Ira Sachs: “'Pretty Woman' was the end of a certain type of cinema in Hollywood”

BarcelonaThe Film Library welcomed one of the season's most distinguished visitors this Tuesday: Ira Sachs (Memphis, 1965) is an indispensable name in independent cinema of recent decades, a director who has been able to portray torrid passions in Passages (2023) or Keep the lights on (2012) but also the impact on our lives of more mundane issues such as being forced to change flats (Love is strange, 2014) or the difficulty of managing material and emotional inheritances (Summer in Brooklyn, from 2016).

A filmmaker of extraordinary sensitivity and a great cinephile, Sachs is the guest of honor at the Americana Film Fest, which will screen some sixty short and feature films until March 16. indie American in the Girona Cinemas, the Zumzeig, the Phenomena, the Espacio Texas and the Filmoteca, with truly notable titles such as Eephus, Christmas eve in Miller's point, The jockey, Saturday night and And saw the TV glow (in a must-see double feature that includes the new short by minimalist animation master Don Hertzfeldt).

Sachs himself has praised the "good taste" of the Americana programmers and their "commitment to independent cinema," reflecting on the meaning of this label: "Independent It's a general term, but at the same time it has a meaning. It has to do with money and freedom, although we are never completely free. But there is a will to be free, to capture through art that which is unique."

This freedom comes at a price, especially in the North American industry. As Sachs himself points out, most of the directors on the American Film Festival's programming list only have one or two films. "It's not a coincidence. It's very difficult to make a living making films in the United States and have a long career," says the director, who points to the financial crash of 2008 as the cause, with which "a lot of money disappeared from the industry" and cinema indie changed completely: "More than 90% of the directors of my generation are working in series, which is an industry where you can make a living, or they are teachers. And that affects American cinema's ability to take risks, but also quality, because there are things you only learn over time."

'Anora' and hope

However, there is also hope in cinema. indie American, especially after The Oscar success of another New York director, Sean Baker. "In New York, the night and day after the triumph ofAnora“There was a sense of new possibilities in the air,” Sachs explains. “One of our own had been recognized, both for this film and for his career. This is very inspiring for independent filmmakers. Even financially; many want to believe that their pockets will be wider now.”

At Sachs, the success ofAnora made him think of movies like Midnight cowboy (1969) or Klute (1971), in which Hollywood portrayed sex workers whose honesty later disappeared from American cinema. "Somehow, Pretty Woman It was the end of a certain cinema in Hollywood, that of Midnight cowboy either Klute, which explored a reality –says Sachs–. Pretty Woman, on the other hand, is a form of homogenization and normalization of marginality, while Anora represents his recognition."

Sachs wears the label of filmmaker with some resignation. queer which is usually attributed to him as a result of films such as Love is strange, Passages either Keep the lights out"It's a delicate issue, because if you make a film about a marginalized community, you become a representative of that community, and I'm not entirely comfortable with that," the filmmaker explains. "What drives me to create is being personal, not speaking on behalf of others," he adds. His next film, which he will shoot this summer, will be a portrait of the "apocalypse" that the AIDS epidemic in 1980s New York represented for the gay community. "But what the film will really be about is what you can do in times of terror and oppression," he says. "What kind of beauty is still possible? What kind of sex? What kind of radical artistic expressions?"

A few weeks ago, Sachs presented his latest film, "The Apocalypse" at the Berlinale. Peter Hujar's day, which reconstructs an interview with the photographer of the New York cultural scene of the 70s. The film, which will not be shown at the Americana and will be released in theaters in the fall, has a minority share of Catalan production, but for the moment the director rules out filming in our country. "I was able to film Frankie (2019) in Portugal because it was about an American family on vacation, but if I tried to make a film about people from here I would feel like a fake," he admits. "That said, my husband is from Ecuador and my children are fluent in Spanish. We would like to spend more time in Spain, and maybe even live in Madrid."