FAMILY PORTRAIT IN BLACK AND WHITE / PAPIROSEN / WINTER LIGHT / CANICULA
A Press Conference in the framework of the 14th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival was held on Sunday, March 11, 2012, with the directors Julia Ivanova, (Family Portrait in Black and White), Gaston Solnicki (Papirosen), Skule Eriksen (Winter Light) and Jose Alvarez (Canicula) speaking, whose films participate at the Festival’s International Programme.
Under the winter light of Arctic Circle, following the indolent rhythm of nature in Lofoten Islands, unravels the story of Skule Eriksen’s documentary Winter Light. It is the director’s third film in which nature itself holds the main role. “It is part of my identity. I was born in a farm and I’ve been sounded by mountains and the sea for all my life and that’s why nature in Norway holds a very important role in my films. If I were born in Sahara, then my films would probably present images of the desert”, explained Mr. Eriksen. The film records the time passing by day by day, focusing on the lights route – a dim autumn light at start that turns into a feeble winter sunshine when the sun sinks to the horizon. It also depicts the way everyday peoples’ life is affected by the light. “To me, the film is Arctic landscape’s portray. People stand in this landscape’s background; they live in tranquility, very close to the nature and peacefully and that is what I intended to show”, concluded the filmmaker.
Jose Alvarez’ documentary heroes live too in total harmony with the nature as his film Canicula features. Initially, the director’s starting point was the tradition in the art of making ceramics of Totonaka women in a small town of Veracruz, in Mexico. As he proceeded, however, he found out about an interesting ritual during which men climb up a hill and halted by ropes, they dive from a height. “People often ask me, where did the gangs, the drugs, the bad guys go in my film and my answer is that all this doesn’t lie far from those people. However, once you get to know their way of living, following 3.000 year old traditions, you finally understand where their energy comes from. Christians have to believe there is a God in the heaven above us. These people don’t ‘have to’ believe in anything. They live along with mother nature and during their rituals they ask for the earth to be fertile for everyone. They don’t care about money, they don’t experience guilt. They wake up in the morning and offer you their love. This feeling is intense when you’re there”, noticed the director. The documentary’s heroes have never seen a camera before, nor a film at the cinema. “They were really impressed when we started shooting the film and I showed them their faces appearing on screen. In a while, they started giving us directions on where to set up the camera to shoot the scene better!”, said the director.
Tradition and the past affect Gaston Solnicki’s film, Papirosen, in a different way. The director presents us with his family portray that traces back four generations of Jews, all the way from Russia to Argentina, through the cruel memories of the Holocaust and the Jewish traditions. The director characterized the film as being a snapshot mosaic, of scenes filmed by him during a 12 year period and taken from his family archive that runs back in the ‘50ies. “I chose to record my family’s story not because I think it’s more interesting than other family’s story, but because I’ve always thought this story has something cinematic in it”, added the filmmaker. The most difficult thing for the director was to keep the necessary distance from the topic and himself in the film, “especially if you have your mother shouting at you, in certain scenes”, he humorously underlined. Referred to the way he managed such a vast material, he pointed out: “I didn’t have a certain structure or script in mind. I shot the scenes almost subconsciously, with the belief that something nice would come out. During the editing, I followed a pattern that resembles narration and fiction rather than the documentary type”. When Mr. Solnicki watched once again what he had been shooting during these 12 years, he realized the changes that happened to him as well. “There are no conclusions after such a life review. Except the fact that I don’t want a Jewish wife”, said the director humorously. As he said, his goal was to send a message to the new generation: “Let’s stop being so stuck to the traditions that traumatized us that bad and move forward. I’d like to see the impact that the film will have to young people, as I made the film mainly for them”.
Julia Ivanova’s documentary, Family Portrait in Black and White, focuses on the topic of an unusual family too. However, “It is a film on any family”, noticed the director. Olga from Ukraine stars in the film, who is the foster mother to 16 orphans many of them black. In Ukraine, where 99,9% of the population is white, “there is nothing worse than being born black. The greatest possibility it that your mother abandons you, as it’s very difficult for a single mother to raise a child, particularly if the child is black”, commented the filmmaker. “Olga isn’t Mother Teresa. She has done a lot for the children, but she is very bossy and a complex character”, explained Mrs. Ivanova. Olga allows the children to spent their summertime in Europe, where families from Italy and France put them up, but holds herself as the children’s sole mother and stubbornly refuses to consent when a family suggests to adopt a child. “Olga didn’t want to explain her attitude. She didn’t let me interview her, she just let me do the filming. It’s inconsistent. She knows that the children will be free to leave when they turn 18. However we have to bear in mind that she is a woman who never traveled outside Ukraine”, explained the director. Nevertheless, Olga watched a different version of the film than the one screened, in which scenes of her children criticizing her are not included. Despite the director ‘cut’ such scenes, Olga felt like the director betrayed her, Mrs. Ivanova mentioned. “I didn’t betray her. I recognize what she does for these children and that no one would have done the same. She sacrifices her life. My intention, however, was to protect these children, on my side too. I will be part of their life as much as I can. For example Kyril, one of Olga’s children, has a very artistic nature. Olga, however, finds no meaning in studying at the University or occupying with art. That’s why she got agree when I tried to keep contact with Kyril. However, our intention is to help the child come in USA and study”. As for the films goal, the director noticed: “I wanted to show people that color doesn’t matter at all. I believe people aren’t born being racists, but they behave like other people around them. So, our overall attitude towards this subject should change”.
All films are divided in units co-financed, among other actions of the 14th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, by the European Union-European Regional Development Fund, in the frame of Regional Operational Programme of Central Macedonia 2007-2013.
