By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy. We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. The following interview , conducted by a member of the Critics Academy, focuses on a participant in the affiliated Filmmakers Academy program at the festival.
Federico Cecchetti is a year-old filmmaker based in Mexico City. His first two features explore the explore indigenous communities, specifically the Huicholes and Tarahumaras, in Mexico. While in Locarno, IndieWire sat down with Cecchetti to discuss how he uses dreams, French poetry and the blending of fiction with nonfiction to make his unique films. Federico, you are one of 17 young filmmakers from all over the world participating in the Filmmakers Academy of the Locarno Film Festival How did you end up coming to Locarno?
The residency consists of four and half months of writing in Paris followed by several festivals including the Filmmakers Academy. This means the residents have plenty of time and space for the idea development and [to do] in-depth research. While this freedom can be challenging, it allows for the first version of the script to be very personal. It took me some time. I started studying psychology and then philosophy. Through filmmaking I question life, however in a much more free way than in an academic context.
Do you approach your films with a question? In a way, yes. The film focuses on the indigenous culture of the Huicholes and their rituals. Huicholes understand themselves as the guardians of the peyote, the magic cactus.
When I started getting familiar with them, one shaman told me about how he healed people through dreams. To me that was very enigmatic and appealing. And I started questioning: How is it possible to cure others through dreams? This question motivated the film. Questioning, to me, is part of being human. Only in the way it approached the subject because I knew from the start that it was going to be fiction. The beginning of the film has a somewhat documentary and [has a] realistic feel.
