MEET THE FILMMAKERS: HUGO DUVERGEY

Part 9 of The Sydney Science Fiction Film Festival IN CONVERSATION Series, hosted by Festival Director and Screen-Space Managing Editor, Simon Foster.

THE OTHER SIDE (Australia, Dir: Hugo Duvergeyt; 10 mins) For years, Bea hid and bore this oddity inside her, the Forbidden Thing. But today, she might have compromised herself and has to escape if she wants to survive. Will her journey to the Other Side allow her to embrace her true inner nature or will she become another invisible casualty of the society she was raised in?

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT: "I remember advice given by one of our script writing teachers: your idea has to come from the guts. You are gonna spend months working on that idea, so you better be passionate about it. I sat down, looked at all the random words written in my notebook in the past few days and dove into the deepest parts of my mind. The next day or so, I showed in front of the class a poorly designed, untitled and very short slide presentation and started to talk about that strange world and its main character. The Other Side was born...”

Screening in The AUSTRALIAN SHORT FILM SHOWCASE on Saturday November 21 from 10.30am at Actors Centre Australia.

 

SIMON: What have been the science-fiction works – books, films, art of any kind – that have inspired your work and forged your love for the genre?

HUGO: Regarding my love for the genre, a lot of the classics: Blade Runner, Dune, Foundation, Gattaca, Star Wars. That said, I try to avoid getting in the “reference game” when I develop my own creative work. It has to feel personal so it can “click” in my brain.

SIMON: How did the original concept for your film take shape? What aspects of your film’s narrative and your protagonist’s journey were most important to you? 

HUGO: I thought about how people get polarized so fast on the Internet nowadays and how there is often barely room for discussion between different opinions. I started to imagine what would happen if that kind of environment was applied to a core aspect of humanity. What mattered to me the most was that the world should feel very close to ours. So close that the audience would only realize progressively the “difference”. The second most important element was that I wanted to avoid falling into convenient simplifications - the good ideology versus the evil ideology, the perfect promised land. Nothing should be easy and lazy.

SIMON: Does the ‘science-fiction’ genre have deep roots in the art and cultural history of your homeland? Were the resources, facilities and talent pool required to bring your film to life easily sourced?

HUGO: France has a long history with science-fiction, going back to Cyrano de Bergerac in the 17th century or, more notoriously, Jules Verne in the 19th century. The later half of the 20th century saw the emergence of numerous writers such as Pierre Boulle and René Barjavel or comic book artists such as Moebius. Despite this very rich history in literature and comics, there are very few French sci-fi movies. Up to today, there seems to be a big reluctance from most producers to invest in this genre for whatever reason (not as “noble” as real dramas, not as profitable as comedies, not worth competing with big American blockbusters). But it may change in the future, as genres such science-fiction and heroic-fantasy are more and more “mainstream” and openly appreciated by younger generations. My film was not done in France but in Australia, where I live for more than three years now. I think the most difficult thing to source for my film were the locations: I had quite a few for a short film, and a limited time to find them. Most of my crew - fellow school students and graduates - came quite late because my film was the last to shoot in my intake and we all had a pretty challenging year so far. Regarding the other resources, most of the gears were provided by the school and locking the main cast - via a standard audition process - was quite easy.

SIMON: Describe for us the very best day you had in the life cycle of your film…

HUGO: I think the best day would be the rehearsals between the two main female protagonists: I love this sensation of seeing a performance happen in front of your eyes, making the story you wrote come to life. There is no more past or future, only the very present. At this moment, I forgot all about the stress of unsolved issues, unplanned obstacles, deadlines and expectations. I was safe in a bubble of enjoyment.

SIMON: Having guided your film from idea to completion, what lessons and advice would you offer a young science-fiction filmmaker about to embark on a similar journey?

HUGO: Work hard, communicate as much and as well as you can with your cast and crew, be nice with them. Don’t be obsessed with (impossible) perfection but aim for greatness. The trip is never gonna happen on a sleeping ocean but keep the ship moving forward no matter what.