Joacelio Batista
Brazilian videomaker
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biography
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Interview: 10 Questions
1. Tell me something about your life and the educational background
My first contact with the arts was through the comic books and cartoons animation, This led me to join the Escola de Belas Artes Of the e Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, (Fine arts school of Federal University of Minas Gerais- UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil. I’m gradudated in animation in 2001 and drawing in 2003. Since then I have been producing works between cinema and the arts.
2. When, how and why started you filming?
At university I did my first experiments in the animation course.Everything was very precarious. We need to adapt with resorces we had. The focus on Drawing course at UFMG was on conceptual and contemporary art, this added to what he had learned in the animation course bring me closer with video art. After I left the University I was invited to an exchange between videomakers in South Ãfrica, that was a really great experience There I fell the taste for video and documentaries. And I was infeceted by the “vÃdeo vÃrus†and I cant stop to do that.
3. What kind of subjects have your films?
The feedback that people give about my vÃdeo usully show me that my main subject is the solitude. In fact, lonely characters are a constant in my work. . But for me I try to show with my work the place that human being occupy in the world.
4. How do you develop your films, do you follow certain principles, styles etc?
It is a very intuitive process. The best work came out on impulse. I has a picture in my head and keep myself on it until finish the idea. I try not to stay just in on style and seeking new ways to produce videos. This challenge takes me on. In my current research I try to blend elements of horror movies with an video art`s aesthetic.
5. Tell me something about the technical equipment you use.
A depends lots of the situation and what I want to do. In college, everything was very precarious, We had no access to equipement, early we learned to produce with the possibilities that we had. That was very important because we learn to improvise and do whatever possible with few options. Or you was creative or couldn’t do anything. I`m stay with this vision about how to make vÃdeos. If we had a cell phone to make the images we have keeping with it and try to make the best possible.
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€)
If in my childhood, I could realized what happens today, I would say that I live in a sci-fi world. Apartthe tools that we have available today and resources that comes in close future, the potential poetic of each artist always ben the most important.
7. How do you finance your films?
Usually the money for my work comes from my own pocket. Today, the easy access to video stuff, combined with my production mode, allows made my Projects financially viable , with my parallels works.
8. Do you work individually as a video artist/film maker or do you work in a team?
I work in the both ways, I have my solo projects and also with a friends. The “Colégio invisievel†artistic collective that I belong is where these partnerships happen. Especially with the long-time friend Dellani Lima.
if you have experience in both, what is the difference, what do you prefer?
Work “alone” makes me fell a false sense absolute control of my work. That makes everything easier for me. When I share a project I looking for friendship aesthetic support as Dellani Lima. He can see the images that I record and thing thinks that i can`t saw before. I know that when I give to him a raw material. He understand the whole context about my images. That kind of sensitivity, plus his own poetic, enhances the entire project. With that I’m more relaxed with the “lost of control”, and the result, and always suprise me.
9. Who or what has a lasting influence on your film/video making?
I could talk about several video/filmmakers who showed me that it was possible to became real the images that I got inside my head. Jan Svankmajer, Norman McLarenand Bill Violla, each one in their way, always be big influence for me. But I can’t see them as kind of triggers inspiration for my production. I Depending on the environment that I’m in, to inspire me. Can be a little lizard on the wall, a empty bug skin, or one of my grandmother histories. Those little things make the magic happen.
10. What are your plans or dreams as a film/video maker?
That’s what I can do. While I can produce my work, I’ll continue on this way.
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Can works of yours viewed online besides on CologneOFF or VideoChannel? Where?
List some links & resources
You can see my work on
http://vimeo.com/joaceliobatista