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Peer Review: Irene Baque
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Through her intimate and emotive filmmaking, Darling Films Director and Photographer Irene Baque crafts beautiful human stories that spotlight underrepresented communities. Here, she talks Spanish folklore, feminine visuals, and finding inspiration from family photos.
Who are three contemporaries that you admire?
Chloe Zhao. The incredible real stories she finds and how she works with the characters to make a fiction.
Céline Zciamma. I went to the premiere of Petite Mamman and she mentioned in the q&a how one day she decided to start making films where nothing really happened, and I loved that. Her cinema is so descriptive and subtle, that’s all you need.
Alice Rohrwacher. The most original ideas to tell a story. Pure magic. Beautiful photography too.
Above: Trailer for Petite Mamman (2022) directed by Céline Zciamma
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Please share 3-4 pieces of work that exemplify great direction.
Season 1 of Euphoria was incredible. How Sam Levinson and his DOP Marcell Rév elevated every scene with camera moves or insane editing was incredible to see. I purchased A24’s Euphoria Book which has all of the scripts for Season 1, interviews with the cast and creatives, cool BTS images. It was quite nice to see the mood boards and how the team worked out a whole universe for each character in the styling, art direction, and makeup.
I like to work with real stories and non-actors, whether it’s for a 30-minute doc or a 30-second TVC.
I grew up with Pedro Almodovar’s movies, he has such a distinctive style. My favourite of his is Volver with Penelope Cruz - such a blend of mania and magic. What I love most about his work is the revolving door of surprises and twists - his imagination is admirable. As I’ve been splitting time between Barcelona and the UK and being abroad so often, I’ve found myself tapping more into Spanish folklore and music - it’s reinforced my own identity.
La Cienaga (or The Swamp), from Lucrecia Martel. It builds an incredible tension through the whole film.
Above: Trailer for Volver (2006), directed by Pedro Almodovar
What do you like most about the work that you do?
The beginning of the process is my favourite. For my Resilience Resides film for International Women’s Day, I casted women from Instagram myself and created a kind of universe around them.
If I wanted to say something, I would find someone (a subject) to say it. Telling stories with a camera is what feels most natural to me.
I had this wonderful woman in her sixties dancing in the living room, a mother wearing her sari with her daughter to symbolise transmitting culture down generations as well as this girl with alopecia captured as she takes off a wig. They all represented facets of womanhood and real beauty, which I always want to highlight.
What was your journey to becoming a director? How did you end up working in both commercial and documentary filmmaking?
It’s funny. When I was younger, I’d make little mood boards from images I’d cut out from publications like Vogue or other magazines, and, looking back, it feels like making treatments and telling stories the way I do now.
Believing in your intuition and not getting distracted by trends is key.
Even when I worked as a video-journalist at The Guardian and I was tackling tough topics such as the gender binary, with subjects like Travis Alabanza, or men’s mental health with Jamal Edwards, I wanted to frame it beautifully. If I wanted to say something, I would find someone (a subject) to say it.
Telling stories with a camera is what feels most natural to me. Then my style evolved into bigger projects, bigger teams, bigger budgets, but I feel the essence is the same and even Schweppes’ Born Social, which came out this year, carried on the same thread.
The Coca-Cola Company – Schweppes | Born Social - Opening Doors
The Coca-Cola Company – Schweppes | Born Social - Discovery
The Coca-Cola Company – Schweppes | Born Social - Heels
The Coca-Cola Company – Schweppes | Born Social - Sunset
Your films have a distinctly raw, feminine, and intimate feeling, where do you find your inspiration?
Everywhere. I guess it's the way I see the world. Authors like Elena Ferrante, who wrote My Brilliant Friend, or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, have a great sense of describing places in specific times, which has been very inspiring. Americanah by Ngozi Adichie is brilliant. I really enjoy just how descriptive it is. I guess Sofia Coppola’s feminine visuals has had an influence in me (like in so many other directors).
I think every director has to know how to stand up for yourself in the face of stronger opinions.
But also photographers like Alessandra Sanguinetti. And family photo albums! I feel like my latest film, Can Carreras, out now through Nowness, was massively influenced by family photo albums, and all these artistic references from those women I mentioned, and even another visual storyteller I love, Petra Collins! Can Carreras recreates moments from childhood and adolescence with my real family but through a romanticised lens.
Above: Trailer for HBO series Euphoria, directed by Sam Levinson
Above: Book covers of Elena Ferrante's My Brilliant Friend, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's Americanah
What is one thing all directors need?
Confidence. Believing in your intuition and not getting distracted by trends is key. I think every director has to know how to stand up for yourself in the face of stronger opinions.
Who was the greatest director of all time?
I can’t really choose just one across all history, but the female directors I mentioned earlier are some of my personal favourites.
Did you have a mentor? Who was it?
Not really, it was very progressive journey to becoming a director, and I was self-taught. So the internet was my mentor. Lots of podcasts interviewing people I admire! When I watch certain films, I listen to any and all interviews I can find with the writer or director. I sometimes find that listening to those people in interviews or podcasts makes them more human because you find out what goes wrong and what inspires them.
People don’t want to be sold something, people want a reason to care, so directors need to be acutely aware of that.
I also think that being a big user of Tumblr back in the day also played a part in what inspires me, as well as Pinterest. Both those sites are such great places for inspiration, or to analyse aesthetics, they’re even great places to take a peek into subcultures.
What’s changing in the industry that all directors need to keep up with?
I actually think you just need to be truthful to yourself. Lately I feel like audiences want more inspiring stories. People don’t want to be sold something, people want a reason to care, so directors need to be acutely aware of that. Being able to make social assets in an exciting way also is necessary.
