»SALVAGING TREASURES - The amateur heart

An interview with Fred Kelemen by Michael Guarneri
...................................................................................................................................................................

Michael Guarneri: A little background: how did you come into contact with Mr. Béla Tarr?

Fred Kelemen: The friendship between me and Béla Tarr began with a glance. In 1990 Béla came to Berlin because a retrospective of his films was being presented at the Arsenal Cinema. One day, by chance, we sat in the same café at different tables: we didn't know each other yet, but we noticed each other and our glances met. A few days later, we saw each other – again, by chance – in the office of the Berlin Film Academy [Deutsche Film- Und Fernsehakademie Berlin]. We had a talk there and that was the beginning of our acquaintance, which later became a friendship and a working partnership. Our first encounter was 24 years ago and a long road led us to our last film, The Turin Horse, which had its world premiere in Berlin, the city where it all started, in 2011.

M. G.: When I talked with Mr. Tarr some days ago, he stressed the importance of his collaborators and the team effort filmmaking requires. Could you tell me about the "atmosphere" on the set of Mr. Tarr's films?

F. K.: A film starts off with one person's idea or vision, which are like a spark of fire. But in order to make a film reality, more than an idea is needed, just like more than a spark is needed for a fire to burn: a fire needs wood and air, and a filmmaker needs partners in crime.
Many ideas may move into and flow through our minds. The most difficult thing is to detect them and salvage them like a treasure from the abyss of our soul, to bring them to the solid ground of our reality and make them visible. Only there they will shine in the reflecting light of the spirit and represent the beauty of their ulterior origin. And all this cannot be done by one person alone. It needs allies, a team of conspirators who share the vision, passion, belief, confidence: people who are practically, intellectually and spiritually qualified – people able to salvage the treasure.
In this world there is a mutual dependence, no-one can do anything alone. So on Béla's film sets there was an atmosphere of devotion and conspiracy, concentration, carefulness and patience, the tense and joyful expectation while salvaging a treasure. At least this is my mood.

M. G.: What did Mr. Tarr demand from you as a cinematographer and what was the degree of "creative freedom" you had? What is your contribution to the final films, in your opinion? F. K.: Béla demanded nothing from me. After reading the script, we usually talked about how it would look once it was put into reality: we shared our vision of the whole film as well as the vision of the single scenes and shots, and we talked about how to achieve it practically.
It is like dancing together. First you choose the music and listen to it. Then you agree on the style and the steps, the choreography, etcetera. And finally you dance. Creative freedom exists only within the frame of the agreed style and shared vision. If two people decide to dance a tango, of course it would be ridiculous and destructive if one partner suddenly started to dance a waltz, just because he or she feels like it. They would not be able to dance together.
My contribution to Béla's last feature films (and to the short film Journey to the Plain) is what you see on the screen.

M. G.: Besides directing your own films (Fate, Frost, Abendland, Krisana...) and working as a cinematographer for some of Mr. Tarr's films, you also teach at Sarajevo Film Academy. Did you attend film school yourself, when you were a young man?

F. K.: Yes, I attended the Berlin Film Academy from Autumn 1989 to Summer 1994.
I started working with students in 1995 at C.E.C.C. [Centre d'Estudis Cinematogràfics de Catalunya] in Barcelona, on the invitation of its director Hectór Fáver, who had seen my film Fate at the film festival in San Sebastian. I was skeptical because I had never done that kind of work before and some students were older than me. But Hectór gave me complete freedom, he had confidence in me and so I worked with students for the first time. It was a very good experience for all sides, and I was invited again. So for some years I led a workshop in Barcelona each Summer. As years passed, I was invited to other film schools, art schools and universities in different countries. I have been working with students from different cultures and backgrounds, and under different circumstances, for 19 years now. This has given me a lot of experience and I have learned a lot. It is a beautiful work, very creative and meaningful. Like filmmaking, it is all about salvaging treasures. It is a spiritual and practical work demanding the same qualities needed to shoot your own film, just less ego and more patience based on love.

M. G.: Do you consider yourself a teacher/professor?

F. K.: I am an explorer.

M. G.: You teach the courses "Camera 1" and "Camera 2" at Sarajevo Film Academy. What do you try to teach your students, and how?

F. K.: Yes, in Sarajevo I give camera workshops, while in other film schools I mostly give directing workshops, including script writing and camera work. I do not teach. I do not give lectures. What is essential cannot be learned, it has to be experienced. And I try to help the students to make these experiences. I create certain situations, prepare certain artistic, spiritual, intellectual groundings and, together with the students, I enter these areas. I support the students in walking in and crossing these mental and physical areas. Ideally, in the end, the students have had an individual experience that transmits knowledge to them and makes them stronger, less fearful, less doubtful – an experience that enriches them with the taste of creative joy.
It is important to make our and the souls of others shine.

M. G.: In what way does your current teaching practice differ from the way cinema was taught when you were a cinema student?

F. K.: It differs in many ways. I try to give the students what I always missed and hoped to get.

M. G.: You can teach someone to operate a machine such as a camera. Can Cinema (and Art in general) be taught too, in your opinion?

F. K.: Of course, the skilful and intelligent use of tools can be taught: filmmaking is, inter alia, a craft. Moreover, the view and the sensitivity can be trained; the mind and the heart can be opened and inspired. But the necessary talent cannot certainly be taught. It is a gift. And with regard to cinema, a particular "kinegraphicality", a special sense for this very complex art, is needed. If someone has this gift, he or she should care for it, defend it and work with it, liberate it to let it blossom.

M. G.: What is in your opinion the difference between an "amateur" and a "professional" filmmaker?

F. K.: There is no contradiction really. It is just a question of definition. "Amateur" comes from the word "love". In the positive sense, amateurs are those who love what they do and love doing it. But, in a negative sense, "amateur" means someone who works on a non-qualified level. In my view, a professional, someone who works on a qualified level, can be an amateur too. This is the way I prefer: working professionally with an amateur heart.

................................................................................................................................................................... 23 February 2014

Published in BOMB Magazine New York, 15 November 2014 / Italian version in the book "Armonie contro il giorno. Il cinema di Béla Tar" by Marco Grosoli, Bébert Edizioni, Bologna / Italia, November 2014