Diego Quemada-Diez, director of “I Want to Be a Pilot”
A TALK WITH DIEGO QUEMADA-DIEZ
Single-handedly helping the worldJust before traveling to the Heartland Film Festival, in Indianapolis, United States, to receive a money award for his short-film I Want to Be a Pilot, film director Diego Quemada-Diez talked to Jornal da Mostra. He is a director of photography, and has made it clear several times how important it was for him to have worked with César Charlone, a Uruguayan who lives in Brazil. Quemada-Diez was one of his several assistants in Man on Fire (2004), by Tony Scott. Before accompanying Charlone in The Constant Gardener, by Fernando Meirelles, he was already fascinated by the nervousness of the “neo-neo-realist” camera of City of God.
To this day, he gets emotional when talking about his first contact with Kibera’s shantytown in the city of Nairobi, Kenya. He had never seen one before. Quemada-Diez says that, during the walks he took with Charlone to look for locations through the alleys, gullies and streets inside Kibera, he often had to put the camera down to wipe away his tears. To witness such desolation made him consider what he could do himself to help. Diego remembers being in the social circles they both attended, and the grown-ups, usually drunk from the strong local liquor, always asking them to help the children. The children there have nothing.
Then the idea for the short-film came up and became real a year after his first contact with the region. With his camera, he filmed his own reactions and perceptions of the scenery. In the declarations, mostly from orphans, Quemada-Diez suddenly noticed that most of them wanted to be pilots. To fly high, to escape. Now that he had the title for his work, it was easy to think up a poetic-screenplay. The actor/narrator chosen, Collins Otieno, was the only one to audition who was not an orphan. But the chemistry with the camera was unique, says Diego. And his “thank you”, at the end of the documentary was completely spontaneous. The young director remembers how amazed he was, just like many spectators, when Collins, or the leading character he plays, Omondi, or any other child in such situation, thanks you... just for listening to him.
To accompany the screening of his own film at international festivals, such as the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, is a brand new and enriching experience for Diego. He’ll come back to the Mostra after receiving the Crystal Heart Award at the Heartland Film Festival. On Wednesday, November 1st, he will take part in the discussion The Urgency of Social Film, at the Mostra’s lounge. He’s very pleased to be sharing his experience in the search for social justice.