We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Camille Remi Kirby. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Camille Remi below.
Camille Remi, appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.
As a filmmaker, there are many routes you can take to tell stories and get those stories heard. Unfortunately, living in Los Angeles, everything is geared and focused towards the Hollywood format of filmmaking, which quite often means just having a lucky encounter with someone who will read your script or working your way up from production assistant to director. By all means, that is one way to do it. But I’ve mostly been influenced by filmmakers who have come from abstract backgrounds and have found themselves in the world of cinema just by way of opportunity. Of course, they are usually not American and thus away from Hollywood, but they still manage to make films independently and work their way up by just constantly creating. My focus in my filmmaking has always been on independent cinema, returning to shooting on celluloid and global stories, which are not currently what Hollywood is about or looking for. In my opinion, there is so many kinds of stories and types of narratives that the American public has just not be exposed to and I believe might change a few minds or shake up a few ideas. There are films like Sissako’s Bamako (2006) or Hung’s Cycle (1995) that really push what cinema is and what it can be capable of. I think there is a lack of diversity and global reflection in American cinema, even though we are one of the most diverse and widespread communities in the world. This is why I’ve really focused on doing my best to seek out global cinema and share it with whoever I can. There are some of the most influential films to ever be made out there that I doubt any Hollywood exec has heard of, let alone seen. It’s become quite apparent just how much movies reflect upon and inspire people of all generations, that I think all of this money that is conjured up into Hollywood would be better used for exploring. That being said, I am my own small business and that is an extremely difficult business model to follow, especially when it’s incredibly difficult to get anyone interested in a narrative about a faux trial against the major institutions of capitalism in Europe or the life of a pedal-taxi driver in Ho Chi Minh City. It’s a tough one. But I do believe there is a resurgence of independent filmmakers who are ready and excited to begun a new form of cinema revolution. I think a great example if this summer’s biggest blockbusters being Barbie and Oppenheimer; two films by loved filmmakers that are original, not sequels or based on any sort of super hero anthology. You put two politically driven films, that are also well directed, acted and produced, up on a big screen and you garner as much money as both films made their opening weekend, that tells you something about what the American public is looking for. To inspire, reflect, excite. As a single filmmaker, struggling to make ends meet walking dogs and taking gigs where I can, it seems like a bleak existence to change the whole interface of American cinema, but I’m excited to just go for it and find the others out there who want to do the same.
Camille Remi, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a freelance screenwriter and director from Brooklyn, NY and Southern Vermont now based in Los Angeles, CA. I make independent shorts and am currently working on a string of feature screenplays. Although I grew up a dancer and pursued that in college, I found film as a better outlet for my voice and have pivoted my whole life to gear towards cinema. Growing up with a cinematographer as a father, it was always engrained in me the importance of film and I was exposed to all sorts of kinds of films from a young age. That gave me a great place to start from, as I already realized that I gravitated towards independent stories and global cinema above all. I have recently finished production on two shorts, The Prescribed Burn of a Savanna Oak and Framed, and will be attending a creator’s lab with award winning Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul and PlayLab Films in Yucatán, Mexico in early August. My heart lies in other arts such as global literature, classical dance and West African music, which I hope to incorporate into my stories. I am also a major proponent of returning to shooting on celluloid (as opposed to digital) and am always looking for others who share that interest.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
As a creative, I have multiple people who don’t quite understand why I’ve chosen such a rough career choice and why I even bother being so picky about it. The truth is, I have always been aware that art, as a practice, is not immediately necessary for human survival, but it’s something we use to cope. I have never been into film for the money, as that’s also not always what outcome you get, but for the mere chance to push the boundaries of an art from that is still in it’s infancy. Similar to a medical student looking to make their mark on their field of research, I want to have my own epiphany and be able to share it with the world as well as with other filmmakers. I was heard one of my favorite filmmakers, Béla Tarr, say that he never learned a thing from his films. He learned from life and then put all that information into his narratives, and that’s what gave him closure, about life and about filmmaking. I was deeply touched by that concept, and have really pivoted my own path to find what makes me happy and what intrigues me, and that will eventually find itself into the films I make. The journey of a creative will always be a tough one if you don’t come from already established creatives, but it’s that journey that makes the outcome worth while, in my humble opinion.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
There is a moment on a film set when everything is going wrong and there are no apparent solutions in sight, that someone, anyone really, comes up with an almost genius idea to fix whatever problem that might be. Moments after that lightbulb goes off, there is a profound feeling that comes to me that I can’t quite put into words. Being an artist simply means finding how your creativity manifests itself, but being a filmmaker has this additional level of finding the right group of people to help your dream come to life. There’s this concept that a director is actually good at nothing, they’re just good at finding the best people to make their vision, which is locked away in their brain, come to fruition. The most rewarding aspect is discovering those people and being excited about having them by your side. It sometimes takes years, many mistakes and lots of bad decisions to find those correct people, but they always do find you. It means the world to me whenever I have someone interested in working on a film I’ve made, and that’s just because I’m not good at what they do, I simply have the idea. I think in a world where there is so much intense conflict and evil out there, that to have a specific group of people uplift each other to make art is really the greatest achievement I could ask for.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.camilleremikirby.com
- Instagram: @camilleremikirby
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/camille-remi-kirby