- Manuel Abramovic
- filmmaker, educator
- Berlin - Buenos Aires
Light Years
Film, 2018, 75min
Argentina, Brazil, Spain.
“In a careful dance with its hesitant subject, this revelatory documentary takes us behind the scenes of Zama, where Lucrecia Martel dotes on llamas and horses and directs her men. As a sound intruder, Abramovich captured the meticulous work of the director from Salta and the warm, human, joyful precision. Making an anti-epic about a mediocre officer, she emerges as his mirror image: a woman of good humor, above all else. Manuel Abramovich offers an intimate look at Lucrecia Martel during the making of her fourth feature, Zama. This film depicts the mysterious, delirious, playful, and frustrating stages of filmmaking, while showcasing Martel’s transcendental tendencies and complex collaboration with her subject”. MUBI
“Neither passive nor overly styled, Manuel Abramovich’s latest documentary observes Martel during the making of her fourth feature, Zama. In the spirit of his previous nonfiction features (Soldier and Solar), the Argentine cinematographer-turned-director demonstrates his clever ability to convey the playful, mysterious, frustrated, and delirious stages of filmmaking alongside his complex artistic collaboration with his subject. Far more than a behind-the-scenes film, Light Years is as much an intimate portrait of an artist at work as it is an attempt to evoke the oblique, transcendental tendencies that pervade Martel’s films”. Film Society of Lincoln Center
DIRECTOR’S NOTE
There’s a seemingly invisible feeling in Lucrecia’s pictures, something transcendental. Shooting a documentary portrait of Lucrecia Martel’s creative process during the filming of Zama was born out of my curiosity to unveil some of that mystery, that magic trick. Far from the idea of a “behind the scenes”, Light Years started as a secondary film detached from the one she’s shooting. An intimate, observational documentary that would somehow allow us to get inside her head during that moment of creation.
What would a movie with Lucrecia as the protagonist be like?
EDITOR Iara Vilardebó
SOUND Sofía Straface
COLOR Delfina Mayer
CINEMATOGRAPHY Manuel Abramovich
FOLEY Francisco Rizzi / Martín Scaglia
MIXER Leandro De Loredo (Tres Sonido)
CAST Lucrecia Martel, Daniel Gimenez Cacho, Lola Dueñas, Gustavo Bohm, Juan Minujín, Daniel Veronese, Marcelo Sein, Rafael Spregelburd, Matheus Nachtergaele, Nanego Lira, Evandro Melo
SCREENWRITER Manuel Abramovich
PRODUCERS Benjamin Domenech, Santiago Gallelli, Matías Roveda, Manuel Abramovich, Lucrecia Martel, Vania Catani
CO-PRODUCERS Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar, Esther García, Marie-Pierre Macia, Claire Gadéa, Juan Pablo Galli, Juan Vera, Alejandro Cacetta, Eva Eisenloeffel, Leontine Petit, Joost de Vries, Michel Merkt, Luís Urbano, Georges Schoucair, Joslyn Barnes, Danny Glover, Susan Rockefeller, Juan Perdomo, Natalia Meta.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS Pablo Cruz, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, Angelisa Stein
ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS Guillermo Kuitca, Juan Manuel Collado, Fabiana Tiscornia, Elvira González Fraga, Alejandro Musich, Gonzalo Rodríguez Bubis, Julia Solomonoff.
FESTIVALS
WP: Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia 2017 - Venice Classics Cinéma du Réel
Festival de Mar del Plata
Transcinema (Perú, December)
Tabakalera, San Sebastián. (Spain, February)
Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid. (Spain, February)
FICUNAM. (Mexico, March)
MAMM - Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (Colombia, March)Cineteca Nacional de México & Cineteca de Nuevo León (Mexico, March)
Cinéma du Réel (Paris, March)
Film Society of Lincoln Center (New York, April)
IndieLisboa (Portugal, April)
EDOC (Ecuador, May)
IndieLisboa (Portugal, May)
Edinburgh Film Festival (Scotland)
Karlovy Vary Film Festival (Czech Republic)
Film Fest München (Germany)
Arsenal - Berlin (Germany)
Festival de Biarritz (France)
FICViña (Chile)