City of God

[pete]

yeah the lady came to my theater to speak when city of god came out a year ago.  she's way cool.

[Pubrick]

Meirelles unabashedly praises Lund's "important" contributions but adds that her role was limited to working with the cast of amateur actors.  Asked why Lund wasn't nominated, Weinstein says, "That's a good question.  Fernando and Katia have to determine that amongst themselves.  We'll certainly go to the Academy and ask them to make a ruling."

that's stupid, considering these kids were amateurs and the crew was proffessional, the chick must've had a harder job than Mr Flashy Camera over here. she deserves credit.. oh right, it would take away from the novelty of having sofia as the only chick.

[SoNowThen]

Why didn't they just credit her as an "acting coach"? Sofia had one of those on Virgin Suicides...

[Ravi]

I'm looking forward to seeing it again this weekend.  It's been a year since I saw it.

[godardian]

I will be seeing this film for the very first time this weekend. Maybe it'll finally kick my ass to get back working on my blog- I originally meant to jot my thoughts on every bit of popcult I experienced on there. Oh, these sad broken dreams...

I'm going to try to go in with fresh eyes, which is virtually impossible with all the ecstatic praise the film has received here. But I'll still try....

[cron]

And the winner isn't ...

Katia Lund co-directed the explosive City of God. Why was her name left off the Oscar nomination? By Alex Bellos

Friday February 6, 2004


Katia Lund: ' I have decided is that this is Brazil going to the World Cup.' Photo: Reuters
 
Katia Lund was having breakfast last week at her flat in Rio with some of the young cast of City of God when the telephone rang. It was a journalist who asked her: "You already know - right?" She didn't. The call was the first she heard that City of God, which she co-directed, had been nominated for four Oscars, including best director for her colleague Fernando Meirelles.

The 37-year-old Brazilian did not know what to think. She was, of course, overjoyed that the film she had worked on was achieving the ultimate in mainstream international recognition. But she was also aware that her name was not going to be up in lights. She was not an Oscar co-nominee. She would be denied - again - respect that she thought she deserved. The issue of her co-direction credit, she admits, is "fairly confusing to everybody and not very well resolved".

Paralysed by mixed emotions, she refused to speak to journalists for a few hours as she formulated a response. "There are two ways to go. One, you fight for recognition,"  

she reasons. "And I really don't think I will gain anything from that. It might happen down the road, but I just don't want to be fighting now. When I made the film, it was much more important to me to bring the issue [of urban violence] to debate because, in Brazil, no one was talking about these things."

So Lund took the second option. "I have decided to be happy about the whole thing. What I have decided is that this is Brazil going to the World Cup and I'm not going to be the one who wrecks the party."

City of God has been the most critically acclaimed Brazilian film in recent years, and is the country's greatest international success of all time. Based on a book by anthropologist Paulo Lins that fictionalised his academic research into the poverty-stricken Rio neighborhood Cidade de Deus, the film shows how in the 1970s and 80s armed drug gangs came to dominate the city's poor favela areas.

When the book was published, Sao Paulo commercials director Fernando Meirelles bought the film rights. Yet he had never set foot in a favela and set about trying to find out how he could. This brought him into contact with Lund, a fellow Paulista - and herself a film-maker specialising in Rio's most violent areas.

With orange hair, piercing blue eyes and a freckly European complexion, Lund stands out in any crowd of Brazilians - not just the ones at the bottom of the social scale. In fact, she is the middle daughter of two Americans who moved to Sao Paulo. She calls herself "bi-cultural" and explains that the feeling of being an outsider helped her empathise with favela communities.

Lund's first experience in a favela came in 1996, when Michael Jackson elected to film the video for They Don't Care About Us in Rio's Dona Marta favela. Lund was in charge of production. She met the drug bosses who controlled the area and became fascinated with their lives, hanging out with them, living in their world, and eventually co-directing the impressive favela documentary News from a Private War. She was also getting experience as assistant director in many Brazilian films including Walter Salles's Central Station.

Meirelles got Lund on board at the beginning, and agreed to her request to be guaranteed a credit as co-director. "When Fernando hired me, we were bringing our talents together," she says. Together they started Us from Cinema - a group of actors from poor backgrounds who would eventually take most of the roles. Lund worked closest with the actors while Meirelles was more concerned with storyline, locations, editing and images. But roles, even when clearly defined, always blur. Meirelles praises Lund for doing more than just working with the cast. She helped on the script and in developing the characters.

Lund lists what she did. "A year of preparation. Sitting on the set next to Fernando. Going to the edit. I was not there just to hold his hand. It puts me in a very awkward position. I worked on the script from the fourth to the 12th draft. I supervised the crew. I know I was there working with Fernando to construct the vision and style of this film. If I was not directing, what was I doing?"

While the swish and stunning aesthetic - the handheld cameras, the lighting and the dynamic editing - was largely credited to Meirelles' experience as one of Brazil's top advertising directors, Lund believes that she had a strong influence too. "If anyone looks at my previous work, they can see it's very similar in style."

When the film came out Lund was indeed credited as co-director, in a separate line. Meirelles was "director". A bit like co-pilot and pilot. One more senior than the other. Before the film was released, they went to Cannes and she already sensed that she was being treated by the press not as a director but as "the woman who took care of the kids and was the tour guide of the favela".

It is partly, she claims, to do with the Brazilian film industry. The country barely has an industry and it is always a struggle to make films happen. There is an informality and a necessary pooling of resources that you don't get in more established countries. "Co-directing is very common in Brazil. Fernando's previous two films were co-directed. Walter Salles has films which he co-directed. Almost 50% of successful films here over the last five or six years have been co-directed. It's because the director has to produce the film on his or her own. It's very solitary."

But the Academy doesn't acknowledge the term "co-director". If Lund had joint credit, rather than a separate one - like say, The Matrix's Andy and Larry Wachowski - then things might have been different. Moreover, the Academy's submission committee, which has looked into the issue, says they do not consider her duties to be that of a nominateable director.

This, she discovered, was why Harvey Weinstein, boss of City of God's US distributors Miramax, did not put her name up for the Oscar ballot paper. She says she didn't question it because she was tired of the whole issue and because she thought that there was no point. What chance did a Portuguese-language film about urban violence have with the Academy's voters?

When she talks there is no bitterness in her voice. She has spoken to Weinstein, who told her that her presence would be needed for publicity purposes at the Oscar ceremony. "I have been invited to go but I've not decided yet if I am going to."

After finishing City of God, Brazil's biggest channel, TV Globo, commissioned a four-part miniseries called City of Men that used the same actors and examined the same themes. Lund directed two episodes and Meirelles one. In the light of City of God's success, Meirelles was offered a $65m Hollywood picture - which he turned down - and was then given backing for an ambitious project called Intolerance II, to be filmed in five countries. Currently he is in preproduction of The Constant Gardner, based on a John le Carré novel and starring Ralph Fiennes. With the Oscar nomination, he has become one of the hottest directors in town.

Meirelles is also happy to acknowledge Lund's input. He told the Guardian: "I brought Katia onto the project for the 10 months of production and her work with the cast of the film was invaluable. Although the American Academy does not recognise co-directors, I know that I could not have got the performances from the actors without her contribution. I also know that Katia shares in my shock and delight, along with that of the rest of the crew, that the film has been acknowledged in this way."

Lund has also had some international interest in her work, but nothing so high profile. She is working on an MGM film with kid rapper Lil' Romeo and developing scripts about subjects as diverse as Colombia and Israel. She wants to move on from stories about drugs, violence and favelas. She is also committed to remaining based in Brazil.

She keeps in touch with most of the City of God cast and is still involved in Us from Cinema. She feels proud that the drama group is still going and now has funding for another year. Meirelles gives it money and Lund is on the advisory board. "Us From Cinema is now a solid NGO [non-governmental organisation]. I didn't want it to be "Katia's little social project". I am not independently wealthy. I have to take care of my own career. That's as much as I can do."

[SoNowThen]

Y'know, this is bullshit. Put her name on the fucking nominations list. Whadda joke...

I'm a little surprised Fernando would go along with this. You gotta have a little integrity in this life, otherwise what the hell do you have?

[pete]

speaking of shaolin soccer.  this shaolin soccer-inspired ad minus the special effects kicks a lot of ass.  actually, this is more like an old 80s hong kong movie called The Champion, starring a bunch of martial artists who used all that acrobatics flipping stuff to play soccer.  Either way this is COOL!

[Pubrick]

sorry pete, this thread has nothing to do with asian ppl..

[pete]

well now it does.

[modage]

Meirelles was offered a $65m Hollywood picture - which he turned down - and was then given backing for an ambitious project called Intolerance II, to be filmed in five countries. Currently he is in preproduction of The Constant Gardner, based on a John le Carré novel and starring Ralph Fiennes. With the Oscar nomination, he has become one of the hottest directors in town.

Lund is working on an MGM film with kid rapper Lil' Romeo.

i think that right there is what screwed her...

[©brad]

i just cought a really cool tv spot for this, and my excitment for seeing this movie is manifesting itself in a physically painful manner (stomach pains). it's funny cuz it's already been in theaters off and in for a year in the U.S., has already been in theaters and released on DVD in Europe and Aus if i'm not mistaken, and it is still going. could this be the most prelonged theatrical release/rerelease/rerelease of the rerelease ever?

[pete]

be kinda hard to beat star wars, star wars on VHS, star wars: re-released on VHS, then Star Wars: re-released in the theaters, and then star wars: re-released in the theaters on VHS.

[Pozer]

sorry pete, this thread has nothing to do with asian ppl..

HAHAHAHA

[Recce]

***Tiny little spoiler***
I saw the film about a year ago with my sister. She began to bawl uncontrollably when they shot that kid in the foot. She told me it was the most terrible thing she had ever experienced. She's into kids, I guess.