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Loreta Gandolfi: What idea was at the genesis of the film? And, what is your background as a filmmaker that may have led you onto this project?

 

Emilio Fonseca: The original intention was to present a different view of wolves. Wolves are fascinating animals, a biodiversity and cultural treasure, but they are also victims of human greed and destructiveness. In countries where wolves are present, the press often treats them as a threat, a pest that deserves to be killed. There has always been a lot of disinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding wolves.

On the one hand, I wanted to give some real data and put the issue in perspective. To talk about wolves in the Northwest of the Iberian Peninsula, a very degraded and humanised area, in this time of ecological catastrophe, of extreme biodiversity loss and climate change. 
On the other hand, I wanted to make room for the magnetism of wolves, get closer to that which is wild and to know others, connect with the creatures that surround us and try to understand them. I wanted to use the power of cinematic images and sounds to make us think, but also to make us feel.

This is my first feature film for the cinema. I made another TV documentary about forest fires in my region, Galicia, about ten years ago, and over the years I've worked in video, animation or comics. Very often about eco-social issues.

 

 

LG: The film has a very unique approach to the topic: how did you devise the style of the filming for this particular project?

 

EF: We did a lot of research and testing on how to film the environment, the work of researchers in the field, domestic dogs, and how to produce and use wildlife images and sounds, both from an ethical and an aesthetic point of view. We ended up filming with a very, very small crew to minimise our impact on the ecosystem - I was often filming alone or with just one other person and/or our family dog, whom we met on location (a stray that had just been hit by a car when we found her – she’s doing great now!). We wanted to reproduce the experience of being in the mountains, but also the experience of being another, and the possibility of seeing, hearing and thinking beyond appearances. For this "beyond appearances" we worked with a small but very select group of experimental artists on animation, lighting and VJing, experimental music and soundscape recording, who gave us brilliant solutions.

Our intention was to give some crucial data and to provoke certain emotions about how we perceive the others. In a way, to combine science and poetry. It sounds crazy and pretentious, but in the end we wanted to change the way we look at the world.

Nature documentaries are not like that, so we had to invent our own special genre.  We spent a lot of time testing equipment and being in the mountains, but also reading a lot about biology, philosophy, anthropology, playing with the footage, talking to artists.

 

 

LG: What were the challenges that you encountered in the process from development to the completion of the film?

 

EF: The first big challenge was to finance an experimental documentary about wolves, which was only solved when Xiana do Teixeiro, a filmmaker herself, came on board as producer. She has previously self-produced her own work, and it was because of Wild, Wild that she has started a line of work as a producer, only for ecology and feminism related works, she considers this an exercise of activism of sorts. The film won a production grant from the Spanish Ministry of Culture for experimental filmmaking. Without this grant, the film would not have been made, at least not in this form. Then we were able to get other funding. But of course it wasn't easy. It is extremely difficult and time-consuming to get our funds. And then you have to deal with overwhelming bureaucracy , and later fight for some space for your artistic practice. Producing independent films is like a crazy obstacle race, and if you're naive enough to want to innovate and do things differently, it becomes a little hell in which you often lose your way. 

Another big challenge was making a film about creatures that are vilified and hunted, like wolves. The scientists who study them must careful not to be detected by the wolves, nor be detected by people who might know that you are studying wolves in the area. This was the case with the researchers that have collaborated in our film. Then the environmental authorities in some Spanish regions are very much in favour of killing wolves. So as a filmmaker you may ask an anti-wolf administration for permission to film in the wilderness, a kind of ecological film - in this case funded by the cultural department of the same administration - about wolves. It's nuts. There was a moment when we had to skip the environmental permit to report a case of attempted poisoning of wolves. 

Perhaps the most interesting challenge was trying to make a film that was in line with our ethics. We've tried to reduce our impact when we're filming. Carbon emissions, of course, but also being very careful in the field, not disturbing the wildlife, and thinking about how to get - or not - certain kinds of images and how to represent otherness. I think you can see the result of those concerns in the outcome of the film.

 

LG: How has the filming/process of the project impacted you as a person and as a filmmaker?

 

EF: I have dedicated years to this project, so it has affected me in many different ways, but to name just one, I can say that it has made me more aware of the importance of wildness in every living creature. I wanted to be able to define what it means to be wild before I finished the film, but I could not.

Of course I think wolves should be considered almost sacred creatures because they represent wildness in all its complexity, and we as a civilisation need to find a way to live with wolves, to embrace that kind of wildness. But we've got to remember that wild wolves are also very social individuals, that they form complex societies, that they care and sympathise with each other. And the same thing happens with other animals, and now science is discovering that trees and plants in general also recognise and care for their peers. So I think we have to stop this war against nature, which is also a war against us, because we are nature, we are animals, we are also wild creatures, and we should be aware of all the life - or wild life - that surrounds us. And try to get to know it and to acknowledge it, to connect with it and to enjoy it.

 

LG: Tell us more about the significance of the title ‘Salvaxe, Salvaxe’

 

EF: Salvaxe, salvaxe, means ‘Wild, Wild’ in Galician. Xiana, the producer, came up with the title. We don't know exactly what wild is, it’s a broad concept. Maybe it is a particularity of life. But we know that if anyone is really wild, that is the wild wolf.

 

 

LG: The film had its World Premiere at the Málaga Film Festival in March and won the main prize. What do you think that the film represented for the jury, critics and audience in the historical time we are all witnesses of?

 

 

EF: I was pleasantly surprised that the jury awarded our film, which was in competition with great films from Spain, Portugal and Latin America, because I know that it is a different film in its form and perhaps in its topics. But the jury appreciated the openness in which we look at what it means to be alive and wild in the Anthropocene in the film. I think they also recognised the immersive approach that dives into the depths of the wild, but also into ourselves, as well as a reflection on cinema and the very nature of images. Juries and critics love to talk about cinema, and so do we, it’s important to rethink our uses and relations with images, as well as their material consequences.

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