At the top of a hill, in the Sierra Nevada, the helicopter participating in the filming of The Snow Society was waiting for the signal for action with its engine running. It was not planned that anyone would travel in it at that time, but Quim Vives, the photographer in charge of documenting the making of the film, saw an opportunity. "I can upload?". “Yes, but run!”
Today he remembers with emotion that moment and the privilege of capturing from the air the scene of the rescue of the 16 survivors of the tragic plane crash that occurred in 1972 in the Andes that continues to impact the world, now from the film by J.A.Bayona.
“It was the first shot, in which the boys were running towards the helicopter to be freed and I was able to photograph them from above, splendid as always, full of truth. I took the photos through the glass; It was not ideal, but that gave them a texture that makes them look like the real thing.”
Specialized in cinema still photography for 16 years, he has worked on around seventy films, with directors such as Jaume Balagueró, Cesc Gay, Oriol Paulo, Jaime Rosales and David Trueba. The snow society has been “special”. Years before, in 2018, he already traveled with Bayona to Uruguay to document interviews with the survivors. That story impacted him: “When I returned, I knew all the details of the event; “It touched me a lot.”
So he wanted to join as soon as possible, once the preparation of the film was underway, to prepare the graphic report of the filming, which lasted 140 days and passed through Sierra Nevada, Montevideo and Chile. He lived with the leading actors since rehearsals and talks about them as a fantastic human team, the key to transmitting that magic on screen.
Some 160,000 images in total, of which he has selected 400 to shape his first photobook, In the Snow Society, published by RM. A large-format, spectacular volume, nourished by photographs with soul, which transmit despair, hope and solidarity; Some are raw, others are full of symbolism, all with the sensitivity that a story like this appreciates, that captures you.
“I can't look coldly at the images, they take me there again. I’m trying to distance myself,” she explains. It is not easy for him; The beginning of the project coincided with the death of his father, as also happened to one of the actors, the Argentine Matías Recalt, and “that brought us together even more.” That event, he says, made him shoot the camera from the heart “more than ever,” without fear, uninhibited. The result, he says, has made him feel like “a photographer for the first time”, despite his years of experience as that 'eye' that captures the experiences on set.
Like Bayona, he describes the experience as “extraordinary.” A tough shoot. “The cold, the altitude... Some days we filmed at 2,800 meters; An ephemeral set was built at the Sierra Nevada station and filming there was like filming in a refrigerator. We had abrupt weather changes, from blizzards to African haze, which left the mountains yellow, and places with more than eight feet of snow.”
Those imposing mountains, the isolation, an impressive silence, where “your steps and your breath” resonate. Shocking if one thinks that the true survivors, 16 of the 45 who were traveling on that flight, had to endure 72 nights in that environment.
His most intense experience was the eight days of filming in the Andes, slightly above the place where the plane fell “to avoid avalanches.” They filmed the sequences in which the boys make the extreme journey, to the limit, and reach the point in the river where they finally find the mule driver.
“The experience of those days there was magical. We were in valleys through which they walked. We feel very close to the epicenter of history. We lived incommunicado, with connection only in one point of the camp. That place, the strength of those mountains, its incredible sky and stars, is brutal; “It left us captivated.”
Regarding Bayona, he states that “it is very demanding, very demanding. When filming finished A Monster Comes to See Me, he told me that he always strives for excellence. Many do it, but I think he is above average, he always thinks about how to do it better. Filming is intense with him, all day. “I manage it well.”
During the filming of 'The Society' there was a special atmosphere. “We were a group, like the survivors, with all the distances, obviously. But in the mountains we create something together.” Now it's time to return from there. But until the upcoming Oscar gala (March 11) where The Snow Society can be chosen as the best international film, it will undoubtedly be difficult to turn the page.
