Aaron Gambel is a Documentary Filmmaker that brings to this medium a personal and artistic touch. Through the documentary 'American Painter: Raphael Delgado' , Aaron presents us not only the creative process of the artist but also his personality and interaction with his audience and the art market.
Render - How did you established the first contact with Raphael Delgado, the painter?
Aaron - I first met Raphael in 1999 while we were both going to college in Southern California. As neighbors we instantly became good friends because we were both originally from Northern California and, as most people don't know it’s quite a culture shock from Northern California to Southern California. Then when I went to film school in San Francisco Raphael happened to be going to the Academy of Art College in San Francisco so our friendship continued as we were both finding our place in the creative world. After I got my first video camera it was only natural that I would start collaborating and exploring his creative process. After several years of off and on filming this film is what came out.
Render - The opening of American Painter is visually very well achieved, what was your inspiration for such an opening?
Aaron - As a film fanatic and film school geek I have always paid close attention to how films grab the audience within the first 30 seconds. In 2002 a series of short films about 9/11 came out, and one of the segments was directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (who made Babe and a ton of other great films). His piece was so powerful because he used sound to tell the story. The majority of the short was black screen with on a few short flashes of footage of the people falling out of the buildings. It was SO powerful because the filmmaker made the audience imagine what was going on and only led the view with short flashes of imagines. That film had a huge effect on me really grabbed me and opened my eyes to how effective not giving the audience something to look at can be. I decided to open my film with his tragic story of his childhood to grab your attention. The idea was to make the audience think, "what the hell is this film about" but at the same time be glued to the screen wanting to know more. I used smoke lingering in the air to represent the fluidity of Raphael's more abstract works and having him draw the face in seconds was something we came up with together very late one night. After showing the scene to a few people they were blown away and I knew that would be the moment I could grab the audience visually.
Render - Through the documentary we can see that Raphael paints in a wide variety of styles. How did you initially plan to show to the audience the diversity of styles through this documentary?
Aaron - Raphael has always been very open about how different he is compared to other artists. Most artists find a niche that sells and only paint those types of paintings. Raphael said it best, which I quoted in my synopsis, “If I only paint one style, sure, I’ll be more marketable for a while, but I’d be stifling my artist’s voice. I just want to unleash what it is that’s inside of me, and that is constantly evolving. I think my art reflects that. I want to be a hundred artists in one.”
My first idea was to create sections in the film for each type of style he paints but then it became a challenge placing paintings in a particular section. Raphael blends so many styles that I felt the best way to express his various styles was to mix them all up and give the audience the feeling that his work is all over the place, which it is. Also, there are a ton of artist documentaries that create sections for each style of art and I feel that would have been boring and trite.
Render - The use of both black & white and color footage adds depth and a sense of time, what made you decide to use both?
Aaron - First of all Wizard of Oz is one of my favorite movies as a kid, so the first influence came from that movie. Raphael also was very persistent about only being seen on screen in black and white but I felt the interview with his colorful paints looked so great I didn't want to strip the color. Then when creating a trailer for the film the piece of music we were using had this great beat change and I thought that if we transfer from black and white to color right on that beat change it would make his extremely colorful paintings pop so much more. After getting used to watching the film in black and white the transfer to color becomes a bit of eye candy as the rest of this works are so bright and colorful.
Render - Showing the different processes and Raphael's ways of working painting implies a close relationship with the subject (Raphael), how was this process of working close and getting to know Raphael ?
Aaron - Well as I said before we have been good friends since about 1999 so that close relationship was built over years by hanging out together and collaborating on ideas. Working with artistic people is always an interesting experience and Raphael is no different but we became very close over the years of shooting this film. I produced this film out of my own pocket so most of the shoots would consist of me saving up enough money to rent equipment for a weekend then shooting all day and night until I the equipment would have to be returned. Having that experience really brought us closer as friends and at the same time created conflicts and somewhat stressful situations, but all in all we have become great friends and I think that creative collaboration shows in the film.
Render - In the documentary you relate different styles of painting with different moods of music how did you decide how this relationship was going to work?
Aaron - As far as the music’s relationship to the paintings I'm going to be truthful and say it was all by accident; one of the happy accidents in film when things just come together and work. I was really looking for a certain flow within the film and the best way to move a film along is with music. I also really wanted the music to relate to Raphael’s latin heritage. Raphael and his family are all very creative musicians so we both had very specific ideas on the music we would use. Raphael’s brother Andrew Delgado is an amazing musician and he did an amazing job scoring the film. Raphael actually played guitar in a lot of the music and then Andrew would record it and tweak it by adding all these other great elements to get what you hear in the film. Working with Andrew was great because I had very specific ideas of the type of music I wanted and he put in his creative twist and made it all come together very well.
Render - American Painter: Raphael Delgado shows an documentary style suitable for broadcasting TV and creative digital channels and of course film festival like ours, but where do you see your work being screened or
broadcasted?
Aaron - I see my work being screened on all platforms. It would be nice to have my work shown in the US on PBS: Independent Lens, BBC documentaries series and frankly anywhere that the mass audience will see it. I feel I have a style that is ever changing and as I start making films longer and with a bigger budget I would like everyone around the world to enter my perspective and hopefully have their eyes opened to a new idea or learn something new that they didn't know about already.
Render - Where is documentary taking you next? What kind of projects would you like to work on next?
Aaron - Well I have a few projects in development right now and hope to start shooting later this year. The kinds of projects that interest me the most are about interesting people/characters and subjects that need to be heard. My formal schooling was in San Francisco so that political outreach and activism has stuck with me and made its way into my films. Of course I'm not looking to make Michael Moore style documentaries but I'd like to creatively incorporate interesting characters to give insight or comment about particular subjects that intrigue me but at the same time make the film so beautiful you can't take your eyes off it no matter the subject that's being discussed. I have always wanted to open people’s eyes and minds to a view they wouldn't normally be open to. I want people to learn something new and chance their perspective or just think of a subject a little differently than they did before.
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