Rubbish Man Filmmaker Laura Gonsalves – Deadline

It was the thought of ​​the movie director Laura Gonçalves animated brief for a number of years, stemming from his uncle’s discussions when he sees his household at reunions. The Rubbish Man (O Homen do Lixo) takes place across the dinner desk because the household gathers to recollect Uncle Botao, a scavenger who lived by means of the colonial conflict and emigrated from Portugal to France. Gonçalves was younger when his uncle died, so he solely heard tales about him across the dinner desk. For the movie, he delved deeper along with his household and bought a extra private perception into who he’s.

DEADLINE. The place did the thought come from? The Rubbish Man coming?

LAURA GONCHALVES– It was an concept that I developed for a number of years earlier than the movie was shot. The very first thing I wished to do was file my household speaking about recollections of my uncle, as a result of we do that each time the household will get collectively. So I actually wished to seize that second that’s a part of our reunion. After which, secondly, my uncle had this actually attention-grabbing path, which additionally represents hundreds of people that have gone by means of the identical second, from rising up beneath a dictatorship, going to conflict, immigrating illegally from Portugal to France… hundreds of individuals have gone by means of this path. the identical moments within the historical past of our nation. Whereas it is private, it additionally tells the story of many individuals. So, within the movie, I wished to speak about these moments that we do not actually discuss that a lot on the dinner desk, however I assumed it was actually vital to have them within the movie. Additionally, as a result of I believe it sort of represents the individual he turns into after that. He turned this actually beautiful one who lived life to the fullest.

DEADLINE. As you talked with your loved ones members and dug into a few of these issues, was there something that shocked you?

GONCHALVESOh sure, there was. A part of it was additionally that I used to be fairly younger when he died and my cousins ​​are all a lot older than me. There was quite a lot of historical past I did not know, and particularly concerning the conflict I by no means requested. It is one thing we do not actually discuss in Portugal, the conflict in Angola. I assumed it was actually vital to ask within the film, and I wasn’t actually positive what I used to be going to listen to. I knew that nobody knew something about it, or virtually nothing. Many of the issues folks discuss through the conflict are often humorous tales that occurred after they weren’t preventing. It was a really silly conflict, all people hates it, and what I realized was how ignorant folks right here had been about what was happening there, and the way they missed the folks there and the censorship that did not actually allow them to. discuss it. So it was a shock within the sense that conflict and immigration wasn’t one thing that I actually knew that a lot about and solely realized about whereas making the movie.

DEADLINE. The place did the thought for guitar music come from?

GONCHALVESThe music is essential to the movie due to my cousins, cousins ​​and daughters. All of them stay in numerous elements of France they usually all meet right here in Belmont. And after they meet, they play collectively. They’ve a band, everybody performs an instrument. I bear in mind one summer season we had been all there and we had been there within the storage whereas they performed. There have been youngsters within the pool, males barbecuing, girls cooking, and this can be a very lovely summer season reminiscence that I actually wished to placed on movie.

So I recorded them enjoying and the premise of the music was given to the musician Ricardo Santos Rocha. I knew he was very versatile and labored with all these instruments. He can play something and that was essential for the movie as a result of I did not need the band to play. So the music was based mostly on my cousins ​​enjoying, however it was Ricardo who wrote the music for all of the moments. I knew I wished the guitar as the inspiration, as a result of the guitar follows from the start to the tip. So that you see it is also in France and garbage and my uncle brings it again to the current. So quite a lot of the sound is guitar based mostly. Additionally, one other factor with Ricardo that is actually attention-grabbing is that he goes to the flea market and he will get devices that do not work anymore and he truly fixes them and performs them. That was one thing I at all times actually appreciated about his work. It was that recycling and giving life again to instruments that individuals throw away.