10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival –
Images of the 21st Century
March 7-16, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
PRESS CONFERENCE
JOURNEY OF A RED FRIDGE - UP THE YANGTZE
THE WHISPERING OF THE TREES
On Sunday, March 9, a press conference was given at the Green Room of the Olympion, in the context of the 10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. The Lucian Muntean and Natasa Stankovic of the film Journey of a red fridge the director Tom Lemke and the producer Sebastian Runschke of the film The whispering of the trees and the director Yung Ghang of the film Up the Yangtze were present.
Speaking about The whispering of the trees, Tom Lemke explained that the initial idea was Sara Walz’ (the documentary’s scriptwriter and director of photography) : “What is most important is to find the characters that will give you what you need to make such a documentary. I traveled to Chile many times, met many people, among them my film’s leading characters, the family which appears in the documentary. What moved me was their family bond, the basis of their lives. This impressed me while living with these people”.
When asked whether the western world should return to the values of an earlier era, Tom Lemke answered: “Yes, this could be possible, sometimes I think it is necessary. How, is difficult. If we understand how these people live, perhaps we can change our own lives for the better”.
The director of the film Up the Yangtze, Yung Ghang for his part, explained that what is most important for him is to stand between two worlds and be able to tell both sides of the story. Answering about the role played by luck, he noted that that is the beauty of making documentaries: “You can be as organized as you can, prepare for everything, but you still can’t eliminate the element of chance. You have to be emotionally open when making a documentary, because you are in the hands of fate”.
Then the director of Journey of a red fridge, Natasa Stankovic spoke about her choice of subject: “We first visited the Himalayas as tourists, when during a walk we saw a thin little boy trying to move a huge Coca Cola refrigerator. Because of this we did some research and discovered that there are many boys and girls his age who are used as movers, carrying whatever you can imagine on their backs. When we began to write the script, the idea was to make a film about child laborers in general. But during filming we decided to adapt the story to the specific boy.”
In conclusion, all the directors agreed that what is most important in this type of documentary is the development of trust and a good human relationship between the director and his subject.
