© 2008-2009 Southeast New England Film, Music and Arts

Providence Rhode Island Film Festival, Music Festival Arts Festival Southeast New England Southern New England

Tiphaine Siovel, Pierre Lievois and Hadien don Fayel

 

                                                               “ECHOES”

 

                                                  By Mary DeBerry

 

Many of us think of Paris, France as the center of the arts world where once starving artists now flourish with ease in the vast sophistication and support of the great city of Paris.  However, even in Paris many must start with nothing but their talent and their determination.  So it was with Tiphaine Siovel, Pierre Lievois and Hadien don Fayel who together created the independent film "Echoes", which garnered critical acclaim and won the Sandcastle Award at the 2008 Moondance Film Festival.

 

I spoke to the actress, Tiphaine Siovel, at her home in France.  She graciously agreed to answer all the questions since she is the only one of the small group who speaks English.  Siovel revealed that she and her co-directors Lievois and don Fayel only had one camera, no lights and no money, but a great desire to make something unique. 

 

"We had nothing but our creativity and ourselves, so we had to be innovative" reports Siovel.  Forced outside due to lighting issues, nature proved to be an additional inspirational element for the filmmakers.  Also, they had nothing to lose, so they focused all of their energy on their own inner muses.

 

The story "Echoes" follows a woman's journey as she leaves Paris on an assignment, but finds herself lost in a maritime nature reserve.  As she faces the elements alone, she awakens to Nature and allows the environment to dictate her movement and mood, creating a rite that takes her to a new stage of consciousness.

 

Siovel described how liberating the experience was because "it was all about the art".  There was no stress and she could be completely "in the moment".  The experience allowed her to grow as an actress and become more comfortable in front of the camera.  It also helped cement the path she now knows her creative life will follow.

 

Lievois and don Fayel also took that sense of creative freedom into the editing booth to add their touches to the impressionistic fresco of the film.  It proved to be a winning formula.  "Echoes" is their first attempt at International Cinema and it was rewarded with their first international success.

 

Lievois and don Fayel compare the use of a digital camera to the invention of tubes for oil painting in France.  The invention of those tubes allowed painters with little material means to go out into the field for the first time and paint what was actually in front of them.  Their means were changing and so were their results - because it gave painters a tremendous freedom.  So now the lightweight, affordable digital camera allows filmmakers of little means to go out into the field and shoot what they see or what they create.  Advances in editing allow the same freedoms so that the art form itself is advancing and changing. 

 

Siovel, Lievois and don Fayel are confident they will continue to make films as a means of self-expression.  They can go forward with confidence since they have helped make a contribution to the advancement of independent films.

 

This interview was made possible through Marla and Marc Halperin of Magic Lamp Publicity.

Marla can be reached at marla_magiclamp@mac.com.  Or visit their website at: http://www.magiclampreleasing.com/