Femme:: Interview with Emmanuel Itier
Independent Film Quarterly (IFQ): Tell us a bit about what led you into the film business.
Emmanuel Itier (EI): As I was sitting in a Math class when I was 15 in France, I suddenly had a vision and I heard a poem in my head. That night, I saw it so vividly as visual images that I was compelled to go ahead and film my vision. The rest is history, as they say. I was 15 and I’m now 46. I have been doing films, short and long format, from Horror to Erotic to Intellectual movies for the last 30 years! Pretty crazy, isn’t it?!
IFQ: Indeed it is! Congrats on the success of your latest film. You obviously believe strongly in the power of women.
EI: The power of women is a given since they give life to every human being. Men have to recognize, we owe you our lives! And beyond this fact, I believe Women are a strong equal partner to Men, and are the necessary complementary balance Men need. Men are raised to be mainly dominators, conquerors and in certain countries: Killers. Therefore Men are castrated from their Human repertoire and don’t have a chance to become sensitive, caring and capable of loving. This needs to change. We need to raise our young boys and tell them they are made for Love not for Hate, made for Life not for Death. It’s a process but I want to believe it’s happening little by little. I certainly do my work with my two young boys, Max 2 and Felix 8. I hope FEMME empowers women and educate men. I hope it shows we are all beautiful creatures of Love, of Life.
IFQ: How did this ambitious project get off the ground?
EI: By getting into debt! Haha! I had just completed The Invocation
(www.WonderlandEntGroup.com ) also with Sharon Stone as a partner and a narrator 3 years ago and I realized that no man had ever done a Feminist movie. Therefore, I decided it should be done et Voilà! It sounds easy but obviously it was a huge endeavor on 5 continents, 20 countries and 500 interviews over 3 years! But it’s by Doing that you Become. It’s by making, that things exist. So, whatever is your crazy thought just put it in Action and look at it Being and Becoming.
IFQ: I’m glad you were able to blend your journalistic and filmmaking experience to make this doc – how was the experience for you?
EI: It’s a complementary experience for sure. When you blend the both you become a better journalist and a better filmmaker. The journalist with his curious and incisive eye informs the filmmaker and the filmmaker with his sense of storytelling and emotion should inform the journalist. For sure it has been helpful as a journalist not to be scared of people and knowing how to interview them. Also this is how I met some of my speakers for FEMME such as Sharon Stone or Maria Bello, through the journalism world. And now I still use the journalism world to spread my films and give them to every star I meet with.
IFQ: You made the peace doc The Invocation also featuring Sharon Stone. Tell us a bit about her producing skills?
EI: Sharon is the best producing partner to have because she doesn’t get in the way. She could be a prima donna and think she knows it all and tell me what to do. On the contrary, she is of full love and support at giving me her point of view, advising who to interview and also at times telling me where it remains confusing or where I went too far. I remember we had a couple of offensive quotes in FEMME and I did remove them after she explained her point of view to me. Also having her is very helpful at making sure these movies are seen and taken seriously. If it was coming only from me, the little French filmmaker and a man, I’m certain nobody would pay much attention to my film. But with her on my side we can join forces and open all the closed doors of distributions and media coverage. For example, we got to be with FEMME on CNN and it’s thanks to Sharon, not me. I’m just the filmmaker, she remains the Star. And I’m happy about it. I need someone to shine over my shoulder and guide me…
IFQ: One movie at a time you are determined to have peace. What was the catalyst for this activism?
EI: I think it goes back to my early 20’s when I got involved with organization like the Lions Club and the Rotary’s and I develop a very Activist political point of view and thinking that there were no excuses for the miseries of the World. But as a filmmaker I somewhat couldn’t figure out how to put these philosophical ideas together in a movie. That is until I realized I could do with documentaries, as they are a true political platform for a filmmaker. This awakening to making documentaries truly only happened 10 years ago when my first son was born and I had the “vision” to make The Invocation. By doing so, filming all over the World and meeting all these beautiful inspiring people I realized I had found my way and that I would be of service with my film to heal and fix the World. Today with all the riches of the planet, the brains, the resources there are more than ever no excuses for misery, pain, poverty, and pandemics. It’s only because the 1% controlling our planet is still stupidly thinking that Death is a good business. But Death kills your customers so one of these rich greedy controlling bastards better tell me how they will make their profits when we are all in the streets marching on them. Revolutions always happened when the 99% couldn’t make it and right now we are on the verge of this shift. Either the 1% will unite and make One with us or there will be Revolutions all over the World. And this is what we have seen lately happening in the Middle East with the Arab spring. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The Titanic thought it couldn’t sink, well, think twice 1%!!
IFQ: Your doc is very well organized but a lot is going on– what were some of the challenges of making and completing it?
EI: When you have over 600 hours of you bet that you are your editor’s worse nightmare. But it’s a necessary evil to shoot that much in order to get an education about this vast subject and collect as many as possible points of view to legitimize your endeavor. At the end, it’s like figuring out the perfect puzzle where 100 plus women will intertwine their thoughts and deliver a clear and structured debate on the subject chosen: the partnership and the harmony between The Feminine and The Masculine. It took us some 10 to 12 months to complete the editing, as it was a complex structure. Also, it was true hell to find the stock footage not only we could afford (and thank you Getty Image and Framepool our two main stock footage companies for their patience and great deal!) but also that was matching the thoughts explored by our speakers. We used 3 or 4 different editors with the main ones saving my butt being: Amanda Estremera (who had cut my first complex doc: The Invocation), Yvan Gauthier (who is also a co-producer) and Cristina Neferis. Without these maverick brilliant editors I would have been in total chaos and they made sense of our film.
IFQ: I really liked the artwork featured, especially the butterfly image? Who is the artist?
EI: The artist behind lots of the pictures is Nazim (www.NazimArtist.com). He is the husband of one of our speaker, Celeste Yarnall (www.celesteyarnall.com). They both helped raised some of the financing and are producers on Femme. Nazim is an amazing talent and he will be featured in our next 5 Documentaries we are producing with Sharon Stone. Other paintings are made by a great soul: Mary Saint-Marie (www.marysaintmarie.com). I have been lucky to get marvelous artists to participate in our films. This was already the case in The Invocation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yicNscEO0y0 ) and the beautiful art of Deb DeLisi
(www.delisiart.com). It makes a lot of difference when you have this level of talent on your side to enhance your pictures.
IFQ: You obviously want to empower women. Was there any opposition to your thinking and message?
EI: There was and there is still! Only 1% of our investors are Men! That tells you the little support I got from them. Also, 99% of the acquisition power in Hollywood and in the world of distribution all around the planet are in the hands of men. The result is that none of them watched the movie and it has been a nightmare to release this film. And it’s not that there aren’t any marketing and promotion tools. Men in charge decided this was a boring movie that nobody should see and that pisses me off greatly! That degree of ignorance and stupid machoism is exactly why we have war, misery, pandemics, and economical and political crisis. The root of all evil is man not willing to be the Peace we need in the World. They have been told since age 4 they are the Gods on Earth and that everyone is their slave that their mind is totally locked within and they are incapable of loving, nurturing and protecting. All they want is control you and rape your soul. This is quite depressing but I believe that with documentaries like mine and the work of many of the women rising against the ultra-patriarchy, we might evolve towards a balance society where there is a true sense of unity, peace and love. It will take a few decades but I know it will happen and I know our films will be seen as maverick revolutionary endeavors ahead of their time. Sometimes, I sadly feel like Van Gogh and I’m afraid my talent will be only recognized after my Death. It makes me very sad and it’s very scary when you’re trying to raise a family of 5 (well 4 now and 5 when our third and last son is born in June 2014).
IFQ: Finally, Emmanuel, what is your idea of success in your life?
EI: We are all, the 7 billion people of planet Earth, pure Genius! So already we are born a success. Society and people because of this ultra-patriarchal reductive dominant killing thinking is raping your mind and forces you on your knees. Therefore it’s very hard to achieve the degree of success we all have in our mind, in our soul. And we are all dreamers of our lives; we all want a beautiful destiny with a sense of purpose. But it’s so hard to get there because 99% of people are not willing to help and even worse they are sick enough that they take pleasure to stop you from being successful. So I will say that for me I will be successful with my life when I have liberated the mind of Humanity from its inner jail. The challenge of our century is truly to free our mind, to reach out to each other and to embrace and articulate our Oneness. I shall not rest until that idea of success is achieved. And if I die before I’m confident my movies, my Art, will continue the work, the legacy for me. In Oneness We Are and We Rock!