PRESS CONFERENCE
NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: LASZLO AND VILMOS - RICH BROTHER - MARINA OF THE ZABBALEEN
A press conference was given on Thursday, March 19, at the Ianos Bookshop by the directors James Chressanthis (No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos), Insa Onken (Rich Brother) and Engi Wassef (Marina of the Zabbaleen), as part of the 11th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century.
With his film No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo and Vilmos, a recording of the common creative career of the Hungarian directors of photography Laszlo Kovac and Vilmos Zsigmond, the director James Chressanthis, of Greek descent, honors two of his idols. “The responsibility I felt was huge and I was very worried about the result. The films of Laszlo and Vilmos had a human dimension, something that is lacking today. Through their work they created images that have gone down in history and have been recorded in the memories of all cinephiles”, James Chressanthis commented.
Vilmos Zsigmond himself honored the press conference with his presence, the only one of the two “stars” of Chressanthis’ documentary who is still living. “Laszlo and I studied at film school together, we left Hungary when the soviet armies invaded, we were destined to be together. In the USA we found work for each other, so we certainly had more professional proposals than we could accept. Cooperation between colleagues is much better than arguments and jealousy”, said the Oscar winning director of photography, before praising James Chressanthis: “No one could have made a better documentary than he did, since he made it with the eyes of a film maker. As a DoP himself, he chose the right lighting for his scenes. I couldn’t have done better myself!”.
Insa Onken, with her first documentary Rich Brother, follows the efforts of Ben, a poor young man from Cameroon, who goes to Germany dreaming of becoming a professional boxer. “The film doesn’t focus on Ben’s boxing career but on his personal life. Shooting took two years and was finished when Ben returned to Cameroon”, she stressed. She also referred to her chance meeting with him: “I was jogging on the streets of Berlin one day, I saw him running and punching the air!”. Ben himself was present at the press conference, and spoke about the problems he had as an economic immigrant in Germany: “Boxing was the only way I could make it. But every 2-3 months I had to change schools because I couldn’t afford the tuition. My first professional bout lasted 25 minutes, and I received 50 Euros. It was very little money, but this amount is very big in Cameroon”.
Engi Wassef was born in Egypt and grew up in New York. She returned to the land of her birth in order to highlight the story of the Zabbaleen, who live in Cairo’s Muqqattam village and make their living recycling garbage. But, as the title of her film, Marina of the Zabbaleen shows, it is mostly about the story of 7 year old Marina. “I was very lucky to find Marina, not only because she is very photogenic, but because she is a very smart young girl”, the director noted. Engi Wassef also referred to the reasons which led her to focus on this small community: “I decided to make the documentary when I heard that the job of the Zabbaleen was being taken over by multinational companies. I thought that their story is interesting on an environmental level as well, since they have been doing a fantastic job for 65 years. They recycle 90% of the garbage that is gathered, considering that Cairo is the city with the most garbage in Africa”, Engi Wassef explained and added: “This was the first time the people of the community allowed cameras to record their story”
