Beside the short duration of The Furniture, this may very well be the most difficult note of intention I ever had to write. I think this is partially due to the completely free and spontaneous approach I had towards this project: following my impulse and intuition as well as enjoying myself along the journey. The very first idea of the film came up during a workshop led by Abbas Kiarostami. I decided to keep a playful spirit, an attitude I maintained throughout the whole creative process and the making of the film that came afterwards. This proved to be an obstacle when trying to write a director’s note; but at the same time it turned out to be a very enriching experience. At some point along this journey though, I had to use a rational an analytical approach. That was also the moment when I realized that freedom allowed – in an unconscious way – for those same topics to surface that I had been dealing with for a while. The topics I am referring to are the incapacity to communicate as well as the need to reach out to the other, as well as a certain suspicion that life has a lot to do with trying to play existentially with the cards you received. Other underlying topics were the meaning of work (or the lack thereof); my uneasiness with a certain Spanish numbness and way of being passive and reactive; and the paradox of the dissolution of boundaries between private and public.

The Furniture is a project that was created by filming real people and actual places but where a targeted attention was given to introducing a fiction language. Also we tried to capture characters doing those gestures, that even if carried out in a natural way, had actually a cinematic element attached to them. I hope however that the film will be able to capture the gist of what is happening in that place, even more than the real and simple registration of every day’s life would have given. Walking this fine line between documentary and fiction has been also the major challenge for this short film. During all the phases of its production we had to aim for the right balance – in the case of sound treatment we even invented a specific working method – to ensure we were not moving the post too much in the field of fiction or documentary. The process, from a rational perspective, could be summarized as “putting a lot of efforts but ensure it did not show” in order to achieve what I like to refer to as the complex simplicity.

From an aesthetics’ point of view, The Furniture continues a working approach dedicated to characters that are not living at the actual margins of society, but are living – willingly or not – separated from or forgotten by it. Furthermore for me it is also very important to find a cinematic language that is appropriate and specific for each project. I am guided by the belief that film form has its own poetics of expression. Cinematography, editing and sound design should not be tools that simply accompany a narrative line or a description. Emphasizing subtleness and avoiding sensationalism, I would like to achieve that each cinematic instrument displays nuances as well as has a truly expressive value.

I do believe that the most useful cinematic theory for each artist is that one that is actually forged by each one on their own as a result of constant research, dialogue and work. It is as a consequence of the topics that concern an artist as well as the aesthetic search that each filmmaker is creating their own path. I wish that in The Furniture people can find two of my main concerns. First of all, the strong belief that thanks to filmmaking even the most insignificant or trivial elements have the power to shad a light on our existence. The second is that filmmaking, even if triggered by a deep questioning and disagreement with the world, might look into disclosing the poetry underling everything surrounding us. If we are lucky, if that is the case, we will be able to share that moment.

Irene M. Borrego