V2 Cinema is currently running the short feature The Soul Detective, starring American filmmaker David Lynch. Written and directed by Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro (who’s also producing with Letícia de Cássia), the film follows a psychic investigation inside the mind of a recently deceased man, before all his memories vanish. The Soul Detective is the fifth and last episode from Brazilian web series Boundaries of Thought: Think Tank. Together, the five shorts show 54 minutes of footage on-line.
A conversation with the director of Mulholland Drive (2001) was only the beginning of the creative process of The Soul Detective. “The interview was not made to be a piece of ‘cinéma vérité’ [cinema of truth], but as a sound and vision experiment, to see how an opinion can become a fiction completely different from its original intent,” says Davi de Oliveira Pinheiro. “The short was structured over atmosphere and instinct, with the use of free association.”
The words of the interviewee are edited between the steps of The Detective (Leandro Lefa) in an abandoned railway car. Davi refers to his first feature film (the upcoming fantasy Beyond The Grave) as the basis for the short. “Beyond The Grave is a popular movie with experimental echoes. I turned that around and made an experimental movie with popular echoes, resulting in The Soul Detective. I was interested in questions of rhythm, internal movement and the search of new soundscapes,” says Davi.
You can view the short film online here: The Soul Detective
