The classified ads for egg donors are often looked at with
contempt because they allegedly prey on poor college students. But
the large rewards offered demonstrate the real desperation behind
infertility.
In this vein, the UCLA Documentary Salon Series screens the
Hungarian documentary “Our Cells” tonight. The
screening will be followed by a question and answer session with
the film’s director and cinematographer, Tamás
Almási.
Following the lives of three infertile couples as they attempt
the in-vitro fertilization (“test tube baby”) process,
the film’s power stems from its simplicity.
“I had made many documentaries dealing with social issues
carrying strong social messages,” Almási said.
“But lately I am more interested in the basic questions of
human existence and I tend to make movies dealing with
that.”
Showing couples desiring to have children, Almási shows the
lives behind the classified ads.
“”˜Our Cells’ simply tells the stories of three
couples fighting for babies and through that it sheds light on our
most basic fears, needs and joys,” Almási said.
Almási began his career in feature films, but the high
costs of making features convinced him to switch to documentaries.
Having made over 20 full-length documentaries, Almási believes
that it is a thin line between documentaries and features.
“At the beginning of my career, I had to make that change
because I got no funding for feature films,” Almási
said. “Later on I started loving to make documentary films.
Nowadays my documentaries are more and more similar to feature
films in ways of editing and subject matter, so much so that my
next film will be a feature film again.”
“Our Cells” is no exception. Both the focused camera
work and attention to emotion make the film play as a character
drama as much as a documentary.
“I just want (people) to sit down, lean back, and enjoy
the movie,” Almási said. “This is a real story but
still a movie experience.”
Almási shot the film, which was originally slated as a TV
series in Hungary, over a two-and-a-half-year period. According to
Bela Bunyik, the film’s promoter, Almási shot over 900
minutes of footage for the 90-minute film, creating a challenging
task in the editing room.
“Shooting and editing are equally important to me,”
Almási said. “From great footage with great editing I
can make a great film. If either one is missing the final product
will get hurt.”
According to Marina Goldovskaya, a UCLA documentary film
professor who also runs the Salon Series, “Our Cells”
is representative of the series’ look at breadth of
humanity.
“It’s a series that runs every month to celebrate
different walks of life,” Goldovskaya said.
“Our Cells” screens in the James Bridges Theater
tonight at 7:30 pm. For more info, call (310) 206-8365.