Searching for Atlantis on our shores | Ben Russell

What, or who, first brought you to Malta?

Some Parisian friends had recommended my short films to Emma Mattei for the Kinemastik festival last year - I was on an island in Estonia at the time and the deadline didn't quite work out, but we'd stayed in touch ever since. Since we were both living in Paris we eventually met up (at a screening of trance films in a church, of course) and talked about working on a more involved project together. The idea of giving a workshop, a screening, and making a film in Malta, came about pretty organically - it made sense to translate all of that into an informal month-long residency, and the fiscal generosity of the Malta Arts Fund made it all a reality.

Did you have any fixed notions about what you wanted to film in Malta in particular, or were you more or less ready to wing it after you landed?

I had a pretty clear sense of the sort of images and sounds I was after, but since I'd never been to Malta I was aware that this was really just a general notion - that the winds and the currents would need to guide me in the right direction. It's important to be open in one's approach to the unknown...

Still from ATLANTIS - Ben Russell's film shot in Malta over April.

Did the idea of applying the myth of Atlantis to this project come about before you decided on Malta as your setting, or did Malta actively influence your choice? If so what was it about the island in particular that inspired you to apply the myth of Atlantis to it?

The possibility of making a film in Malta came about when I was finishing a project involving the John Frumm cargo cult in Vanuatu - the last line of my film is taken from Beckett's Waiting for Godot and says "What do we do now, now that we are happy?" In other words, how do we move forward once we create a utopia in the present? These ideas resonated with Sir Thomas More's Utopia, a 16th century text that was based in part on Plato's description of Atlantis. A great number of people have seen Malta in Atlantis (and vice versa) and, for the sake of the film, I chose to believe that the two were interchangeable - that the lost utopia of Atlantis is incarnate in the Malta of today.

What did you find interesting about Malta once you finally started filming? Were there any 'textures' in particular that inspired you?

Oh man - everything! I spent a month between Valletta and Gozo but it was far too short - Malta has so many histories, so many shades of blue in the sea, and such a beguiling tempo that it took a great deal of effort initially to not film everything.  Once I'd spent a bit of time in Malta's time, I found myself drawn to those places where other spaces were reflected - the image of the temple in the glass of the Dolmen Resort Hotel, the sea visible through the doorway of an abandoned hotel, the garb of a Roman soldier on the streets of Zebbug.

Still from Russell's Atlantis: "It's important to be open in one's approach to the unknown."

How would you describe the way the workshops panned out? What did you pick up on from the participants, about Malta in particular?

The workshop seemed to go over quite well, though it was a bit more of an intellectual workshop than a physical or practical one. The two go hand-in-hand for me - technical skill is something that can be acquired quite easily, but it's not worth so much if there's not a conceptual framework to guide it. Why do we use the tools we use to make the images we want? This is a pretty vital question in my practice.

While I was a bit disappointed that there weren't more filmmakers in the workshop, the folks who did come were whip-smart and made it clear that there's a solid group of artists who are working to make Malta stronger culturally. The community seems small but there are certainly resources in place to support them - though more dynamic exhibition opportunities would surely be put to great use. The work that Kinemastik has been doing is really inspiring, and it's wonderful that they receive operating support from the Malta Arts Fund. If only there were more groups like them and more funds put towards culture - Malta would be dynamite!

You've said in a previous interview that you're trying to be less 'smart' about your approach to film, and more intuitive. Could you describe what led to this development, and did you employ this method on this particular project?

I think that I just grew as a human being - that I allowed myself to value my emotional life on the same terms as my intellectual life, that I was able to use intuition as a way to get closer to the ephemeral, the uncanny, the mysterious.

'Not knowing' became a really valuable tool, and I'm convinced that it's what separates art from science. I've gotten a lot better at trusting my instincts over the last few years. With regards to Malta and in practical filmmaking terms, this meant that I let myself shoot material that I felt was significant without knowing exactly why.

There were a lot of mirrors and reflections and horizons recorded over the last month, scattered amidst the horses and hunters and drag racers. I can't wait to see what comes of it all...

When can we expect to see ATLANTIS?

Honestly, I don't have a clue. My films usually have fairly auspicious beginnings - Venice, Rotterdam, Berlin, and so on - but it depends on how long it'll take me to start treating these images like images, to figure out if they are connected the way that I think they are.

I'm sure that Kinemastik will host the Maltese premiere, regardless...

Ben Russell's visit was supported by the Malta Arts Fund. To watch some of Ben Russell's work, log on to his Vimeo page.