10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century
March 7-16, 2008
PRESS CONFERENCE
OPEN DISCUSSION:
THE THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL’S NEXT DECADE
Issues concerning the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival as an institution were discussed during the “Thessaloniki Documentary Festival’s Next Decade” open discussion. The discussion took place on Friday, March 14, at Warehouse 1, at the port. Speakers were: Dimitri Eipides, Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Zinos Panayiotidis, film distributor, Marco Gastine, director of the film Themis, which is participating in the Greek Panorama section, Kyriaki Malama, director of the film Troubled Years, and Nicos Lygouris, director of the film The Lovers of Axos. The Journalist Elias Kanellis coordinated the discussion.
Ms Malama took the floor, and she said: “The first time I participated in the Documentary Festival was when in was created. Today it is a complete institution which offers a stage for us to present our work”. She then spoke about the law that requires documentary films to screen at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in order to be eligible for the State Quality Awards given my the Ministry of Culture, stressing that this does not benefit the film makers.
Mr. Ligouris spoke about the film scene in Germany, where he lives: “Many documentaries are made in Germany, but they are not screened anywhere. Distributors don’t buy, and its tragic that Festivals all over the world have taken on that role”, Mr. Ligouris stressed. “We get documentaries that are more interesting than Greek fiction films, and I feel bitter that we don’t have the possibility of releasing them theatrically”, Zinos Panayiotidis said.
The Dimitri Eipides spoke: “We also participate in protesting the law, which is not democratic. Last year, 19 films declared their intention to participate, but only 3 actually participated”, he stressed. He then made a short summary of the Festival’s history: “It is my creation. It started with 8,000 viewers and a few Greek films. Today we have 100 registered films in the Greek program. I would like to be able to present all the films without negative consequences. My vision is to prove that the documentary genre is not in decline, it is an informative, entertaining genre. I don’t want anyone to feel they are restricted. We have received good reviews, as a matter of fact at the moment the Documentary Festival is the third best in Europe. We are not inferior and we can succeed, if we all work together. But if we waste our time being defensive, we are frozen in a defensive system”.
Then Thanos Lambropoulos spoke, and he said: “I am very happy this discussion is taking place without cannibalistic intent, because we could all gain from it. We don’t want a Greek-centered, introverted Festival, but an international one which will screen Greek films”. Lakis Papastathis, filmmaker, then spoke about the films which were not chosen to participate in this year’s Documentary Festival: “At least five masterpieces were ignored by the official program this year”, he stressed, and then referred to films such as The Third Takis, by Katerina Patroni and Themis by Marco Gastine.
Peter Wintonick, producer, director, journalist and co-producer of the film Be like others, called the discussion useless. “We haven’t spoken about the Festival’s next decade. We are wasting our time in this useless discussion instead of proposing practical solutions, with a positive attitude. I’m addicted to documentaries, I travel to a lot of festivals and I’ve heard similar complaints. But it’s wrong to have a large number of domestic films, because the documentary is a form of traveling the world”, Mr. Wintonick noted.
“I’ve seen the Greek films, this is a good year. Mr. Eipides, you should take the initiative as far as the law is concerned, so that films are not obliged to go through the Festival in order to participate in the State Awards”, noted Lefteris Haronitis, director.
Finally, Dimitri Eipides stressed: “I don’t consider myself powerful, I have a two year employment contract with the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. I’m just trying to do my job, just as I do it elsewhere. I’ve been a staff member of the Toronto Film Festival for twenty years. I’m not a director, producer or writer, I’m a Festival organizer. The results of my work demonstrate success. The challenge was to prove that the documentary is a popular genre, and we succeeded. I’m being accused that I don’t include everything in the program. Which Festival does? I am the founder, the director, and I make my choices. According to our charter, 30% of the program is open to Greek productions. I don’t interfere with your work. Why do you interfere with mine?”
