Raindance Film Festival<\/a> in London. Born in the UK and brought up both here and in the States, Smithingham \u2013 who has grown from music documenter to futuristic-painting-influenced director \u2013 talks to us about his experiences of film, his Raindance effort created as a dedication to his mother, and his first full-length feature which began production in the US this week.<\/p>\nWhat is your earliest memory of film?<\/strong> \nWatching \u201cHe Man\u201d at my grandmother\u2019s house, a council flat in Bournemouth, sitting on top of a sheepskin rug. Naked.<\/p>\nThat\u2019s very erotic!<\/strong> \nIt\u2019s very Brigitte Bardot in Le Mepris. My earliest memory of actual film \u2013 shooting film itself \u2013 was so intensely erotic. It felt like I had been wearing protection before and this was the first time going without because the camera shakes a little and you can feel it going past the shutter and it feels so raw and real and vibrant and sensual and wonderful. <\/p>\nWhen did you realise you could be a director?<\/strong> \nWhen I realised I wasn\u2019t going to be an actor. In high school I got put into a programme because I was assigned as an \u201cAt Risk Youth\u201d because I was a punk. So they had these programmes which said you wouldn\u2019t make it into college so they\u2019d teach you how to make cabinets or become truck drivers or do video production.<\/p>\nHow is your cabinet making?<\/strong> \nShit! Ask my wife!<\/p>\nBut the film making?<\/strong> \nYes, I went into video production and I loved it and it was a way for me to get into [music] shows for free because I could film the bands.<\/p>\nYou\u2019re short film is called My Mother The Flatiron \u2013 what is the story behind it?<\/strong> \nMy mother died and I started this film of a dancer dancing on either side of the Flatiron Building. My mother was a dancer and we read this story about a cat who got caught up on the Flatiron hanging from a kite and so I had fond memories and it\u2018s a beautiful building. I had the dancer dance on either side of it and filmed her on super 8 and I purposely didn\u2019t expose for sunlight so it\u2019s over balanced blue \u2013 which was her favourite colour and I think it\u2019s a very emotive and expressive. I feel it is a really tangible way of expressing living with a terminal illness that makes you sort of half way between life and death. I got my aunt to sing the Mariachi song, \u201cVolver, Volver\u201d which means \u201cReturn, Return\u201d in Spanish. My mother died of congestive heart failure \u2013 you drown and suffocate at the same time \u2013 so I drowned the recording by submerging it in two fish tanks in a bathtub, but it was too clean so I suffocated it with a pillow. I later discovered a note that made my eardrums almost pop so I worked that into the final edit and I felt this was an interesting way of pushing the tension of being uncomfortable.<\/p>\nWho are your influences, as a director?<\/strong> \nWerner Hertzog is a huge influence with his writing and approach to myth. I have assisted Guy Maddin, who is a big influence on me, who I assisted on his Hauntings project and his Keyhole film and I\u2019ve assisted Nathaniel Kramer, who was a fashion photographer in the 80s and I admire his kaleidoscopic eye.<\/p>\nYou\u2019ve worked with Isabella Rossellini \u2013 what was that like?<\/strong> \nShe was on set for [Guy Maddin\u2019s] \u201cKeyhole\u201d \u2013 which just screened at the Toronto International Film Festival \u2013 where I was rear projection technician. I was so intimidated because she\u2019s Roberto Rossellini\u2019s daughter but she\u2019s just so nice and genuine, professional and sweet and nice and not famous acty at all.<\/p>\nYou\u2019re working on a full-length film \u2013 what can you tell us about that?<\/strong> \nIt\u2019s a film about my grandfather in law who tried his best at absolutely everything he did \u2013 from experimenting in pig genetics, to contributing to the human genome project. He also became first director of the Fish and Wildlife Association in Albreta but ended up doing a great deal of harm \u2013 his campaigns decimated coyote populations throughout Alberta and he later regretted that. So it\u2019s told from the perspective of my father in law who was 6 at the time and it\u2019s about how we create heroes out of our fathers. A boy\u2019s first real hero is not He Man, it\u2019s his father. Guy Madden is helping me out with it, and Amy Talbon is signed on and she\u2019s probably the greatest living film critic and it\u2019s wonderful to have somebody who terrifies you that much cry after reading something you wrote.<\/p>\nThe Raindance Film Festival 2011 is on until October 9th. \nInterview: Seamus Duff<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York based film director, Lewis Smithingham was in the UK last week to showcase his latest video short, \u201cMy Mother The Flatiron\u201d as part of the annual Raindance Film Festival in London. Born in the UK and brought up both here and in the States, Smithingham \u2013 who has grown from music documenter to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2529,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9416],"tags":[1028,54,1027,1029,1026,1031,1025,1030,228],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Screen Shots & Sheepskin Rugs: Interview with Lewis Smithingham | Wonderland<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n