Mo Scarpelli turns her camera on a fellow filmmaker in “El Father Plays Himself.” Her latest documentary tells the story of Jorge Thielen Armand, a Venezuelan director who is making a narrative film inspired by his estranged, alcoholic father — and casts his self-destructive father in the leading role.
“What kind of father were you really?” Thielen Armand’s dad is is asked in a trailer for “El Father Plays Himself.” “I did everything you shouldn’t do with a son,” he admits.
“My film is about what happens when a son rewrites his own father’s story, thus flipping the power dynamic of father above son, on its head,” Scarpelli said in a statement. “At the root of their director-actor relationship is fear of each man’s fragility. At the root of their father-son relationship, of course, is love. ‘El Father’ observes where that fear and love collide.”
“Anbessa” and “Frame by Frame” are among Scarpelli’s previous credits. She co-directed the latter with Alexandria Bombach.
When we asked Scarpelli what inspired her to become a filmmaker, she said, “I wanted to spend time observing people and spaces, and to find the poetry in the world that exists without us trying too hard to construct it.” She added, “Filmmaking gives me the means to shut up and listen, to watch, to suspend judgement unlike any other moment in my life.”
“El Father Plays Himself” premieres April 25 at Visions du Réel, a Switzerland-based festival that’s gone digital this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The doc will be streaming April 25-May 2. You can find more screening information via the fest’s website.
