HEART OF SKY, HEART OF EARTH / UNWANTED IN TEHRAN / TWO OF US /
A FEW BRAVE PEOPLE
As part of the 14th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, a Press Conference was held with the directors Eric Black and Frauke Sandig (Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth), Mina Keshavarz (Unwanted in Tehran), Claudiu Mitcu (Two of Us) and Ruya Arzu Koksal (A Few Brave People), all of which are screened in the International Program sections.
Unwanted in Tehran chronicles the director’s life in Tehran after her divorce and her efforts to live as an independent woman: “when I realized I was not happy in my marriage I made the difficult decision to get a divorce, which caused me to clash with my family and the people around me”. The freedoms that women cannot enjoy in Iran are many. “Lots of women find themselves in my place and that is why I made this film. Initially the state wouldn’t give me a permit to shoot it, worrying that more women would be encouraged to live on their own and single, something that is opposed by Islamic law. I am an activist, so I think it is tremendously important to discuss this issue”, stated Ms Keshavarz. She also focused on the reactions of her immediate family: “they told me that I have a good life and a good husband and no reason to live on my own, but in the end I succeeded. That would have been even harder 5 or 7 years ago; today, however, many families allow their daughters to study abroad or in other cities in Iran. Even so, being a woman means you have to fight for these rights”. In Iran the film has only been screened in private spaces, as the Ministry of Culture has not allowed her to hold a public screening.
Eric Black and Frauke Sandig spoke next about their film Heart of Sky, Heart of Earth, which records the traditions of the Maya in Mexico and Guatemala today, as well as their struggle to protect their home from the consequences of the depletion of natural resources. Ms Sandig spoke about how the notorious Mayan prophecy about the end of the world in 2012 is really not about the end of the world, but “about the end of a cycle, which in our documentary becomes a metaphor for something that is finite, like drinking water, clean oceans, forests, even the Maya themselves. We wanted to show their worldview, which, in antithesis to that of the Western world, is wholly connected to nature”. Mr. Black observed that “many documentaries I have watched deal with different facets of the same problem, i.e. the strategies of large corporations and how they affect things. If you think about it, it is kind of similar to the situation in Greece right now. In this game of power and profit, the players are always the same. For example, from the 1.3 billion dollars that are made from the Maya areas, nothing returns to them”. In addition, he mentioned that his own worldview changed through the contact with the Maya and his thoughts about how his fellow Americans have in the past exterminated the autochthons were reinforced; he also said that he cannot wait to return to the Maya villages. Ms Sandig added that “we stayed with them for 13 months. It was initially difficult to approach them, as they are naturally suspicious of strangers, but in the end they showed us trust and let us take away a lot from our relationship with them”.
Exploring a similar theme, the film A Few Brave People narrates the difficult struggle of the people of the Black Sea to protect their rivers from the Turkish government’s plan to sell them to private companies. Ms Koksal, the director, explained how she first heard about their story. “I had traveled to the southern coast of the Black Sea for another film and found out about the projects undertaken by private companies to create hydroelectric power stations. I need to say that my documentary, although it took three years to make, isn’t really done, as the struggle of the people continues”. Ms Koksal revealed that the filmmakers and local documentary organizations encourage the residents to record everything that happens. She added that in her country environmental awareness did not exist for many years. “There must be a threat in order for people to wake up and act. A few years ago, Eurogold started exploiting the deposits of gold in Pergamon and people started realizing the devastating consequences of that to the environment; then this local movement spread throughout Turkey”. She also mentioned the people she met while shooting her film: “I know them well by this point. We call the women Amazons, because they are persistent and brave; I really love them and I made many friends there, and learned many things from them”.
Last but not least was Claudiu Mitcu, director of Two of Us, a documentary about a young gay couple, as well as gay rights in Romania. Explaining how the shoot worked, Mitcu said the following: “In the beginning we gave the camera to the two young men, Cristi and George and they shot on their own for two weeks. They then brought us the material, which we discussed, and they gradually started feeling more comfortable in front of the camera. Let’s not forget that this is the first documentary about gay life in Romania; until 2001, homosexuality was illegal and punishable with prison time. Romanian society, however, still hasn’t accepted gay people, even though some progress has been made in the past years. Every year, during the Gay Pride parade, right-wing organizations arrange protests; 2 or 3 years ago these resulted in violent incidents, and that’s what drove me to make this film”. He talked extensively about the protagonists: “they are two young people. In the beginning, I wasn’t planning on making such an intimate, personal film, but they were the only ones who consented in making the film and this is how it turned out; one of the basic problems, though, was that Cristi’s father didn’t know he was gay”. As for the audience reaction in Romania, it was quite well-received, although there was an incident where a right-wing group disrupted a screening.
The films of the 14th TDF are included in sections which are financed, along with other activities of this year’s edition by the European Union - European Regional Development Fund under the Central Macedonia ROP 2007-2013.
