“The Flowers The Fish and The Cockerel”
The journey begins, Edinburgh in the background, an intimate film on the creative daily life of Mark Cousins. Director, writer, film polymath, teacher but, more than anything, Mark. Mark shows himself unfiltered, he lives his life in front of our camera, but he can’t help it, he must turn his camera on us. The subject becomes the filmmaker. The filmmaker becomes the subject. Questions, answers, doubts, truths and lies.
Director Biography
Gennaro Carrano (Johnny) is a 27-year-old filmmaker who discovers his biggest passion – cinema – when he was only 17.
He finds his way through personal and independent projects that, as he himself says, allow him to express his true self.
After living in New York City for a while, observing the people and inhaling all the creativity that the Big Apple could give him, he goes back to Italy where he starts working for fashion and beauty editorials, doing photoshoots for interviews, commercials and music videos.
His debut short movie, titled “La Voce della Montagna,” (“The Voice of the Mountain”) is an experiment of all his first times on set.
“LATE” is his follow-up project which earns the filmmaker his first award: the prize for Best Cinematography at the international short movie competition “I Corti dei Fabbri,” and the official selection at “IndieWise.”
After a period of creative writing for his new project, Johnny makes “Black Lips,” a short movie about betrayal and friendship which is nominated for the category Best Short Movie at the “Longless Film Festival” and at the “Roma Tre Film Festival.” During his creative journey, he joins Valentina Carraro and found “The Italian Rêve,” an online magazine of which he is the art director and from which it follows the production company “TIR Production."
Later on, Johnny decides to embark on a new adventure: a short documentary following the route of one of the teams which took part in “The Speed Project” in 2018: a 550 km relay race from the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles to Las Vegas.
The follow-up project, entitled “La Cacciatrice di Cascate” (“The Waterfall Huntress”), which was produced and completed between 2018 and 2019, marks a change for Johnny, both in terms of production and narrative, making him face new challenges for an evocative and ambitious project, which earns him several awards and selections at festivals all over the world: Best FVG Short Film and Best Actress at “Carvignano Film Festival,” Best Director at “Wag Film Festival,” Best Editing and Best Actress at Varese International Film Festival, Best Actress at Alternative Film Festival and the official selections at the “Dumbo Film Festival,” “Rome Independent Prisma Awards,” "Universal Film Festival Inc.," and "32 Girona Film Festival GFF."
Finally, “The Flowers The Fish and The Cockerel” is the first feature-length documentary on filmmaker and writer Mark Cousins, shot at the end of 2019 and completed in mid-2020.
Director’s Statement
We met Mark at the Venice International Film Festival in 2017 as part of the Orizzonti Jury, and then met him in 2018, once again at the Venice Film Festival, with "Women Make Film.” We interviewed him for our magazine The Italian Rêve and he impressed us not only as an artist but above all as a person. He left us with a sense of curiosity about him and his world, and personally, he left me wanting to find out what was behind his great knowledge, what made him insecure, or how he had built that security. Less than a month after our last meeting, Valentina had the idea of making a documentary about him, even if it seemed a bit of a crazy one. Nonetheless, we
decided to write him an e-mail with the subject: "Crazy Idea.”
His answer blew us away.
Not only did he trust us, but that trust became the central part of the whole film.
The experience of those 4 days spent in Edinburgh observing and living Mark is something that I will carry with me forever. While I was observing him, I realized that I was also observing myself. It opened up new scenarios for me on how to experience this work, this passion.
On the flight back to Italy we were convinced that the most "difficult" part was over, but we were wrong.
The discussion with Mark also in post-production was fundamental. It pushed and encouraged us several times to question our ideas and to seek the right “form.”
Telling about Mark Cousins has certainly been one of the most difficult and stimulating challenges I have faced so far and has certainly laid the foundations for my new creative phase.