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In the grand evening of the 21st TDF award ceremony, the Golden Alexander was bestowed to the film Advocate, by Rachel Leah Jones and Philippe Bellaiche (Israel-Canada-Switzerland), while the Special Jury Award was granted to the film Midnight Traveler by Hassan Fazili (USA-Qatar-Canada-UK). Check out all the awards, here.
See you again at the 60th Thessaloniki International Film Festival!
21st THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL [1-10/3/2019]
Documentary theater workshop: “From Film to Theater Documentary” Performance & discussion with the audience
An innovative workshop entitled “From Film to Theater Documentary” on refugee identity and experience took place as part of the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, organized by TDF in collaboration with the production company plays2place productions and the Greek Film Center. The workshop results were showcased as a work in progress on Friday 8 March 2019 at Pavlos Zannas theater.
The workshop -planned and carried out by theater director and social anthropologist Martha Bouziouri- was held on 2-8 March with the participation of 8 theater and cinema professionals (actors, drama school graduates, film directors, scriptwriters, playwrights), as well as researchers in social sciences, education and human rights disciplines. It is worth noting that this particular action took place for the first time in April 2018 at the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw upon invitation by Biennale Warszawa.
“This project was very exciting both to prepare and to set up, it was full of energy and agitation”, TDF representative Thanos Stavropoulos noted as he opened the event.
Consequently, Martha Bouziouri thanked Thessaloniki Documentary Festival for the invitation and said: “The context we formed part of, the Documentary Festival, was appropriate for the play; however, what you are about to see is not a film, it is a theater documentary. In any case, we are using the same tools, the same practices, and talk about the same things. Our purpose was to make the participants pass through all the creative phases in the production stage of a theater documentary, simulating the professional preparation. Of course, what we do is not a regular show; it is a work in progress. What you will see on stage is material made exclusively by the participants. It is not a Chekhov play, for example, where there is a text to work with, just stories we wrote on paper. In other words, our work is deeply experiential and in part autobiographical. The participants delved into familiar places and themselves”.
It was a two-stage work. First, participants dealt with strengthening the team and exercising in theoretical exploration and study of the so-called documentary theater, analyzing different approaches and techniques. In addition, they studied the historical and cultural moment which determined the form and thematology of this particular theatrical genre. Later, they had to co-create their own original theater documentary by approaching artistically the refugee identity and experience by stating their own ideas and personal stories. This material, through creative reconstruction, became the show’s content in the form of a theatrical lectern / work in progress which was worked through intense rehearsals.
Consequently, the show was presented to the audience. The stories that participants chose to narrate on stage are purely experiential and include various situations and accounts dealing with the refugee issue. Some of the experiential stories they worked and presented by the team were about a ghost passenger in a trip from Thessaloniki to Belgrade, a refugee cat who had lived in Idomeni, a vlogger blending the secrets of a reality show with the story of refugee transitions, a Greek-Cypriot who discovers that a settler lives in his house at the Green Line, as well as a young girl who lives opposite a refugee-immigrant hotspot
After the show, Mrs Bouziouri and the participants’ team discussed with the audience. Asked about their experience in participating in the project, they all agreed that it was an unprecedented process, even for those who are familiar with theater. They became involved in a creative, yet complex condition which was formed gradually, but was presented on stage in a short time. “We didn’t have enough time, since we had to understand what theater documentary is and then build our stories, work on them and rehearse. Personally, I am proud not just of me, but of the whole team, since we managed to present a show and really shine”, one of the participants said. On her part, another participant noted that the project’s title was what drew her attention in the first place: “What we experienced was for me 100% real. I think film documentaries are very good, they have the eye and the camera, but what comes out in theater is totally real. We had to work on real stories born through a real theatrical process”.
On her part, Mrs Bouziouri said: “All this happened because we trusted one another and felt safe and warm enough to share such a sensitive material. In theater documentary it’s not obvious that we take from people their stories, considering that these stories are coming from us and it is us who materialize them. I want to say a big thank you to the team for devoting themselves to what we did”.
Asked whether studies or special preparation is needed to play in such a performance, the participants noted that “the most important elements in this process are the trust we built between us, and the guidance we received by our director”. They were also asked whether it is necessary in a documentary -even in theater- to make rehearsals, and if ethical issues came up regarding the material. “Rehearsals, since we are talking about theater, are necessary. As to ethical issues coming up, it is clear that our stories come from personal experiences, therefore the motives for each one of us depended on how they felt or how they imagine these stories. It is similar to recognizing ourselves, since we often see in there how we or people around us reacted to things. It is not a matter of ethics”, Mrs Bouziouri noted: “The most difficult part in this process is connecting to people and handle their stories in such a way that you ultimately feel OK with yourself”.
The workshop
General coordinator: Martha Bouziouri
Assistant: Paraskevi Lipimenou
Participants:
Valentina Michail
Rea Samaropoulou
Panagiotis Tsilingiris
Eva Oikonomou Vamvaka
Maya Lukic
Katerina Maya Andrianou
Konstantinos Mantsos
Haris Pagonidou
21st THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL [1-10/3/2019]
Moving Docs presentation
Moving Docs conference, which took place as part of Agora Doc Market of the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, concluded on Saturday 9 March 2019 in Takis Kanellopoulos theater, located at the Cinema Museum. During the annual workshop for the promotion of documentaries, the 20 collaborating organizations had had the opportunity to discover, under specialists’ guidance, the best strategies to marketing and distributing selected documentaries, as well as approaching the target audience. Moving Docs is an initiative under the guidance of European Documentary Network (EDN) funded by Creative Europe Media program. Its purpose is to create resourceful promotion strategies and enable urban, non-European audience to enjoy regular documentary screenings through a variety of means.
The two working groups that were formed in the process presented their own case studies, each one mainly focused on one documentary. The first group focused on the documentary Push by Fredrik Gertten, describing the global real estate crisis, which combined with the broader economic crisis pushes wages down and sharply increases rents. The working group made the following conclusions:
The particular documentary’s expected audience:
Institutions with which collaboration could build for the promotion of the particular documentary:
Actions that could assist in promoting the particular documentary:
The second group mainly focused on the documentary Citizen Europe by Angeliki Aristomenopoulou and Andreas Apostolidis, whose subject is the impact of Erasmus program (the European mobility program which was established for academic purposes, but has now extended to include various sectors) to the EU citizens. This working group made the following conclusions:
Expected audience for the particular documentary:
Issues to consider which could be connected to the project:
Institutions for possible collaboration with the aim of promoting the particular documentary:
Actions for the promotion of this particular documentary
The two working groups also focused in two more projects: the documentary Sakawa by Belgian film director Ben Asamoah and the award-winning The Silence of Others by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar, screening at the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.
21st THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL [1-10/3/2019]
Market Talks
Greek Documentary Association: The Future of Documentary in Our Region
What is the future of documentary in Southeastern Europe? Which are the structures and institutions boosting documentary production in each country? Which actions and programs support documentaries? What steps can the region’s filmmakers make to build common ground for collaboration? These are some of the main points in the discussion that took place on Thursday 7 March 2019 at Warehouse C, as part of the “Market Talks” session of the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.
The event was organized by the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and the Greek Documentary Association (GDA) and moderated by DGA president, director Marianna Economou. Katarzyna Wilk from Polish Docs, Ana Otasević from Doc Serbia, Neda Milanova from Balkan Documentary Center (Bulgaria), Patrizia Mancini, International Development Officer of Sunny Side of the Doc (France), as well as the producer Rea Apostolides from GDA, were the speakers. Vassilis Kosmopoulos, the general director of Greek Film Centre, was on the panel as well.
Marianna Economou thanked TDF and especially the head of Agora Yianna Sarri, for the collaboration and went on to note: “The idea for this meeting came from the need to reach beyond borders and seek people and organizations we can join forces and collaborate with in co-production. GDA is a new organization. It was founded in 2013 by professional filmmakers sharing the same passion for documentaries and wishing for Greek documentary to open its wings; the goal is to boost documentary popularity and viewership in the broader region. While documentary funding and distribution becomes more and more difficult, we believe that Europe and our region have many opportunities to showcase new filmmakers. That’s why we organized this meeting, to exchange ideas and experiences which may lead to possible partnerships”.
The speakers shared their experiences through the actions and initiatives they support with the aim of boosting documentary. Katarzyna Wilk spoke first, presenting Polish Docs: “It is a project by the non-profit organization Krakow Film Foundation, based in Krakow, Poland. It is associated with Krakow Film Festival, one of the oldest short film, animation and documentary festivals in Europe. Our need to boost Polish documentary was born in this particular festival. In the last few years we have screened many great films and sought ways to increase our reach worldwide. Krakow Film Foundation has similar funding programs. We have also founded KFF Sales & Promotion to promote these films in international festivals and film markets. With Polish Docs we are trying to showcase Polish documentaries through special screenings, retrospectives, film directors and producers’ presentation and promotion in festivals and markets. This year we launched a new initiative in collaboration with Polish TV called Polish Docs Pro, with the aim of promoting Polish documentaries to the world”.
Ana Otasević was the next to speak. She talked about Doc Serbia, noting that: “It is a relatively new organization; however we are satisfied with its effectiveness in such a short time. At first we turned to Film Center Serbia to showcase the significance of documentaries, and managed to disjoin fiction and documentary productions funding. Another victory was the level of funding. This support is starting to bear fruits and both films and their makers have reached international festivals and received awards in the last few years. We have now documentaries made in China, Brazil, the Middle East, and this is new to us. We try to be realistic, think creatively and recognize that directors play a major role in their films”.
Patricia Mancini made a short presentation of Sunny Side of the Doc, noting that it is a professionals-only market which promotes co-productions and the selling of films. As she added, “The event takes place every June in the last 30 years at the French city La Rochelle and lasts five days, hosting 2,000 film professionals, as well as film commissioners, TV networks and cultural institutions. During the event, five different pitching sessions are held on culture, society, science, history, the environment, etc. Every day we host a meeting session for film professionals and the institutions, as well as open discussions and workshops. Our guests have the chance to meet these professionals and engage in profitable deals and collaborations. Since 2017 we have set up a special section on filmmakers’ interaction and contact with new technological tools and digital technology, consisting of separate market, screening and installation sections addressing cultural organizations in search of new ways to give shape to and promote their content through documentary”.
Neda Milanova from Balkan Documentary Center explained its actions towards film professionals: “Our goal is to make collaborations and promote documentaries in the international film market. In the last few years we realized that there is need for new filmmakers, but no field for their education and support. Therefore, we decided to support new documentary filmmakers from our region. We are also interested in their education and training, while we also have a pitching forum where anyone interested can find co-funding suggestions and win a monetary prize. Last but not least, we have the domestic market where all projects are being presented and productions dealing with Balkans can participate in”.
Following Mrs Milanova’s comments, Rea Apostolides talked about the significance of collaborations and co-productions with foreign companies, noting: “As a filmmaker and producer, I have to say that co-production is the only alternative in order to make films of the highest-quality content and thematology. However, despite what the speakers said before about public supporting structures at co-production level, there is no such thing in Greece”.
On that point, Vassilis Kosmopoulos made mention of the ways that Greek Film Centre supports documentaries. “We deal with the regulation relating to funding programs, which is under revision as to the part concerning documentaries. In this revision we plan to include documentaries in the minority co-production support program. Also, since there is a lack of production planning, we intend to either include or adapt this part especially for documentaries. We want to give equal emphasis on documentary and fiction films in all our funding programs”, Mr Kosmopoulos said.
He explained that there is a broader tendency in Europe to encourage collaborations and co-productions between countries, and stressed: “In the first half of 2019, the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union is dealing with enhancing collaboration through co-productions in the audiovisual sector. In fact, we are invited to take part as an institution to a conference that will be held in about two weeks. In a regional level, we have a very good relationship with the other film centers of the region and the relative initiatives. We are trying to adjust the support framework in order to improve the conditions of collaboration with the rest of the European institutions. Our purpose is give priority to co-productions with neighboring Balkan film centers. In fact, we are discussing the possibility of bilateral or trilateral cooperation with the other countries”. As to the time horizon of evaluating the proposals submitted to GFC, Mr Kosmopoulos noted that previously this process was slow. However, “this is not the case anymore; now we can evaluate proposals submitted 11 months earlier, and we estimate that we will soon be able to respond and evaluate them almost promptly”.
Consequently, proposals were made as to funding programs for films coming from the speakers’ countries. These programs’ traits are different as to priorities, but have similarities as well. In particular, in Poland, Italy and France, co-productions may refer to film center or even TV network funding, depending on whether they are relatively minor co-productions or their producers and filmmakers come from these countries. The films’ theme vary, since in Poland, i.e., they focus on global matters, in Italy or France they are interested in particular subjects (environment, climate change, sciences, etc), while in Bulgaria they focus on stories of local interest.
Madeleine Avramoussis, commissioning director at French TV channel Arte France, intervened to talk about the significance of cross-national collaboration. “Arte, based in Strasbourg, is a network in the heart of the EU, in a region bordering many countries. For a number of years we conduct programs that support co-productions in neighboring countries. Filmmakers can connect to the network and get in touch with producers participating in it. These contacts could be the basis for a new round of collaborations with the appropriate EU funding tools within the region. That’s how we started as well. We are a TV network which is the fruit of two countries’ synergies and co-productions. Another project of ours is Grande Documentaire, a special fund where German and French institutions assume major productions such as a historical series, a fiction or a documentary film. My advice to filmmakers is to address the organizations which provide funding in each country and start a round of contacts and collaborations with the other countries. The most important is to build a regional cooperation platform”.
21st THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL [1-10/3/2019]
Documentary screening: Restless from the tribute “The Paper Chase”
The audience of the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival had the chance to attend the very emotional screening of the documentary Restless by Bernard Attal, on Friday March 8th 2019, at Tonia Marketaki theater. The film, which had its international premiere in Thessaloniki, is part of the “The Paper Chase” tribute, held in this year’s edition, presenting admission-free five films that deal with various aspects and dimensions of the global phenomenon of bureaucracy.
Restless unfolds the story of a father desperately seeking the traces of his son, who has shown no signs of life since his arrest by the military police in the Brazilian favelas. His research had to go through hell and high water, as he came up against an indifferent, mazy and corrupt-ridden system that turns a blind eye to police violence. The father of the missing child even today expects justice to be rendered, as well as the exemplary punishment of the crime’s perpetrators.
The film’s director Bernard Attal, who granted the screening with his presence, invited the father of the unfortunate young man, and the documentary’s main protagonist, on stage right after the end of the screening. In a particularly emotional moment, the audience gave a standing ovation, while some of the spectators rushed to embrace the father, who burst into tears. Bernard Attal noted that the case is still pending, as it was referred to civil courts. Unfortunately, following the election of Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil’s presidency, the case will be tried in a martial court.
“The film has kicked off in the festival circuit and we are currently striving for its distribution in Brazil somewhere along this year. Moreover, we have made certain efforts, to this point fruitless, so that the film would be screened in police stations”, explained Mr Attal.
When asked about the reactions on the part the oppressed communities in relation to incidents of police brutality, Mr Attal replied that the bond of trust between these communities and the police seems irreversibly disrupted. People no longer feel protected, even when the police are rightfully trying to implement the law, such as in drug-related robberies. Mr Attal went on to confirm that some organizations and citizen groups that cope with such incidents –the director made a special reference to the Bahia Bar Association- do exist, but added that sadly enough, the largest part of the society is completely indifferent. “I wanted to include in the film a similar incident that occurred in the USA, in order to highlight the difference in reactions between the two countries. In Geovane’s funeral, no artist or politicians were present, only a few relatives. No mass mobilization was aroused and the investigation grew widespread thanks to the persistence shown by Geovane’s father and a local newspaper, whose journalists, obviously, received a lot of threats, up to a point they were afraid of going out at night. No other local newspaper, except the one I mentioned, considered the incident worth of mentioning. Unfortunately, this is the rule that applies in Brazil”, noted the filmmaker.
As far as the Brazilian’s society overall reaction to the incident, Bernard Attal mentioned that Brazilian citizens are torn. There is a large majority that, due to high delinquency rates in the country, justifies police violence, even though statistics demonstrate that this approach leads nowhere. The director as well as the newspaper that covered the incident, received tons of e-mails by citizens who supported the use of such barbaric violence, as the one portrayed in the documentary, stating that Geovane deserved to die. “To make this clear to you, the chart that is included in the film displays that more than 4,000 people die each year in Brazil due to police violence, but it is not updated. This year we are talking about 5,000-6,000 murders already, since President Bonlsonaro’s newly voted laws pave the way for further violation of human rights. The bad thing is that the police officers themselves, most of whom are black, do not care about it. They do not understand that they are part of a system that serves mainly Brazil’s white elite. They have no conscience of their identity”, added Mr Attal.
Closing the emotionally charged conversation, the director pointed out that there is a great need to react to these phenomena and urgently demand respect of fundamental human rights. “Perhaps we need to move on with boycotting economics. However, we must do everything in our power to fight against violence, racism or discrimination, Bernard Atal concluded, amidst applause.
The tribute “The Paper Chase” is financed by the Operational Program “Public Administration Reform” and co-funded by the European Union (European Social Fund) and national funds. All venues that host the screenings of the tribute “The Paper Chase” are accessible to people with disabilities. Free Admission - Zero value ticket is required for your admission to the screening.
21st THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL [1-10/3/2019]
Documentary screening: Open to the Public from the tribute “The Paper Chase”
The audience at the 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival had the chance to watch the documentary Open to the Public by Silvia Bellotti on Thursday 7 March 2019 at Tonia Marketaki theater. The film is part of the tribute “The Paper Chase” held in this year’s TDF edition, which screens, admission-free, five films that deal with various aspects and dimensions of the global phenomenon of bureaucracy.
The documentary Open to the Public focuses on everyday life at the premises of the Independent Institute for Public Housing (IACP) of Naples, Italy, and sheds light to the complicate bureaucratic mechanisms, as well as the human stories that unfold there. The film’s producer Antonella Di Nocera attended the screening and talked with the audience. She thanked the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival for the invitation and explained that the main contributors to this film are three female students from Naples film school. As she noted, “These three girls made this film in the context of their traineeship. I am the producer and their school director. Our aim was to give young people the chance to reflect their own view on things. Silvia’s idea was to make a film on how bureaucracy can coexist with humaneness. In Naples, people express their emotions loudly, and this was reflected in the film. We are very happy of the result, and the fact that the film is traveling in all over the world”.
Asked about the size of bureaucracy in Italy and whether similar phenomena exist at the north of the country, Mrs Di Nocera replied that bureaucracy is huge throughout the country, but “in South Italy there are employees who try to find solutions, sometimes bypassing the law”.
The audience was impressed by a particular character in the film, Salvatore, a civil servant who helps people willingly and selflessly. Mrs Di Nocera commented that “this is the same Salvatore we met and recorded. This is what the director saw. This public servant works there for 40 years. Perhaps it is not that obvious, but that’s the human-employee model she wanted to show”.
The audience also asked the producer whether there is e-governance in Italy and at what level, and how often do citizens appeal against the State when there is no progress in resolving their cases. “The institute where the film unfolds is peripheral, it’s not directly ‘the State’. I don’t know if the particular citizens would protest or do something agains the State for a number of reasons, i.e. they come from lower social strata. In addition, the cost of such a legal procedure is huge, and let’s not forget that it’s also a question of culture, since these people feel that if they did something like this, they could lose whatever they have gained”.
The tribute “The Paper Chase” is financed by the Operational Program “Public Administration Reform” and co-funded by the European Union (European Social Fund) and national funds. All venues that host the screenings of the tribute “The Paper Chase” are accessible to people with disabilities. Free Admission - Zero value ticket is required for your admission to the screening.
