From Development to Festivals: Jessica Gonzatto Talks Body of Water | Kinolime Podcast Ep 33

Show Notes

Episode Overview: In this episode, we sit down with filmmaker Jessica Gonzatto, a standout finalist in the Kinolime short film competition. Dialing in from the cinematic town of Gramado in Southern Brazil, Jessica shares her recent whirlwind experience pitching at Ventana Sur, the current landscape of Latin American cinema, and how she is strategically turning her short film script, Body of Water, into a feature-length folk horror drama.

🚀 Key Takeaways from the Interview:

Navigating Ventana Sur: Jessica and her producer recently returned from Latin America's largest film market, pitching both her short film proof-of-concept, Body of Water, and her upcoming feature project, The Pains of Labor.

Current Latin American Film Trends: International buyers and festival programmers are heavily scouting for unique, nuanced takes on social and political themes rather than standard, on-the-nose commentary.

The Rise of International Co-Productions: European production companies are showing strong interest in Latin American creators, creating natural partnerships for historically driven or cross-cultural stories.

Chasing the Perfect Climate: Production for Body of Water is slated for late June or early July to take full advantage of the natural fog and cold of the Southern Brazilian winter.

The Kinolime Impact: Jessica discusses how the competition served as a crucial production milestone, providing invaluable community feedback and helping her team establish a timeline for an upcoming crowdfunding campaign.

Full Transcript

[00:00]

Hey everyone, welcome.

[00:11]

We're here today with Jessica Gonzato, our finalist from the Keenalai short film competition

[00:17]

Jessica, coming live from...

[00:20]

I'm not going to pronounce the name of the town, but you can, but from Brazil, a body

[00:24]

of water author.

[00:26]

So we just wanted to check in and see how you're doing.

[00:28]

What's been going on?

[00:29]

Let's go.

[00:30]

Hi guys, thank you so much, first of all, for everything.

[00:34]

I mean, I feel like you guys are my friends.

[00:36]

So it's nice to have a chat with my friends.

[00:39]

I feel the same way.

[00:40]

I'm going to do the hard work.

[00:41]

Yeah, thank you.

[00:43]

So I'm in South Brazil in a town called Gramado, and I'm having a little bit of a relaxing moment

[00:51]

right now because I just came back from Ventana Sur.

[00:55]

Ventana Sur is the biggest film market in Latin America.

[01:00]

So I was there for a week with my producer, and she's the producer of Body of Water,

[01:05]

and also my other feature project called The Pains of Labor, which is also a folk-har

[01:10]

drama feature.

[01:13]

But it's a feature, right?

[01:14]

And Body of Water is the short film proof of concept for that feature.

[01:19]

And we were there speaking with a lot of producers, investors, festival programmers, because

[01:27]

it's still in development.

[01:29]

But we are already building our way into the film industry right from the get-go.

[01:37]

So we are talking to festivals and possible co-producers.

[01:41]

So that's what I've been doing.

[01:44]

It's amazing.

[01:46]

What are the trends or things that the buyers are looking for?

[01:50]

Yeah, I would say the overall world cinema business is really scary at us right now.

[02:00]

We had a lot of success in the last few years, especially with the Oscar that we got.

[02:07]

And you're about to get another one.

[02:08]

I'm seeing it this weekend.

[02:09]

Secret agent.

[02:10]

We're talking.

[02:11]

Yeah.

[02:12]

Secret agent.

[02:14]

So I would say that we have a lot of political things are always going to be important, right?

[02:22]

So our history or our social things, any kind of shape of form of social discussions, and

[02:31]

they don't have to be really obvious.

[02:34]

So for example, my films are also, they're always talking about something in society, but

[02:41]

they're not always right on the nose.

[02:44]

So I think those are the kind of films that we are there.

[02:47]

We're mostly people are looking for, people have been asking us as creators to have these

[02:55]

really important social things, but in a fun and different approach.

[03:01]

And I guess that we're not so much into genre.

[03:06]

So horror film, action films, I wouldn't say that's a major focus here.

[03:14]

We have a lot of beautiful dramas, beautiful family films, fun comedies, Brazilian comedies

[03:22]

are so famous, popular in Brazil and Latin America.

[03:28]

So yeah, I think those are the main things.

[03:31]

The thing is we are finally getting a lot of co-production opportunities.

[03:38]

So that's what I was doing over at Ventana Sua.

[03:41]

We have literally film production companies from all over the world.

[03:46]

So mostly Europe, they're really looking at us with love right now.

[03:54]

So we are trying to find partners who also share a moment in history with us, which is

[04:01]

actually my feature film has that thing, which I'm speaking about the 19th century, which

[04:09]

is a part of Brazil's history where we had a lot of Europeans immigrants.

[04:14]

So that makes a lot of sense, right?

[04:16]

So these kinds of projects are always cool and they make sense.

[04:21]

So in regards of body water, obviously my huge fan, I've said that when we first met,

[04:28]

when do you anticipate maybe filming body water, if you had to take a guess?

[04:33]

Oh, filming.

[04:34]

Yeah, like when do you think that'll?

[04:37]

Late June, early July tops, because we are making a festival, a coronal, so it's like

[04:46]

backwards.

[04:47]

Yeah.

[04:48]

Some festivals we want to get into, so we're doing the backwards schedule from there.

[04:53]

And that would be the latest, mostly because of the climate, we really want to have some

[05:00]

fog and some cold.

[05:02]

Yeah, of course.

[05:03]

And down in Brazil, it's winter time.

[05:06]

So I would say early July.

[05:09]

Great.

[05:10]

Well, we can't wait Jessica to see what happens with body of water.

[05:14]

I'll be the first person that streams it.

[05:16]

I'll tell you right now.

[05:17]

I'm beating you to the punch.

[05:19]

We just wanted to say thank you again for trusting Keenaline with your story and the

[05:24]

process.

[05:25]

And just maybe before you leave, tell us now that the dust has settled and the competition

[05:29]

is over, what was your overall experience going through the Keenaline competition?

[05:33]

Wow.

[05:34]

I had a really good time.

[05:36]

I was not expecting that.

[05:38]

Honestly, I know the short story, the short story that is based on was fun, was nice,

[05:46]

and the short film script.

[05:48]

I really wrote it with a lot of hearts.

[05:50]

So yes, of course, I knew there's something there, but I would never in my wildest dreams,

[05:56]

yes, I would be here today with you guys.

[05:58]

So it was great in order to actually make it happen, honestly, because when we think about,

[06:04]

oh, okay, ideas are cool, the kind of film that I want to watch.

[06:09]

Okay.

[06:10]

But when we're talking about production, that's a very important, and crucious step in the

[06:16]

script's history.

[06:17]

I would say so it was a milestone for me really to be a part of this and to actually make

[06:23]

it happen, build a schedule.

[06:25]

We're going to have a crowdfunding now, so we're already on schedule for that.

[06:30]

So it was really interesting to listen to what other people had to say, people that I

[06:36]

didn't even know, wanted to read.

[06:39]

So we got, I got so many great feedback and so many great messages from everyone.

[06:46]

It was very touching, really.

[06:49]

It was very nice.

[06:51]

I'm really, really thankful for all this.

[06:54]

Well, it's our pleasure and watching Body of Water's Journey has just been amazing.

[06:59]

We're so privileged to be a part of that.

[07:01]

So Jessica, thank you again for trusting Keenal and with your story, and we can't wait

[07:04]

to hear some updates.

[07:05]

You know, don't hesitate to reach back out.

[07:08]

All right.

[07:09]

Thank you guys.

[07:10]

Okay.

[07:11]

Yeah, I appreciate you, Jessica.

[07:12]

Have a good one.

[07:13]

All right.

[07:14]

Thank you.

From Development to Festivals: Jessica Gonzatto Talks Body of Water | Kinolime Podcast Ep 33

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