Cannes 2012 is doubly significant for producer Trent of NFI Productions.
Not only has he been chosen to represent the Netherlands at the festival’s
annual Producers on the Move event (organised by European Film Promotion) but
he will also be present to underline his co-producer credit on Gonzalo Tobal’s
VILLELEGAS, screening out of competition.
Trent’s track record is impressive including, as it does, DOES IT HURT by Aneta Lesnikovska, which was nominated for a Tiger
Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2009, the award-winning CAN GO THROUGH SKIN (selected for Berlinale Forun 2009) by Esther Rots
and HUNTING & SONS (selected for New Directors/New Films in New York,
2010) by Sander Burger. Now Trent feels it is time to “spread his wings” and
seek more international collaboration on his productions, especially in the
light of recently announced cuts in Dutch film funding. He is eager therefore
to see how like-minded his international EFP counterparts when it comes to
signing co-pro contracts.
“Since the programme that EFP has composed consists of a lot of network
meetings, lunches, speed dates and cocktails, we will get to know each other pretty
well in a few days, and I will discover who will collaborate in the future. I
am looking forward to meet my fellow producers and hopefully we will be able to
assist each other on our upcoming projects,” he comments.
Trent points out that his approach to filmmaking is from the heart, “a
long term approach treating people the way I would like to be treated: open,
honest, fair and respectful with a positive energy”. Trust, he opines, must be
a foundation of the contract, especially as the process of production can take
many years before a product is available for general consumption. “It’s a kind
of like a relationship you’re in for years,” he adds.
At the beginning of his career the path towards success wasn’t quite so
clearly defined. After studying economics for a year he took up a completely
different discipline, philosophy, by way of counterpart. After graduating he
still wasn’t quite sure what to do, but he always felt drawn towards the arts,
so he made a (late) application to the Filmacademy where he was accepted onto
the general Audiovisual course – “that was perfect for me, doing everything:
directing, sound, camera, editing etc, everything except production because I
didn’t think it was for me!”
After a number of technical gigs, he was hired as a second assistant on
a job, soon to be promoted to first assistant, at which point he began to succumb
to the lure of producing. “I gradually grew into producing myself because I
thought I could do it better than the people I worked for. And I still like
doing it. The trick for me why I still like it is in the people I work with. If
we are all on the same level, everything works out fine and it is the best job
in the world. If we’re not it’s not. So I do everything to be on the same level
with the entire cast and crew starting with the writers and directors.”
And so Trent finds himself at Cannes as
minority co-producer on Tobal’s VILLEGAS. “I am very proud that the
co-production has been selected for the Official Selection,” he comments. “It
is a great film by a very promising filmmaker who has made a stunning
psychological (feature) debut. I have been involved in this film since the
beginning of 2010, when I first met the producer Benjamin Domenech. Since then
we applied at the Hubert Bals Fund, shot the film beginning of 2011, did the
soundmix in the Netherlands in the beginning of 2102 and in the meantime the
both of us did the Binger Creative Producer’s Lab. So it’s great to be together
with a premiere at Cannes.”