Alice Furtado is a Brazilian filmmaker and editor. She worked as an editor on Eduardo Williams’“El auge del humano,” and Tiago Mata Machado’s “Os sonâmbulos.” She directed the short film “Duelo antes da noite” as part of the Cannes Cinéfondation in 2011, followed by “La grenouille et Dieu” in 2013. “Sick, Sick, Sick” is her feature directorial debut.
“Sick, Sick, Sick” will premiere at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival on May 23.
W&H: Describe the film for us in your own words.
AF: It’s a sentimental flow in three parts, each one marked by a different kind of sickness that Silvia, the main character, goes through. The first part is about lovesickness, a quick and intense romance which is abruptly interrupted by an accident.
She then falls in a mourning process where her body gets ill, so the second part revolves around this feverish state of hers. After consulting several doctors, her parents decide to go on vacation on an island a few hours away from Rio.
We then get to the third and longest part of the film, when the girl’s mourning gives way to the obsession with bringing her loved one back to life.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
AF: It was a mix of personal experiences and a taste for horror movies and the zombie genre. I started with the main character only and her motivation, then the fantastic universe appeared as a natural place to set the story, and I started to piece things together.
Both my shorts are, in different ways, about love and this very specific kind of time and space that is created and shared between a couple that separates them from the rest of the world. It felt natural to me to keep on investigating this and take it to the feature format.
W&H: What do you want people to think about when they are leaving the theater?
AF: I usually like to end my films in a very open way so that each spectator can imagine their own version of what follows, but I think there’s always this mix of fear and hope in the last image. This film is a praise for lovesickness and, more than anything, I want people to feel the greatness of desire.
W&H: What was the biggest challenge in making the film?
AF: The biggest challenge was the film’s aesthetic, probably, and making it work until the end. It was a risk I decided to take to work almost entirely with tight shots, because it was important to me to be close to Silvia’s skin and share her unclear vision of things. That also meant that it was harder than usual to cover a scene, and that I had to think everything through more thoroughly.
I discussed it a lot in advance with the director of photography, and we also tested assiduously during rehearsals. In the end I think it was the best decision, but along the way I would sometimes fear the results of such a risky choice.
W&H: How did you get your film funded? Share some insights into how you got the film made.
AF: It’s a co-production between Brazil, France, and The Netherlands. I started off with some money for project development with Oceano Cinematográfico. Estúdio Giz came along to become the main producer, and shortly after that we also got the Hubert Bals Fund for Script and Project Development. We finished writing and applied to a production fund in Brazil which financed most of the film.
With Baldr from Holland, we also got the HBF + NFF fund for production, and Ikki FIlms from France applied for the Ciclic regional fund and Aide aux Cinémas du Monde from CNC, managing to obtain both. In France we also got support from Le Fresnoy – Studio national des arts contemporains, which offered us the facilities for the mixing.
My main advice to get your film financed is to team up with good producers!
W&H: What inspired you to become a filmmaker?
AF: I don’t think it was a very rational choice — I was 18 when I made the decision, so I guess I just followed my guts. Since I was a kid, the movie theater has always been this magical place to me, offering me the chance to travel to some distant world and totally forget about the present time. It was always a thrill.
At the same time, I always knew that I have a visual way of thinking, so when I started to attend the first classes on film language and theory at school, I knew right away it was the right place to be.
W&H: What’s the best and worst advice you’ve received?
AF: The best advice was maybe to take to the heart all the experiences — whether they be good or awful — and open myself to feel them deeply, the excitement or the pain, because those are the things that build us through life.
The worst was probably to make myself an Instagram to become a public person.
W&H: What advice do you have for other female directors?
AF: Maybe that they think of themselves as directors above all, and that they stay honest with themselves. Being close to our truth is possibly the best way to convince people that we know what we’re doing.
W&H: Name your favorite woman-directed film and why.
AF: “India Song” by Marguerite Duras. The music, the editing, the text, the sound — everything is so extraordinarily perfect. I’ve seen it several times and each of them is a dazzling experience.
W&H: It’s been over a year since the reckoning in Hollywood and the global film industry began. What differences have you noticed since the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements launched?
AF: It’s important to know that some perversities of this industry aren’t acceptable anymore, and it creates a safer environment to work in. In Brazil we had a similar movement, #MeuPrimeiroAssédio, and it was an important moment for women and for men to acknowledge the more or less violent experiences that almost every woman had gone through at some point in their lives here.
Brazil is a very patriarchal country, so every movement in this direction is important and makes a difference. I guess it goes the same way for our industry.
