Dana rotberg biography
The director Dana Rotberg came to make White Lies, New Zealand&#x;s entry in the competition for the best foreign-language film Oscar, by a circuitous and unlikely route. A Jewish-Mexican, she spent part of the s in Sarajevo, then returned home to Mexico City as the mother of a young child, only to find her own country in a spiral of violence.
Then, one day she happened to see the movie Whale Rider, based on a novel by the New Zealand Maori writer Witi Ihimaera.
She had such an organic reaction to it that, as she tells the story, the next day I went and bought two tickets to Auckland, arriving there on her 44th birthday, determined to start over.
Ms. Rotberg had made a pair of highly regarded Spanish-language features in Mexico, Intimacy and Angel of Fire, but White Lies is very much a story of her new country, told mostly in the Maori language of the nation&#x;s original Polynesian inhabitants.
In the early 20th century, a Maori maid is asked by her white, privileged mistress to summon a Maori medicine woman to end an unwanted pregnancy.
The story touches on complicated questions of race, class, colonialism and cultural identity, themes Ms. Rotberg has long pondered, as she made clear in an interview.
Intimacy I was a mother, and a single mom at that, and I know that cinema is a demanding lover that requires a kind of obsession. Themes and analysis [ edit ]. Singapore: Springer. Box Office Mojo.Speaking in Spanish with occasional forays into English, she discussed the origins and impact of White Lies. Here are edited excerpts:
Q.
When you moved to New Zealand, did you already intend to make this movie?
A.
At that time I had decided I had no interest in continuing to make movies. I was a mother, and a single mom at that, and I know that cinema is a demanding lover that requires a kind of obsession.
I didn&#x;t want to be a half-and-half mom.
Q.
How were you persuaded to change your mind?
A.
Very trickily, the producer John Barnett gave me a book as a present, by the same author as Whale Rider, and in the book I found the story Medicine Woman. I felt an immediate connection because I recognized a lot of Mexican territory in there.
It had references to traditional medicine, a reality that all Mexicans live with, and on the other hand it addresses the conflict of identity, which is something we as Mexicans navigate constantly.
Q.
It was a pretty bold step, was it not, to think that you could make a film in two languages and two cultures that are not your own?
A.
I know, I know.
Once again I realized, and at the age of 53 it&#x;s a little too late for that, but that&#x;s how I function.
Dana rotberg biography They're a bonus more than anything. A Jewish-Mexican, she spent part of the s in Sarajevo, then returned home to Mexico City as the mother of a young child, only to find her own country in a spiral of violence. Release date. Yuriy Gavrilov.I don&#x;t do a rational analysis of things. I truly follow my gut, which can be a beautiful thing when you&#x;re a teenager, but at this age I think, I should know better by now. Only later do I realize the risk I&#x;m taking with my choices.
Q.
How did you prepare?
A.
I went to the land of the Tuhoe, which is a very remote and extraordinarily complex place inhabited by a people who are very fierce, brave and independent, a tribe that never signed the treaty that gave sovereignty to the queen of England.
It&#x;s a tribe that is very zealous about their sacred lands. Little by little I got to know the people and they got to know me.
Q.
Do you think that being Mexican helped you in this process?
A.
I believe that if I weren&#x;t Mexican, I wouldn&#x;t have had the same welcome and openheartedness that I got from the people.
Because the process of colonization at the end of the day is the same all over the world, regardless of what historical moment in which it takes place.
It operates in the same manner, and leaves the same wounds. So in a way, I could recognize in them my own wounds, and they could recognize in me their own wounds. They had lots of questions about the Mexican experience and we had some very long conversations.
Q.
How did that influence the way you made the film?
A.
I have seen how a foreign viewpoint deforms and bastardizes the reality of Mexico on film, in U.S.
films, right? When you see that as a Mexican, you feel abused. And I knew that I would never do a thing like that, that my view of this tribe would not be corrupted or manipulated.
Item 2 of 2: Nabor Ojeda… Architect. A review in Film Journal International applauds the film for its well-meaning attempts to address issues of colonialism and cultural identity, but states that the film suffers from heavy-handedness in its delivery. Pablo Campos. In this way, both the film and Ihimaera's original fictional work have strong ties to language, identity and reclamation.
And that&#x;s why I went so slow, always under the consultation of the elders, everything was always checked with the old women, who gave me a lot of feedback, because there are rituals and sacred knowledge which are not shared.
Q.
What&#x;s been the reaction in New Zealand to your film?
A.
The first screenings we did, as a moral commitment, were for the Tuhoe people who had worked with us.
Where they live, there are no movie theaters, it&#x;s far away in the mountains, there is no Internet, so everyone arrived for a screening in Rotorua, the closest city, in vans, cars and school buses. As you can imagine, it was a very intense moment. Nobody breathed during the screening, they were very moved, there were a lot of tears, and at the end, in their rituals there is a tohunga, the most sacred man, and he got up and talked about the film, saying it was the first time they had seen their own history on screen.
Dana Rotberg - Biography - IMDb Kendo Kaponi. Themes and analysis [ edit ]. Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell. Related Posts Richard.And then he began to sing a Maori blessing, and everyone in the theater rose to their feet and sang with him. That was the moment when I felt I could sleep in peace. That was a kind of moral and ethical endorsement of the film.
Q.
How do you see the Oscar process, as an opportunity or a challenge?
A.
It&#x;s a tricky place to be.
I believe that for all cinema that can speak to the state of the human species, any stage is a good stage. We need to establish conversations on the screen because the world is in such a difficult political, economic and ecological situation.
White lies Celebrities of Mexico. The New York Times. Download as PDF Printable version. Yaser Ali Al-Gabr.If the Oscar permits us a nomination or even a campaign, allows us to reach an audience and remind that we are human and have to care, confront and forgive, that&#x;s the story for me. That&#x;s my goal.
Q.
You must recognize how unusual a situation this is for the Oscars, to have an English-speaking country submit a film in an indigenous language, directed by an outsider.
A.
Yes, it is, but that&#x;s New Zealand for you.
It reminds me of the stories of how things began in the U.S. years ago, all those immigrant Poles, Irish, Italians and Jews who came and began to tell their stories. They were all outsiders, in a country generating itself through immigration.
New Zealand is a country with infinite generosity, and at a time when systems are closing to immigration, New Zealand continues to be open. Just imagine, a Mexican making a film in Maori! It really is the strangest thing, isn&#x;t it? It&#x;s almost a bloody miracle.