Award winning costume and production designer Catherine Martin talks to Fest Track about design, perspective, inspirations and ideas as she attends the 2023 Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with her spouse and longtime collaborator Baz Luhrmann.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 This is Tim Walsh from Fast Track OnStreet TV.
00:28 I'm here in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for the Red Sea International Film Festival.
00:32 >> Well, I think what's interesting that until you actually get to a place,
00:36 you have preconceptions about the visuals and
00:42 how the visuals and the people intersect.
00:47 And what I found most exciting is just the energy of the youthful population here.
00:56 And the fact that the festival itself is celebrating regions
01:02 where the primary populations are youthful, they're under 30.
01:08 And I come from an occidental background where we're just getting older and older.
01:14 >> [APPLAUSE]
01:20 >> What an introduction.
01:21 I feel like I'm deserved.
01:23 I mean, with this suit, you deserve everything you want.
01:27 [MUSIC]
01:31 It's about staying in the game, in the discomfit of the feeling of
01:37 kind of that there is a process to get to success.
01:41 It doesn't just happen.
01:43 >> And having two children who are 18 and 20,
01:49 I feel such guilt about the world we're leaving them.
01:58 And just to see people here, and my own children, so hopeful,
02:02 so energetic, so wanting to tell their own stories.
02:06 And I think it's interesting because you can't judge a book by its cover.
02:11 We talk about when you see the young people here who may still wear an abaya,
02:17 or a hijab, or whatever, but that's just part of a greater cultural conversation.
02:23 And I think making assumptions about who people are, or
02:28 how they're interacting with the world through their appearance is always a
02:33 problem, you should never judge a book by its cover.
02:36 And the dynamism of the programming here, and
02:41 the difficult subjects that have been tackled in the movies,
02:44 are really quite astounding, and have left me with a lot of food for thought.
02:49 [MUSIC]
02:59 I think what's really fascinating is that I think the statistic here is that
03:13 unlike in Australia or Hollywood,
03:17 where female filmmakers are a small proportion, we have, I believe,
03:22 about 50% of directors here in Saudi are actually women.
03:27 Actually hold differing views, and still be able to converse.
03:34 That is, I think, so important.
03:36 And now, everything's about you have to pick a side.
03:40 Well, I think you need to connect and converse.
03:44 [MUSIC]
03:54 It's extremely powerful.
04:09 It can be confronting, it can be joyous.
04:13 But what it does, a film festival brings people from all around the world
04:21 to see stories and to engage on what that story means.
04:27 Good, bad, or indifferent.
04:29 And the more we talk, the more we communicate, the more we have a community.
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