Face to Face with… Thierry Albert

Swapping his agency role for the director's chair, Mother London creative director Thierry Albert has teamed up with Diesel and Dazed & Confused to shoot mini-documentary The Boys from Ponta Preta for the brands' New Voices project - an initiative designed to uncover new filmmaking talent. Focusing on Cape Verde's kitesurfing heroes, here Albert talks to shots.net about moving behind the camera and his personal passion for the subject.

How did you get involved with this project for Diesel?

Over a lunch of course... My good friend Jordan at Partizan told me about the Diesel New Voices project and the theme 'positive rebellion' so when I got back at Mother, I had a crack at writing a treatment. I instantly thought of Titik, Mitu and Djo, three Cape Verdans I knew. Their story fitted the brief so perfectly. By following their passion for the sea and becoming so good at kitesurfing, they had a big impact on Cape Verdan society and changed the future of a lot of kids. Mitu is the first world champion in the history of Cape Verde, so now kids look up to him. They see that he is recognised by the profession in the entire world, that he travels and has an exciting life they would have never dreamed of before Mitu. It's very inspiring.

Why Cape Verde? Had you visited before?

I knew Cape Verde very well as Sophie Ebrard (the producer on this film) and I love to windsurf and kitesurf and Sal, one of the islands of Cape Verde, has been a great spot to do so for years. The first time we went to Sal was in 2001 and we instantly fell in love with the place. We've been going there two to three times a year since. That's how we first met Titik (he was our teacher) and then Mitu and Djo, his best friends.

When we won the pitch with our idea, we got in touch with Marcus and Jeremy from Pundersons Gardens. I think it was perfect to be doing this film with them. As a production company, they have professional equipment and knowledge. And they are great guys to work with!

Did you have a strong idea of the story you wanted to tell before you went, or was it more of a natural development?

I had a pretty strong idea of the general story, how the guys turn what little they had into international success but everything happened in the edit room with all the interviews.

It takes a lot of passion and energy to get to where they got to. Especially on a sunny island where you can just indulge yourself in doing nothing and getting drunk. One of my favourite moments in the documentary is when Mitu explains that he made his first windsurf with a bin bag. He cut his first sail out of a black bin bag and now he's world champion, what a journey!

The challenge was to get a story told by the characters in just eight minutes. It's not often that you would have such a small amount of time to tell a story like this. My experience of doing 60 second commercials for advertising was very helpful.

How was it to swap your creative role for the director's chair?

It was very exciting, especially because this film was very personal. I love Cape Verde, and I love those guys. If we've managed to make a moving film with their story, I'm very happy. What they did is amazing and they deserve the whole world seeing their story.

Have you been up to any other creative projects outside of work recently?

I'm working on two documentaries I want to shoot. The first one is a journey of the path of my grandfather, a surgeon who spent time in Togo in the 80s to help the people there. The second one is on a farmer in Devon I really like. He is an amazing character who lives in the middle of nowhere with his sheep and has a lot of things to teach us.

What have you been watching/reading/listening to recently that you would recommend to shots readers?

I've rediscovered Charles Bukowski (Ham on Rye), so if you get a chance to put your hand on his work, trust me, you won't regret it. In addition to being one of the best writers ever, the guy was burning inside out. Characters like him don't exist anymore.

Any future plans for more film projects? A desire perhaps, to shoot a commercial?

Let's do both! I'd love to shoot a sequel to the Boys from Ponta Preta, and take them to the Alps. They've never seen the snow; it would be a very moving experience. And I'm sure they would learn how to snowboard in five minutes and improve so quickly, it would be great to watch. So if a snowboard/ski brand or an energy drink read this, get in touch, we can make an amazing film with this idea!

Watch Albert's film below, plus the other two films in the Positive Rebellion series.

The Boys from Ponta Preta, by Thierry Albert and Marcus Werner Hed