For Amalia Ulman’s sophomore film Magic Farm (in theaters in the US from April 25 and in the UK from May 16) Chloë Sevigny goes gonzo. Sevigny stars as head girlboss in charge of a Vice-like documentary crew of hapless narcissists— Ulman herself, Joe Apollonio, and Alex Wolff—who, when deposited in the Argentine town of San Cristobal, are forced to come up with a subject for their film on the fly using the actual lives of the locals (Guillermo Jacubowicz, Valeria Lois, and Camila del Campo). An artist as well as actress, director, and writer, Ulman has an immersive view of cinema, and is dialed into its potentiality. While filming Magic Farm, Ulman invited photographers Victoria del Sel and Natalia Vecco behind the scenes to take photographs. The result is striking, two very different interpretations of the same film: tender and stark, brash, and ebullient. Ulman talks to us about the photos, and what it was like filming on location.
Natalia Vecco
Nicolaia Rips: Tell me a bit about the decision to invite photographers to set.
Amalia Ulman: It started when I made my first film El Planeta. I’ve always liked movie memorabilia and I wanted to do that for my first film even if the budget was limited. I made jackets for the crew but I also wanted to make a film companion. My main inspiration was the one made in Japan for Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides. It’s a scrapbook-like publication that features, not only stills from the movie, but behind the scenes photography, polaroids, interviews, collages, and pictures by Corrine Day. Before we started shooting El Planeta I invited some people to Gijón to create materials for a future publication: Bruno Zhu and Rob Kulisek to take photos, Natasha Stagg and Dean Kissick to write. It was somewhat improvised, but I was very happy I put it together because then Covid happened.
There’s something very special about working with a photographer outside of the film itself. It’s easier to contain the film in one single shot that way. The poster for El Planeta is a photograph by Rob Kulisek. I think it encapsulates the relationships in the film better than one single moment in the movie. For Magic Farm, I decided to invite some photographers that I liked in Argentina to do the same, and once again I’m very happy I did. I love the pictures Victoria del Sel and Natalia Vecco took in Areco.
Victoria del Sel
Can you tell me a wild story from set?
I think the wildest moment in the film was the airplane scene because it wasn’t done in post, we actually had an airplane fly over our heads. The thing is that the pilot told us that he could go very low, about 10 meters above our heads, but he actually went about 5 meters. That was crazy! It was actually so terrifying because it was coming from behind and it was so loud! What was funny is that we had filmed some other shots where we were pretending the plane was coming and we were acting “scared” but when the airplane actually flew over us our body language was completely different…. We were really running for our lives. Joe Apollonio fell to the ground with all the sound equipment he was carrying, and everyone else just looked absolutely unhinged, nothing like when we were pretending. We were so terrified we couldn’t pose. We did that three times. And I have to admit, by the third time I was getting into it… all that adrenaline. The pilot asked if anyone wanted to get on the plane and I really wanted to, but production advised against it.
Another beautiful part of making this film was working with all the dogs that showed up to set because of the catering services. We all became very attached to them, and whether they made it in front of the camera or not, they were always around. It was such a life changing experience for me that I ended up adopting a dog once I got back to New York.