Giacomo GEX“The Treasure Hunter”, which was its first world offer this week in the new arrivals competition in Thesaloniki documentary festivalHe follows the best friend of the director, Jack, looking for the treasure in the Philippines. It is a story that reminds us of “Fitzkarrado” in Werner Herner. diverse For the first time the trailer here.
According to local legend, during World War II, the Japanese army took the spoils that looted it from all over Southeast Asia to the Philippines and bury them in various locations. Jack decided, funded by his father, to join many of the treasure fishermen on the archipelago. “The Treasure Hunter” follows Jack plowing millions of dollars in this mixed research, while digging in various locations, based on local rumors.
Although many scenes in the woods were shot under the ground in the caves and in columns dug in the hope that they would lead to caves, GEX did not suffer from fear phobia. The dangers were real enough, but the exit focus on getting the shots needed by his payment.
“I am not a person filmed in wars or harsh conditions, but I was in possible situations.” diverseSitting on the Tsaloniki pavement, the city of Greek port overlooking the Aegean Sea. “He was one of my first short films about a customer to participate in Los Angeles, and he would have brought me with him to very dangerous areas in Los Angeles, and told me not to get out of the car, but I learned that for the piece and the film, I had to get out of the car, and I had to be with him, and I felt that I was not safe.
“Often, when I am behind the camera, I will forget the facts surrounding me and forget the risks, because I will face this illusion that I believe behind the camera because I focused on the shot and focus heavily on picking up the scene and framing the shot so that I can get the scene I need and get the coverage that I need, and you can disappear all the feeling of danger, and I got this presence in this field.
“The Treasure Hunter”
With permission from GEX movies
“When we went to the caves and under the ground, there were very short moments where I was cutting the camera and suddenly realized that I was 10 meters away from the ground, lying on my stomach on the ground in this cave to the point that I could not even sit in it, feeling moisture and remember that there are snakes in the Philippines. You were bitten, you eat it, and absorb the poison from the bloodstream.
“I was fully aware that this was a threat in those short moments, I remembered that, yes, there could be a snake nest there, and because they are digging, they can worsen it and threaten the children of the mother snake, and it can attack us. But I would like to say more dangerous than that is the possibility that the cave collapses because you wander with it while you are expelled on the rocks, and there is no one from this. The caves were left from the earthquakes, so it was not necessarily solid. And so on, there were such risks, but then I will go behind the camera again and forget that, and then I will be fine. “
Jack’s Hunt for the Treasure is seen as mandatory, almost addiction, which led to conflicting feelings in the director. “As his friend, I put the camera often, and hugged him. But in many moments, I wanted to put the camera down, but I could not, because I knew that I had to photograph what was happening and let it reveal. This is the very difficult thing as a documentary director – you are constantly fighting with his ethics. But I felt that it was obligatory to capture the consequences of addiction and what he could do for him. It is important to show this, and yes, I told him several times to stop, and I also told him that he should seek advice. “
Jacques Search, GEX’s design, raises its capture, “Fitzcarraldo”, and GEX admits that Herzog had an early impact on it as a cinematic director.
“The Treasure Hunter”
With permission from GEX movies
“There was something about his main personality, but more about the spirit and spirit of Herzog in this movie that penetrated me in a strong way. I feel that I absorbed it, and it was definitely the impact of the subconscious. I have never tried to copy it or simulate it in any way, but there was something that Herzog did with the forest and Fitzkakraldo himself. There was something about this search for the impossible that was almost in vain and he had nothing to do. Something, but for the character everything.
“Whenever I suffer and feel sorry for myself during any part of the operation, I always remember that Herzog pulled a realistic boat on a mountain. If he could do that, I may have done anything.”
When GEX spoke to Jack’s father in London, the idea of a movie based on this research began to crystallize. GEX says: “I started talking to his father with cigarette smoke in the shade, and this sound with his attractiveness, and suddenly I saw this picture for him in front of the camera,” GEX says. “I did not start filming it yet, but he was telling me about the story and I saw that there was something about it that was very convincing, and even deeper than Jack, because it is clear that he is an older man, and he brought much greater seriousness, because there is something in the middle, risks the whole family, risks the whole family, risks the whole family, risks the whole family, and risks the whole family, for this treasure. That stage where I was like, “This is not just a small movie running around the forest after my friend. This is more than that, and I must make it on the camera. “
Giacomo Gecomo GEX shoots “The Treasure Hunter” in the Philippines.
For the door of courtesy Andrew Fox
Jack’s father hates to be photographed and did not want an interview, but GEX managed to get a four -hour interview, but he did not get anything else. “He didn’t want to meet again, although I tried, tried and tried.” Finally, when Jack’s father moved to Mexico, GEX decided to bring his torque threshold to get an interview with him, but two weeks ago he was supposed to go to Mexico, he received a call from Jack to say that his father had died.
“It was at that point when I realized that this was the end of the movie. I didn’t know what the end would have for many years, and many people told me that I was crazy and that if you had no end, you will not have a movie. There is no movie if you persist forever with him in searching. People will get tired of watching him while looking. But when his father died, I had this instinct that was closed.”
Despite the tragedy of death, GEX sees it has a positive side. “It was not just a sad and negative end, because it was, in some way, a delicacy of Jack. Such a weight was raised, and it was clear that he was very sad, but I think he became much more than himself and his leg.
