PRESS CONFERENCE
GAZA WE ARE COMING - NAKED CINEMA - THE LIST OF SILENCE
A press conference was held on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 as part of the 12th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century by the script writer Dimitri Koliodimos (Naked Cinema), and the directors Nikos Vezyrgianis (The List of Silence), Yorgos Avgeropoulos and Ioannis Karypidis (Gaza We Are Coming).
In spite of the fact that the story of the 30,000 disappeared people in Argentina was known in Europe, few people knew that among these desaparecidos there were citizens of Greek descent. Their story is brought to light by Nikos Vezyrgianis’ film The List of Silence. “Neither politicians nor journalists have concerned themselves with this issue”, he noted. Working with Greek immigrant communities, he and journalist Pavlos Nerantzis, who wrote the script, began collecting information and discovered that the story’s Greek dimension was much larger than they had imagined. Thirty years after the fall of the junta in Argentina, the Justice ministries of various European countries are searching for those responsible for the murders of their citizens and have begun to arrange for trials. “Greece has never done anything. The Argentinean Minister of Foreign Affairs, victim of the junta himself, wanting to expose the issue to the international community, invited the Greek Foreign Affairs ministry in 2007”, Vezyrgianis said. His documentary reveals the names of missing people of Greek descent and shows the testimony of people who have lost their loved ones, as well as complaints about the position of Greece on the issue. At the same time it gives the historical context of the events and includes shocking accounts of people who lived the horror of torture and the death squads. “Even though so many years have passed since the fall of the junta, Argentina is still in the process of democratization”, he stated. He also noted that the country’s financial crisis has been going on for years, and there are still political and ideological conflicts on a social level. Mr. Vezyrgianis also referred to the dramatic dimension of the story of the desaparecidos, the fact that their children were given up for adoption by officers of the military regime. “Approaching this issue is not easy. Few children were found by their birth parents, and much fewer by those of Greek descent. You can imagine the psychological pressure of these people in relation to their adoptive parents”, he said.
Then Dimitri Koliodimos spoke, script writer of Naked Cinema by Vasos Georgas. Mr. Koliodimos explained: “We didn’t want to embarrass people by revealing unknown parts of their lives. Our goal was to make a film on Greek erotic cinema”. The material the two filmmakers collected unravels this chronicle through twelve one hour episodes. A 102’ version is screening at the 12th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. The film refers to the beginning of the ‘70s, when Greek cinema turned to eroticism in order to face the crisis. It not only presents the history of erotic cinema in Greece, but also the wider socio-historical context in which these films were made. It also features stories from the people who made the first Greek erotic films as well as the people who comment on them in a documented and charming way. “There was an innocence in the ‘70s and a particular film style, there were scripts and more than 30 set ups in a scene. Today there are two production companies which make hard core porn. There is no narrative. There is a still camera which turns off once the sex act is finished”, Mr. Koliodimos said. The documentary includes scenes from erotic films, without including the names of the people appearing in them. “Many people made these films to survive, and then had careers in other areas. Then again others don’t want to remember them, and some are no longer living. We didn’t want to embarrass anyone, that’s why we don’t name anyone other than the director, for whom we use a pseudonym where there is one, as well as the year and the production company”, the script writer explained.
In August, 2008, two small Greek ships broke the 41 year old embargo on Gaza illegally imposed by Israel. The film Gaza We Are Coming records the historic and dangerous voyage of 44 activists from all over the world. The material for the documentary was shot by the activists themselves, members of the Free Gaza movement, as a continuation of the Gaza mission. The film’s directors Yorgos Avgeropoulos and Ioannis Karypidis spoke about the moving experiences they had in the area. Ioannis Karypidis was a member of the crew that traveled on the two ships to the closed off Gaza port. “You can’t speak about a prison unless you go and see it yourself. I embarked as a filmmaker and in two days I became the first mate. These people live in a high security prison, a concentration camp and that’s not a figure of speech, its concrete reality. They are trying to rob them of their pride, luckily without success. A teacher told me that his seven year old students have gotten used to seeing F16’s, they’re no longer afraid. But imagine what will become of these children when they’re 14 years old”. The breaking of the embargo by the two Greek ships was known, but the operation of the project was a closely guarded secret. “They were expecting us in July and we got there at the end of August. You can’t describe what went on when they greeted us. After 41 years, people saw a mast in the port. They honored us, they gave us citizenship and diplomatic passports”, Karypidis described. Looking towards Gaza, he’s getting ready for the next mission in April. “The first mission was symbolic, to break the siege. Now a multinational fleet will sail, carrying a cargo of cement. We want to show that navigation in the Mediterranean is not free, and especially for Greece, which has a Navigation Delegate at the European Union. Mediterranean civilization will not put up with the piracy of the state of Israel.”
Yorgos Avgeropoulos, the other director of the film didn’t travel on the two ships, however Gaza is a familiar place to him. He has gone there many times on previous journalistic missions. “Children in Gaza grow up with the sound of explosions, which is why they become radicalized when they grow up. I remember the time we had the chance to film scenes of Hamas fighters during an attack, they had asked me if I was ready to meet my God. People there are ready for this at any moment”, he said.
