#24 In memory of Chris Riera (1968- 2012)
I remember the day we met. I was on stage and you were in the audience, working at O2 Productions at the time, developing projects, such as the Constant Gardner… wait I can’t be writing to her, I just got the news this weekend that she has left us.
Lung cancer. She used to smoke like crazy. But I don’t believe that was the only factor.
Chris was a script consultant, a dramaturgist, a mother, a fighter, a smile, a friend and a visionary, the only one of her kind in Brazil. She graduated from Yale, she worked as a critic for the Village Voice, she put together many wonderful theater and film projects in NYC and back in São Paulo, her adopted home, miles away from her native Minas Gerais.
I had the pleasure of meeting her in 2007 and having long conversations about our roles and condition as women in screwed-up relationships, women as friends to other women, women in the film business. We came together as intensely as we came apart and as I receive the news of her premature death (44 years old), I can only think of her son, who is still very young, and her smiling advice that influenced the course of my career and therefore my life.
She was the first person, in the film business, who urged me to write. She had met me as an actress but was convinced that I had more to contribute; that I needed to get my ideas and stories out there. This was a woman who knew what she was talking about so I listened. I wrote. I took part in a screenwriting group in São Paulo at the time (I was there to produce the DVD Series and would stay 8 months) and wrote my first treatment ever. The year was 2008. She read it. Keep writing. She said. Don’t depend on others. You have material.
At the time I was still reluctant and put it aside, but I’ll never forget how absolutely encouraging and supportive she was. A rare woman in this business, who just simply rooted for you and would help anyway she could, if she believed in you, no matter what kind of a day she was having. Just like that. Really.
Eventually I went back to NYC and was swallowed once again into another rhythm of being. It’s difficult to keep up intense human relationships at a distance, even with all the technology. So we came apart. Facebook, however, brought us back together in 2010 and there we were again exchanging our updates and struggles. It’s hard to believe or accept that she is gone.
Today I thank the coincidences or destiny of life, for having had the chance of meeting this remarkable woman. This past Friday, the sky received a new star. Whenever you look up, know that it’s Christiane Riera: a singular sensation, who left us too early as my Thank You arrives now too late.
R.I.P.
#23 Mondays are wonderful!
I like Mondays. I won’t lie. Weekends are good to sleep in, we allow ourselves that much when we aren’t caught up with deadlines or in the middle of production, and we still do work on weekends. As I can imagine most everyone, who is self-employed or works in the creative field or runs a major company, does. But there is something particular about Mondays that I started to enjoy in the last couple of years.
Well for one, Monday is Kinotag in Munich and that means we get to go to the Movies on our tight budget without cringing at the entry fee. Monday is also the day we sit down to put a check on our goal driven path. Monday is the day I need to write a blog entry, even when none come to mind, and Monday is also the day I allow my brain to organize the week and the upcoming deadlines into my infamous lists. I like lists. I like writing them down and then checking them off. And when I don’t check anything off, than I like writing a second new list with everything I did do and checking that off instead, just to keep the motivation up. The act of completing tasks gives me a sense of accomplishment, of tangibility, of results. So you can imagine that in a business where it takes years to complete a single film, the simple act of checking something off a list, can keep you sane. The Monday assessment has that feel for me. Making sure the work is aligned with the goals and that we are checking off all the completed tasks to get there. We tend to do that every Monday. Which also makes it the day I feel refreshed and ready to tackle anything.
How wonderful.
Oh… and last but not least we start editing Over Lunch today… on a Monday.
TGIM is the new TGIF in my week!
#22 What does Munich sound like?
Munich is almost a character in Over Lunch and so we need a song that characterizes the city. We all know what Paris sounds like (you hear the French accordion) Barcelona (bring out that beautiful Spanish guitar), Rio de Janeiro ( a bit of bossa a bit of Samba), New York City (you hear the 30’s and 40’s or Frank Sinatra)… they all have distinctive sounds that have accompanied them as they became characters and not just settings in well-known films from around the world.
So our question was: what does Munich sound like? 
Well, let’s take Munich in the spring or summer time (all around nice). You have the city that doesn’t feel like a city but is Germany’s 3rd largest. You have the English Garden, the Biergartens, the river where people bathe and surf in, the sun, the rain, the children playing outside, business men and women strolling around, the church bells, the tourists, the lavish BBQs, the multiple outdoor summer festivals and the fight for an outside table on any and every corner of the city where a restaurant or a bakery is to find. So how to capture all of this and make it particularly Munich? Not Hamburg, not Cologne and definitely not Berlin, but Munich?
We had no idea so we took the next logical step: Chris, Amara and I started researching. For days we looked up local music groups, local traditional groups, and local folk music. We also asked around locals: what sound came to their ears when they thought of their hometown. We asked foreigners: what sounds came to their mind when they thought of Munich. We then sat down with Christoph, who has taken on the challenge of composing Munich a theme, and gave him all the information we had collected.
This is where the magic starts and the imagination sores. Can’t wait to hear what is in store…
What does Munich sound like to you?
Gärtnerplatz 2012 © Photo courtesy of Eugen Gritschneder
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#21 Because we can’t all be Bill Gates…
I suck at computers. Period. I’m a writer, not a computer techie. But it seems that nowadays it is a necessity, not an added plus, to know your way around different tools and technology. You can’t just be a writer. You need to be a web designer, a virtual marketing genius, a researcher, a social media addict, a user, a techie – an overall junkie. I’m just not a techie. So when the computer goes weird, I tend to freak out.
Except this week, when my old Mac went completely insane on me I decided to get it back in shape on my own because well, it’s time to learn (or probably due to the fact that my husband was not next to me at that particular moment). So I did what any technology-challenged person would do: I googled it and then youtubed it. Of course it didn’t occur to me to be able to even google it I needed to first understand what the problem was. How the heck was I going to decipher what was wrong with the computer? So I tried phrases like “computer shuts down while using word” or “ why does my Mac shut down while I’m working?”. Needless to say I got nowhere with that. So I did what any impatient writer in his technology-challenged mind would do: I shut the computer down and took the good old pen and paper to start writing Over Lunch 2.
What I didn’t expect is to be completely immersed in my writing since I couldn’t open 10 different windows with 20 different Tabs at the same time. As I sat writing on a piece of paper, I realized that somehow my concentration was completely taken by the pen and paper. Maybe it’s a good way to stimulate and practice focus. Funny how we have to train our focus and concentration, it’s definitely not innate.
Discipline and concentration are essential for writing. Maybe my computer just did me a favor for the time being, while my husband takes a look at it and fixes it for me. 
Technology is a tool. I should not forget that. It’s only a tool. And, well, a profession and a money tree for people like Bill Gates.
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In film language that’s a wrap means that production is over. I’ve heard that back in the days they would say “Wrap it up” as in camera and equipment to signal that it was time to pack it up and move it out. There is an amusing explanation that claims that “wrap” is actually an acronym for Wind Reel and Print but like most acronyms, they usually come after the fact and so thus plausible, I really don’t think it’s true.
In any case, when we heard it’s a wrap on the set of Over Lunch, my heart sank. I still wanted to come to the set the next day and greet Amara and Noah who would be running to put breakfast out while Jelka, make-up, and Esther, with Lisiane’s beautiful costume design, would be waiting to put “Sophie” together. By then Vero would be making excellent coffees while Thomas, Christoph and Benedikt would already be there with Eugen, Lambert and Simon discussing something amusing. Magdalena would be looking at continuity notes and Lara would already be sitting down with Chris for the day’s schedule. Felix would be crouched down somewhere working the sound, as Björn would jump over him calling after Marcel. Caro, Jeremy and Christopher would be buzzing around spreading their contagious smiles and good humor as Dana and Roxane would already be preparing to dress and artistically direct the set designed by Helen. Then Moritz, Peter and Lena would waltz in and go to make-up and costume while Simone would be putting her camera together to start clicking away while Aeneas and Leska would be trying to catch people to interview for the much awaited Over Lunch making-of teasers. Not to forget the contributions from Peter’s steadicam shots and Franceska’s boom operating skills, the wonderful extras, friends and family who stopped by and our wonderful sponsors and supporters who made Over Lunch an even more desirable set to be in. But the words have been uttered and the next day I didn’t go back to the set and instead, like most of us, had the post-shooting blues. I’m pretty sure mine was purple.
I think one of the most fascinating things about filmmaking is that it literally fulfills an old African saying (one made popular by Hilary Clinton): it takes a village to raise a child. The child being the film and the village being all the people who work together to make sure the child is raised from idea to on-screen action. So from the bottom of our Dehne Lima Film hearts, we thank you Over Lunch village for making it possible. On that thought, putting the sappy violins aside, my heart is now up and running again ready to start post-production and welcome the new members to our Over Lunch village… I mean family… I mean team… oh the heck with it, it’s our own little world and we hope to welcome you to it as well when we hit festivals and theaters all over the world. Until then, check back for regular updates…
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