Flawless competence, determination and bravery are all qualities that have led Andrea La Mendola to collect prestigious awards internationally; the latest being an Award as Best Director won at the Los Angeles Movie Awards 2013. A really dynamic and interesting story: that is Andrea’s story. In the spring of 2007, Andrea was asked a simple question that laid the foundation for what would become his future. He was still a student at Polytechnic University of Turin (the city in which he was born and raised), and he had just founded a movie production company called Indyca, also set in Turin, along with three other colleagues, Simone Catania, Michele Fornasero and Giandomenico Musu, when, following a class, he was offered to make a documentary in Los Angeles. That was the first step towards the city he would call home a few years later. And since then, Indyca has established itself as a strong production company in the business. After his master’s degree in cinema and media engineering, Andrea moved to Los Angeles where he majored in directing at UCLA. In this short time he wrote, directed and produced two short movies, which both gained great recognition and won several awards. «I really like controversial topics and complex characters which are able to spark discussion and give food for thought. I always try to make the audience have a pleasant cinematic experience throughout my movies. In my stories, all the elements come together to create a unique and intriguing world».
And that’s exactly what La Mendola accomplished with Echoes, a psychological thriller in which the main character, affected by a narcissistic personality disorder, fights against his stream of consciousness walking on thin ice. Twist after twist he ends up getting trapped, tearing relentlessly at the thin layer… one which separates the border between the real and the unreal. «It was also a way to test my skills as a director/producer with a very complex project in both storytelling and technique. It was a very sophisticated production, which needed a lot of preparation and attention to details, plus a reliable and skilled crew». Echoes was shot entirely in Italy and required conspicuous investments for budget and organization, similar to a feature film production, in which the collaboration of Polytechnic of Torino, Indyca, Liquid Gate Studio and CRT Foundation played an important role.
Despite the common challenges that such a big production presents, the experience was very satisfying, fully rewarding and one that keeps on giving after more than two years. Echoes has collected many nominations at festivals in Italy and around the world, and it has won prestigious awards: the award for Best Italian Short Movie at MIFF (Milan International Film Festival), Best International Short Movie at the Santa Monica Film Festival, and this past May 2013 three awards for Best International Short Movie, Best Director and Best Actor at the Los Angeles Movie Awards. «It’s very gratifying to see how some moments of Echoes stay with the audience, lasting forever in people’s memory. Still, now, after a long time has passed, there are people who remember clearly our movie and recall some of the most peculiar sequences. And that’s a confirmation to me that we were able to work on a deep emotional level, and bring real emotions out of the audience. In the end that’s the main goal for every director and this is what makes me proud of this work».
Andrea’s work has continued on the same high level with Lost In Gray, a movie in which Andrea calls himself into question quite a bit, changing patterns and gaining a new perspective. The result is a thirty-minute movie in which the audience can experience strong reactions, real and contrasting feelings, going through an infinite range of emotions: pain, anger, stillness, agitation, and regret. This movie makes people thirsty for life and for justice, while getting under their skin. It definitely leaves a permanent mark, becoming so alive to the point of saturating the air. After those thirty minutes everyone will have to question him or herself, no matter how different the movie and the main character are from one’s own life experience.
«Lost In Gray is a more mature work. I clearly see my personal growth as storyteller, and I perceive a great emotional strength coming from the story and the characters. I was looking for a more complete story, a story in which people would be deeply involved. From Echoes I wanted to keep the ability of entertaining while pushing the limit towards an emotional level with a deeper and up to date message. I wanted to talk about respect, tolerance for diversity, extremes, human insanity, and universal values in a story viciously real and contemporary. In Lost In Gray, I worked a lot with my own emotions and personal experience even if it seems a story that diverges a lot from mine. It was like steering the deepest emotions I experienced in the last few years and pouring them out into something very different. The result was surprising even for me. I was looking for something inside me that I wanted to give to the audience. It’s not easy to say what… maybe that sense of intimacy, suffering, love, anguish you have when you experience stories that carry a deep meaning and universal values. I needed to create something unique. For the first time, I accepted the possibility of having imperfections in the way the movie looks, if it was going to improve the story, and, even more, I used imperfections as a surplus value, a kind of texture to give more power to the movie. If Echoes was a solid object with a sharp and harmonious shape, Lost In Gray is a liquid expanding».
The involvement of those who one would expect to be passive in front of the movie, in other words that of the audience, is actually absolutely engaging. The movie talks about Neo-Nazism, which, like other racial extremisms, continues to live in every social level. History gives clear elements in that regard, making it impossible not to identify or side with.
«Lost In Gray doesn’t belong to any specific genre. It can be defined as a drama, and as a thriller… It’s difficult to put into a specific category. It’s a movie that reflects a society that’s partially moving to certain extremisms, which are regaining power in the contemporary world, pushed by the intolerance towards differences and minorities. There are many people absolutely certain of their own truth and who think they can judge whoever is different from them, sheltered behind those values without any intention to open themselves to listening and debate with others. I wish that producers would realize how important it is to tell those stories and to invest time and resources to give space to these topics. Yes, we are “entertainers,” but we are also artists and people of culture, and it’s our duty to touch upon these topics in order to spark a constructive debate in our society. We have to find the courage to take risks for a higher purpose».
Andrea’s dedication and passion for his job shines throughout his words as much as they do in his stories. While attending university he accepted different types of jobs in the movie business, grabbing all the opportunities he had, learning techniques and secrets from all the professionals he was surrounded by. While doing so, he managed to reshape the idea he had for his vision. Humility and dedication brought him to engage bigger and bigger challenges and ultimately led him to reach outstanding goals. He already has an ace up his sleeve for the future; at the same time he understands the need to wait for the right moment.
«Of course I would be very happy to say that tomorrow I’ll start the pre-production of one of my movies… but Hollywood requires time. It also requires high competence, experience, total reliability and ideas that make money. When a director gets greenlit and receives a big sum of money to make the movie, obviously nobody will doubt his skills. So, first of all, it’s important to build that kind of reputation properly. Right now I’m working towards both directions: building my credibility and writing stories that audiences and producers would like. But I’m keeping in mind that, as filmmakers, we have to be bearers of messages and values that will influence a big audience, in case Hollywood is willing to produce and distribute our movies. Right now I have four feature film scripts ready, all of which I’m currently looking for the right producers. They include the feature film version of Echoes and Lost In Gray, a sci-fi mystery, set in the future, and a spy/action story. All of them have very good qualities and each has its own target and market. If I had to choose only one movie to start out of the four, budget aside, I would go for the big one and choose the mystery, an intriguing mix between Blade Runner and Strange Days».
For more information:
http://www.andrealamendola.com/
http://www.indyca.it/indyca/home_INT.html
https://twitter.com/andre_lamendola
https://www.facebook.com/andrealamendoladirector
This article is also available in Italian:
Andrea La Mendola: A Life in Pictures