The filmmaker Mark Jenkin likes to keep him surprising – and Cornwall. His 2022 psychological horror drama Enys for men Focus on a volunteer of wildlife living on an island off the coast of Cornwall, whose observations of a rare flower take a dark and metaphysical turn. And his first feature film 2019 Bait Explored the tensions between the inhabitants and the tourists in a village in Cornwall fishing.
During the 59th edition of Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (Kviff), which ended on Saturday, Jenkin presented a short of the 17 -minute newspaper with a title that could make you sit down and rub your eyes for a moment before seeing him: I saw God’s face in throwing.
“I love the films that highlight the fact that you are watching a film,” said Kviff website quoted Jenkin in a synopsis for the court-circuit. “The series of super 8 clips taken from its trips and the complete voice-over constitutes a fascinating mosaic of meetings, observations, formative quotes of kinematics and other works, and also possible fantasies. Here, Jenkin demonstrates his ability to give his films a timeless quality attractive quality and connect the pet.
In Karlovy varies, Jenkin spoke to THR On his identity as Cornwall, his creative process, his facts and his truth in the era of Donald Trump and his next feature film, Nevada RoseWith George Mackay and Callum Turner.
“I was raised with the feeling of being Cornwall and that Cornish was a distinct ancient nation in Great Britain,” said the filmmaker in the interview. “But it is not recognized in many eyes. So you must be openly Cornwall. If you are Welsh or Scottish or Irish, it takes care of itself. There is an integrated separation, and not a separation in a negative way, but a unique identity that marks you.
Jenkin had to leave to fully achieve this. “When I lived in Cornwall, I never thought of being Cornwall. And as soon as I left Cornwall, I crossed the border and I went to the University in England, suddenly, I was the most cornish person in the world, and when I moved, I kept that with me,” he said to THR. “In addition, I think that in the type of work I do, this short film, for example, is so apparently random and fragmented. So there must be something that anchors everything. And the easiest thing is at home.”
How to best define cornosity? “You can define it by straps, but then you enter very dangerous territories, and it’s horrible, because then is someone really?” Underlined Jenkin. “So I think it’s a kind of cultural thing. It will be controversial, because some people say that you must have been born in Cornwall to be Cornwall, or your parents, your grandparents, your great-grandparents, everyone must be Cornwall so that you are really Cornwall. I don’t believe that. I think it’s a state of mind. Have this positivity around history and culture and language. »»
A key element of this culture of Cornwall is the way in which the community relates to the rest of the United Kingdom “there is fierce independence,” said Jenkin. “And paradoxically, there is a very strong community. There is a strong identity around the word Cornwall. With Cornwall, we have an -ish, like the Scottish, like the Irish, like English, like the Welshman, although the Hish of Welsh is contracted. Overall, I think there is a healthy lack of respect for authority.”
This comes with advantages and disadvantages, according to The Creative. “This fierce individualism sometimes retains us. We have never had a history of progressive organization, for example, there has never been a really strong union movement in Cornwall,” said Jenkin. “We started, historically, from a sort of blind state of acceptance where everyone says:” Oh yes, we don’t need a lot. We are well. And we get along.
Mark Jenkin, graciousness of Kviff
But there is also a lot of pride. “There is real pride in the history of Cornwall and our role in the industrialization of the world, although there are obvious negatives about what happened there,” said Jenkin. “But Cornwall was the heart of the industrial world for a period of time. So there is great pride. And I think that a lot is a reaction of how Cornwall is perceived now, which is a holiday station with beautiful beaches and a coast, pastries and tea with cream and all this type of thing that is very easy to articulate and mark and market. NOW.
Jenkin’s new short film shares a kaleidoscopic look similar to mosaic on the places he visited. What went there? “The film made about 11 or 12 rolls of super 8 film. And everything on the rolls is in the film. I do not withdraw anything,” he shared about his process. “I have a super 8 camera that I take everywhere with me, and it’s in the hotel room here in Karlovy varies at the moment. I went to run, which is always a very good thing to do to explore. »»
Each Roll of Super 8 film lasts two and a half minutes, which is why Jenkin is looking around to see what attracts his attention before filming. “I’m going to film the bits I like,” he explained his approach to recording and publishing. “So I have already published in my head what I want to shoot.” But he only knows later when and how he will use the images.
For I saw God’s faceHe used equipment he filmed in Dublin in 2000, the island of Man around 2016, three different trips to Brittany in various years, and some rolls of Los Angeles in 2023. “I thought I could make three separate films,” recalls Jenkin. “But then, I thought, in fact, they will be stronger if they are together and they have a kind of enigmatic framework for them. The idea that I started to modify it was a legend at first which said that it was three random chapters of my autobiography not yet unwritten. This is why you see a random chapter [numbers in the short]. So, the things that I film here will probably end up being part of another chapter in this book. But where it fits, I’m not sure.
In Jenkin’s shorts, it is not always clear what is real and what is fictitious, and it is also by design. “It may be that the images I shoot here, I will use and write something that may be true, for example on how I came here to the festival, or it may be a chapter made on the way I came here on vacation when I was seven years old, even if I have never been here before” THR. “A part is true, a game is completely false, a game is exaggerated. A game is redone.”
How does this type of cinematographic narration integrate into the post-truth era? “What you record are facts, and after that, it is the truth,” proposed Jenkin. “The truth is subjective, and the facts are objective. And I know: the facts no longer count for nothing, is it? But I like to keep the fact that you can have a subjective truth which may contradict some of the facts, which may seem a little Trumpian. But the facts are the facts, the truth that you can change.”
‘I saw the face of God in throwing lavish’
The title of his next project has similar experience. “My new feature film that I just delivered is called Nevada RoseAnd it is, once again, another free blow because the title does not mean anything, ”said Jenkin THR. “This is the name of a fishing boat. And the film talks about a fishing boat. Or the narrative engine is the fishing boat in the film. So, when I thought of a title for the film, I thought it could be anything, because it must be the name of the fishing boat. So I can be as enigmatic as I want.”
How did Jenkin propose the title I saw God’s face in throwing? “I was on a flying plane for Ireland a few years ago, when I was promoting my feature film BaitHe recalls. Yes. “And I was just trying to write a flow of consciousness in a notebook. I looked out the window, and one of the sentences I introduced to myself was “I saw God’s face in throwing”. And I thought, oh, that makes a good title. And I thought that if it was a film that is like an unpublished autobiography, it is a free success with the title. “”
Isn’t there a boat on the horizon I saw God’s faceAnd Jenkin as the narrator mentions that he was thinking of a possible film? “This part was invented. This sequence was turned for years before I reached the idea of Nevada Rose. I had seen and filmed this blow with a red boat because something had attracted my attention, and I zoomed THR. “But when I put this film together, I realized that I saw this shore. And when I looked at the images, I thought: Oh, Wow, it’s the fact in relation to the truth. Nevada Rose. But it meant when I was doing I saw God’s face in throwingI could just say it was when I had the idea of this film. »»
Concluded Jenkin: “I am on the move with this short term before Nevada Rose. I thought it would be interesting if someone picked it up, so I’m glad you did it. “”
Jenkin will not share much on Nevada Rose However, beyond saying that more members of the distribution will be revealed in the bases: “It is a ghost boat trip film,” he said THR. “George and Callum are known distribution members, and other players will be announced soon.”
