19th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
3-12 March 2017
JUST TALKING
SUNDAY, MARCH 5TH 2017
3-12 March 2017
JUST TALKING
SUNDAY, MARCH 5TH 2017
The “Just Talking” event of the 19th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival was launched on Sunday, March 5th 2017, at the “Room with a view” Cafe of the Olympion Complex. Participating in the discussion, which was moderated by TIFF’s Head of Programming Yorgos Krassakopoulos, were the directors Pary El-Qalqili (Zooland), Ingeborg Jansen (A Greek Winter), Gina Georgiadou (Beatbox and Winds - Nicos Diminakis), Nina Maria Paschalidou (The Snake Charmer), Chiel Aldershoff (Buba en Sharon) and Timon Koulmasis (Letters from Athens - Portrait of my Father in Times of War).
Following a short presentation of their films, the filmmakers shared their views and experiences on a range of issues that generally concern documentary filmmakers:
What was the starting point for their film?
Timon Koulmasis said that he began making his documentary on the occasion of an incident in his family’s history, in an attempt to explore the relationship between collective and personal memory, and also the relationship between two countries at war - Greece and Germany, one under occupation by the other – challenging, in some way, the truth of historiography.
Nina Maria Paschalidou’s documentary began three years ago and was inspired by a press article. The statistics of the human rights violation in India are staggering and one woman is raped every hour, as the director said, and all this under the regime of strict unwritten laws. The documentary follows Bollywood star Aamir Khan, the "George Clooney of Asia", who gives voice to women rape victims, through a TV show that breaks taboos.
Pary El-Qalqili’s film is her thesis and all she initially knew was that she wanted it to be shot at the birthplace of her father, Palestine. She chose the zoo as an example of the consequences of the Israeli occupation, finding there a kind of regularity which nonetheless holds back the signs of the political situation: at the zoo it is prohibited for male and female animals of each species to coexist, so as not to reproduce.
The starting point of Ingeborg Jansen’s film was an article by Greek friends which reported the situation that has developed in Greece, referring specifically to the fact that central heating in apartment buildings no longer exists, because the tenants cannot reach an understanding and pay the bill, depicting a time when the refugee crisis had passed in the spotlight, leaving the economic crisis behind.
Chiel Aldershoff was also inspired by a newspaper article and wanted to explore his story from two sides, highlighting the friendship of children with animals, but also wondering whether animals should be at the circus; his film focuses on a family that wants to preserve the culture and tradition, as a counterpoint to the rights of animals.
Do they have the audience in mind when preparing a film?
For Timon Koulmasis, every film made with honesty will find its audience; therefore he does not direct a film to please the public, but only thinks about how he can make it in the best way. For her part, Nina Maria Paschalidou stressed that the reasons for making a film are always personal, rather than audience-orientated, adding however that when a director begins to prepare a film and has the support of a TV channel right from the start, there is compromise to an extent, whereas in independent projects the director acts on his/her own. Ingeborg Jansen added that she cares about the audience and wishes to think like it because she wants the viewers to watch the film, thus she looks for a balance between the two. For Chiel Aldershoff it is important to make statement-films, without compromise, but if he does not care about who listens to what his film has to say, then he will not make it. In her turn, Gina Georgiadou noted that she made her documentary because of her protagonist, the musician Nicos Diminakis, and also because of the topic that inspired it, but not for specific audiences.
What difficulties did they face in terms of funding to make their films?
Gina Georgiadou reported that she had no funding for her film, which began as a student project and for which her friends worked without payment. She admitted that it would be nice to get funding, for example in order to have better equipment. Chiel Aldershoff said that it took him half a year after receiving the funds to convince the family he was filming to talk on camera. Afterwards, as he said, the funding was reduced and the film was shot with ? of the original amount. For Ingeborg Jansen things were very easy: she pitched the film’s subject and got funding without any difficulty. Pary El-Qalqili, on the other hand, made her film with funds from her University and with the ability to work there for the post-production, while she did not want any involvement with television networks so that she could have more freedom. Nina Maria Paschalidou, knowing that it would not be easy to get funding in Greece, she turned abroad and had the support of Al Jazeera from the start. As she pointed out, that was a lesson she learned the hard way from her first documentary, for which she invested and lost some personal funds: it is always important to have funding from the beginning.
How important is it for their work to participate in film festivals?
Gina Georgiadou said that she feels lucky that her film was selected for the 19th TDF, adding that the happiest moment for her was when the final cut of her documentary was completed. For Chiel Aldershoff, a film festival is where the magic happens, while for Ingeborg Jansen it is a good opportunity to find yourself among the film audience lots of times. As she added, having contact with film festivals teaches you a lot about your film, while meetings with other filmmakers are also important, usually because the directors tend to commit themselves to their own work. For her part, Nina Maria Paschalidou pointed out that festivals gather audiences that are really interested in film, and they are a great experience.
What are the difficulties for a director who shoots his film in a foreign country, without being able to have direct contact with the protagonists, but has to rely on interpreters?
Nina Maria Paschalidou, one of the two panel filmmakers who experienced this situation, admitted that it is always difficult when you have to rely on someone else for the first contact. In the case of Snake Charmer things were easier, as she noted, as in India 80% of the population speaks English; but, in her previous film, Kismet, in which the protagonists spoke eight different languages, she faced great difficulties. The director admitted, however, that it is more difficult to make films about Greece, as it is often easier to ask difficult questions as a "foreigner", because people respond more easily. Following a question by Gina Georgiadou on how a director can trust the material that has been translated, that is, how he/she can know it is indeed the proper translation, Mrs. Paschalidou replied that the solution, as she understands it, is to control time and again your material to make sure it is the best transcript possible.
For Ingeborg Jansen, who shot her film in Greece, the language barrier was both an advantage and a disadvantage. As the director noted, it is a positive thing to be able to ask more direct questions without being "afraid that you’ll step on a mine”. However, the drawback is that during the conversation you only get a quick translation and cannot react as you would like to, so when you edit the material with the full translation it’s possible to feel somehow disappointed that you were unable to act differently at that moment.
Closing the discussion, Nina Maria Paschalidou cited a characteristic incident that took place during the shooting of her previous film in Abu Dhabi, when she was doing an interview with a religious leader. The discussion was delayed for twenty minutes and the reason was that as this man did not want to talk to a woman and the translator wouldn’t explain what was happening, creating thus additional embarrassment.
