Welcome to an enlightening conversation with the versatile and accomplished Svetlana Cemin. In a journey that transcends boundaries and disciplines, Svetlana has seamlessly transitioned from the glamour of international fashion to the artistry of filmmaking. As the founder of 610FILM, she’s dedicated to pushing the boundaries of cinema, weaving together diverse influences from her multicultural background. Today, we delve into her extraordinary career, her award-winning documentaries, and her exciting foray into feature films.
I was a fashion model in my twenties. Although, deep down I knew modelling was a temporary profession for me, I enjoyed being in the fashion industry and working for the most renowned fashion designers around the world at the time. It was a great opportunity for me to enter the world of creativity. When I was a young girl, I had always dreamt of creating my own plays and films. By seeing how shows were put on, how photo shoots worked, how creative processes materialized in the fashion world, I felt confident that creating was possible. Modelling helped me move towards my goals, first by entering the theatre scene in NYC and later on the film industry. First, I studied acting and participated in numerous events through the Actor’s Studio. I wanted to learn as much as I could and even worked as an extra just in order to see how the industry worked. All of these experiences helped me develop my own production company 610Film, which allowed me to develop and present ideas that truly mattered to me.
Art has always been my primary interest, particularly theatrical and cinematic arts. By working with different types of artists I wanted to tap into the unconscious nature of creativity and figure out what was inspired and motivated these artists to create. I wanted to understand the universal process of creative work. By doing so, I had to take a risk and explore topics that are not necessarily popular, but also could bring out the most magic. To me, it was like understanding dreams and their origins. I used all the elements that were available to me to tap into an alternative way of creating a film story. And it seemed that the result that came out of this authentic and improvised process was a very unusual and original style of documentary filmmaking.
As a teenager living in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia, I was quite influenced by the dynamic art scene at the time. In the eighties Belgrade was a Mecca for art. At the time, we had various artists from the Eastern block of Germany coming over to show their work, such as Nina Hagen, for example. Our local art scene was highly avant-garde artists such as Marina Abramovic, Rasa Teodosijevic, Braca Dimitrijevic, emerged from that extraordinary environment. I wanted to travel the world and try to get out of my comfort zone, I don’t quite know why I had this urge, but I didn’t question it, just how I could do it. I wanted to know how to speak about the world that I was living in and how to overcome obstacles in order to open up and become a storyteller. I think that behind everything visual or non-visual there is a story that is waiting to be told, and that idea is the motor that drive me to create.
Back in the summer of 2018, I flew to Los Angeles to pick up two awards at the Hollywood New Directors Festival for Adam Fuss, A Landscape of Imagination, the Best Documentary Award and the Audience Award. The reception was wonderful, and this was a very memorable moment for me because many of my artist friends from Los Angeles came down to Hollywood Boulevard for the screenings. I’m always happy to see familiar faces come to see what I have produced. Support from the art community is fundamentally important to me as it is to any other artist, I assume. However, my two following projects Saint Clair Cemin, Psyche and Monk Arsenije went through the festival circuit during the pandemic, therefore I could’t travel to the festivals and all the communication was done via zoom meetings. In spite of having a very warm welcome from the indie film festivals, I always felt a little sad that neither of the artists could travel to do the Q&As in person, so I usually had to cover up that part of the presentation. I truly admired and am grateful to all the festival directors and programmers, who were very accommodating in those circumstances, especially since I was at in Europe at the time, and there were important time differences to give the interviews or participate on the panels. I was quite overwhelmed when so many awards poured in. The screening of Monk Arsenije at the Beldoks Film Festival in my hometown right at the start of pandemic, was probably the strongest emotional experience of all. The monk was present at the screening so was his now late mother. The screening at Beldoks was an amazing experience for all of us who worked on the project, that is for sure. I was also informed recently that the current viewings on TV Insider are very high, and that is phenomenal news. It shows that the story of the monk is in a way a local story which resonates with many different cultures and has received world recognition. There is no greater satisfaction than knowing that the film has reached the wide audience around in the world. Saint Clair Cemin, Psyche has also had great international success as it can be seen in Brazil through various platforms thanks to our distributer O2 Filmes.
Zivko Nikolic is a renowned filmmaker from ex-Yugoslavia who escaped the war in our country in the early 90’s. I met him in NYC when I was working as an actor. He returned to our country shortly after and started to develop a project in Montenegro. He asked me to come over to play one of the lead parts for a month in august 1995, but because of lack of funding, the project was never finished. A few years later, he passed away and I felt great sadness. I would have never assumed that that chapter would reopen in my life until recently when a producer from TV Montenegro approached me to ask if I was willing to appear in his project regarding the unfinished film that Zivko Nikolic and I worked on. I accepted the invitation. The crew came to NYC last May and they interviewed me. Senad Sahmanovic the director of the documentary screened it under the new title “Unfulfilled Dream” at the Film Festival in Montenegro last august. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go to the festival, but I saw the film and the reaction of the audience on the internet, and it brought up a lot of memories. I found this whole experience very moving, nostalgic and beautifully done. It was admirable that the director Senad Sahmanovic was able to bring that story back to life and to me it confirms that art can resonate through eternity, as long as it is original.
There were many elements of the story that I developed years ago based on my personal experiences. It all started with a true incident which occurred many years ago that brought me close to a community that I was not familiar with, nested on the outskirts of a major Upstate tourist destination. There are many more factors and themes that are knitted into the story which gives its essence, mainly my personal experience of immigration, coming back to one’s roots, our relationships to our families and to ourselves. These are the themes that interest me and that I want to explore.
I’m still preparing for the Sundance film Festival, so it is premature for me to say anything more than that I hope the project will be well received and I’m looking forward to going there for the first-time next January.
Fashion brought me a lot of confidence and enthusiasm since I was quiet and shy by nature; theatre brought me to my truest self, as an actor and a writer, and film is taking me further, out to into the unknown. It allows me to experiment with a magical territory as a producer and director.
I go to the places where I can get in touch with nature. That inspires me the most. The sound of silence, the changing of the colors of the sky, the laughter of a child, or a cry of a bird, I go where my senses are moved. My other most important source of inspiration is literature. This truly makes an impact on my creative process, reading a great book or a poem gives me a sudden burst of imagination which I consider as a primary source of stimulation. So, I tell everyone to read good literature, and when it comes to telling your story, don’t be afraid, do it your way.
Thank you, Svetlana, for sharing your incredible journey and insights with us today. We wish you the best of luck with your upcoming projects and continued success in your endeavors.
Connect with Svetlana Cemin
LINKEDIN
FilmmakerLife is proud to be a global team of dedicated professionals who are passionate about the world of filmmaking.
