Laura Gabay
Sweet Salty Wind, Laura Gabay (2019)
Laura Gabay is a Swiss filmmaker. Since 2017, she has been a Director-Producer at Ecran-Mobile. Her thesis film Enquête 62 was selected at several festivals and won the public price of the Festival International Filmets in Badalona. Her short film Viento dulce salado (Sweet Salty Wind) was selected at the prestigious festivals Visions du réel and IDFA–and is now streaming on Filmatique!
These days, Laura produces and animates Super 8 film workshops for adults and children, and is working on her first feature film.
Laura Gabay participated in an exclusive interview with Filmatique as part of Talents 2021.
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FILMATIQUE: Sweet Salty Wind is about a day in the lives of three siblings who were left behind by their parents. Why did you want to tell this story and where did this idea come from?
LAURA GABAY: This idea came to me when I arrived at Pueblo Baracoa, and I met some children who spent their time playing on the coast and in the sea, as if they were little fishermen. So after speaking with them, I realized that most of them had lost their parents because they had left the country to go to the USA or other places. This inspired me to make a movie about this migrations and–without treating it as an explicit argument in this film.
In addition, during my research process before shooting, the town was hit by Hurricane Irma and many people lost their homes, including the protagonists. That specific event gave me an extra motivation to do this movie from a child’s point of view.
FLMTQ: What were the challenges of working with these children to portray this tragic situation? And why did you want to show them doing those things to animals, both dead and alive?
LG: I wanted to show a quotidian day in the life of these children. I wanted to portray their daily games, their dreams, and the context that surrounds them. The animals that appear in the film are part of their reality and environment. Actually, it was not my decision to show this specifically. We acted as though the camera was not there and just placed it, trying to reflect the kids’ natural behavior towards their environment and the things they have around–for example, as with the scene of the dead animal next to the river.
Sweet Salty Wind, Laura Gabay (2019)
FLMTQ: Due to the devastation of the Irma cyclone, many people lost their houses in Cuba. In your film, the contrast and conflicts of inequality is very explicit. How was your research process and how did you come across with this specific story?
LG: The research process lasted for one year before shooting. I meet Lisy, Kiara and Carlitos at the beginning of my research phase, and the fact that I was able to share time with them allowed me to get to know them deeply, as well as their families. Regarding the inequalities that were caught by the camera–as the town in ruins for example–this was just a reflection of the kids’ own childhood, because even though it doesn’t seem like it, they constantly dwell with loss and the absence of their parents. So this film was based on the relationship between the contrast of bodies and spaces.
FLMTQ: Do you have any updates on the current situation of this family?
LG: As foreseen, the children’s mother traveled to Turkey after shooting the film. She stayed there as a way to obtain money, with the hopes to coming back and being with her children. We still keep in touch and haven’t lost communication: we check in from time to time via social media channels. Unfortunately, I have not been able to go back to Cuba. I think is a pending issue for me.
Sweet Salty Wind, Laura Gabay (2019)