London, United Kingdom Jul 31, 2018 (Issuewire.com) - PHOENIX QUWAIS ON THE CUSP OF MOVIE STARDOM
He walks with the swagger of an immortal. He talks with the sweet molasses of a Carey Grant-esque transcontinental accent; a by-product of a nomadic life spent in Britain and America.
When he asked for a profile article, I asked him to come in for a sit-down, that's if he and his ego would fit in a taxi or whatever mode of transportation his ego saw fit that day. And let me just say that the words Egotistical, Megalomaniac, Egomaniac, Arrogant and Conceited have never been more aptly used than to describe this man. An abrasive hybrid Negro/Seraphim (his words not mine), he came into my office and raped my mind. A self-described lone-wolf and demigod among midgets, gentlemen and ladies, I give you the infamous legend-in-the-making that is Phoenix Quwais!
When you think of filmmakers, you tend to think of Tarantino or Spike Lee; few outsides of filmmaking circles have heard of Phoenix Quwais. The brash and arrogant Angelino is considered by many in-the-know to be a filmmaker to watch. A star in its ascendancy, Phoenix Quwais possesses all the attributes prerequisite to stardom: good looks, eloquence, personality, charisma, ambition and talent as prodigious and fecund as a Louisiana summer.
Quwais decided to venture down the independent route. Grenade, his 2017 feature film listed on IMDB, which he describes as a neo-noir silent film, is the first of his "demonstrations"; feature films produced to demonstrate talent and competency in regards to filmmaking in general. A clever device to aid his pitches to film producers.
In Grenade, he plays two characters, the identical twin brothers Kane and Abel Gwyplaine. The story sees Kane kidnap his twin and hold him, hostage, this apparently for sleeping with his wife.
Quwais then attracted criticism from people in filmmaking circles, with his second feature film in 2017, the hard-to-define "Subversive" also listed on IMDB. The film is part documentary and part drama. In it, Quwais plays the part of Angelino and refers to women as "gender-confused man-wannabes, longing for a penis of their own". His obnoxiousness did not end there, he referred to men as being "predominantly, a bunch of effeminate metrosexuals and transgenders". His third and fourth feature films are already in on IMDB and promise to be even stranger than the first two.
"I'm a screenwriter first, then an actor, then a director. And, as Filmmaker Kasi Lemmons once said,"The marriage of writing and acting was always going to be directing", Quwais said.
The conversation was candid and colourful. I asked him the reason for the Basquiat-inspired suit and bare feet in the pics, he told me that it was a metaphor for his career so far, shoes symbolizing funding, and the suit symbolizing talent. "I have no film funding, so I'm bare-footed in this business. At some point, a door will open. It's a waiting game", he said.
Quwais has an obsessive love of cinema. "I've lived my life vicariously through it. My favourite film is Django Unchained and coincidentally, I had the idea for remaking Django with a Black lead before Tarantino did", Quwais went on to say. "I had the idea to remake the Equalizer with a Black lead before Fuqua did", he also said.
The man has an opinion on everything, and his ego is only matched by his intelligence. Arrogant or not, unique voices are rare in filmmaking today and he is one of the most unique.
"Filmmaking these days is a cesspool of talentless people", he continued. "A lot of these people have no business being in the film business, to begin with. They rip off ideas from other writers and pass them off as their own". Digital filmmaking has given a platform to everyone. Unfortunately, a large percentage of that "everyone" is a bunch of mediocre people hogging all the funding for their "bullshit" films, Quwais ranted.
"Those in charge of allocating the funding, recline like cherubs and bestow it onto people whose talent is undeserving. Filmmakers that have no real "voice". Devoid of imagination and therefore creativity, the writers among them might as well try their hand at journalism where an imagination is seldom required. The directors among them, are analogous to glorified cinematographers", Quwais explained.
Film funding is focused towards the young and aspiring; the rationale behind it is that they'll bring innovation or fresh ideas, whereas all the majority of them bring is a "sampling" of what they've seen before. There is a reason why no person under the age of thirty-two has ever won an Oscar for best director or best picture. To direct, you need to have "lived" and "experienced". So, if those in control of the funding think that they'll find the next Oscar or BAFTA-winning filmmaker among 16-25 year-olds, they need to rethink their modus operandi.
Phoenix Quwais is the most unique emerging voice in independent filmmaking today with or without funding.Article by Benevelous Dogood
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