Sebastian Buttny – Films For Kids.Pro / Heavy Mental #NoweHoryzonty

Sebastian Buttny – programme coordinator / director – Films For Kids.Pro / Heavy Mental

FRED’s Matt Micucci meets filmmaker Sebastian Buttny, who is a programme coordinator of the Films for Kids.Pro, at the 15th T-Mobile New Horizons International Film Festival.

We talk with Sebastian about the aims and goals of this project, which seeks to mentor groups of filmmakers with ideas for films for a school project, help them develop a script and then prepare them for the final pitch that takes place during the course of the festival. He gives us a brief overview of the project, his impressions based on the quality standards of the original idea and also tells us about what he thinks is the current state of this particular type of films aimed at a younger audience, with a focus on his home country of Poland.

But on top of talking about Films For Kids.Pro, we also take the opportunity to talk with him about his own film HEAVY MENTAL, which premiered in 2013, and is screened here at the festival. This was his first feature. He talks to us about it and about how a lot of the inspiration for the story came from his own life, and how he sought to make a genuine representation of people from his own generation by allowing it to be defined by a sense of humour.

FILMS FOR KIDS.Pro is the first program in Europe dedicated solely to the development of films for young audiences. Our goal is to support the production of ambitious movies for children aged 5-12 years, based on the highest artistic and production standards of European, and in particular Norwegian, cinema. We will work on ideas brought by participants and develop them from a short synopsis through first draft to a second draft of the screenplay (approximately 90-pages long). In parallel we will work with their respective producers on a strategy for financing, promoting and distributing those movies. All elements of the program are focused specifically on cinema for children. More information: www.filmsforkidspro.eu Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Grants and co-financed by the Polish funds. Participation in the whole program is free of charge (tutoring, lectures, transportation, accommodation and board, and also participation in f ilm festival screenings).

HEAVY MENTAL: A story about thirty-somethings under the pressure of modern times. Mariusz, undergoing fruitless psychotherapy for a year, is suffering from a creative block-he forgets his lines while performing on stage in front of an audience. Piotr, a caretaker at a nursing home, has a much bigger problem. Abandoned by their families, his patients have been leaving him their homes. When he inherits an apartment from Mariusz’s grandfather, he decides to make a deal with the actor: he will give him the apartment if Mariusz helps him pick up a particular girl. In praising mediocrity, Sebastian Buttny‘s bro comedy is a bittersweet tribute to all those who have run out of gas in their pursuit of success. Modeled on independent American cinema, the director uses some unusual devices to discuss the struggle with ordinariness, such as a wise fairy hiding in the ventilation system, a Japanese monodrama, and a televised archery course.