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"Crear un cine que cuestione": Entrevista a Natalia Almada directora de Users

Alonso Díaz de la Vega

Desde su primera participación en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia (FICM) en 2005, Natalia Almada se ha convertido en una cineasta recurrente del Festival. Luego de su última participación con la película Todo lo demás, regresa al 19° FICM como parte de la sección de Documental Mexicano, de la mano de su nuevo trabajo: Users, documental que explora el avance de la tecnología y la manera en cómo nos relacionamos con ella. Con este trabajo la directora invita al espectador a cuestionarse el uso cotidiano de estas maquinas y el impacto que generan en su vida. El FICM tuvo la oportunidad de platicar con la directora.

Alonso Díaz de la Vega: It seems to me that the images in the film are composed in a very careful way, they all have a lot of symmetry in this whole technological world that you are talking about. Was that the intention behind the composition?

Natalia Almada: Yes, it was certainly very intentional and I wanted an image that reached a bit of a sensory, visceral level, not so much a logical image. I wanted an image with another kind of sensibility, I was interested in creating a wide, big world, more epic imagery. All of this was because I feel that our relationship with technology tends to be a bit the opposite. It's not visceral, it's intellectual, so I wanted to play around with how the image works.

ADV: Another very interesting aspect that has to do with what you mention is the fact that in some way, it is a documentary essay, but it's not based on language, on words, but on images. Tell us about this affective intention that I sense within the film

NA: Lately, I have been thinking a lot about the role of the documentary as something that is informative, educational; as a very traditional way of watching documentaries that I think hasn't felt so rigid for several years now. The idea of the educational, informative documentary is no more, but it does continue a little because it's very difficult to detach ourselves from that. If we live in a time when information is so accessible to so many people through the internet, I began to wonder, perhaps the role of the documentary is no longer to inform. There is so much information that's so easily accessed that it's no longer necessary for the documentary to have that function. So in my case, I wanted to create a mirror of what reality is, in terms of our relationship with information. It's something that's governed by chance so it is like creating that feeling of disorientation, of unexpected things, on a cinematographic level, not looking to inform.

ADV: I think the documentary is very eloquent in that regard. I also wanted to ask you about the editing process, which I think seeks this sense of disorientation.

NA: Absolutely, we thought about it a lot and we talked about it visually. About how to move in the space instead of looking for a perspective where you know as a spectator, this is my point of view; for you to keep moving up and down; to feel misplaced. It was part of the proposal.

ADV: How was the musicalization process?

NA: The sound design and the music was incredible because my partner began the sound design from the beginning, and what we always talked about was the relationship between the artificial and the natural, because we were always thinking in black and white; the most artificial and the most natural. We were on that line, in that balance in sound, so we could manipulate and create sounds that we recorded in a natural way. We worked with the idea of not having music and then we realized that the music would be good for us; the music is very noticeable on the train, there is a shot of the train that was done with sound design and then that design was made without thinking about a quartet, then a quartet was integrated, then there were three stages. It's a piece I loved to watch being recorded and everything, to see how they used the instruments, but also the music. It was a process that had different stages.

ADV: Thinking a bit about the audience's response, ideally, what would you want it to be? I imagine you have something quite diverse in mind because it is a very open document.

NA: The other day someone told me that they dreamed of the movie and for me, that was the best. That is what I want, to leave that impression on someone, for the film to affect you; for it to stat with you, to make you see things differently, question them in another way. I think that is where my intention for the audience is.

ADV: I would like to know if at any time you've thought about returning to fiction?

NA: Yes, I think this film has been compared too much to science fiction and I think I couldn't have done it before doing everything else, because making fiction trained me. I didn't study filmmaking, so it was a training session, and many fears were taken away from me. I think that in Users much of what you see in the image scale is a vision that I didn't have before. I would love to do more fiction, I don't see that much difference between fiction and documentary. What I find difficult about fiction is that the whole development process is so long and the shooting is so short, and all my documentaries have taken two years, we were still filming this movie during color correction. What I like is the possibility of making images and reacting to these images, I like to understand the film as something that is being formed. In fiction, it is very difficult to have the luxury of giving yourself that opportunity, because it costs a lot of money. There are many production issues.

ADV: Is the pleasure of making documentaries the possibility of discovering the film while you are making it?

NA: Without a doubt, that is what I love and it surprises me. I feel very alive doing it, everything is inspiring and I am always more alert to what I am living.