The 30th São Paulo IFF begins its journey giving voice to two great dreamers.
The short film selected to open this edition, I want to be a pilot, shows a teenager, Omondi, who dreams to become an aviator so that he can flee his reality. And the feature The U.S. vs. John Lennon reveals new aspects of the ex-Beatle who only dreamed to “Give Peace a Chance”.The second short directed by Spanish Diego Quemada-Diez, I want to be a Pilot, after A Table is a Table (2001), is the offspring of his experience as camera operator for The Constant Gardener. That film had shots in Kibera, the biggest slum in East Africa, in Nairobi, Kenya. That was the place where Quemada-Diez reaped fifty statements from poor children and met the actor of his short, Collins Otieno, who plays Omondi. The best this orphan can, in his life deprived of everything and everyone, is dream with the only chance he has to take himself away from that decaying world: to fly very high and very far. It is difficult to remain indifferent to the conclusion of his claim, in voice off.
When the feature starts, the dreamer changes and so does his power of influence in this same world. The documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon, by David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, presents brand new details of the historical moment in which the singer and composer John Lennon started using his songs in the benefit of the humanist who manifested strongly after Yoko Ono entered his life. He became persona non grata to the American Government. As writer Gore Vidal summarized very well, Lennon, in the beginning of the 1970’s, represented life, while Richard Nixon and George Bush father were death. Lennon said then: “Time wounds all heals.” Unfortunately, his dream, that was silenced with the sound of shots, is until now the proof of the lucidity of this statement. Until when will time remain indifferent to dreamers?
Translation into English: Laura Rebessi laurarebessi@gmail.com