Hello, my name is Nayra Sanz Fuentes. I work as a filmmaker, writer, and producer. Up until now, I have made one feature length film, As Old as the World, which might better be described as a film-essay. I made the film with my brother Javier; I co-directed it with him. At the same time, I have also made other short films, but they would be considered more along the lines of fiction, dealing with different themes than As Old as the World. And right now I am finishing a new short film that doesn’t really fit in either category but rather is more of a personal reflection on a space.
What does Rinoceronte Films, your independent production company, do?
It’s an independent production company where we develop our own projects. In addition, we do freelance work, like retrospectives on artists and retrospectives on expositions. We also collaborate on other projects with people close to us. I was the editor and co-producer of Víctor Moreno’s film Edificio España. And now the plan is for me to also be the co-producer of his new film, La ciudad oculta.
How do you decide on the cinematographic form that you want to use for a story?
That’s certainly a complex question. When I began my film studies, at first my training was more on classic short films, especially within the realm of fiction. And my ideas and what I wrote all followed this basic line of training. But little by little I became aware – in addition to being trained in other areas, becoming aware of another type of cinema – of having the luck to have started to make films within the digital age, which is a key moment to have access and the possibility to experiment, to carry out different projects in a simpler, easier way. So from this double situation my film culture like my experiences have opened some more, with the help of digital, well I have gone looking for different possibilities, different realities, right?
In this sense, I do not want to limit myself. It is true that in my world, people who have seen my works of fiction try to place me more within the world of fiction and people who have seen As Old as the World try put me more within the world of the film-essay. Many people are surprised and shocked to see these two works because apparently they do not have much relation in their form, in their style. However, yes I do believe they share a continuous base; there are some concerns that are present in both works although they are raised differently. One is more analyzed in the sociological and psychological analysis of the individual with isolated characters and how they relate to their environment and to the society in which they live. And As Old As The World, which is after all the only film-essay that I have produced to date, is a preoccupation of more abstract themes, of more existential and philosophical themes. So apparently they are different realities, but nevertheless, I believe that they share a central question about the concern for the time, a respect for the time that is in some way the only thing that we have in life, right? And also consciousness and self-consciousness. Both works reflect on these three themes. I find it very enriching to try to pose my own challenge and do it in different ways, not limiting myself – that is something that I do not want to do.
How would you view the state of cinema in this historic moment?
That’s a really broad and complex question because I don’t understand cinema as being one thing but rather something that can be entered through a variety of gateways, especially now in the digital age. I really like to remember a famous critic and filmmaker, Alexander Astruc who was one of the leaders of the Nouvelle Vague movement, who in 1948 (now more than 50 years ago) wrote an article called Caméra-Stylo, or Camera Pen. And that moment was the first time in the history of cinema when much lighter and more mobile cameras were starting to appear. And they are starting to think about how to make cinema much more accessible at the technological level, and they started thinking about how there would soon arrive a moment when filmmaking would become so accessible that at a metaphoric level it would be the same as taking a pen and using it to write whenever whenever that there is an impulse and somebody wants to express themselves at a given moment.
I think that 1948 might have been the beginning of this change, but things have changed even more in the current digital age, where if somebody has an idea for a film, they can make it into a reality using just their cell phone. There are so many possibilities for making a film, from using a super fancy camera with a full production team and a complex story to simplifying everything (which doesn’t mean that the film doesn’t have a heart and soul). So in this sense, I think that this is a really important moment for the possibility of cinema, right? It’s a key moment, but for me, it’s also fundamental that this change is accompanied with more education about the image.
There’s also a conflict between this new form of filmmaking and the more industrial style of movie-making which has pretty much cornered all markets for distributing movies. One can access the gateway to make movies, but the windows for showing these movies are pretty much all owned by industrial movie making machines. And this is a big problem because I really do believe that there are audiences who would watch these new forms of films. But for this to happen there needs to be a education about audiovisual language. And from what I see, this is not happening in schools or universities. That’s why I really happy to be able to be here with you guys. This workshop, has seemed to me really key and interesting, because even though you aren’t studying cinema and media studies, it is clear that you see the importance of studying audiovisual language as a part of your education.
What do you hope that we learn from this workshop?
When Palmar first invited me to teach this workshop, I first asked what type of students I would be teaching, to see if all of the students were knowledgeable film-studies students. And what caught my attention because what I strive for, for what interests me is to try to find active and engaged spectators, right? And in order to be active, they need to confront themselves with the image. Then what mattered to me, what interested me was to introduce by some manner the gateway that I use to approach film. Laying it out, questioning it, and seeing whether the images that I provide actually create an active spectator in the sense that they don’t leave the film as the same person but rather they leave questioning new realities and new ways to understand the theme that the film discusses, even if they don’t like it. It’s not this idea that you have to like it, but you do have to confront it and debate it. For me, it was important that I try to achieve this with the workshop; try to enter into a dialogue with the potential audience with the movies that interest me and ideally with the movies that I try to make.
For you, what does it mean “to create”?
Well, at the most abstract level, I believe that by the very imperfection of the human being one always lives behind his own life, that is, he can not understand his own life. It is difficult to be fully aware of this world in which we live. So I think that art and creation help in some way to place us more in the world to become aware of the power to ask questions to generate our own viewpoint, and for me, it certainly seems to be a fundamental element in our existence, right? That is why we intended to carry out Old As The World, because it is a moment where, as we see at the beginning, there is a very strong paradigm shift in our ways of understanding in societies which has occurred deeply with the entrance of capitalism and then the entrance of neoliberalism and the emergence of cultural industry from the 60s, where the world changed radically, with the appearance of all technological products that were inserted in our homes including the television, and, later the internet, etc., no? Then we pose in this moment so convulsive, complex, and positive to see if we really can take another way to reestablish our ability to reflect on values, like As Old As The World. That’s why we did make this film where we reflect on death, time, spirituality, or work. On a personal level, and less conceptual perhaps, for me the idea of creation is something that was present since I have had consciousness, right? Because it was necessary for me to write, since when I was little I wrote a diary and I wrote to fulfill the need to express myself at first. Since I first started writing, I have diaries. So at first it started in this way and later I always wrote stories, because I was fascinated by my imagination and my approach to life was always that I wanted to be a writer. I’ve never opted for any other profession, have I? It was much later when I was in college when I was exposed to more authors and filmmakers and I began to consider the possibility that writing, more than the written word and more than books, could also be done through images.
It was when I met authors who for me have been fundamental that I better understood this idea. The film producer Andrei Tarkovsky, who fascinated me, was one example, or another filmmaker fundamental to me in his form of action, in his way of not taking no for an answer to want to carry out that need, was Werner Herzog. When I found Herzog’s work, I started to watch his films and also read his book that for me became a fundamental book, so much so that I took it to bed even. There was a phrase in the book that I marked and for me has been fundamental and that phrase said there are no excuses to not make a movie, that one can make a movie so long as they have a cell phone, or a landline at the time. But he said that “you can make a movie if you have a phone, if you have a car, if you have a camera”. And with that, it is more than enough if you have the will to make a movie, and with that phrase is actually how I started making movies, and every time I encountered an obstacle, I tried to divert it so that I could carry out the films I was producing.
Reflections over the workshop:
Jean: Something that interested me very much from Nayra’s work was the way in which she played with the image and with reality. In As Old As The World we, as spectators, when we go to watch movies we have to reflect and that reflection is about, I believe that it is a theme that appears in her work, a reflection about how we are subjects in a world where we are always bombarded by images.
Claudia: Well, the movie seemed very fascinating to me. Her invitation to think, to feel, and to travel really draws me to the harmony of the images and the sounds and what this work really does is make us engage.
Andres: Something very interesting that I enjoyed from Nayra’s workshop was how she shared all of the directors and film producers that personally influenced her work. It was a very cool experience to learn about Herzog, Tarkovski, and Pasolini.
Anna: It was interesting to me how we have talked about the concept of “sight” and how we see through our eyes but everyone has their own personal way of seeing the world and images based on their own education, life, and family, and that interested me very much.
Jean: What I will remember after this is the idea of always adopting a self-critical attitude of how I personally am composed as a subject.
Claudia: The workshop was an unexpected gift. It seemed beautiful to her, the depth of what she was saying and how she explained it. All that when one sees a movie, one does not know: all that a director already has considered. I really found it very deep. Her enthusiasm is very deep and so is her desire to share that invitation with the audience. The truth is that I am very happy and very grateful and very impressed by Nayra’s work. So many thanks Nayra. You are always welcome!
Andres: Thank you very much, Nayra, for coming to our class. I really enjoyed your work and presence in the class.
Jean: Thank you so much, Nayra!
Anna: Thank you very much, Nayra, for coming and working with us.
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