Pietra Brettkelly is a documentary film-maker (Maori Boy Genius, A Flickering Truth) who has travelled around the world, refusing to compromise to other standards and opinions, to create documentaries that tell the most authentic stories of her subjects. By appealing to the core of humanity and our shared adversities, her films have won various awards at prestigious film festivals.
Brettkelly’s fifth-film, Yellow is Forbidden illuminates the story of Guo Pei, and the exclusive world of haute couture in Paris. Brettkelly showcases intimate moments in Guo Pei’s practice as an internationally recognised designer and artist—breathing humanity into a public figure isolated from Western media as Pietra showcases the juxtapositions within all parts of Guo Pei’s life.
Yellow is Forbidden exemplifies perfect timing. One that has brought two extraordinary women who are, very much, similar female forces from two different industries together of two different sides of the world—allowing them both to flourish in their respective fields in such monumental parts of their careers. Through this interview, Pietra truly shows the essence of this documentary— its desire to represent genuine and truthful storytelling. Two extraordinary and strong-willed women. Both Guo Pei and Pietre Brettkelly are multifaceted and well-rounded creative forces.
What was it like seeing Guo Pei’s work in real life? Was there any pressure to capture and accurately represent the detail in her work and what goes behind her work?
No, not at all. My films are independent, so I do them for myself– they are not commissioned pieces. So I am not governed by anybody else except myself and the vision that I have for the film. It was just what I wanted to represent and the story I wanted to tell.
The story I tell is of one of isolation and what comes out of that isolation. How a person reacts to isolation, and that it isn’t always a negative. All my films are like that; they are about isolation.
I was also wondering since your work is very spontaneous, were there any moments during the filming period where you doubted what was going on?
I had the idea on a Thursday and sorted it on a Sunday. We started filming on Monday.
[laughs] Yeah, I heard that you were eating custard when you thought of the idea.
Yes, exactly! So you know, for me it’s about dropping into another culture and seeing across language, religion, culture, and sometimes, gender. What the commonalities are with us all and how we can communicate beyond language.
It’s not my position to doubt. I am an observer, a filmmaker- observing the story in front of me. But, no I don’t have doubts as it isn’t the kind of filmmaking I do. I follow something, and I have some ideas of how that story evolves. I don’t know how that will transpire, but I observe and film what I am watching. In the edit suite, I see the elements I have and the story that it might tell.
I think that’s very strong-minded. You’re very independent, and I think that’s very inspiring.
Thank you! Thank you!
And actually, I have seen the Guo Pei works that you’ve filmed— at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne!
I went there for the opening weekend! It was an amazing exhibition! So you’ve seen it in the flesh. Because… Guo Pei has made me a dress which I think I will wear at the Sydney Film Festival!
All your documentaries take quite a while to film. I know that your Guo Pei one took two years?
Yep. My previous one before that took two and a half! As I said, I’m governed by myself, so I start a film… and I don’t put a time restraint on it. I see how long that might take to unfold and what the conclusion may or may not be.
I’m just about to start a film, and it will be seven years in production.
Wow!
Yes! That’s just the kind of storytelling that I like and that I enjoy in other people’s films as well. I like to see a person and their personality and their situation unfold in front of me. So that’s kind of what I’m attracted to so hopefully in the audience as well. … Sometimes as a filmmaker I feel like I’m working in so much isolation that I’m just making something for myself. Thankfully, other people are interested— which is a relief.
I find it really strange when certain funding bodies ask you to write a script- you know, for funding. And I say, well, life doesn’t have a script. I think if you are a great storytelling, you react to what happens right in front of you and you are editing in your mind—knowing how it will fit into the frame of a story…That’s how I like to operate.
What kind of obstacles did the language barrier pose to you as a documentary maker?
I only speak English. I speak a little bit of a bunch of other languages but I speak no Chinese at all. I loved it.
We would film off and on for months until I’d get something translated. I didn’t really have an essence of what was actually being said but I had sort of thought I knew what was going on. You can learn to read. I’ve learnt to read body language, situation, and the feel of a room. You can sense something happening within a room.
Yeah, I think your ability to do that also creates really authentic stories.
I hope so, I suppose that’s what all documentary makers are trying to do is to represent, as you say, authenticity. Because otherwise, we might as well be motion films and writing the lines ourselves. People surprise the hell out of me! I don’t know that I could write a script and get some action, it just wouldn’t be the same.
I just can’t believe what life deals out and how people respond. I just find it really fascinating.
Somebody like Guo Pei, who is this most beautiful person, she truly is. She is an extraordinary person. But then one day she’ll get incredibly frustrated and angry. And sort of another side of her comes out—the business side of her. The reality is that she has to keep things going because she has to bring in money to pay her 500 workers. That to me is so fascinating. What kind of pressure it puts on a creator’s mind, because creators, largely, are a bit rubbish at business.
Guo Pei, I think, is the only one I’ve ever met who is phenomenal at business as well. So those mini facets of a character. I just found so fascinating and so intriguing. On day one she presented this beautiful, happy, positive, and in control woman. But then, over the period of time that we filmed, there are coarser elements to her. Feature length films, they are 90 minutes—you have to have a complicated character to carry a film for that period of time. Thankfully, she revealed herself and trusted me enough, let me into her life and revealed this complex character that held for the 90 minutes.
Yes, I really saw that in the film. In the opening, she was really a bubbly and lovely character but throughout the film, as it became more serious, I was able to see everything behind Guo Pei. There’s so much more.
Right! And right at the end, when she’s backstage during her show– the emotion that you see on her face! She is completely so vulnerable then. All of the expectation and it’s not just putting on a fashion show. There are huge amounts of money— it’s art. She’s also representing her country. As much as she says she isn’t…You know, she does. Many people say she is representing China. And it’s not just any country, it’s the largest country in the world. We all, and the rest of us in the West, have our perceptions on China, of aesthetic, of luxury…how they treat their workers. I feel that all of that was on her in that moment where she’s looking at the runway— at her artwork going down the runway. There was an incredible sense of pressure and fidelity that I felt there- I thought was so beautiful. I feel like she really allowed me to capture all the facets of her.
Actually, I really do feel that you captured a monumental part of her career.
Yes, she said that to me! Recently she said, “It’s so strange that you were there! The biggest time of my life”, and that the work that she was creating was like nothing else- this culmination of thirty years of her craft. She said, “You were there! You were there for all of that!” I think it surprised her as well.
If you think of the elements, Rhianna creating this absolutely extraordinary moment and the person who she was wearing didn’t even know who she was. Those three elements are just really interesting. I just thought: I’ve got those, I have a story.
Yes! I think you have an amazing gift of seeing that. It’s amazing you still keep in touch with her!
Oh, thank you! Oh yeah, I keep in touch with all my subjects. Guo Pei and I, we chat a lot! [laughs] She’s a really special person to me! I am forever grateful that she trusted me! I think that trust is a really extraordinary gift and I think it has dissipated in our current culture so much! Everyone needs a contract and a legal agreement and this and that– it’s all that kind of bullshit. I think that it must be trust or its nothing. If there’s no trust, then you’re not getting to the core of anybody– if they don’t trust you, they’re not going to reveal themselves– so it doesn’t matter what contract you’ve got, what agreements you’ve got, what you’ve promised. Unless you show the mutual respect for trust then you haven’t got anything.
I feel like that trust might’ve stemmed from the parallels between both of your characters and both of your work! I mean, you’re both really strong female leads in your respective fields.
Yeah, I mean it’s really interesting that people say that to me. I’ve been doing this for quite some time—I’m one year older than Guo Pei and I’ve been working for as long as she’s been working. I’ve been to something like 96 countries.
Wow!
Yeah! I have amazing, incredible, stories that have happened to me or that I’ve witnessed and people that I’ve met along the way!
I am drawn to characters. I would never equate my talent to that of Guo Pei, but there are so many things about her character that I’m drawn to. I’m drawn to her positivity and her curiosity across cultures, her willingness to trust, her belief in faith. All those things resonate, completely, with me. I am, so, all of those things. And then the ethos behind her work— she believes in challenging the female and showing how extraordinary women are—the clothes are heavy, the shoes… and then she puts a headdress on them.
I think that women are the most extraordinary people.
This whole kind of gender imbalance being addressed at the moment. I’m just like—halleluiah. Because, then it will be realised how extraordinary women are and give them their place in politics, in business, in their personal lives. And gosh, we’d all be living in a much more holistically peaceful place because women are not driven by ego like men are. We believe in teamwork, we believe in being conciliatory and admitting to our faults and then also raising each other up. Women, traditionally, do not pull others down.
Speaking of female roles and transcending society’s perception of what female roles are, I think it’s really important for female filmmakers to make their mark in the world and show that were valid in this industry. I think you do an amazing job in that, not only creating amazing documentaries but also paving way for new filmmakers and directors.
Thank you! For me, documentary filmmaking is the most extraordinary form there is beyond anything else. And especially in the moment, there are such striking things happening within the form– animation, sound design, music. The multi ways that you can film a film and enjoy a film- I think that it’s a really exciting time. I’d encourage that you think on that level!
If you can write, you can envisage stories and you can tell those stories. And I think that you should. You can never underestimate the power of curiosity. Tell your stories. The female gaze, the female view—its unique and we haven’t seen enough of it— but we’re going to from now on.
Yes! It is a new age! Well, thank you so much for this inspiring talk!
Thank you! For your interest…I love your curiosity and your enthusiasm. Thank you.
Interview by Bonnie (16)
Image by Bonnie
Yellow is Forbidden
Melbourne International Film Festival
Sydney Film Festival