Giorgi Mrevlishvili, the guest filmmaker of « Twelve lessons tells us about his experience
The space is relatively relative it’s all about time and experience
In the end, when the space is relative it’s all about time and experience. The experience within the frames of time, but these frames will always prompt to leave. It is a very unusual time for the festivals, however, it is not unusual when the morning begins with the opening of a mailbox.
It was not an exception during the days of the Festival de Cinéma Documentaire AprèsVaran. But there is one important thing, every act of opening the mailbox can have a very different reading. And every morning, through these four days, I would see the emails received at early AM, in the middle of the night. Someone was up for the whole night! Working to craft the next day of the festival, this was Mina Rad! The whole night, for four days, to make the experience of the festival as virtually physical as possible. Dear Mina, thank you so much for your creativity, incredible energy and enthusiasm!
The experience of this 6th edition of Après Varan was certainly virtually physical. It is quite an achievement in these given circumstances we live today. Having said that, I would like to express my gratitude to my dear colleagues — remarkable filmmakers I had a privilege meeting at the festival and for sharing their cinematic vision : Loredana Acuaviva, with her film “I Guerrieri” — such a strong and transformative poetic recording of a personal story that speaks to everyone; Daniela Lanzuisi, with her film “Juste un jeu” — introducing powerful dramatic device defined by the careful choice of the subject; Martine Deyres, with the excellent treatment of the archival footage in “Les heures heureuses.”
The discussion we had after the screening of my film “Twelve Lessons » was truly memorable and here I would like to thank the audience, all the viewers, everyone who joined the screening on different platforms and Daniel Maciel who made it flawless. I would like to thank: Ileana Stanculescu and Artchil Khetagouri, founders of a very special and filmmaker oriented film festival CinéDOC-Tbilisi, for presenting my film, virtually, in Paris (and hope “virtually in Paris » will always sound somewhat unfamiliar); A very special producer of “Twelve Lessons » — Jeremy Gaskill and MAC Georgia; Michelle Gales — for her careful reading of the film conveyed through the wonderful comment and revealed in the discussion; Cecelia Condit — my professor from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a very important artist for me whose work always inspires; Elene Asatiani –– an outstanding filmmaker with whom I went to Ateliers Varan in 2006; Elene Margvelashvili — exceptional Georgian producer; Emir Cakaroz — excellent filmmaker and friend from UWM ; For your fantastic questions, feedback and presence: Marie Chauveau, Christine Davoudian, Emanuelle Bidou, Gini Lorn.
Always very special thanks to everyone who created “Twelve Lessons”: Valerian Kotrikadze, Vako Kotrikadze, Nazi Bukia-Kotrikadze, Khatuna Baramidze and Mariam Kotrikadze — for trust and for sharing your life; David Khositashvili — very special sound recordist and designer who joined me through the whole journey of making this film; Nino Janjgava — marvelous composer; Musicians: Elena Jimshitashvili, Temo Jaiani, Anna Galdavadze and Mamuka Babuadze; Dodo Diasamidze and Mari Sharashenidze –– vocal department; Levan Amashukeli — colourist; Irakli Japaridze — aerial photography; Simon Qurtiashvili and Avto Goguadze — safe travels; Diana Janashia, Elene Gelashvili and Tornike Goguadze — MAC-Georgia; Giorgi Pirvelashvili and Karen Gaskill — English translation and many thanks to Georgian National Film Center for supporting this film.
So, in the end, when the space is even relatively relative it’s more about time and experience.
–Giorgi Mrevlishvili
