Seine Pictures Shines a Spotlight on First-Time and Female Directors: 'We're Being a Part of This Positive Change'

10/22/2024 04:00 PM

Seine Pictures turned 12 this year, and to mark the occasion, the upstart, Latino-led production company released three films in 2024: the 2024 Cinema for Peace Award-winning documentary, “Invisible Nation”; “La Cocina,” starring Rooney Mara and Raul Briones, which premiered in North America at the 2024 Tribeca Film Festival in June; and “Mistura,” an original period drama from Ricardo de Montreuil set in company founder Ivan Orlic’s home country.

"Having three films in one year for a company our size is quite an achievement that we’re very proud of and have worked very hard to achieve," Orlic told TheWrap for our latest Office With a View Q&A.

At first glance, Orlic doesn’t make your everyday film producer. A Peruvian marine scientist-turned-filmmaker, he authored two college-level biology textbooks before combining his family's fishing tradition and his own love for film for a career pivot in 2012. To date, Seine Pictures has produced 11 feature-length projects of varying genres and styles. “Mistura” marks his first film about his home and features a predominantly Peruvian cast. 

"It’s my first film in Spanish, and my first film producing without producing partners," Orlic said. "We really tried to bring together in this film what we used to joke around is the Peruvian Dream Team, and try to recruit the top Peruvians in each job within the film ecosystem, whether they are based in or outside of Peru."

Looking to what attracts him to a project, the producer explained that the project needs to align with his values of giving back to the world.

"I think inherently stories do [that] by expanding our empathetic imagination and having us walk a mile in somebody else’s shoes," Orlic said. Several of Seine Pictures' projects this year have partnered with organizations to reach beyond just film audiences, whether that's sustainability efforts, freedom of speech work or food accessibility.

And the founder has pushed for other ways to be part of what he called “positive change,” working over the years with a majority first-time and/or female directors on Seine Pictures’ filmography.

Keep more below for our interview with the Seine Pictures founder.

Where does the name Seine Pictures come from?
It refers to a type of fishing net. The name is an homage to my family. My dad and his dad worked in the Peruvian anchovy fishery, and they used the type of net that is, in English, a seine fishing net. So I wanted to name my company with a name that evoked where I come from. Also, my dad and his dad before him were entrepreneurs, and I think that entrepreneurial spirit kind of continues. I look to live up to their legacy. 

What was working on your first film via Seine Pictures like?
When I had the opportunity to be a part of a film for the first time, it was one called “Murder of a Cat.” Where I had been reading scripts, this one truly made me laugh out loud and connected with something deep inside. And it turned out that Sam Raimi and Gillian Greene [producing partner and director, respectively] had felt the same way about the script, and without knowing them beforehand, we all kind of came together because of the script and made what was my first movie that led to the 10 more that have followed since 2012.

I don’t know that every small, independent company has the opportunity to be a part of 11 projects in 12 years. We’re proud not only of the volume, but more importantly, of the quality of projects. We at Seine Pictures seek to tell stories that really stand the test of time. We’re looking for projects that are inevitably attractive and resonating with people, and that in their specificity, find universality. 

What makes something “inevitably attractive” to you?
It does have a lot to do with the story, something that will resonate on a deeper personal level, where at the same time, it has to be a project where I feel that we can really be additive collaborators.

The second criteria is the attractiveness of collaborating with anyone who is already attached. Collaboration is key, and fruitful, positive collaborations are what make or break the experience of making a film, which can also affect the film itself. Whenever we embark on a film, we understand it’s likely a multiple-year journey, so choosing our partners as best we can is as key as anything else.

Finally, we must have the bandwidth to take it on. As much as we are, we’re constantly working, we’re also constantly receiving opportunities to get involved in more and more projects, and it’s hard to choose sometimes which ones will resonate the most outside of us. But we have to trust our own instincts and my own gut.

Why was “Mistura” the right project for you to explore your Peruvian heritage?
I had been looking for the right Peruvian story for me to tell, and I’ve always known that food is one of the things that really unites us. In recent times, it does feel like we are increasingly polarized and often around politics, and I wanted to make a film that was a positive experience to watch that painted my country in a positive light as it has grown and developed and stabilized so much since I was a kid.

In June 2022 when [Ricardo de Montreuil] sent me the first draft of “Mistura,” I immediately knew this was the one. It felt so right and true. Since then, it only took about six months to put the project together and start preproduction, which is very fast. I think because of how much it resonated, we were able to bring partners on quickly and it also has been an opportunity for a great creative collaboration, reunion between our director and two actors, Bárbara Mori, who is our lead, and Christian Meier, who plays her husband in the film. The three of them worked on Ricardo’s first film 20 years before.

You started this company in 2012. How have you seen the industry shift as more diverse stories are being told?
We’ve really opened up and self-examined to the point of acknowledging that opportunities have been disproportionate for a vast majority of our history, and correcting that is an important step in building what should be our goal as an increasingly more ideal society. It will be a constant struggle to continuously try to improve as a society, as an industry.

In particular for Seine pictures, about half of our films are directed by women. Just more than half are by first-time filmmakers, which I also think is important in bringing new voices into the industry.

I’m particularly proud to tell stories from Brazil like “Pelé: Birth of a Legend,” from Peru like “Mistura,” from Mexico like “La Cocina” and from Taiwan like “Invisible Nation.”

We are really trying, I try to be inclusive and diverse, but also I’m primarily story-driven. I’m excited to discover new worlds, for sure, but it’s really comes down to how compelling is the story. How does the filmmaker see the execution of that story? And then if the filmmaker happens to be from an underrepresented community, all the better, because we’re being part of this positive change.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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