Los especiales de GPS Audiovisual - Productores Audiovisuales - T2 - E62 - Sofía Toro Pollicino (Río Films)

Episode Transcript

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Audiovisual producers, meetings with the protagonists? Second season of audiovisual GPS podcast,
the changes of the industry, thenew platforms, the challenges that come audiovisual
producers, encounters with the protagonists?Sofia bull polycino. He was born in

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Mendoza and graduated from the regional schoolwhose cinema and then moved to Buenos Aires,
where he accumulated experiences of work andstrategic dazos to consolidate the company Río
Films, producer founded in two thousandsixteen next to Tamae Garategui, which focuses
its activity in Mendoza. Rio Filmsdevelops both fictional and documentary projects and marked

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a milestone in the western region ofArgentina, being the first production that developed
products for recognized platforms such as theIozi series. The repentant spy. In
addition to its own projects, itoffers production services of excellence in Mendoza,
both for advertising and for national andinternational fictions. In August of two thousand

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twenty- one, the Furias detamae Garategui, produced entirely in the province
of Mendoza by Ruío Films, becamethe first local production to be purchased directly
by the Televisa and Amazon networks.In June of two thousand twenty- four
he premiered the feature film" InvisibleStories" directed by Guillermo Navarro. Sofia

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bull polycino. She is also presidentof the Mendocina Chamber of Audiovisual Producers.
Sofia that attracted you from production,considering that, in general, the professionals
who choose this path do not startwith production but with realization. The script

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does look at me. I fellin love with film school' s first
year production. I studied sine hereat the Mendoza Film School and in the
first year a little did us yesor yes, go through all the roles.
You had to have a short rotatingarming team and each one went through
all the roles. I made direction, I made sound and photography serial,

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I made art direction. And Ifell in love with production from the zero
minute and realized that I was reallypassionate from the first day I had to
read a script. For me productionis super creative. I understand that many
people see it as problems or numbersor looking for money, but for me

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the production is super creative is beingable to interpret a script, first by
placing a stamp of its own andthen by understanding and interpreting what the director
wishes or wants and trying to materializeit. For me it is one of
the most creative tasks there is,not only not only the part of going
out for funding and where to findthe way. And all that, then

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I fell in love from the zerominute and without knowing it I had in
high school and a subject that wascalled cinema and that also made us short
and I had loved the process.This one' s good. What we
have to achieve, how we cando it, how we can tell where,
what instruments, what we have whatwe don' t. And that

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I had loved, without me knowingat the time because I was fifteen.
That was production. So from thezero minute I fell in love. I
never doubted it, never suffered it. I never wanted to play another role
or, whatever, I went throughthe others. I always wanted to make
production. It was this one thenand what was your relationship with cinema until

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you decided that this would be yourproduction trade. What I wanted to do.
I' ve always liked the moviesa lot. At one point I
fantasized about being an ambassador to differentcountries. They would have sung to me.
In fact, it was like goodlaw school. And then I do

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about two years to do. Andwhile I was always a little bit reluctant
to the political side, my familywas always very involved in the political side.
My dad was a deputy. LikeI never wanted to be on the
political side, but I loved beingalways fantasy about being an ambassador and parallel
to the cinema, I liked itvery much, always very much. I

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didn' t quite understand what part, but it always fascinated me, I
liked the idea of being able towork. For me it was always like
making dreams, it wasn' tlike a dream factory getting you into that
world. I was very much afan of Tim Burton when I was a
girl and he has those magical worldsthat fascinated me. It drove me crazy.

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It said, please, how someonecan create this and how nice to
live for a minimum moment within thatworld, and I loved it I say
how nice to do this, howthey do this without understanding whether it was
just acting, whether it was aloneor then I always liked it very much.

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I was always very fascinated by thatdirector and those fantastic worlds. And
well, a little bit when thisthing that counted just when I was fifteen,
I had to make a short becauseit was one of the subjects that
we had and I said I don' t love this. I mean,
I' d love to be anambassador, but it' ll be another
life or another time. And alittle bit has to do with whether there

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are questions of being different. Oneis ambassador, with his stories, with
his places. I' m abeggar. It militated a lot to produce
in the out- of- fieldprovinces and so I feel a little bit
like I am ambassador of many thingsvery clearly, especially when audiovisual productions also

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travel, it is not true,because they only last through different markets.
Yes, the comparison is valid thennow production is an area, usually linked
to the male world. Under thatlook, how it turned out to insert
you into the sector and it costme a lot, like many areas,

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surely because there are other areas thatto this day are still directly masculine.
It cost me a lot, butat least in mendoza. Something was given
that there were not many people doingfield production. Not without head producers,
of producers that advertised, especially becauseI was from here twenty years ago I

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worked for 20 years. What wasa lot of publicity, there were male
producers, of course, all ofthem, but there weren' t many
people who liked to do field production. Then it was wonderful for me,
because he told me he was forced. He tells me that they didn'
t have much choice to call anyof my colleagues, neither of them liked

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to make production. I remember itsuper well and a little bit of it
went away because I think these maleproducers didn' t have much choice either.
And that' s right, itopened my way and then I decided
to Buenos Aires, I introduced myselfto a scholarship, I stayed Buenos Aires
to do a specialization and that's where I started working. The first

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producer who opened the doors for mewas the woman producer. It' s
no coincidence that the first producer Iworked on there, and for me that
was wonderful. And there I didalways start to contact me from the produra
of field with a lot of otherproducers. But starting from there, from
that hole it' s good thata lot nobody liked to make production.

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Then there was always a little holefrom there to the jump of being a
producer and leaving the field. Itwas difficult, because there is a lot
of male producer. It looks likeit doesn' t, but it does.
It' s different the link tohow they do business in men when
they have a woman in front ofthem. The link with governments. It

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is also different with the political side. I say it' s always different
and I' m sorry and Isee it because to this day, unfortunately
even maybe there are people who don' t even look you in the eye.
But I think it' s beena long way to go. I
take account of 20 years ago nowhow I live it, how I can
relate. I too am standing inanother way that society is stopping from another

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way and for me there has beenenormous growth and today I am doing much
more. I don' t knowif it' s easy, but much
nicer than I' m sure colleaguesand colleagues went through years ago and far
away from today. I am thepresident of the Chamber of Producers of Mendoza

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and, of course, that impliesthat I have male colleagues who, fortunately,
colleagues who give other things, notwith whom we share, who we
share and discuss from another place beyondgender. Sure, sure, sure,
good. Yeah, they certainly changed. It' s a fundamentally masculine medium.

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The statistics show that. But yes, it is true that the advancement
of women in decision- making positionsis also true. Also, it'
s important now and under what circumstances, you decided to create Rio Films.
I, before Rio Filmes, hadtogether the director of the first film I

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produced, which was a few daysand music. We had a producer.
It was given that each one waslike in different places. You' re
also learning, and for me it' s not the same as having a
producer with a colleague, co-producer or so on with a director we

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made the producer with specifically for thatmovie. And I wanted to produce different
stories of different directors or directors.And from that place it became necessary to
build Reo Films. There are manythings that I ended up producing from my
own personal name, but a companyin the middle, until well I said

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no yes, it is definitely necessaryto legally constitute the company Y well and
frame everything from there with that premiseof producing different directors and directors from different
parts of the country, with whichto connect with their history with them.

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And good and so it happened.It was quite natural to say the way
and well, you just talked aboutwhat you were looking to produce with the
company different types of projects and whatkind of projects you' re interested in

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driving, that is, what youhave to have to be accepted or approved.
In reol Films Mira, I connecta lot with history and have had
the opportunity to produce comedy series.There is a Mendoza director with whom I
produce a lot, who I likevery much what he does, who is
Leandro Zulia, and he handles alot of absurd comedy, black comedy,

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and I collect a lot with history. I' m having fun, I
like it. It seems to methat they are also necessary projects. In
turn, it also produced Tamae Garateiwho became gender. I love her movies
and I think she has a poweras a female director, but admirable.
Your stories also catch me a lotof good. Today we are close to

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training invisible stories, which is afi thriller, a fiction about human trafficking.
I connected a lot with the scriptI connected a lot with the director.
For me it' s like thetwo tips. I mean, I
like history somewhere, it catches me, be it fictional, be it documentary,
be it comedy, drama, connectsomewhere and connect with the director or

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director. And that' s keyand it' s human. I'
m not saying you connect with theother person. You get what he wants
to tell you, how he wantsto tell me. He likes what I
propose, like there' s amatchina and I know that way. It
' s not just I produce acertain kind of projects, with a certain

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theme, I only produce gender terror. I don' t connect with the
idea, with the script with theproposal of the director and we mash each
other as well. And for methat' s re important, because we
all know what it' s liketo carry out a project, the time
it takes, that demands economic difficultiesand you have to go side by side.

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And it' s like with anothercouple, let' s say,
it' s really like that.And I connect, and so far I
' ve had the fortune that we' ve always gotten along super well,
I say you end up having afriendship. I have really had the fortune
to find beautiful projects with very warmand very nice people with whom you have

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a link afterwards, because you haveand we have more projects in common.
So that' s not minor.Nor is it clear, of course,
well, how much more and youassociated, not how many more, yes,
with the more we are partners.I really like what it gives,
it tells how it counts and Iemphasize that it is a female director,

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because I happened to be presenting theFuries, which is the movie that we
have together, and all the otherdirectors were barns in this line of that
kind of genre And I find itadmirable and it really is a pleasure to
produce tamas. I mean, it' s like a sort of Sara with

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Ors and the fiction that amuses meseems admirable to me. She' s
like a one- of- a- kind battle partner. Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, and besides,well, developing specifically in the genres.
No, it' s a plusfor her, too. But for

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a woman it' s not theusual thing. Let' s just say
there aren' t so many womenthat are gender. Now it' s
just a spit. Yes, ofcourse, now Ruíio Fins breaks the logic
of the audiovisual industry in the sensethat it is unitary and focuses on Buenos
Aires. However, you produce fromMendoza. Clear the base. We have

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two bases, in Buenos Aires andMendoza, and the center is always Mendoza.
And attracting the most that, ofcourse, we' re going to
tell the story where it' sthe best place for history is the priority.
But if there is a wink andan important inclination towards Mendoza, which
is where I am from, fromwhere I build and where it seems to

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me that there are many alternatives tofilm what you want with variety of landscapes,
with a capacity of extremely important installed. And today we also have a
plus that is not casual and isnot minor, that accompanies us much in
the growth, that has to dowith the cashrbat that we have today in
Mendoza and that helped to bring manyproductions to our province, that is,

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that was from the beginning the intentionto produce from the western region of Argentina.
Yes, yes, yes, evenI with Dombiz went to Buenos Aires
to work. They always ask me, and I always tell. For me
it was all super measured and prepared. I say my idea was to go
train, work, make movies,because at that time here in Mendozas a

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movie was being filmed here so muchif it was getting a lot of publicity
and I wanted to make movies atthat time, only movies. Then he
opened the way to the series andso on. But my Idera I go
to Buenos Aires, I form workwith everyone who has to work, I
absorb everything I have to absorb andtry all the time to bring that knowledge,

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to bring it back here. Andthat was always my idea. It
was never to keep him in BuenosAires, to install my producer there.
It was never my idea. Itwas always to bring everything to Acá,
which is the place from which Ichoose to build clear and which I suppose
is also a privileged place if youwant inside the country. Yeah, yeah,

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today for today, then I'm in one place. That'
s why I was just commenting orthe case and bat We' re in
a place that I insist is notcasual. We' ve been working for
years to build this moment we're going through. During all these years
an important capacity of technicians, actors, suppliers was generated and the government'
s public policies were accompanying him tosuch an extent that today I had just

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signed. Now finished the shooting ofa film that has bat casore and were
the authorities of the Ministry of Productionand announced the third vocatoria of Cashribe,
which is going to come out nowin the second half of the year.
Then it is a very special momentfor us, for our region, for
our province, which is already launchingits third cash auction and the other two

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were filmed, are finishing signing andhave been cashed in, are over.
They' re witness cases that cameout and that the numbers are very good.
Really because everything left in the provincehas been hugely clear. All that
is said, not the spill thataudiovisual activity produces in other sectors of the

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economy and society of a region.In this case Mendoza. Now you develop
products for rooms and streaming platforms.What differences essential notes between one and another
production scheme, between this and anotherformat. Well, we all know that

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the schemes that are linked to theplatforms have many more protocols to call them
in some way that mark you anothervery different production design, at times level,
at legal issues level, at thelevel of dealings and turns also of

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creative issues or decisions of common facecertain scenes of filming. Maybe I don
' t know. I think,for example, of the Invisible Stories,
which is the film that we arefor the premiere, which deals with a
super delicate theme, which is thetrafficking of people most surely at the moment,
if this movie had been made fromscratch with a platform back and it

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would have been different and very differentthe design in the preparation of the scenes.
And not because they don' ttake care of each other, but
because there' s a lot ofprotocol in the middle that makes us different.
No, and it also seems tome that there are projects that remain.
I don' t know, forexample, the Furies. We sold
it to Amazon to the Furies,but I can assure you that, as

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we filmed the Fury, we wouldn' t have been able to do it
with a lot of protocols that hadto be followed, because well, we
also made it that way, becausewe didn' t have that much money
to carry it forward. We signedit in 18 days. We all went
to live with the huarpe de mendozacommunity. We slept in a queue and
I say it had a whole designaccording to that that we wanted to count
on how we wanted to count onit, with what environment and it was

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framed in our reality, the designof production. Of course, that movie
would have been quite different if wehad had an entry platform behind the project.
No God, obviously it would havebeen more days. Surely we could
have signed many more quieter situations thanwe would have wanted otherwise. It seems

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to me that the two are clearlyvery different paths, because the budgets and
designs are different. But, well, they both have as their charm and
their ease. Well, the pandemicchanged the logic in how to consume audiovisual
products. You warned it as apossibility of growth or as a limitation.

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For me it was a possibility ofgreat growth, because suddenly it became so
necessary and so evident. I thinkthat' s the word. It became
evident that we all needed to disperse, to look at something, to laugh,
to cry, to distract our headsfor a second and to get into

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another story. I mean, itseems to me that it became necessary,
it became very evident. Our work, which out there one before and it
seems to me that the pandemic leftnot only on an audiovisual level, of
course, but on a social level. He put a lot of evidence that
we already took as natural things,not because we always had them. Then
you don' t stop to seethem, but it seems to me that

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that was what happened with audiovisual aswith other as many things as we say,
not particularly for us in Mendoza wasa breaking point in the pandemic,
because we managed to get in aplace where we hadn' t been able

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before trying to think about the positive, I don' t say Mendoza opened
its doors to film the audiovisual part, but it has been slowed down for
just a month. But we openedthe doors to film advertisements in May.
If in May if I remember correctlyand from there Endonce stopped us filming until
the end of the year. Equipmentrents, various advertising companies, sent directors,

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sent directors of photographs that were installedin our province, came and installed
here. And that for me wasa breaking point at industry level in the
province, which is not minor,because just Mendoza had conditions that maybe good
airs, that always was or theamba, that was always like the mekad,

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could not have it because of thereality of pandemic that it had to
live. Yeah, yeah, theactivity was practically paralysed. He was paralyzed
for a long time. Sure,sure and Mendoza since May did not stop
May and the pandemic, that isto say at least clear you and the

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pandemic was decreed on 19 or 20March. If it' s wrong,
I don' t remember and wemust have been a month more renado,
a month or two. Well,they made good use of resources and possibilities
then. Yes, it' scalled thinking that the future is in streaming,

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or you prefer to think about filmas well. It' s not
that I get excited or not.It seems to me that streaming is a
wonderful thing, because I think itcame to bring many audiovisual issues to places
where today we know that perhaps itis much easier to have the Internet and

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bring you some content than to goto the cinema because of a question of
proximity, because of an economic question. It seems to me that I'
m both excited, I like themboth, I think they' re necessary.
I don' t think it's the death of cinema or anything
like that, the growth of streaming. It seems to me that it is

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very good, that each one thecinema continues with its audience will always be
the fantasy of going to the cinemaand watching and this activity of going and
watching a movie on a big screen. That' s what I think it
' s going to be and it' s still going to be. Actually,
he' s not dead. Andthe streaming' s great, too.

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And I insist. It seems tome that it opens the game much
more than anything else, because everyonehas the Internet for anything and to be
able to bring projects to far moredistant places, much more difficult, I
find incredible. That honestly, yes, even where there are no rooms,

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not clear or cases there are norooms, that there are places that have
Internet, because I don' tknow just have a good antenna because they
have a hostel school nearby I saymore isolated hostile places, more than they
have Internet, because they have itfor the school, they have it right
there in the place, for whateverit is, and they can access something

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that the room has left to themfour hours. Yes, even economically it
is also more complex. Not now. Yes, yes, in June of
two thousand twenty- four premieres ofinvisible stories, the fictional feature film by
Guillermo Navarro. Yeah, why doyou think it' s worth continuing to

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make movies in Argentina. It seemsto me that we all need to tell
stories. We like to tell stories. People see them, people consume different
kinds of gender. It' salways going to be worth it for me,

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because we have something to tell wehave something to say, from humor,
from gender, from terror, drama, thriller, cop, we always
have something to tell. We lovewhat we do. I' m going
to make a movie. I thinkit' s beautiful. It is necessary
to become three zero times more beautifulwhen apart from making cinema, which is

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an artistic fact and that people needand continue consuming because I insist, it
is nice to go to the room, it is nice to sit, in
your case, of a movie streamingwhatever. I think it' s going
to keep happening and it' sreally good to keep telling our stories and
in this specific case, to mepersonally, what happens to me is that

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I feel that it transcends the artisticfact, this movie visible stories. Yes,
and that mobilizes me in many placesat the female level, at the
human level. I say a trillerthat deals with human trafficking and it seems
to me that it is necessary andthat within the rawness or how hard the
theme is, it seems to meincredible that what I see is when we

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test the film, is that peoplecome out and stay like thinking using how
we naturalize so many things in theday to day that they happen to us
and naturalize them because we go likerobots. A little bit we go through
osmosis and actually we have to slowdown minutes and next to us there are

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thousands of things like this a lotmore. And I feel that particularly this
movie, apart from that we loveto make movies and we' re going
to keep doing it and we're going to keep going where stories are.
This story is necessary and I feelthat we contribute a small grain of
sand to at least that people startto think that it debates, that what

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stops naturalizing certain situations, becoming awareis not also another one or it can
be another of the functions of anaudiovisual production, in this case, of
a film in the yes sophia.Thank you so much for sharing your experiences

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with us. Thank you very muchfor the space and good we are waiting
for you all from the 6th ofJuly in the 6th of June, exactly
thank you. Thank you so much,