PRESS CONFERENCE
T4 TROUBLE AND THE SELF ADMIRATION SOCIETY
THERE WAS NO OTHER WAY
GRIEF: LITTLE TALES OF UNEMPLOYMENT
BELLS, THREADS AND MIRACLES
A press conference was given at noon on Friday, March 20, 2009 during the 11th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival by the directors Marianna Economou (Bells, threads and miracles), Yorgos Zervas (Grief: Little Tales of Unemployment), Stavros Psillakis (There Was no Other Way) and Dimitris Athiridis (T4 trouble and the self admiration society).
Marianna Ecomomou explained about her documentary Bells, threads and miracles, that it’s about the need of people to believe in a miracle at some point in their lives and that it focuses on Muslims who visit the Christian Monastery of Saint George on Prince’s island, off the coast of Istanbul, to pray for a miracle. “90% of those coming to Saint George are Muslim, while in the past they were Christian. The image of Muslims in front of Christian icons amazed me”, the director said and added: “I understood that this is something deep, that unites people. Even though I am not religious I deeply respect those who believe in something. I believe that the concentration of energy of a person on something is powerful. Icons, candles and oils are the human way for people to come closer to God, to ask for the impossible”.
Yorgos Zervas, in his film Grief: Little Tales of Unemployment, looks at the many faces of unemployment which in many cases is expressed as a “loss of self” and as a “symbolic death”. As he said: “Those who are younger and more educated are the only ones who can survive, because they have self confidence and can explain the why of it. The rest find it impossible to explain their lack of employment, they feel guilty, anxious, they get depressed, some have suicidal tendencies. The loss of work means loss of one’s self, isolation from the social environment of work, internal isolation and deep loneliness”, the director said and added: “To paraphrase Descartes’ “I think therefore I am, I would say that today it’s “I work therefore I exist”. Work doesn’t only provide one with the means to live, it contributes to the development of the personality”. Commenting on the recent global economic crisis Zervas said that from here on in there will not only be an issue with unemployment but also that of “difficult employment”: “We are living though the loss of the heretofore given of full time employment. Work relations are becoming more flexible and people are constantly worried about their jobs, how long they will last and in what form”.
Dimitris Athiridis film T4 trouble and the self admiration society is a portrait of Terry Papadinas, idol of the Greek indy rock scene in the ‘70s. “When I met Terry again he was in a bad state – 58 years old and unemployed, a beaten man. I wanted to show the contrast between his disappointing present and his past as a rock legend”, the director said. He described his leading character as an aesthete, charming and authentic. “I didn’t need to do much. I let him throw out lines. Shooting lasted a year, but the material is actually around 20 hours. The hardest part was keeping a balance, because with someone like that it is easy to get too close. Terry Papadinas is difficult in his relationships. Perhaps he chose the documentary subconsciously to communicate”.
People on the fringes of society and history are also at the center of Stavros Psillakis’ There Was No Other Way, which was based on the book by Nikos and Argyro Kokovli. It is about Cretan rebels after the end of the civil war who hid for four years in Chania, regrouping the illegal Democratic Army. “This is an unknown part of history. They went through terrible hardships, even though their lives seem like a fairy tale. They chose to live on the fringes, they wanted to live with dignity”. He added: “I didn’t have any intention of being didactic when I chose this story. The main element in the film is not the historic background but the choices people make and the consequences of these choices which they suffer without complaint. There could be a whole other film made with the material I put together, about the internal civil war in the Left itself, but such a thing would not match the journey of these people”.
