Crying Out Loud: Tatia Pilieva on Capturing Vulnerable Portraits of Men
As a filmmaker, I’ve been mostly preoccupied by telling stories about human connection and about women - God knows we need more of them. However, it recently dawned on me that as the roles of women shifted, so did those of men. The masculinity stereotype so long upheld, no longer felt the same, and yet I rarely came upon depictions of vulnerable portraits of men. So I decided to make one, and the result is what I consider to be a compassionate portrait of an emotional man - 'CRYING OUT LOUD'. I by no means presume that I can define what a man (or a woman) is in a little over three minutes, but what I can do is continue the conversation about the masculinity crisis in our society, its roots and find a connective tissue for the future.
My career launched with FIRST KISS - a three minute black and white short film in which I asked twenty strangers to kiss for the first time. And then some say, I broke the internet. That may be true, but it was mostly human vulnerability that broke through. It was the same vulnerability that presented itself in a short I made for U2 - 'YOU’RE THE BEST THING ABOUT ME'. With a more vérité approach I followed four real couples around the world in the last 24 hours before they were forced to separate indefinitely. No matter who we are or where we are in this world - a Syrian family in a refugee camp in Greece, a lesbian couple in the Air Force, high school sweethearts in LA or young chefs in Mexico City - we are all connected in our desire to love, be loved and do the right thing.
In the same spirit, I created SPEECH - a film in which actresses perform famous American presidential speeches. I wanted to re-inspire the viewers by the founding principles of this country, yet bring to light the gender inequality in power. I’ve never run for a political post, but I have run in circles where I’m the only woman around. I’ve been shooting car commercials lately and absolutely love them, but also feel in shock that there are only a handful of us allowed in that boy’s club.
As young filmmakers we seek to effect change, to move audiences so deeply that we change the way they perceive the world. But sometimes we can lose sight of this goal. My entry point has always always been human connection, because when we connect, when we're vulnerable, we accept not only each other, but all that is different, new and unorthodox about life. To me there’s so much power to the image of an emotional man. The same way there’s a real truth to a woman running the tough Ford Mustang campaign or two ladies lovingly kissing before deployment. It's only when we connect that we can see what's possible.
