EL MUNDO O NADA (THE WORLD OR NOTHING) INGRID VENINGER A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN FILM YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO April 2019 © Ingrid Veninger, 2019 ABSTRACT This paper elaborates on the process of producing my thesis film, El Mundo o Nada (The World or Nothing), a documentary portrait of 29-year-old twin brothers, Rubert and Rubildo Donatien Dinza, beginning two-months after their migration from Cuba to Spain. For the brothers, The World means achieving one million friends on social media, making their parents proud, and gaining international recognition as performers, Nothing is not an option. Utilizing a diaristic approach, this paper engages with pioneers of the past, filmmakers of the present, and direct experience, in order to explore the challenges of making my first documentary. In contrast to my six previous fiction features, the intention with this project was to start filming without a preconceived outline, treatment or plan. By detailing the process of production in relation to cultivating conditions for discovery, this paper will explore a practice of “uncertainty” and what such a practice involves. Production took place in Barcelona over 11 days, May 21-31, 2018. Editing occurred in three stages over 33 days between July-November, 2018. Sound editing, mixing, and colour grading brought the film to completion in March 2019. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... iii List of Images .................................................................................................................... iv Approach – Backstory......................................................................................................... 1 Chronology - Development - Workshops ........................................................................... 5 What is Documentary? ...................................................................................................... 25 Ethics – Past Work ............................................................................................................ 29 Pre-production – Production – Post-Production ............................................................... 35 Return to Cuba .................................................................................................................. 69 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 72 Works cited ....................................................................................................................... 73 Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 75 Filmography ...................................................................................................................... 77 Appendices ........................................................................................................................ 82 Appendix A: Workshop #3 100 Takes.................................................................. 82 Appendix B: Cuba Treatment for Amnon Buchbinder’s Class ............................ 89 Appendix C: Assembly Notes ............................................................................... 99 Appendix D: Final English Subtitles .................................................................. 111 Appendix E: Final Film Credits .......................................................................... 159 Appendix F: Mini-Documentary Links and Teasers .......................................... 162 iii LIST OF IMAGES Image 1 – Rubildo and Rubert Donatien Dinza. Photo by Ingrid Veninger, 2018. — pg. 61 Image 2 – Rubert and Rubildo Donatien Dinza. Film Poster. Photo by cinematographer Leon Guallart Diaz, 2018. — pg. 68 Image 3 – Screenshot of twins’ messages. Photo by Ingrid Veninger, 2019. — pg. 71 Image 4 – Idia Dinza Michel and Rubildo Donatien Dinza with Ingrid Veninger and John Switzer. Photo by Karina Hernandez Perez, 2018. — pg. 71 Image 5 – Workshop image of 100 slates. Photo by Oliver Whitfield-Smith, 2018. — pg. 88 Image 6 – Matt in Wilmington. Photo by Ingrid Veninger, 2018. — pg. 95 Image 7 – Matt in Wilmington. Photo by Ingrid Veninger, 2018. — pg. 95 Image 8 – Matt in Wilmington. Photo by Ingrid Veninger, 2018. — pg. 95 Image 9 – Hannah in Toronto. Photo by Hallie Switzer, 2018. — pg. 95 Image 10 – Hannah and Jacob. Photo in photo booth, 2018. — pg. 95 Image 11 – Hannah as Luna Li. Photo by Jacob Switzer, 2018. — pg. 95 iv APPROACH – BACKSTORY El Mundo o Nada (The World or Nothing) is my first non-fiction feature film. Since 2008, I have directed six narrative script-based fiction features. The aim with this thesis project was to engage in a discovery-driven process, where each step informed and determined the next, without following a pre-determined script, treatment, or outline. Ultimately, it may have been only eleven days to shoot this film but it was over two years of preparation. Three things were known before production commenced: 1) The film would center on Cuban twin brothers, Rubert and Rubildo. 2) The film would be shot in Barcelona for eleven days, as the brothers had migrated from Cuba to Spain one-month prior to production. 3) The film would be rooted in the documentary traditions of Cinéma Vérité. I first saw the brothers when they danced for tourists at a Cuban resort in Holguin, on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2015. Their perfectly synchronized hip-hop duet to Usher’s Yeah! was a highlight of the show. Near the end of the night, I curiously watched as they spoke with their dance company colleagues. I wanted to approach them, but ultimately didn’t because I didn’t want to interrupt; I felt intimidated; and since all of 2016 was to be devoted to making my sixth feature Porcupine Lake, I needed to remain focussed. For two years, on and off, I thought about the twins, wondering about their lives, and whether collaborating on a film might be possible. In 2017, I returned to Cuba, and to the same Holguin resort, with the intention of meeting the brothers in person, not being sure they would be there. After a few days, I learned they were in Havana and secured a taxi to drive 11-hours from Holguin to Havana. During a two-hour meeting in the lobby of the Colina Hotel, even though we hardly understood each other, as I don’t 1 speak Spanish, and the brothers barely speak English, we felt linked. Friends have suggested that I am drawn to people who express joy. Certainly, the twins were luminous when they spoke about their dream for a twins-only concert, the desire to advance their careers, which was “complicated” in Cuba, and their deep trust for each other. Being an only child, much of my previous work has explored a yearning to belong, and ‘to fit’ with another person – in friendship, romantically, or in a familial way. And in studying dance for the first half of my life, I have always had an affinity for dancers. I think on their part, they liked that I was working with my partner, John Switzer, that I was a legitimate filmmaker, and that we traveled across the country to meet them in person. Whatever the reasons, at the end of our Havana meeting, I asked if the brothers would be willing to make a film with me – a documentary. There would be no script and no advanced plan. The film might begin with them waking up and would evolve from there. They weren’t sure how interesting it could be for an audience, but agreed. I committed to return to Cuba in May 2018. If you want to make a documentary you should automatically go to the fiction, and if you want to nourish your fiction you have to come back to reality. - Jean-Luc Godard, Filmmaker (1930- ) (Monder 2018) The process of making this documentary was different from anything else I had made. In my work as director of fiction, my job relied on control: I participated in every detail, line of dialogue, character action, camera movement, so as to make the world of the film feel real to an audience – what mattered was the result. However, making an observational documentary, by definition, requires a relinquishment of control, which was going to be challenging, and at the same time, liberating. 2 As a producer, I worked with Canadian/Swiss filmmaker Peter Mettler for over ten years (Picture of Light, Gambling, Gods and LSD, The End of Time), and he often explained how his "intuitive" method was designed for “work in the field” and could not be anticipated in a written treatment. Indeed, an improvisatory and intuitive production model is one that I have appreciated and found intriguing, because it can make for a cinema that is authentic and alive, both in the making and in the experience of the finished work. However, until this thesis project, I have not had the courage or opportunity to fully commit to it. In addition to Mettler, the approach and aesthetics of this thesis film were shaped and informed by the work Albert and David Maysles, John Cassavetes, Frederick Wiseman, Denis Côté, Eduardo Williams, Josephine Decker, and performance artist Yoko Ono. It is all surprise and discovery and deep feeling. It is all vulnerability and creativity and mutability. It is all