Jacques Toulemonde  is a young Colombian film director of French descent, who was born and raised in Bogota until he left his country in 2001 to study humanities and literature at La Sorbonne University, Paris. In parallel to his studies, he began working on various film projects that were being developed at the Public French School for Cinema, La Femis.

In 2006, he worked as director’s assistant to Franco Lolli, on the short film “Como todo el mundo” (‘Like everybody else’) which won more than 25 awards including the Grand Jury Prize at the  Festival de Clermont-Ferrand, considered the most prestigious event in the industry, and Best Audio Visual Award at the In Vitro Visual festival in 2007.

In December 2007, Jacques Toulemonde finished work on his first feature film, “Dérive”, which was first screened at La Femis in Paris, and later in La Cinemateca de Bogota in April 2008.

In January 2010, Jacques directed the short film Un juego de niños, co-produced by the Colombian company Janus Films  and the French producer Noodles Production. The film received funding from the Colombian fund for cinematographic creations  and the Seine Saint Denis Local Authority in France and was eventually bought by the French TV channel France 3 .

Jacques is currently working with Janus Films on two feature length films: “Anna”, co-produced with Noodles Production, about a young, emotionally unstable Colombian woman who leaves Paris with her alcoholic best friend and her 7-year-old son to return to Colombia, in the hope of being a better mother; and “Cariño”, about two Colombian underground hip-hop singers whose quest to “make it” in Bogota leads them into a spiral of violence.

You’re a film director and your latest project ‘Anna’ just received funding from the CNC (France). What made you choose to be a film director?

I’ve wanted to be a film director since I was a teenager. I remember quite clearly the moment when I knew it. One weekend I watched ‘A Clockwork Orange’ by Kubrick, ‘Crash’ by Cronemberg, ‘Histoire d’O’ by Jaeckin and ‘The Big Feast’ by Ferreri. I was 13 years old. They made a huge impact on me, also because they were for an audience much older than I was, but they showed me that cinema is not only about telling a story, it’s also gives wonderful insight into emotion, sensuality and violence. A film is a discourse that convinces the viewer through emotion, not merely with reason.

This experience profoundly convinced me that cinema was my path in life, and that conviction has led me to fight for this industry for the past 10 years.

What, in your opinion, is the most difficult thing about being an up-and-coming film director?

Funding projects. Cinema hasn’t been a profitable industry since the 1970’s, at least everywhere outside the great film production centres like Hollywood or Bollywood. The majority of films that filmmakers make actually work on a loss, and we’re talking about a loss of millions. For example, I need 1 million euros for my next movie even though it’s very likelt that I will only get 10% return. That’s why we always have to depend on public funding for a large part of the budget. Also, you have to be prepared to go from one festival to another, apply for several calls of entries at the same time where there is a prize for ten, twenty or thirty candidates and where the last word lies with the jury.

While I was editing my short film, ‘Un Juego de Niños’, I calculated the sum of probabilities that had contributed to making this short film a reality.

We won the FDC de Colombia where 5 out of 200 projects won a prize. After that we won the Aide au Film Court award in France, where 3 or 4 films out of 70 won a prize. We made up the rest by selling the short film to a French public TV channel, France 3, where we only had a 10% chance of them buying it. Lots of worthy projects are left on the wayside. If talent and persistence really do count in making a film, the amount of luck you need is astonishing.

Also, in order to raise funds you have to attend dozens of interviews, presentations and pitches, where charisma and sales techniques are becoming more important than your actual ability to direct a movie. You have to be able to direct a movie AND sell it. I have improved in that sense, but it’s still really complicated for me.

What is the most rewarding part of being a young director?

The chance to actually produce your movie. It’s as simple as that. You fight for years for your project, to find the funding, and at some point the stars align and a series of miracles come together to make the pre-production, filming and editing actually happen. It’s the joy of being able to work. For me, the success of a movie is secondary to the deep joy I get from actually making it. By the time I start shooting ‘Anna’, the project will already be 7 years old.

There are some small satisfactions to be gained on the way though. For me the writing phase is a pretty intense and satisfying process because you are free, you don’t face the economic and practical problems of filmmaking. You dream of your great film as if you were a child. Then you start applying, calling, preparing yours dossiers and you soon realise that for every five contacts, one might say yes. But the moment when you receive an email or a call with a positive answer it’s a thrill! You start dreaming again, before starting over.

What have been the main difficulties you have experienced when trying to establish yourself as a professional artist? (E.g. Administrative issues, copyright, networking in the film industry, making your work be known…. etc.)

Starting out was the most complicated thing. When you are 18 or 20 no one knows you. You say you want to work on films but no prestigious school accepts you, and you don’t have the money to study at NYU so you don’t know where to begin. Your family and friends keep telling you to train as a teacher while you work in a bakery. I worked for free for almost 5 years on short films and some feature films, learning on the job while I had other small jobs to pay the rent. That’s how I started being recognised for my work. It took me 5 years before I started making a living from cinema, and that was as a director’s assistant, not as a director.

Then come all the problems related to the actual making of your film and how to find the funding. It’s always the same problem, when I am shooting a film, I don’t have time to write or promote my projects, but when I am writing I’m not earning anything so it’s hard to find the balance. Luckily, I have now earned my place as a director’s assistant and I always find a job when I need one.

Administrative issues will always be there, but in the end they’re not that important when you compare them to more structural problems.

Where did you find the information that helped you to start working as a professional movie director?

Theoretical information isn’t really that useful because each person takes his or her own path. What helped me a lot was getting to know people that worked in the sector, not so much for the advice they could give but more for what I learned from watching them work.

At he beginning La Maison du Film Court in París , helped me to find voluntary jobs and mailing lists. After that Proimágenes  in Colombia helped me to get a better grasp of how I should organise my project in order to produce a film. Since then, I went to different workshops like TyPa in Argentina , Talent Campus in Berlín ...but in the end, you really end-up learning from the people you meet.

What practical and non-practical advice would you give young artists that would like to start working as a professional film director?

First off, he or she shouldn’t think about themselves as artists. They’re not going to live the highlife; they’re going to have to take a lot of shit.

Secondly, they need to be patient. If lots of things are about luck, the only way to thwart it is to persevere. You have to be crazy enough to go on with your project even when people respond indifferently or are hostile. For every kiss, you’ll get 10 slaps first.

Thirdly, you have to work really hard. Not just on your project, writing and rewriting, but also on other shoots. A shoot is a really complex and subtle mechanic. As a director you are directly responsible for the artistic quality of a very costly piece of artwork while managing a team of twenty to a hundred technicians and actors, all of whom have very different profiles. You only learn while shooting a film, how to do treat and work with that many people so that they all give the best of themselves. I didn’t study cinema but I have worked on almost 10 feature films. My experience as director’s assistant taught me lots of “how to’s” and skills that some first-time directors might not have had the chance to learn.

Taking into account that a director shoots a film every five years on average, they often forget the mechanics of shooting when the time comes around. A lot of directors have produced bad films because the shooting has got completely out of hand. That’s why, as a film director, you mustn’t ever stop mastering your craft. Work as a technician on other feature films, shoot short films, video clips or whatever, but try not to just film advertisements because the artistic work required is minimal and the dynamics are pretty different.

Finally, you need to find allies. The most important person to find is a producer. Most inexperienced people think that a producer is someone that intends on taking the project away from the director. The reality of this is very different. The producer is the only person that is going to accompany the director during the whole filmmaking process. The producer is the crazy person that’s going to cover your back when all probabilities are against him. A producer should be the director’s best friend. After that, you should work with screenwriters, director’s assistant, photographers, editors, and sound engineers that you truly trust, and when I say trust, I mean beyond their reputation or experience.

What’s going to be your next move as a film director?

I still have to find quite a bit of funding to film ‘Anna’, but I think we will be ready around mid-2013, so that’s the next objective. In the meantime, I am rewriting a project and starting to work on a series project.

One other piece of advice I’d give is that you should always have a script up your sleeve because when you finish a movie, there is a period of time when all the spotlights are on you so you must be prepared to take advantage of this window of opportunity and present your next project.