PRESS CONFERENCE
FILO AND MARINA – NATIONAL GARDEN
The cycle of press conferences of the 11th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century came to a close on Saturday, March 21, with the press conference given by the directors Apostolos Karakasis (National Garden) and Kalliopi Legaki (Filo and Marina).
Kalliopi Legaki’s film Filo and Marina is about the special relationship between the renowned Greek sculptor Filolaos and his wife Marina. “The idea was to make a film about the sculptor Filolaos, because he is almost unknown in his native country while he has done great work abroad. But in the course of making the film I discovered the powerful relationship of the couple, which has helped them overcome a difficult event and to rediscover the meaning of life”, the director declared.
Speaking about her acquaintance with her protagonists, Kalliopi Legaki stressed: “When the film ended and I saw the couple in the theater I realized how much they had affected me. I was so moved and at the same time I felt so “rich” in feelings and experiences from the year I spent with them. When people open up to you and trust you with their problems and their thoughts they really change you”.
Apostolos Karakasis records moments out of the lives of certain people who find refuge in the National Garden in his film. “I needed to spend 2.3 months searching for the right characters who would ‘star’ in the documentary. On the other hand, I had to come closer to these people, become one of their friends so they could feel more comfortable and trust me”, the director said.
The director and his crew spent a year at the National Garden, but as he noted: “I didn’t manage to become invisible. People look at the camera, they laugh at the microphone, and I am forced to insert myself in the documentary. I am not just a simple viewer, I take part in the action”.
Commenting on the relationship of contemporary documentary makers with the genre, Apostolos Karakasis stressed: “I believe our generation managed to record a necessary realism that was not visible earlier”.
Kalliopi Legaki said that: “The documentary makers of our generation managed to dissolve the borders between fiction and documentary to the point where documentaries themselves resemble small fictional stories”.
