10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival –
Images of the 21st Century
March 7-16, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS CONFERENCE
SAVING LUNA – CAMPILLO YES I DO
Suzanne Chisholm, director of the film Saving Luna and Andres Rubio director of the film Campillo yes I do gave a press conference on Friday, March 14 at the Olympion’s Green Room, in the context of the 10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Present at the press conference was Mr. Francisco Maroto, mayor of Campillo, the small Spanish village where the documentary was made.
Suzanne Chisholm (Saving Luna), speaking about her film, explained that she filmed a rare event in which a wild animal approached humans, wanting their friendship. “Luna, a small orca whale is cut off from his family and ends up in Vancouver Island, trying to approach people, raising new questions about the relationship between wild animals and humans”, the director said, and continued: “The planet is changing, and we must find a solution. We have to think about how this coexistence of man with the natural and animal world can work”, S. Chisholm said.
Then Andres Rubio took the floor. He is the director of Campillo yes I do, a documentary about laws on homosexual marriages passed by the Spanish parliament but was not enforced in the country until Francisco Maroto Garcia, mayor of a small village with a population of 50 people decided to enforce it. “The village has become the Las Vegas of Spain, as it attracts many gay couples from all over the world, it makes them feel safe. This little village has become a model for the peaceful co-existence of heterosexuals and homosexuals. It is a model of a society that has managed to live peacefully”, A. Rubio said. He called this village a phenomenon of tolerance and happiness, because, as he explained, “it gives people the right to happiness”. The mayor of Campillo, for his part, said that he wanted to support the application of this law as an attempt to adopt “the new, global social developments”.
