Interview with Chris & Maurice Micallef

Bruno Miguel Resende - What is cinema for you?

Chris & Maurice Micallef: Cinema is an experience that can be shared with other people. Any production that can be crafted and presented with special care to film language, tradition and form and which may build bridges, between people, societies and countries. In a way, cinema enables to showcase the perspective of the director, thus inspiring other people, to broaden their thinking and imagination and fuse different cultures of the world.

 

Bruno Miguel Resende - What are your main influences?

Chris & Maurice Micallef: One of my main influences were productions made by Sir Arthur C. Clarke. He was an English science fiction writer, science writer, futurist and inventor, underwater explorer and television series host. He co-wrote the screenplay of the 1969 film 2001: A Space Odyssey widely regarded as one of the most influential films of all time.

 

Bruno Miguel Resende - Who is your favourite filmmaker?

Chris & Maurice Micallef: My favourite filmmaker is Stephen Spielberg. Spielberg has worked as a producer, executive producer, director or in an otherwise creative capacity on several films. His ability in story telling is exceptional.

 

Bruno Miguel Resende - Who is your favourite writer?

Chris & Maurice Micallef: My favourite writer is Frank Herbert an American science-fiction author best known for the 1965 futuristic novel Dune and its five sequels. These complex works explore such themes as ecology, and human evolution.

 

Bruno Miguel Resende - The main focus of cinema is entertainment or art?

Chris & Maurice Micallef: In the 1920s, film societies began advocating the notion that films could be divided into entertainment cinema directed towards a mass audience and a serious art cinema aimed at an intellectual audience". In several countries around the world, the love for cinema has not only endured the test of time but has continued to grow stronger, making it an integral part of the nation's cultural fabric. It is more than just entertainment, it is an experience, an escape and a shared passion. The enduring love for movies over the years remains unshaken.

 

Bruno Miguel Resende - What is utopia for you?

Chris & Maurice Micallef: Utopia means, literally, “no place”, since it was formed from the Greek ou, meaning "no, not," and topos, "place." Since More's time, utopia has come to mean "a place of ideal perfection." Utopia typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members.

 

Bruno Miguel Resende - What is the main message of your film?

Chris & Maurice Micallef: The main message of our documentary ‘The Normans’ is how they managed to combine languages and traditions.  The Normans simply disappeared in history. Although this might sound as a failure, it was the key to their success, as their legacy lived on. They came, they saw, they conquered until they assimilated themselves out of existence. The Normans showed that people of different languages and religions can live side by side, telling us today that looking back we still have much to learn.

 

 

Bruno Miguel Resende - What is your next project?

Chris & Maurice Micallef: For thousands of years, mankind has been greatly impressed by the majestic regularity of the stars moving in the skies. These sky watchers believed that all bodies of the firmament would find themselves in their original positions on the band of the zodiac at the end of a constant period. Little did they know that this time span had long existed and had been calculated by earlier civilizations. It was lost and forgotten as cataclysmic natural disasters and wars destroyed one civilization after another. Many tried in vain to find the great constant of the solar system and finally gave up. But this magic number finally appeared on an old clay tablet from Nineveh.

 

Chris & Maurice Micallef

CMM PRODUCTIONS

https://cmmproductions.com