Filming health

Cineman: Hi, Juraj. Thanks for talking to Cineman.gr  Blind loves has four stories (with a magnificent photography) about blind or partially blind persons and their relationships. How did you conceive this idea? What was your inspiration?

Juraj Lehotsky: On the beginning I wanted to shoot fiction movie about a blind girl who is living in the suburb. Every day she travels to the work… in bus she meets one man, she couldn’t see him, she hears him only.  Sometimes she touches him in the crowd… It was first idea.  And my main question was : “How the blind girl could fall in love?” How she can see love? Afterwards I found real people and through their lives I tried to approach and develop this topic.

Cineman: How easy it was for you to find funding for his film, and what was the worst obstacle in filming this movie? Was it financial, problem with finding the right persons?

J. L. This film was produced by production Artileria and it was supported by Ministry of Culture in Slovakia. We were glad that people from founds  understood  our film idea. I think our project was prepared well and we believed for it. 

We hadn’t any difficulties. Sometimes I was little nervous about future development of real life stories It is  uncertain thing  to shoot love… the story turned few times its direction and we were obliged to  change the script. With the screenwriter we had to be adaptable for all new comings from our protagonists.  Our filming was still work in progress and a big surprise.
…To find right person was not about money, it was about feeling. Important was to find person who can give story,  impression and right emotion… .

Cineman: After watching the film, I have the impression that the main obstacle characters face is not their blindness, but being happy just like any other person. Would that be so?

J. L. It was about love, hapines... They show us   what love... hapiness means.

Cineman: You achieved a great deal of intimacy with your actors, even though they knew that the camera was watching. Did it take a lot of preparation? Do you now have any news from those persons?

J. L.  I felt that these people are different, origin and nice. Their lives inspired me and my screenwriter Marek Lescak to create screenplay. Therefore  I shoot with them their real stories.

Work with blind protagonists was very nice. I realized that they were “acting” very naturally. This film is documentary but form is very close to fiction style. Based on their life observation  we reconstructed  film scenes situations. I tried to lead them differently then actors in order to maintain their authenticity.  Lot of situations were real. 

Cineman: Do you think that this film has somehow changed perception of blindness, and situation for blind persons in Slovakia?

J. L.  I think that film is for all people...  this is about the way we can percive hapiness. It is about real  stories, feelings and desires. During shooting I forgot they are blind and  I realized that they have dreams  like we. We can notice  in their lives lot of „small thinks“  what make them happy. We can inspired by them.

Cineman: You participated with this film in Director's Fortnight at Cannes. What was your experience?

J. L.  Director's Fortnight gave me big energy for new film. In Cannes I realized that audience liked the film . International audience is the best satisfaction for filmaker. People understood me, and liked the film... It was big satisfaction.

Cineman: Any new projects?

J. L.  We are  preparing film about love of young girl... In this time is too soon to speak about this.

Cineman: Juraj, thanks for talking to Cineman.gr. Good luck with all your projects

Blind loves participates in the competition program of the 1st Health Film Festival in Kos (Sep. 1-6).

It is also available on dvd.