TRAILERS
Here are two short trailers for you to enjoy plus the award winning short film Nati.
CHARACTERS
LOCATION
Aracà is a small sunlit hamlet in Liguria, northern Italy, nestling in the picturesque hills of the Arroscia valley amongst olive groves and vineyards, on the slopes of the Maritime Alps. The hamlet is situated about halfway between Genoa and Monaco, almost equidistant to Albenga, an ancient Roman city, and Imperia, the provincial capital, both of which are on the Mediterranean coast.
DIRECTOR
Daniel Chisholm is a bilingual German/English filmmaker with broad international experience, having successfully lived, worked and integrated into countries as diverse as Russia, India, Kenya, South Africa, Germany and the United Kingdom.
He has a BA first in International Business Studies from Manchester University and trained in filmmaking at Ealing Film Studios in London. He worked successfully in project management and direction of complex yet creative online media solutions for global corporations such as The Times and is now an established film director and lecturer at Met Film School and Schnitt-Akademie in Berlin.
Daniel is dedicated to incisive and creative story-telling to inspire and fascinate audiences worldwide and is a winner of prestigious prizes including DepicT! Audience Award, DepicT! British Special Mention Award, California Film Awards Diamond Award, Newport International Film Festival Best Music Video Award, Angeles Film Festival of Hollywood Best Music Video Award.
Because the area is very picturesque and the people such interesting characters, I decided to film a few cameos of some of the people and their seasonal activities. Then one day I filmed 92-year old Nati, the oldest member of the hamlet, cutting off a branch of an olive tree and planting it, while commenting that this tree could be there for the next 100 years. I found this so touching that I made it into a short film and entered it into the "DepicT!" 2014 short film competition and won 2 prizes – the British Special Mention Award and the Shooting People Audience Award.
Three things affected me during this time, one was the positive resonance that came from people who had seen the film, another was the realisation that Nati and the other small-scale farmers in the community were very interested in sustainability and organic cultivation, and the third was the recognition that these interests were in direct contrast to the forces of globalisation and rural flight. Most of the younger generation have moved away from the rural hamlets and villages to the towns and cities to seek a better life. However, interestingly enough, there are still young people who choose to stay, or actually return, to the countryside and I wanted to hear and record their point of view.
I saw that something was changing in the hamlet, and in the area as a whole - in Aracà there are fewer and fewer Italians. Traditional agricultural techniques are becoming obsolete due to modernisation and an increasing number of foreigners (especially Germans) have moved in.
When things change, even if they change for the better, something is lost. Part of the reason I made the film was to capture what is going to be lost in the tides of change - to capture it and to consciously explore this process of change.
I wanted to show the impact of global developments on individuals. Although the film is purely from the point of view of the people of Aracà, my hope is that their experiences will shed light on the human impact of globalisation, modernisation and rural depopulation.
I felt that their way of living and uncomplainingly getting on with life, even when in so much flux, had important messages for our materialistic, ageist society focussed on immediate reward. It dawned on me that there actually was a bigger story to tell and that I was privileged enough to be in the position to be able to tell it.
For the post production phase I did most of the editing but I had the good fortune to work with Karin Lönneker a well experienced and professional editor as dramaturgical consultant and with James Harding and Raoul Brand for the colour and sound corrections.
When it came to additional work in the post-production process including colour and sound correction I took a loan to fund the necessary additional expenses.
CONTACT
I am always delighted to hear opinions and suggestions about my films so should you wish to get in touch please don't hesitate to drop me a line.
mail@danielchisholm.co.uk
PHONE
+49 (0)152 5852 0905