Interview with Rebecca O’Brien This month’s newsletter from the European Film Academy carries an interview with Board member Rebecca O’Brien, the UK producer who has made 14 films with director Ken Loach (as well as a number of other works) and who set up the company Sixteen Films with him in 2002. What made you want to work in film and how did you start? As a child I just loved going to the movies – especially musicals - and when I was a teenager in London I particularly enjoyed going to see what were then called “foreign” films. I managed to get a job working at the Edinburgh Film Festival while I was a student and that introduced me to the broad spectrum of world cinema. I worked in the theatre for a couple of years after that but it wasn’t until I left to do a one-week film production course that I truly found my metier. Once I discovered that you could actually work in cinema I never looked back. From then on I worked my way up the production ladder as a location manager and production manager. You have been working as an independent producer for over 20 years – what were the “highlights” and what was most difficult? So many highlights! Marching up the Croisette in Cannes to the red carpet with the team led by Eric Cantona singing “Ooh, Aah, Cantona” to the Marseillaise; taking the Palme d’Or we won for THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY to the shopping mall in Cork where we gave the film its Irish premiere; being able to make four films in my home country, Scotland. But maybe getting LAND AND FREEDOM made was the highlight of highlights. The film had a powerful effect on everyone who worked on it. There we were, far away in the depths of Spain, reliving moments from the Spanish revolution with an extraordinary cast of characters who really believed in what we were doing. It was a struggle to get it made and we weren’t sure we had got it right until we showed it in Barcelona. One or two people walked out during the screening which made us nervous, but then the room erupted at the end. The whole thing was an emotional roller coaster. Most difficult was probably raising the money for BREAD AND ROSES. We were trying to make a film about unions in Hollywood, which meant that we had to work under their union system – but they were more like guilds really, and not interested in our little European film. We showed the Screen Actors Guild the land reform debate scene from LAND AND FREEDOM and challenged them to tell the difference between the actors and the non-actors in order to persuade them that we needed to cast real janitors in the film. The collaboration with Ken Loach (and others?) has led to 14 feature films. What’s the secret of this co-operation, how do you work together? Mutual respect, trust and being, and remaining, good friends are what make film partnerships successful. Along with the writer of each film (and for the last 10 that key person has been Paul Laverty) we’re fellow travellers on a fascinating journey through a series of different stories which define our lives. My role with Ken is to be the first audience at each decision making point. I like to be available to chat through the issues and problems we’re encountering along the way and through that negotiation we try and navigate the best path for each film. Our relationship has never been adversarial and the longer we work together the more agreeable the process has become. Your experience with the European Film Academy goes back to 1995 when LAND AND FREEDOM won European Film of the Year. Can you remember what you felt accepting the award? I was so thrilled when LAND AND FREEDOM won European Film of the Year. The event was quite small compared to now and was held in Berlin in the delightful wooden tent (I can’t remember the name for it). Rosana Pastor, the main actress from the film, and I were there as Ken wasn’t able to come. We really didn’t expect to win as the film had a disappointing time with prizes. So we were totally excited and delighted when we won what was then the Felix. He stands in our office to this day, proudly dressed in a red scarf from the film. It was all the more special because the film was so precious to us – and great to be rewarded by our European peers. You have now joined the EFA Board this year. What does that mean to you? I’m very honoured and as a life-long fan of European films it gives me a wonderful opportunity to help get our work become more visible, more accessible and reach a broader audience. After a lot of lobbying, also from EFA, it has now been announced that Europe’s “cultural exception” will indeed be preserved in the EU/US trade negotiations. How important is this for your work? Without the “cultural exception” European films could easily become homogenised and formulaic. The diversity of Europe is its biggest asset and our cultural freedom is important on so many levels that it’s hugely important to fight for it. We’ve only won the first round in the “cultural exception” battle. The door is still open for it to be overturned at a later stage and we need to remain vigilant and be prepared to rally greater support than we have to date. What do you think will be the biggest challenges for the European film industry in the coming years? As an industry we should remain open minded to all the changes going on around us – we need to find ways to embrace change and innovate rather than become protectionist. If our films are easy to reach then we can grow our audiences. We need to face our competitors head on and reclaim our cinemas – now that’s a challenge! What was the last film you watched? McCULLIN, a powerfully absorbing documentary portrait of the extraordinary British war photographer. What he has seen is the shame of this world.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 07:49:44 +0000
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