An Interview With Filmmaker Greta Bellamacina
We recently got the chance to sit down and chat to writer,director and actress Greta Bellamicina who has just got off an amazing festival run with her film HURT BY PARADISE. We talked about her about the film as well as the festival success and so much more.
Hi Greta, thank you for taking time out to sit down and chat to us.
How have you been surviving the lockdown?
I have been taking my time with things. Finding the sunshine in day. Finding the small celebrations in things. Before lockdown things were much more chaotic. But lockdown became a place of reflection. I’ve been lucky that I have been working, but really I have made a point of stopping every night to look up to the stars and out into the new morning sun. I have been trying to restore my sense of magic.
Sounds like you have used that time wisely.
Can you tell us a little bit about your background?
I grew up in London and and have been performing since I was quite young. I think I decided early on that I felt most comfortable on stage. I liked the spontaneity of gesture and the unsettled half truths. Theatre felt like a family of unsaid thoughts that I needed to understand. I spent most weekends at drama school or doing ballet. I was desperate to learn how to convey the unspoken things.
Those weekends are certainly paying off now.
Your documentary ‘The Safe House A Decline of Ideas’ was a love letter to public libraries and a protest against their closure. Is that something your passionate about?
It is about the decline of the British public libraries. It is a look back at their early beginning and I interview writers such as Irvine Welsh and Stephen Fry about how important libraries were to them and how much it matters in a society to have this democratic resource of knowledge available to all. We went to Wanlockhead in Scotland where the first public library was built by miners to self educate their children and progress. This in a way was really the heart of the film. A reminder of community and self education. It is a very personal film as I went to my local libraries a lot as a child, and I studied there and I learned there, it really was my safe house.
I can understand. I used to love going to the library, especially around the school holidays.
Where did the idea come from for ‘Hurt By Paradise’?
We wanted to write a film where the characters led the drama. We knew that the two main characters had to be incomplete. We didn’t want to show a conventional love story. Instead we wanted the characters to appear they were looking for ‘other’ kinds of love, but really their biggest love was simply each other. It is a female friendship story about two women with big dreams and failing situations. But what they do find out is that they need each other more than they think.
Sounds awesome!
You wrote, directed and starred in ‘Hurt By Paradise’. How did you manage juggling all these roles?
The film is very much a collaboration with my husband Robert Montgomery who is the second director on the film. We ran a very small set and when I was acting he was on monitor. I think when you love someone and share a vision you can work in a way that is more silent and trusted. More than most of the time we agree. Robert has a very visual eye, we met because we shared a love for the same kind of poetry. The first night we met we wrote a poem together. Making a film together felt very natural.
It is definitely important to be working with people you can trust.
Your poems are featured in the film. Do you feel like your poetry influenced the movie?
I think I was conscious that I wanted to find the poetic in the everyday. The poetry is an internal monologue of Celeste’s thoughts. I liked the idea that when you see her walking home on her own or on the tube, you hear what’s inside her head and its a jumble of thoughts and half-written poems. In poetry the everyday is a bit more alive and free. The blues and greens are more high res and the trees blow music rather than just cold wind. So I guess the poetry sort of found a home in the film as a device of searching hope for the characters.
The movie had an excellent Festival run. How was that experience?
It was wonderful being at the Edinburgh Film Festival for the world premiere of ‘Hurt by Paradise’. Especially after sitting with the edit so closely. I was extremely nervous to see the audience’s reaction for the first time. But it was a hugely warming experience and a joy to be nominated for the Michael Powell Award for Best British Film. The film then went to Raindance Film Festival and was nominated for Best UK film there. I loved wandering around the festivals with my pass discovering new independent films.
I agree, film festivals are fantastic places, especially for discovering something new and different.
How did the lockdown effect your UK cinema release in September 2020?
We had to push our cinema release back as it was scheduled to come out in April 2020. But we were really lucky that it released in cinemas in September when they briefly reopened before the second lockdown. It was on a smaller scale because a lot of cinemas didn’t reopen. But It felt extra special having it play on the big screen and especially because we shot the film in cinemascope. It felt like a very sacred moment.
You can’t beat that feeling the first time you see your film on the big screen!
Have you got any projects coming up that you can tell us about?
I am currently on set filming a new Sky TV drama which comes out later next year with a director I have long admired. It’s been interesting prepping for my character as she is very much one of the only females in a very male dominated setting.
We will have to watch out for that one.
What does the future hold for Greta Bellamacina?
I am in the early production stages for a new film called San Valentino, which I will be co-directing with Robert Montgomery. I am also set to play the character Nora in Ulla Fudge’s feature Ultra Pure later this year, and I’m writing a new collection of poetry. I’m always writing a new collection of poems in the background.
You are very busy then! You have lots going on which is always good! Well good luck with San Valentino and thank you for chatting to us. It has been a pleasure.
‘Hurt By Paradise’ will be available on Digital and VOD platforms on April 6th.
