, so to speak), Fire the factory itself and the passion for working, Wind the family and a feeling of calmness and deep breath, and Water the river nearby and the idea of letting go with its current. When the sound was ready, I didn’t want to know the meaning of anything nor the decisions that they made to place a specific sound in a specific moment, so that’s all I can tell you about the process and intention of the sound design.
我无法告诉你这些元素的含义，因为我也不知道，哈哈。我告诉音效设计团队想做什么就做什么，我只向他们解释了这部电影的叙事结构是基于“土、火、风和水”四种元素展开的。
“土”是通往工厂的道路，会有一种自省和反思的感觉（可以说是一种脚踏实地的状态），“火”则是工厂本身以及对于工作的热情，“风”是家庭和一种平静与深呼吸的感觉，“水”则是附近的河以及某种随波逐流的想法。当声音准备就绪之后，我没有去想它们自身的含义，也不想把特定的声音放在特定的位置上，所以我只能向大家解释声音设计的意图和过程。
Q3: I noticed that many films of similar themes often use voiceovers, but this short film did not choose this method. What considerations led to this decision?
我注意到许多类似主题的影片会使用旁白，而这部短片却选择不这么做。您是出于怎样的考虑？
A3: That’s probably the only conscious decision of the film. Since the beginning we knew we wanted to explore a film essay format, whatever the film turned out to be we knew it was going to be very discursive. When we created the story and the character, I felt that there wasn’t a narrator who could embrace and embody this story, because a worker doesn’t talk like that, and a neutral or professional narrator doesn’t deserve to pretend to be a worker. At the time, I find those intellectual films about the working class to be very disgusting and disconnected from the people they talk about.
So, we just left people to read it, in their heads with their own voice, since this film turned out to be a portrayal of Colombian middle and working class lives, I thought that it was a way for people to identify and maybe see themselves, their families, or someone they know in the images, sounds, voices and texts of the film.
这可能是这部影片唯一有过明确想法的决定。从一开始，我们就想要探索电影的某种散文形式，无论影片最终会变成什么样子，我们知道它都是非常值得讨论的。当我们创作故事和人物时，我觉得一个额外叙述者无法正确表现这个故事，因为工人的表达方式和他是不同的，而一个所谓中立或专业的叙述者也不应该假装成工人。当时我认为关于工人阶级的知识分子电影令人感到厌烦，因为那些电影与它们要谈论的人之间没有关系。
因此，我们只是让人们用自己的声音在脑海中阅读，这部影片描绘的是哥伦比亚中产阶级和工人阶级的生活，我认为这是一种让人们参与电影的方式，也许他们可以在影片的图像、声音、谈话和文字中看到自己、家人或认识的人。
Children of Cement, Santiago Quirama M., 2023
Q4: In the short film, I noticed that you juxtaposed multiple images in the same frame, with some images appearing in repetition. This design gives me a sense of layering or looping. Could you talk about the creative intention behind this visual method? Does it connect to the narrative or emotional expression in any specific way?
在这部短片中，我注意到您将多个影像并置在同一个画面中，有些影像还出现了重复。这样的设计给我一种层叠或循环的感觉。您能谈谈这种视觉手法背后的创作意图吗？它是否与叙事或情感表达有关？
A4: That sequence came out of nowhere, I don’t remember what I was thinking when I edited it, I probably wasn’t thinking about anything. In a previous version it had a different text that talked about routine, but then I deleted it, so, I’m not quite sure what it’s about in the end. I like not knowing and not having everything under control.
这个段落是突然出现的，我不记得在制作这一部分时我在想什么，可能什么都没想。在此前的一个版本中，有一段另外的文字是涉及例行工作的，但后来我把它删掉了，所以我也不太清楚它最终是关于什么的。我喜欢这种充满未知和自由的状态。
Q5: The introduction of this film says you want to explore the imprint of work on workers and its role in family formation. How did you decide to focus on this topic?
这部影片的简介告诉我们你想探讨工作对工人的影响及其在家庭组建中的作用。您是如何关注到这一问题的？
A5: We didn’t want to make a film about that, that’s what we got at the end. Recently I read an interview with Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz, in which he says: “I come up with the story once the film is finished and before it’s released in theaters; it's simply something included in the press kit.” And that’s what I did, I wrote that in 5 minutes before sending an e-mail to the first festival that asked me for the press materials of the film.
We just wanted to make a film about that factory that was dying and had been very important for many people we knew, but we never knew what it was going to be about.
Thank you for wanting to know more about our film and for sharing these thoughts with your audience!
事实上，我们最开始并不想拍摄一部讨论这一问题的影片，这是我们在电影制作结束后才想到的。最近，我读到一篇智利电影人劳尔·鲁伊斯（Raúl Ruiz）的采访，他在里面提到：“我是在电影完成后和上映前才想出这个故事的，它只是新闻资料包里的东西。”我也是这样。在给第一个向我索要影片相关信息的电影节发邮件前，我用5分钟写了这些内容。
我们只是想拍一部关于即将倒闭的工厂的电影，它对我们很多人来说都非常重要，但我们从来没有去提前设想这部电影会去表达什么。
more information: https://www.bisff.co/selection/children-of-cement