10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival –
Images of the 21st Century
March 7-16, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
JUST TALKING 10/3
On the second day of Just Talking, Monday, March 10 at the Excelsior room of Electra Palace hotel, the invited discussion group member were: Jeffrey Morgan, director of Lillie and Leander: A legacy of violence, Yung Chang, director of the documentary Up the Yangtze, Samantha Zarzosa, producer of the film City of cranes, Lucian Muntean and Natasa Stankovic directors of the film Journey of a red fridge, Peter Entell, director of Shake the devil off and Lydia Karra, director of the film My Life and Times – Michael Cacoyanis.
Among other issues, the guests of the 10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century discussed the difficulties they faced during shooting, and the position a director must take on the leading characters of the stories he is recording.
Samantha Zarzosa, producer of the film City of cranes, stressed that what drew Eva Weber to the particular subject – the filming of a city through the eyes of crane drivers – was mainly that “there is a world up there, which most of us are unaware of, because we almost never look up”, the producer explained. She continued: “The meaning of the film is for us to understand what happens to the human spirit in such extreme work conditions, such as those experienced by crane drivers. They have a point of view from up there, about the city they live in, that is completely different from the rest of the people».
Peter Entell, director of Shake the devil off, noted that he almost never uses a script in his films, as he believes that the “journey” of discovering something over the course of time, without having planned it, is more interesting than chasing something from before. “We documentary makers present parts of ourselves through our films, we express issues that interest human beings. In terms of my own film, it is specifically about greed and the arrogance of power”, Peter Entell noted.
Then Yung Chang, director of the film Up the Yangtze, spoke. His film is about the Yangtze river in China, which is about to be transformed into th elargest hydroelectric dam in history, a symbol of the Chinese economic miracle. “Four million people will have to be moved from the areas they live in and have their homes in. What I want to show through my film is how these people’s lives are being affected”, Yung Chang commented, and continued by saying that in Up the Yangtze, there are two sides: on the one hand, that of the tourists who visit the river, and on the other, that of the inhabitants who are in danger of losing everything. But he explained that he tried to keep a balance between these two worlds without becoming συνυπάρχουν και οι δυο πλευρές: Από την μια, αυτή των τουριστών, οι οποίοι επισκέπτονται τον ποταμό, κι από την άλλη των κατοίκων που κινδυνεύουν να χάσουν τα πάντα. Ο ίδιος όμως όπως εξήγησε, προσπάθησε να κρατήσει μια ισορροπία ανάμεσα σ’ αυτούς τους δύο κόσμους, χωρίς να γίνει didactic.
Jeffrey Morgan, director of Lillie & Leander: A legacy of violence - a film that examines the case of a black man judged guilty in the murder of a white woman at the turn of the 20th century in Florida – said that he faced quite a few difficulties during research and shooting, mainly from the local police, but also from certain locals. He added that a documentary maker has to respect the personality of the person he is filming. “My leading character revealed elements about her family’s past as time went on, things that caused her conflicting emotions”, the director commented.
Natasa Stankovic and Lucian Muntean directed the documentary Journey of a red fridge, with a 17 year old boy as the leading character. This boy works as a laborer to cover his educational expenses, undertaking the moving of a gigantic red refrigerator from the top of the mountain to the nearest town. “Harry is even considered lucky that this way he can go to school, many children can’t do that”, emphasized S. Stankovic. L. Muntean noted that the choice of their film’s subject was by chance, while during a visit to Nepal they saw young porters before them. “This young porter is a symbolic image all by himself, of what someone is prepared to do in order to achieve something, which in this particular case is nothing other than his education”, L. Muntean added.
Then Lydia Karra, director of My Life and Times – Michael Cacoyanis spoke. She said: “Michael Cacoyanis never wanted to be photographed in his own films, he kept that part of his life in the dark. But fortunately, at this stage of his life, he permitted me to make this documentary, allowing me to see the man who was hiding behind the camera”. Lydia Karra continued: “I believe that the trust built between the documentary maker and the person he is filming is the most important part of a documentary. In my case, it went through many stages. From absolute trust, to insecurity, both on my part, and on Cacoyanis’ part.
