Following are a few of the films and videos Directed by Fernando. In case you want to see more, please navigate to Fernando’s Vimeo pages or for the oldest ones, from the times of nomadpodcast and documentaries made from a motorbike on the road, to Motonomad Youtube channel.
Filling the Gaps (2018) is a documentary about he way we interpret documentaries or any other factual information. The film is partly shot at the British Museum with the collaboration of the Curator of Central European Renaissance Prints. It features two storylines. One, the creation by Albrecht Dürer 1515 Rhinoceros print. The particularity of the story is that he had never seen a Rhino in his life. Juxtaposed, the second storyline is interwoven with the engraving’s story. On it, the film’s collaborators tell about the way they imagine Morocco, a country none of them had ever visited. After watching the film you will never be able to ignore how you fill in gaps when watching representations of the real. An academic published piece I think will interest those interested in documentary and creativity and help creating interest in documentary.
Marc Beaubatie hopefully will not be The Last Clockmaker of Monpazier (2019). The film shows his workshop and tells a bit of his story. It was shot on location in the beautiful Dordogne village of Monpazier. About a year after the shoot, recci directors selected Monpazier as background for Sir Ridley Scott’s film about the last of the knights jousting tournaments to be released soon. They filmed in the upper floor of Marc’s shop. If any, it confirms I have a good eye for locations.
The True Story of The Bikini Beach Band (2013) is a comedy documentary about the group’s early days and roots. It is a documentary about a collective fantasy and was part of Geoff’s Pinball Life and Fantasies.
The only thing I regret not recording on film at the time of shooting was Abney Park’s cemetery staff and visitors alarmed as they watched Pinball Geoff wheel away Escovedo’s tombstone balanced on his bicycle handlebars. A film prop, we planted the tombstone on the park earlier of course with permission and under supervision from the park’s direction.
I begun The Corrugated Story of The Red Pig (2021) before I learn some people eat bats or used filed pangolin scales for ‘medicinal’ purposes. Covid arrived before I could interview the Pig’s owner and chef, Andy. On the first opening from lockdown during 2020 I interviewed Andy, well in the distance as you can see, following covid 19 protocols. The conversation soon turned to Covid, or more precisely, its consequences on the restaurant running and its crew. The Corrugated Story of The Red Pig is the resulting short.
Gary, Robin and a few other make their living ‘pumping worm’ at Chelsea Beach, East Sussex. It was shot just at the beginning of the pandemic, before we knew of Covids-19 true dangers and consequences. There is no visitor that sees them pumping worm Under the Sand (2020) that fails to wonder what on earth are they doing. Shooting on my own, with nowhere to hide from the he wig-blowing wind, it was impossible to record reasonable sound with actuality.
Loulabelle’s Café (2018) is a documentary about a roadside Café all female crew . Part of an academic project, it was shot as 1960s and 70’s Verité directors would have done (at least, the way I think they would). It took a half year accompanying the crew one or two days a week, looking into recording telling self defining stories of their past. Overall, transpires how the crew offers much more than tea and sandwiches to the mainly working men clientele, adding care, dedication, advice and counsel.
Geoff’s Pinball Life and Fantasies (2013) was my first attempt a mid length documentary. It also responds to the themes that I study as an academic, creativity in the representation of factual events. Part of the film is staged (and presented separated above, as The True Story of the Bikini Beach Band), representing the film protagonists fantasies about their rock and roll band.