STF: In conversation with Love is All director Kim Longinotto

This series of blog posts will include interviews with directors who will be screening their films at this year's IFI Stranger Than Fiction Documentar Film Festival (Sept 25th - 28th).

First up we have Kim Longinotto whose documentary Love is All will have its Irish premiere at IFI Stranger Than Fiction on Saturday, September 27th at 6.15pm. Kim will take part in Q&A following the film (book here).

Love is All

Tell us about the film you have directed as part of IFI Stranger Than Fiction Documentary Film Festival this month? 

The film is called  Love is All. It's a film journey through the 20th century up to 2014 looking at love in all its many forms

How did you get involved in the project or did the project start with you? 

Heather Croall from Sheffield Documentary Film Festival asked me if I wanted to make a film using the BFI Archive and a soundtrack by Richard Hawley.I was delighted - it's not often you get asked to make a film. I said I'd love to as long as I could make it with Ollie Huddleston who is a brilliant editor. I loved the idea of discovering unlikely stories from the past century Also, I was intrigued to see what impact Richard Hawley's music would have when it was put with archive film. I was used to black and white, silent movies being paired with silly piano or safe jazz music, not contemporary vocals.  As we hoped, the singing really resonates with the images and creates another dimension.

How long have you been working on the project?

We only had 8 weeks to edit it. That was the scary part as it took ages to trawl through the enormous BFI archive and it felt like we had a very short time to put it together. Luckily we had help from Jan Faull at BFI and also Graham Relton at Yorkshire Film Archive found us loads of special stuff from his huge stock of films. He really seemed to know what we were after and threw himself into finding footage that would work with the film.

Kim Longinotto

What really excites, inspires or motivates you about documentary film? 

The films I enjoy watching are those that tell a story and where you can get involved with someone else's experience in a very direct way. I want to feel that the film means something to me and my life. I also watch a lot of TV and fiction. I watched every single Breaking Bad, The Wire and The Sopranos. Louis CK has been very comforting to me.

Who do you think will enjoy the movie you have directed? 

My house-mate Colin has watched it three times. He took it up to Liverpool and watched it again with his dad. When it showed at Sheffield it was in the middle of a field in a marquee on a big screen. A lot of people had been drinking and were also a bit stoned and they seemed to get into the swing of it immediately. Ollie and I walked around watching people's faces as it was our first screening. It seemed to be a good watch late at night with a full moon just outside. The atmosphere was great. We were very excited then.

Love is All

What other films at the festival are you looking forward to seeing?

I haven't looked at the programme yet - I'll do that now.

Love is All will have its Irish premiere at IFI Stranger Than Fiction on Saturday, September 27th at 6.15pm. Kim will take part in Q&A following the film (book here).