Reliefs

Interview with director Juan Manuel González

1. What was one of the most challenging moments you faced while making this film? Did this ‘setback’ change the direction of the final story?

Every moment of making Reliefs had a challenge to face, but fortunately we never had any major setbacks. It all flowed really well and I owe that to the amazing team I worked with, the whole production team led by Janeth Aguirre our producer and Pedro Moya, my first AD.

That said, funding, I believe, is always the main challenge for any short film. We had a successful Kickstarter campaign (thank you backers!) but as always, it’s uncertain if you will reach the goal, and we didn’t have much time between the end of the campaign and the production dates.  Fortunately, we surpassed our goal, and the film was able to be shot as planned.

2. What was the biggest inspiration behind your short film?

All the older women in my life, from my great-grandmothers to my grandmothers, my mother, my great-aunts… Latin American women are very smart and I believe they have real control in most families…  and they use their wisdom and sensibility to deal with the difficult issues facing their families.

But they also have a flair for the melodramatic and tilt towards self-sacrifice.  And I believe Reliefs is just about this inflection point in the life of my characters Rosa and Carlos. Where Rosa decides that she has to take action in order for both their lives to be better.

3. Let’s say you had to make this film all over again. Knowing what you know now, is there one thing you’d do differently? And if there’s nothing you’d change, what have you learnt since finishing the film that you didn’t know on day one?

It’s difficult to approach a finished film with a “should have done that differently” optic because you can’t, and you couldn’t have when you were making it because the finished film is still hidden in the shadows of the future. But if I had to make the film today, knowing what I know, I probably would have made a very similar film, following my storytelling gut. 

Getting the film made is usually such a hard process that you tend to forget while you’re making it about how you are going to get it out there for people to see. And it’s good to forget so you don’t make decisions while shooting that you might believe are concessions to festival programmers or distribution platforms. You need to make sure that you tell a story that touches a lot of people… programmers included but not as a target, as humans who are moved by your story.

One thing that always happens is that as you are making a film, the “why” and “what” of the questions you started out trying to propose and solve, continue to get clearer and I think Reliefs had a very precise pinpointing of the answers to the questions we posed.

4. At its core, can you tell us what Reliefs is about, and what do you hope audiences will discover when they come to see the film?

Our biggest wish is that after watching Reliefs audiences will leave the theater with a sensation of hope.  Our film might be about sacrifice on the surface but I believe that it is really about complicity.  About how we can avoid the sacrifices and yet continue to enjoy our lives if we just accept the other and empathize with who they are and what they are curriently experiencing in their life.