Images of the 21stCentury
March 14-23, 2014
PRESS CONFERENCE
CANTOS/OFF ROAD/LIFE SENTENCES/HOUSE OF LIGHT
A press conference was held on Friday, March 21, 2014 in the context of the 16th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Present were directors Elisa Amoruso (Off Road), Charlie Petersmann (Cantos), Yaron Shani (Life Sentences) and Navina Khatib (House of Light).
The documentary The House Of Light by Navina Khatib (co - directed by Alexandra Weltz) records daily life in an orphanage in Peru. Ms Khatib referred to how she came up with the subject of the film: "My first visit there was in 2007 as a volunteer. Since then the idea of the documentary was born, but I had no money. When I returned years later, initially nobody wanted to talk to me so I stayed longer and created friendships with the people who worked there. Finally in 2012 we started shooting, having the initial idea of dealing with the renovation of the house. I quickly realized that the story was much broader. We learned a great many things, which were difficult to combine and include in our material. In a way, the film was created during editing, when we had to make important decisions about what to include." The editor of the film, Ana Pesavento, who was also present at the press conference, said: "The editing process lasted three months and the audio details of the movie were completed within a month." As for what is happening now at the orphanage, director Navina Khatib said: "I'm good friends with everyone, especially with the head of the house and we keep in touch. I hope that the film will grab people's attention and that might attract financial assistance, which was one of the objectives from the beginning: to help these children."
Charlie Petersmann’s documentary Cantos is of great social interest. It focuses on four human stories against the backdrop of contemporary Cuba. 'The idea was to make a movie not on the state of the country, but about how people survive there. I didn’t want to be clearly for or against anything. During the Arab Spring I began to care not about how revolutions are born, but what follows them", the director noted. He added: "I had never been to Cuba before. I was interested in making a film in which I had to decide myself how I see the country, free from prejudice. I did research for a month and during my stay there, I could really renounce the ideas I had in advance and discover the most interesting elements of my issues, those that lie in the gray zone of things". Mr. Petersmann mentioned how he discovered his characters: "I wanted to make four portraits: one person from each generation of Cubans, including one woman and a child. The woman we see in the documentary is responsible for a blog that she runs illegally, so that’s how I managed to contact her and she got me in contact with other people." As for the title of the documentary, which means "songs", the director explained: "In Cuban culture, music is ubiquitous, which is also the case for the dissidents I met over the internet. While I was in Cuba, I happened to read a sentence from Beckett which says ''if you're up to your neck in shit, all that’s left to do is start singing ''. This affected me deeply and I decided that 'Cantos' would be the perfect title."
Politics, but also a deep humanism are prevalent in Yaron Shani’s documentary Life Sentences (co - directed by Nurit Kedar), which showcases the Israeli-Palestinian issue through an incredible family story. Mr. Shani talked about this complicated case: "The hero of the film, Fauzi Nimer, is a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship who in the 60’s fell in love with a Jewish woman and they got married despite opposition from their families. They had a son and a daughter. In the war of 1967, Israel won within six days against seven Arab neighbors demolishing the Palestinian dream. Nimer was furious and decided to perform powerful terrorist acts alone, without being a member of an organization. No one knew, not even his family, which was stigmatized after his arrest. The mother left her two children in an orphanage and left. There the children were abused and lived as the isolated children of a terrorist. The mother returned and took them to Canada, to a strict Jewish community, hiding their origin. It was when Nimer managed to visit them after years that they found out they had a father." Speaking about the son of the family, on whose testimony the documentary focuses, Mr. Shani said: "Unlike the mother and the daughter, Nimer son did not take sides. His father became an extreme nationalist, while the mother and sister extremely religious Jewish women. He realized that borders are imaginary, he just wanted to be free. This is a lonely man with a traumatic childhood and without an identity. By presenting his stance, I tried to oppose oppression and how it is included in our daily life and to send a message about all the things we take for granted but can cause so much pain. The protagonist is a noble, brave and gentle person, difficult to reach, because he is not in touch with his feelings. He took time to find the words to express his pain."
A unique personality, although completely different, is the hero of the documentary Off Road by Elisa Amoruso. This is Pino, a car mechanic and rally driver who became a woman (Beatrice) and married another woman, Marianna. "I found him/her - I don’t not know what gender to refer to him as - , through a friend who went to his/her workshop. Once I entered the office I was struck by the walls: On the one hand I saw his photos as Pino, the rally champion and on the other photos of Marilyn Monroe, his idol. There was a huge contrast and I realized that there was an interesting story here”, said the director. She said: "When I asked him to talk about his story, Pino told me that he first had to get permission from his wife. When I first met her she was jealous of me as she was jealous of all those who approached Pino or his female persona, Beatrice. But slowly my relationship with Marianna improved. Shooting was fun and the film is really funny, it was very well liked in Italy." The director spoke about how the couple met: "Marianna came to Italy from a small Romanian village and took care of Pino’s mother. So they met and fell in love, but without Marianna understanding what was happening and not knowing what a transgender person was. When they finally had a civil wedding, both wearing dresses, Pino was forced to show his ID card which listed his name as Giuseppe in order for the wedding to go ahead. I was very impressed by the beauty of their relationship and love story. They were able to build a new kind of family. Marianna already had a fifteen-year-old son who calls Pino father”. The director added: " Pino says he has three identities, Pino, Girelo – as they know him in the rally world - and Beatrice. He does not like labels. I admire his courage to not care about the opinion of others, and Marianna loves to him both as a man and a woman”.
