’89 domande a Ivan Olita – Director

Name? Ivan Olita (@ivanolita).

How old are you? 34.

What’s your job? I’m a Filmmaker and creative director. Founder of  creative production studio BRAVÒ .

What did you study? I have Degree in Fine Arts and a master in visual design. I studied filmmaking with Werner Herzog.

Were the actors better now or in the past? There’s no such thing as better or worse when it comes to time.  The world evolves. Some things get better, some get worse. Same with actors.  Or anything in general.

Your favorite classic movie? 8 1/2 by Federico Fellini.

Has anyone ever offered you sexual favors to work with you? If yes, can you tell us how it went? Not that I can recall. But I’ve been asked sexual favors in exchange for things. That I recall very well.

Have ever had to deal with Harvey Weinstein? No.

Do you know somebody that had to? Yes.

What’s your position about the legend of Kubrick making the footage of the moon landing? Feels pretty conspirational to be honest. But that would be definitely a great BTS to watch.

What’s the weirdest thing happened on set? I think the weirdest things are always about the circumstances that you get to experience when you share life with your subjects. It’s a phenomenal feeling. There you are: inhabiting this person’s universe and trying to share it with a wider audience, to get to its truth.

What you cannot stand on people? I’m very sensitive to sounds so that translates to people sometimes, like chewing etc. I wouldn’t say misophonia but pet peeve.

What’s the thing that make lose your patience the most? Waiting in line and or in traffic. Unless I have something to read. 

Can you give us a definition of art? Don’t have a great one on art but what about this one on beauty by Leon Battista Alberti? “That reasoned harmony of all the parts within a. body, so that nothing may be added, taken away, or altered, but for the worse.”

Your favorite style icons? I’m an Italian living in the US so I guess that translates in what I love the most about style. On one end I appreciate uniforms and the pragmatism of fashion-consistency. On the other end I appreciate sprezzatura and that exhuberant and tipically italian sartorial quality. So let’s say “black turtleneck Warhol” on one end and “watch on top of shirt Gianni Agnelli” on the other.

Do you think exist an objective aesthetic value or you think aesthetic value is just subjective? This goes back to nature or nurture but I read somewhere that’s objective. It’s proven. Scientists exposed infants to what we would consider aesthetically pleasing objects and people and analyzed their variations in facial expressions. Seems like they were reacting positively to the pleasing images.

If you could have a super power what would you choose? I guess time travel. 

When, in your opinion, can you define a person as an artist? Whenever they feel like one. To be part of the art SYSTEM tho, is another game. Feeling an artist is not enough. You need to contribute to the system, and possibly leave a mark. That in my opinion is a “working artist”. Can’t skip the system.

Do you think that the relationship between art and drugs is just a cliché? It’s a literary infatuation.

Do you have any political orientation? Yes.

Who is in your opinion the best director in history? Many contributed to the art of cinema. Difficult to point out only one.

Who do you think is the best right now? Ruben Östlund is pretty great.

Do you think that believing in God and not believing in God start from the same presumption about something that in itself we have no possibility of knowing, thus reducing even atheism to an act of faith toward the unknown? No.

For how much money would you shoot porn? Not sure what are the rates for a male performer but I believe it’s a job as any other job. It’s just not my job. 

And who would you choose as a partner? I guess production would choose it for me.

Do you think man’s life has meaning? It’s up to each one of us to find it. But I surely think it does. Our collective evolution and constant undeniable tension towards more and better is pretty evident.

Can you tell us the most interesting anecdote with respect to your eventual experience with drugs? Psychedelics always deliver insights. Albert Hoffman puts it better than me in a letter he wrote in 2008. He died not too long after. “Alienation from nature and the loss of the experience of being part of the living creation is the greatest tragedy of our materialistic era. It is the causative reason for ecological devastation and climate change. Therefore I attribute absolute highest importance to consciousness change. I regard psychedelics as catalyzers for this. They are tools which are guiding our perception toward other deeper areas of our human existence, so that we again become aware of our spiritual essence. Psychedelic experiences in a safe setting can help our consciousness open up to this sensation of connection and of being one with nature. LSD and related substances are not drugs in the usual sense, but are part of the sacred substances, which have been used for thousands of years in ritual settings. The classic psychedelics like LSD, Psilocybin and Mescaline are characterized by the fact that they are neither toxic nor addictive. It is my great concern to separate psychedelics from the ongoing debates about drugs, and to highlight the tremendous potential inherent to these substances for self-awareness, as an adjunct in therapy, and for fundamental research into the human mind. It is my wish that a modern Eleusis will emerge, in which seeking humans can learn to have transcendent experiences with sacred substances in a safe setting.I am convinced that these soul-opening, mind-revealing substances will find their appropriate place in our society and our culture.“

— Dr. Albert Hoffman

What do you think people say about you? This is what my friends think. Would be curios to know about people for sure.

Have you ever been in a fight? As a teenager. Sure. Always in wrong ones and I’ve never started it.

What do you think about NFTs? Wish I had made more money on them.

Blur or Oasis? Oasis.

Can you tell us when you think a person is cool and when is not? Probably a person who would have answered Blur.

What is the night you spent the most money to have fun? If I spent a lot of money to have fun I probably wasn’t really having that much fun.

What’s your favorite artist? Tino Sehgal, Sophie Calle, Camile Henrot, Francesco Vezzoli, Julian Rosefeldt, Matthew Barney, Philippe Parreno, Martin Creed, Simon Fujiwara.

If you could choose which historical era to live in, which would you choose? Classic Greece 480-323 B.C. or Renaissance.

If you could spend a day with an historical figure who would you choose? Plato. 

What is the best work you have ever done? The one coming up next.

The one you are most proud of? The one coming up next.

The one that is most appreciated? The one coming up next.

Can you tell us a film someone else has done that you wish you could do too? Xavier Dolan’s 20s something years old movies.

What is the thing you miss the most about Italy? The social, geographical, cultural stratification of people, places and experiences that Italy is able to gift you. 

And one you don’t miss at all? Bureaucracy.

If you could choose what would you like to change about the USA? “Woke Capitalism” a beautiful term coined by Ross Douthat in this article.

Where have you been on vacation when you were young? Jesolo Lido.

Where are you going on vacation now? This year I’m on a European tour. Copenaghen, Panarea, South Tyrol, Ibiza, Liguria, Tuscany and Greece.

Favorite movies? Check my instagram highlights for a nice list of some of my current favorites.

What’s the topic you are most expert in? Social Sciences.

Have you ever been in love? Yes.

Have you ever had a homosexual experience? Yes.

Where do you live? Los Angeles.

Which neighbourhood? Whitley Heights.

Where are you from? Verona.

Other cities where you’ve been living and how long? Milan, New York, Rome, Hong Kong.

Which languages do you speak? Five.

Which are your favorite places in your city? Get the Los Angeles edition of The Olita Guide to check them out. 

Favorite books? Embers – Sandor Marai; The Clown – Heinrich Boll; The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger; Perfume – Patrick Suskind; The Dance of Reality – Alejandro Jodorowsky; Letters to a young poet – Rainer Maria Rilke; The Sorrows of Young Werther – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Favorite artworks? One artwork that I loved so much lately is Sun & Sea (Marina), an opera composed by Lina Lapelytė with a libretto by Vaiva Grainytė and directed by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė.It was presented as part of the 2019 Venice Biennale in a project curated by Lucia Pietroiusti and it won the festival’s top award, the Golden Lion. It was amazing.

Do you feel envy for anyone? If so, for whom? I try to work on not feeling it. And if I do, I try to collaborate with the people instead.

The quality you would like to have and don’t have? Patience. But I’m better and better every day.

There are more and more models who do not respond to the “classic” aesthetic canons, do you think that brands really try to change the social dynamics or do you think they are choices dictated by marketing reasons to exploit the politically correct? Both.

Have you ever been offered something in exchange for sex? Sure.

If you had the possibility to remove social networks from the world, would you delete them? No. But I’m looking forward to the new social network evolution. Yesterday someone mentioned Be Real which seems very interesting.

And what about globalization? No.

Do you think you are an influencer? I’m more of a curator.

Can you define yourself with an adjective? Curious.

Have you ever had sex with more than one person? Yes.

 What time do you usually go to sleep? 10pm.

What time do you usually wake up? 8am.

The richest person you know? Is very rich.

Do you have some phobias? Not that I’m aware of.

Favorite fashion brand? Prada.

How important is it for you to be rich from 1 to 10? 8.

How important are fame and money to impress a partner? Depends on which kind of partner. But generally speaking it is very important.

And what about beauty? For a man, it’s less important than fame and money.

And intelligence? Pretty important.

Do you consider yourself smart? Yes I do.

What do you usually drink at the bar? Vodka Martini, Very Dirty, 3 olives.

Best party you’ve been to? Valentino 25 years celebration in Rome. July 2007.

Are you in favour of the liberalisation of soft drugs? Where I live, LA, they’re fully legal so I guess I don’t really think about the topic that much.

Do you think that a cultural growth is always good for an individual or do you think that in certain situations it is identified with a loss of intellectual purity? It’s always good in my opinion. Why would you consider growth a loss of intellectual purity?

If you could choose a person you know to read this interview, who would it be?