As part of the 17th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, the directors Carol Gordon and Natalie Cunningham (Following Shira’s Journey: A Greek Jewish Odyssey), Wenjing Ma (Transcending Fear: The Story of Gao Zhisheng) and Michael Galinsky (Who Took Johnny) attended a press conference on Tuesday March 17, 2015.
Speaking first, Michael Galinsky discussed the documentary Who Took Johnny, which he co-directed with David Beilinson and Suki Hawley. The film talks about the disappearance of 12-year-old boy Johnny Gosch which happened in the US 30 years ago. It was the first time that so much publicity was given to such a disappearance and the first time that the photo of a child was printed on milk cartons, to raise awareness.
The documentary focuses on how Johnny's mother, Noreen, handled the situation. Noreen wanted “to keep the story in the media, and keep the story current”, as he explained, adding: “When Johnny disappeared, the police said that she had had to wait 48 hours before doing anything, in case the child was a runaway. Today we have Amber Alerts, but back then Johnny’s story drove the whole country crazy and that’s when people began becoming overprotective. Recently a mother was given a notice and placed under observation because she allowed her children to walk a quarter of a mile to a park.”
Replying to a comment about whether or not we have gone from unawareness to hysterical caution and how it has changed the idea of what a paedophile is, Galinsky said: “When Johnny disappeared, people didn't really consider paedophilia. Today we are more aware and hysterical about the issue, but at the same time there are certain instances where we are ignorant about it. Sometimes things happen that involve matters of power, media and corruption. There is a city in the UK where 1600 children were victims of human trafficking. Many knew about it, but they were children of immigrants and maybe there were red lines people didn’t want to cross”, Galinsky pointed out and added: “The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is the first in Europe that has chosen to show our documentary. Festival programmers feel uncomfortable with the topic and don’t know how the audience will react to it. On the other hand, it also has to do with the fact that Johnny’s mother is a complex woman. Not everything is simple and clear in Johnny’s story”, he explained and summed up: “I think she is happy with the movie, but frustrated that it isn’t being screened more widely.”
A different kind of story unfolds in the documentary Following Shira’s Journey: A Greek Jewish Odyssey by the Australian directors Carol Gordon and Natalie Cunningham. As Gordon explained she learned about the existence of the Jewish communities of Greece 25 years ago. “People knew very little about the subject, as there was very little information. About eight years ago, the internet kicked in and I made my contacts. That’s when the real research started. Because we knew very little about these communities I became very driven, obsessed even. I also wrote a screenplay that I thought about publishing in the form of a book and at the same time I thought about making a documentary.” Gordon explained. In the beginning of 2014, Gordon got into contact with members of the Jewish community in Greece and even though she had already met many survivors of the Holocaust in Australia her experience in our country was completely different.
“Generally, when talking to survivors of the Holocaust, you're never sure if they'll open up and talk to you. In Greece, they opened up to me immediately and so I learned many more things”, she pointed out. Another thing she found out that made an impression on her while talking to the documentary’s characters was “the obsession that the Nazis had “to capture every single last Jewish girl”, as she characteristically said.
Natalie Cunningham came on board as an editor and co-director in 2014. She noted: “It was a very interesting job. We collected over 40 hours of very valuable material. For us it was important to present the complete picture and to concentrate on what happened after the Holocaust, how these communities continue to survive. We also wanted to wake people up a little bit, to bring the issue into the light for public discussion.“ Referring to the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, Gordon noted that its members offered valuable help to get this film made and are very active as a community, and added that “they try hard to keep their culture and history alive, with the support of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and its Mayor.”
Wenjing Ma’s Transcending Fear: The Story of Gao Zhisheng is about the shocking story of the Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who was jailed and tortured by the Chinese government.
The director explain how the idea for this documentary came to her: “On a cold night at the end of 2010, when my children had gone to bed, I found an interview of Gao Zhisheng online, where he vividly described what he went through, how he was kidnapped because of his support for the ancient Chinese meditation practice of Falun Gong.” Zhisheng had stood up for the rights of the supporters of Falun Gong, a practice with millions of followers that the regime considers a threat because of its size and dynamism and has tried to place under control. Zhisheng described how the followers of Falun Gong were persecuted after 1999, when the Chinese authorities also began persecuting him. The authorities abused his wife and children, humiliated them and took their money so they could no longer survive. They did this because they wanted to make him abandon his work as a lawyer but they didn't succeed. On one hand he felt that he had to continue his struggle, but on the other, as a father and as a husband, he felt that he needed to protect his family. “His story is a good example of what goes on today in China that not many westerners know about”, the directed noted.
“They wanted to make Gao Zhisheng an example, to deter others from speaking out, but they weren’t successful. Today such debates can take place out in the open and in courts. Many citizens participate in these trials and if a lawyer gets detained for speaking out, other lawyers appeal. This was something inconceivable up until recently. Zhisheng has encouraged many people with a conscience to speak out.“ His wife and children are currently living in the US. Ma explains: “I didn’t have any contact with him or with relatives of his still living in China. It’s very dangerous for them to speak out, but from his wife we found out that, when he was freed from jail last year, he was in very bad shape. After five years in solitary confinement with no exposure to sunlight, he was as white as a ghost and he couldn’t walk steadily. He also lost his ability to talk and read. Today he can speak again and he is regaining his abilities and confidence”.
