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MediaConcern produces and distributes documantary Neruda
Added: (Wed Oct 01 2003)
PARALLEL LIVES
A one hour film biography of the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda to mark the centenary of his birth on July 12 1904, presented by the artist Peter Griffin.
“No poet has any real enemy apart from his own capacity to make himself understood by the most forgotten and exploited of his contemporaries…” (Pablo Neruda)
Neruda has been called the ‘Picasso of Poetry’ due to his endless capacity to innovate, and because he is also the most widely read and accessible poet of the 20th century. Although his name is known to millions thanks to Il Postino, the reality of his life is far more intriguing, and more romantic. Neruda was not just a literary colossus, he had the charisma to fill football stadia with poor and dispossessed people eager to hear him read his poems. There can be no better proof of the power of Neruda’s voice than the fact that Pinochet banned his books.
Using readings from Neruda’s poems to create an autobiographical structure, and Griffin’s quest to understand the man who inspired an important series of his paintings, this film brings a unique focus on an extraordinary life that will appeal to anyone who has heard of Neruda, or those who want to know more. It will also provide an enlightening introduction for those who have yet to discover his work.
Peter Griffin is uniquely qualified to author a film about Neruda. His reputation as one of Britain’s most thought-provoking contemporary artists was confirmed through ‘Sealed by Fire’, a powerful cycle of abstract paintings that reflect on Neruda’s poems. The Fondacion Neruda invited Griffin to exhibit them in Neruda’s house in Santiago on the 25th anniversary of his death, and the exhibition earned Griffin the immediate trust and friendship of Neruda’s surviving family and friends. One Chilean critic wrote that ‘it has taken an Englishman’s paintings to open our eyes once more to Neruda’s poetry’. Griffin has many deep thoughts and
feelings on the subject of NERUDA and has an equally strong way of communicating these. Griffin was born into a mining family in the North of England. Surprising parallels in family circumstances (most notably that their mothers both died soon after giving birth to them), and a shared belief in the power of art to change to world, have cemented a unique relationship between Griffin and the mentor he never met. That this should be so despite differences in culture, continent and age shows that Neruda’s appeal transcends language and generation.
Peter Griffin will take viewers on a roller-coaster journey through Neruda’s extraordinary life; from humble beginnings as the son of a railway worker in Southern Chile to Nobel Prize winning poet and intimate friend and ally of President Salvador Allende. Neruda lived in the fast lane. Remarkably precocious as a poet (and lover), his life was marked by passionate affairs, intensely creative friendships with people such as Federico Garcia Lorca, Picasso, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and his time as a diplomat in Europe during the 1930’s and ‘40s. The brutality of Franco and Hitler sparked Neruda’s life-long hatred of fascism. Within a few years of his return to Chile after World War II, his search for humanity, justice, and demands for proper democratic process had caused the country’s right wing government to issue a warrant for his arrest (even though he was an elected senator). He only escaped by a dramatic trek across the Andes. Exile in Europe was followed by renewed political activity in Chile, his time as ambassador in Paris, the 1971 Nobel Prize for literature, and finally, in September 1973, death from cancer – hastened by despair at Pinochet’s coup. The film will reflect many chapters in Neruda’s life, as well as his humanity and joie de vivre. Griffin’s quest brings him into contact with a number of Neruda’s closest surviving friends, including a rare interview with Salvador Allende’s widow, Hortensia.
The film’s structure will come from extracts of Neruda’s poems that reflect the different moments of his life. In visual terms, the readings will be complemented by specially shot material, including the stunning Chilean landscapes of mountains, lakes, forests and deserts that Neruda loved so much, archive film, and rostrum of Griffin’s paintings. We will also include pieces to camera, and filmed encounters between Griffin and people who knew Neruda well. With such rich visual and aural material (which we hope will include a specially composed sound track by big name performers who have great regard for Neruda), the film will be an engrossing account of a remarkable life. We have been in touch with several internationally known actors who have a genuine love for Neruda’s poems. There is a fair chance some may be willing to read extracts for the film.
Griffin is a born communicator who shares Neruda’s love of life, justice, and belief in the power of human creativity. At a time when conflict is endemic, and the gulf between the haves and have-nots is widening, Neruda’s voice – and this film - become more relevant than ever.
In commercial terms, the film creates opportunities for a soundtrack CD, a book, DVD etc.
(Michael Hutchinson, 2003)
Biography Neruda
A co-production of:
MediaConcern Productions & Tangent Films Ltd.
Distribution done by:
MediaConcern