The Power of speech
By Francisco Hervè
FESTIVALS & AWARDS
JURY PRIZE FIDOCS 2009
SYNOPSIS
Hardy makes his living selling knickknacks on the buses of Santiago until the government - in order to make Chile a "World Class" country - announces a modernization plan banning this activity. Hardy together with 2000 of his colleagues bring their case before the country's congressmen and other authorities in a struggle to survive modernity. In 2007 the government's transportation plan Transantiago arrives. Chile doesn't shed its backward image, and Hardy learns, for better or for worse, that modernity is not as much about changing reality as about changing the image that we sell of it.
DIRECTOR'S BIOGRAPHY
Francisco Hervè graduated in direction from EICTV in San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. He started his career making award-winning short documentaries for television. Amongst these shorts is CALA DE NUEVAO, EVARISTO, which won the Best Screenplay award at the Poitiers Festival, France. His first feature film, LA PENÍNSULA DE LOS VOLCANES, was awarded the Pud prize for Best Documentary at the Valdivia Festival. In 2007 he founded the production company Panchito Films. Presently, he is working on VATERLAND, his first fiction feature film.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
We wanted to make a film that would let us explore what we regard as a key concern in our culture: Dignity today is not something intrinsic to people but something that individuals are forced to fabricate with images and calculated speech, with pretense. The setting is that of a frantic society obsessed with modernity (trying this way to become a "dignified" country), where the powers of appearance rule, at the same time influencing people who live on the margins of society along with people in power. In that context, we intend to portray a battle towards dignity that seems to us both touching and provoking.
CREW
Director/Producer: Francisco Hervè
Script: Pablo Leighton, Sebastian Brahm, Francisco Hervè
Research: Maria Paz Gonzalez
DOP: David Bravo, Sebastian Moreno, Pablo Insunza
Editor: Sebastian Brahm, Francisco Hervè
Original Score: Fernando Milagros
Sound Design: Roberto Espinoza
Video Post-production: David Bravo
Credits and Graphic Design: Fluor Films
Executive Producer: Sergio Gandara, Francisco Hervè
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
El Poder de la Palabra / DV / 1:33 / Color / 75 and 56 min / Stereo 2.0 / Digital Beta, Beta, DVCam available / Spanish with English, French and Arab Subtitles / Chile 2009