Dellani Lima
Brazilian videomaker
Interview: 10 questions
1. Tell me something about your life and the educational background
I am from Campina Grande, ParaÃba, Brazil. I studied film and video and dramaturgy in an experimental school of arts in Ceara, Brazil. I also work with various musical projects. Now I live in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. I’ve had my work exhibited and awarded in several film and art festivals.
2. When, how and why started you filming?
I thought my grandfather was a filmmaker, because he had movie cameras. In fact, he was a cameraman. But I long to know that. And as a child I got this movie thing on my mind. Over time and with my insatiable cinephilia, I met other expressions of the moving image, such as video art. Since then I move between research on classical narratives and formal avant-garde cinema and visual arts. But it was from the digital I could do my research and projects, even though I have started with VHS.
3. What kind of subjects have your films?
Dreams…
Below, in my text, I describe my passions:
dreams follow your mouth
The first flow, still immaculate,
Non-polluted at the source, still unthreatened.
Feeling of freedom. A privilege.
Endless creativity. Unending subversion.
Direct protest and creation. Different hours.
All that we bring in thought: just dreaming for a instant
The image has given us much. And had made us live a precious time forgotten.
We used to walk in the darkest nights. Avoiding danger.
Later, when we wake up, images escape, like water.
And to know ourselves, we need to find ourselves. Images are more than this.
We also need to live. But eyes cannot perceive.
Our pupils do not dare open. Our lips refuse to speak.
We know not whether beauty comes only from the heart or from images.
Images move. And images are not empty.
They have something to say. What they have to say is not set.
Do they say anything? Or do they say nothing.
The image itself, an oniric process.
In an eternal dream, image is energy. The heart is gone.
But images cannot be treated as something or as nothing.
Neither discourse neither silence. The image will find itself.
Images cannot force the heart to think.
The heart cannot force images to move or to rest.
Desire is the essence itself of man. The passion of games.
4. How do you develop your films, do you follow certain principles, styles etc?
Through the art of observation. Observation of gesture, landscape, time, action, … Silences, noises and music and sound design as an important element of drama. The body as conflict: sign immersed in the movement, the image principle. Plasticity, photographic composition, light, shadows and other formal elements are part of the research: how to affect only the juxtaposition of image/ sound? For a sensory dramaturgy… For an aesthetic of dream.
5. Tell me something about the technical equipment you use.
Digital camera, mini HD, VHS, scanner, mini DV, mobile, … Or any other medium accessible and dialogue with research or narrative. Either by texture or for portability. This is to capture images. But for the assembly and processing of images and sounds, I use various software, with my good old PC.
6. The field of “art and moving images†(one may call it videoart or also differently) is representing an important counter position in contemporary art. Tell me more about your personal position and how you see the future of this field ( your personal future and the future of “art and moving imagesâ€)
I believe in convergence and maturation of languages, medias, narratives and experiences. But we know that at the beginning, all the languages of art, each with their techniques and media have developed their research and projects in order to discover how to produce images that affects us, made us dream, in different ways. I believe in contemporary art, there are still artists who seek again this passion for the dream.
7. How do you finance your films?
Do It Yourself ! Homemade! And my friends!
8. Do you work individually as a video artist/film maker or do you work in a team?
If you have experience in both, what is the difference, what do you prefer?
I work of two ways. There are projects that seek mates and not others. I love working with my friends, artists I like and respect as well, like Ana Moravi, Joacélio Batista, Rodrigo Lacerda, Jr, Simone Cortezão, among others. Two heads are better than one.
9. Who or what has a lasting influence on your film/video making?
I have passions and influences the work of Andrei Tarkovsky, Artavazd Pelechian, Joris Ivens, Abbas Kiarostami, Luis Buñuel, Bill Viola, Marina Abramović, Chantal Akerman, Joseph Beuys, Jean-Luc Godard, Duchamp, Fluxus, Arthur Omar, among other dreamers.
10. What are your plans or dreams as a film/video maker?
Dream even more.
Can works of yours viewed online besides on CologneOFF or VideoChannel? Where?List some links & resources