Interview: 'Mars One' director on Brazilian politics, representation, and hope

Saturday

Oct222022

Saturday, October 22, 2022 at 4:57PM

Gabriel Martins' Oscar submission Mars One tells the story of a working class Brazilian family on the brink of the election of far-right president Jair Bolsonaro. The family is composed of a father working at a high-rise, a mother dealing with trauma, a daughter on the verge of coming out to her family, and a young boy who dreams of going to Mars. The film is a beautifully restrained examination of contemporary Brazil through the lens of class, race, and gender.

Mars One is Brazil's contender for Best International Feature Film at the 95th Academy Awards. In our interview, writer/director Gabriel Martins discusses the development of his film coinciding with the rise of Bolsonaro's divisive politics, how the long-gestating journey of the film helped him shape the final output, and how recent developments in Brazilian cinema have given him hope...

[This interview has been edited for clarity.]

JUAN CARLOS OJANO: Congratulations on the film. Mars One has had quite a journey since premiering in Sundance in January. Now you're Brazil's official Oscar submission.

GABRIEL MARTINS: Yeah, it's been crazy. I think that's the word because Sundance was supposed to be in person but ended up being online due to COVID. But it was a great experience because I was able to have first impressions online and see how people have reacted to the film and it was mostly positive reactions, very warm. And then, I went to a few festivals outside of Brazil. We ended up premiering in Brazil only in August and it was very intense. The film premiered in a very prestigious film festival in a city called Gramado.

We won the Audience Award. I won Best Screenplay and Soundtrack. And won Special Mention from the jury for the film. And one week later, the film opened in Brazil. And it has been very successful so far, especially after the Oscar selection announcement. We've been back in theaters with a lot of people, a lot of discussions, and a lot of love being sent our film's way. This is the first time that something I've done is that successful. So this is something new that I'm experiencing and I'm very grateful for everything.

I can attest to the love that you're saying because since it premiered at Sundance, I've had friends who kept mentioning your film. This film has had a long journey. You started writing mid-2010s, received funding before Bolsonaro was elected, shot in 2018, but only finished in 2021 and premiered in 2022. I'm setting that up because my first question is: what was the biggest change that the story had from when you first conceptualized it to the final output?

Yeah, that's a great question. I think it was an interesting because I was able to mature a little bit as a filmmaker because I've done other things through these eight-year period since I started writing to finally being released. I think the essence of the story was always about these four members of this family. It was always about dreaming, this idea of resilience. I think the film now is a bit tighter than when I wrote. When I wrote, I think I wanted to talk about so many different things.

Through the years, especially in the year long editing process -- putting the material to rest a little bit then coming back to it. Pretty much during 2019 was editing and trying to find this rhythm and pacing. And then, we dropped some of the parallel stories that I think was just too much for the film. So I think, the major thing that changed is that the film is more focused and subtle. I was trying to say too much. One thing that I learned through time is that trying to be a little bit tighter would be better for this film because we could focus on what is more important about it.

I love what you said about it becoming more subtle. The film says so much without saying a lot explicitly. However, the film does explicitly state that it is set during the beginning of the Bolsonaro administration. What was the significance of setting the story then?

When I started writing, I knew that I would set the film in the context of when we made it. So if it was six months before, when we shot it, we wouldn't have this election. It ended up being like in November or December of 2018, a few weeks after the elections. And I think it fit well, setting the film there, because it was a time of a lot of disappointment, a lot of turmoil, as if the sea tide was changing. And it was something that many of us didn't know how to deal with because it was a new phenomenon. The Brazilian election was something intense and a very huge disappointment for many people. The country was very divided because it was a really tight election. So this kind of understanding that, 'wow, this is something very difficult that we are going to face'. And that already made the story stronger.

But I knew that it wouldn't be like the main story because this was going to be unfair with the characters, in my perspective, because the story is timeless. The story has been there since 2014. It already had the same essence so I didn't want to make a film about the Bolsonaro administration. But I definitely wanted to say that this thing that happened, it is very important and it's a major change for the country. It's part of the culture, and the culture is an idea of something bigger that we can relate to the way that we talk to each other, think politics in society as something being sacred. So this underlines the story, it brings a lot of tension. And I think also, the film is being released now in 2022 when we have a new election. Of course, this is going to be way more highlighted than maybe it would be in some other point. But it's definitely part of the story as it's part of the culture. So I think the film is not only about this narrative the characters have, but about an atmosphere that it could call Brazil in a nutshell.

Mars One is a beautiful demonstration of how politics trickle down to the most personal stuff in people's lives. And I think it feels more tangible. The journeys of these characters are so distinct - the father with alcoholism and employment, the mother with trauma, the daughter coming out, and the son dreaming big dreams. How did you choose the journeys for each character and what was it like to balance those?

First of all, so glad that you mentioned this perspective about politics because I was totally aiming that way and I don't think everyone catches that. And sometimes, I think people want to give a very superficial analysis of what a political film could be. And I'm so glad that you and many other people that I talk to about the film are catching that. The film is political. It's not trying to avoid any political terms but have another perspective. I think it was pretty much one year editing the film, trying to find the balance. But before that, I think the story starts with Deivinho [the son] in my head. Just with this image of this boy. I wasn't writing at first thinking about a theme, period, or a family. Just this image of this boy playing soccer and looking at the stars, a kid with a broken leg. I didn't know what that meant, I didn't know what it was going to lead into.

I knew that at some point, any story that I would tell would come to this image that is not in the film, but is an image that is talking about some possible future of this character. But then, I started to think "who is his mother and father?". And these professions that they have with being a janitor, doorman, and cleaning lady, this is very common in Brazil. This is something that we constantly analyze as being a heritage from slavery and things that we are still not trying to understand how to deal with. An abuse from people that hire this kind of people to do their jobs, abusing the professional space.

And then, thinking about these characters that are very vulnerable. In some films that I grew up watching in Brazil, they talk about those characters but from the perspective of the people that were hiring them. So White families, rich families. Trying to do social criticism but not thinking about who those characters are outside of their jobs, at their homes, with their families. So this was pretty much the narrative that I was trying to aim for. Finding those characters that could represent, with their subjectivity, many working class Brazilians who are having these kinds of jobs that are not safe in many ways.

And then the sister, I think, represents the idea of a future. Maybe in a wishful thinking way that I believe in a future leadership that is pretty much Black women. And I think this was also hugely represented by the murder of Marielle Franco [Brazilian human rights activist] which was very intense and something that was very impactful for the Black community, but especially for Black women. So I think how this character could encapsulate an idea of a new possibility of family that would come from someone she falls in love with, another girl. This could be a new arrangement of family outside of this traditional family that we're thinking of.

A lot of these things were capturing some of the feelings that I was seeing on the streets. The people there. My family as well. Wellington was the name of my uncle who worked as a doorman and janitor. So there's also a lot of things that are part of my life in these characters. This was pretty much the starting point. These are the characters I think I'm going to talk about because they represent a lot in Brazil.

Yeah. The thing was I didn't see them as just mere representations. They felt fully formed. Also, kudos to the actors. It's very well-written already, but in the moments of silence, they're filling it with so much potency. I'm gonna go back to that prank scene because I was pranked as well.

[laughs]

And then, when Tércia [the mother] was startled, no one from the family was hearing her. She was trying to discuss trauma. And that single event has a domino effect for the rest of the film. She realizes by the end that it was a prank, a spectacle. Her trauma was caused by this entertainment. It was very insensitive. Can you talk about the prank scene at the beginning of the film?

That was a little bit of me trying to have a little nod to the story of that character with cinema. It's always like this story of the character in the film, what they are doing. She was part of the prank, she got traumatized. She's trying to overcome this feeling of emptiness and anxiety. But it is also about cinema, representation, a lot of things. So when you say you felt you were pranked yourself, I think it's a little bit of me doing, in magical terms, a sleight of hand, in a way, of showing you something. But actually, we are operating on other symbolism and subjects. It's very fun to do, very interesting to do. And for me, it's kind of giving back this character which was always or mostly represented with a lot of superficiality. So in a very direct gesture, expanding her beyond a superficial perception of her.

When we had this scene with the prank, it's supposed to be something very weird because the film has not prepared you at all for something like that. It's the first time we used slow motion. So it's about being a rupture and to say that this film is not a very conventional film. We have some very special themes floating around the surface of the main plot for the characters. Tércia’s, which is actually my favorite story in the film, it's about many things that I can't even describe properly. I don't know exactly what it's all about. I think it's about some idea of a mystery. I think it's about luck, faith, and all those things are very broad. That's why I find it interesting to have this character as a vehicle of something that is more profound.

I'm always partial to mothers. I'm a mama's boy, I really cared about her.

Yeah, yeah.

There's nothing that would prepare you for where the film goes in the pursuit of the truth of these characters. One thing that I also loved about the film was this hope in it that is honest and grounded. Hope in film can sometimes be misconstrued as escapist. This is not. Given Bolsonaro's leadership, how did you manage to find the hope?

That is so interesting because sometimes, having this perspective of being a dreamer, being an optimistic person, is often mistaken as someone being naïve. They're not perceiving the world as it is, which is (most of the time) a very cruel and unfair place. But I feel that for me, I've done other films. Short films, feature films that didn't end on a very hopeful note. But this story, for me, was about looking to the stars, looking at another planet. This idea of Mars One as something that is kind of a utopia that is not important to reach, but the way to get there is.

And I think that in times like this, when we have a very awful administration like Bolsonaro's. We have people actually struggling way more than I do. People are starving. A lot of people are going to the trash to eat so it's a very real problem. I personally can afford to be let down by the world in the sense that I have some power to change a little bit. At least make a film where people can relate to those characters, and can see themselves represented in many ways. Or people that might not be part of that environment but they have empathy with those characters, I need to tell those people that we are able to look beyond. And I think that I have this urge to say to everyone that we can always do more because I think that is a collective power.

I think it's okay to be pessimistic sometimes. It's okay to be cynical because the world does that to us, but I think that feeling doesn't move much, you know? If you give up, there's not a possibility to change anything. And I understand how someone can feel that way. I myself felt that way many times. The world actually brings us down depending on what we have on your hands. It's easier to wake up and not have a purpose to live. But the experience I'm having with Mars One is that it's actually uplifting. Not in this cheap idea of "wow, let's just come together and make a better world". Not in that sense, but the reality that, if we do not think that way, if we don't have dreams, then it's over. There's no point in living if we don't have dreams or goals.

The outcome of the story is not perfect. If we think about everything that might happen to the characters after this story ends, it's not supposed to be pretty. It's not something that's going to be easy on them so we're not saving the characters. We're just telling an honest story about a family that, for a little bit, could overcome their problems and can reach for the beyond. This is a feeling that I needed to put in this film because I refuse to think in the opposite way. I believe that we can overcome this wave of hate that the administration of Bolsonaro and many others around the world are bringing to us every day.

As someone from the Philippines, we're beat up by the six years of Duterte and then we've had an awful election season when the Marcoses came back to power so I'm kind of allergic to hope right now. So when I saw this film, the hope in it wasn't patronizing to the characters. It's coming more from the place of "they've got each other and this isn't the endgame for them". And that's my kind of hope. Given that, what are your hopes for Brazilian cinema? And Black cinema in Brazil? And what do you think are the challenges that cinema is facing right now in Brazil?

Around 2015-16, around the time that the film was funded by Affirmative Action. It was the first and only fund for Black filmmakers with feature films. So it was three films that were granted the fund. It was the only time because after that, the structure for the Brazilian Film Agency that is responsible for managing the funds was rippling. And in Bolsonaro's government, it was a complete mess. So what happened in the last four years was that it was pretty much impossible to fund big projects in Brazil because it was very messy. The culture was being attacked. But at the same time, some people manage to make short films, to make feature films with money from shorts.

The first thing is we get Bolsonaro out which is the main concern right now because if not, things will be very, very ugly. We are very dependent on public funds, even though we have Netflix, Amazon, HBO, we have local channels. But they're not supposed to take care of all the filmmakers. They are producing a lot of things in Brazil right now. TV shows, feature films. But a film like Mars One needs to be funded by a public fund so filmmakers and small production companies like mine can actually build narratives and have something to say with no mediation. No big meetings to solve everything. It's just very authentic because it's us managing the money and taking the money to the community, et cetera.

In the last few years, we have a lot of new people, People of color. Way broader perspective in that sense so the Brazilian cinema that used to be mostly male and White and straight is now more diverse. Way more people doing it but most haven't been able to get money to do feature films. So we have great short films, but feature films are something new. But I think it's changing and I see that the rest of the world has paid more attention to what's happening in Brazil and with the filmmakers. So in that sense, I'm optimistic that we're gonna get Bolsonaro out.

Some things, you start to go back to balance slowly. But I think we are going to put the Brazilian cinema out there. I think Mars One will not be an exception. I think we'll see way more films that are as well-crafted and are talking about Brazil in an honest way. So I'm optimistic because I've just seen those people besides me. I'm reading the scripts. I'm being consulted for various things. So I know what people are cooking right now. And I'm happy about it. I'm feeling very excited, actually.

Yep, fingers crossed! Number one, more films like Mars One. Number two, get [Bolsonaro] out.

We need to get him out. He's not doing any good. Cinema is the least of my problems. It's actually people that are going through very hard times. He needs to be taking accountability for what he's done in the pandemic. He's not taking care of the Amazon. He's burning the Amazon, and it's a worldwide concern that Bolsonaro is in power.

Gabriel Martins and Juan Carlos Ojano discussing "Mars One"

Speaking of the inspiring things that are happening in Brazilian cinema -- what were the films that inspired you to become a filmmaker originally?

Growing up, I loved lighthearted films like Home Alone and Jurassic Park and RoboCop. But in my adolescence, I started to be acquainted with more political films, "heavy" films, indie films. What I would perceive as indie films back then. Like the films of Spike Lee which were very important to me. The films of Claire Denis. Agnès Varda as well. So when I was very young, like sixteen to seventeen, I started to be exposed to the idea of films from auteurs. From Europe and the US, filmmakers like Maya Deren, a lot of Brazilian directors from Cinema Novo and from the Marginal Cinema. That was shaking this idea of "wow, it's not just blockbusters that exist in the world" although I love many of them. There are other films that are very obscure that I loved when I discovered.

John Waters' films, I think it was something that really changed my perspective in many things. Because I knew "wow, that's an idea of independent cinema" like 16mm. And this idea of "trash cinema" was something that I loved because I love rock [music]. I had a band, I play the guitar. So I think it was underground and forbidden. I was very interested. I have a very broad spectrum of influences from John Cassavetes to many others. One of the main directors that I'm influenced by is Apichatpong Weerasethakul who is maybe one of my favorite directors of all time. His films changed my life. I think his films and Charles Burnett's films. Those were the directors that were doing something that "wow, this is something that I need to be doing". This is something that originated in the community, the places where they grew up. And then, I was also filming my neighborhood. So [they] were the geniuses that I contemplated.

You've made history. You're the first Black director to be submitted by Brazil. Great, but also, there should be more.

Yeah.

I've seen the four nominees from Brazil (Keeper of Promises, O Quatrilho, Four Days in September, and Central Station) but Brazil should've been nominated other times like Antonio das Mortes, Pixote, City of God, and The Way He Looks. Gabriel, I'm wishing you the best. Not just this Oscar season but in life, especially with your future works. Muito obrigado por conversar comigo!

Thank you so much, Juan. Very smart questions and I love having this kind of conversation.