Just Talking, March 19
The latest session of the “Just Talking” rounds of discussions of the 15th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival took place on Tuesday, March 19, 2013 with the participation of directors Stella Alisanoglou (Dimitris Papadoulis - The Multiple Gift), Daniel Abma (Beyond Wriezen), Alicia Cano (The Bella Vista), Harry Freeland (In the Shadow of the Sun), Volker Goetze (Griot) and Diego Gutierrez (Parts of a Family).
The issues raised during the lively discussion included the relationship between the filmmaker and his protagonists. Participants also discussed the reasons that compelled them to make their documentaries in the first place.
On account of his film Parts of a Family, Diego Gutierrez said that, for him, making films is a means of communication: “I love making films, because this way I can cope with loneliness - it gives me the chance to socialize with other people. Parts of a Family is a portrait of my parents and their relationship. At a subconscious level, I made this film because the second most important relationship in a person’s life, after the parental one, is the relationship of one’s parents. I wanted to investigate the complexity of this relationship”.
In Griot, Volker Goetze follows the life of the famous Senegalese songwriter and griot (keeper of West African epic histories) Ablaye Cissoko. “Since I am a musician myself, I wanted to share the story and experience I had with this unique African artist, who is not only a musician, but a living bearer of his tradition”, said Goetze.
Daniel Abma talked about his film Beyond Wriezen, which focuses on the lives of three young delinquents after they are released from prison. The director said: “I was inspired to make this film after my experience of working as a social worker at this prison. I witnessed many cases of people who were released from prison, only to commit new crimes and become incarcerated once more. I wanted to capture their life behind bars, and the flaws in the rehabilitation process”.
Harry Freeland talked about his film In the Shadow of the Sun, which followed for six years the lives of two albinos, fighting to survive and cope with the hostility and prejudice of their community in Tanzania. “I made this film because I wanted to raise awareness on the issue of albinos in Africa. I believe we can all identify with their plight, since at some point we have all felt lonely and alienated in our own communities”.
The theme of Alicia Cano’s The Bella Vista is quite different, as it narrates the unusual story taking place in a village in Uruguay. Explaining why she decided to make this film, the director said: “I thought it was very interesting that three different organizations, which resonate with our imagination -a brothel, a church and a football club- struggled to remain in the same physical space, the house my documentary focuses on. Another shared characteristic of the three organizations is that they belong to the “male sphere”, which I wanted to explore as a woman”.
In her film Dimitris Papadoulis - the Multiple Gift, Stella Alisanoglou gives a portrait of doctor-writer Dimitris Papadoulis, who suffers from multiple sclerosis. Commenting on her protagonist, Alisanoglou said: “I met him through a mutual friend, and our contact point were human relations, despite the fact that he is restricted at home. I am a pessimist by nature, so his story was inspiring and gave me the strength to feel that life is a genuine gift”.
Participants discussed the issue of trust in the relationship between the director and his characters. According to Alisanoglou, “you need to be 100% honest, otherwise you will not succeed. During my first shooting session with Dimitris, I was too conservative in my choice of location. It took me 20 months to overcome this -this is how long filming lasted- but I was being myself, so he felt he had nothing to hide”.
Harry Freeland noted that he started shooting after spending two months getting to know his characters and after meticulous research. “I believe that the fact that I was filming alone, without a big crew, helped in establishing trust with my heroes”, he added. Alicia Cano commented that the personality of the director also plays an important role: “I believe that we are always filming the distance separating us from or bringing us closer to our characters”. On the same issue, Daniel Abma said: “I always need to find something to love in my protagonists. One of them had killed another person and was a neonazi, but I still managed to find elements of his personality that I was able to love. Otherwise it would have been impossible for me to follow him for so long”.
Commenting on the invasive role of the camera, Alicia Cano said: “We always perform roles, we represent ourselves -being in front of a camera is not a natural condition. My characters, transvestites and macho footballers, were already actors in a sense. So when I started narrating their story, I gathered all the material in chronological order and then went on site to record them. This is the hard part in making a documentary: how to be cinematic about the past, how to capture absence on film”.
On the issue of the direction of the narrative, all participants agreed on the importance of liveliness. Mr. Freeland noted that his story “followed multiple narrative directions, and I felt free to pursue them”. Goetze noted that in his case “before starting shooting, I had the idea to film my protagonist with his father, to show how tradition is handed over from one generation to the next. When I learned that his father had died before I was able to arrive, I felt like someone had pulled the rug from under my feet. The truth is, you can never be 100% certain about the final outcome of your film”.
Addressing a question about how the experience of filming can change the filmmakers themselves, Alisanoglou said: “This process of investigation is familiar and fascinating for me”. Cano noted that “throughout filming, I kept asking myself why I am doing the film, and the answer I gave kept changing. This is a beautiful feeling”. Mr. Abma said that making a film is a kind of therapy for him, adding: “I grew up in a village and had a tough time as a teenager. I used to hate the people that would eventually become the protagonists of my film”.
The closing remarks of the participants focused on the responsibility of the filmaker towards his protagonists. Mr. Gutierrez said: “I showed the film to my parents after it was completed, but I never worried about their reaction. If they had any misgivings, I was ready to make changes”. On the same issue, Mrs Cano said: “I showed the film to my protagonists after the final cut, and it was too late to change anything. I had explained them from the very start, that the film would be my own perspective of the story, and I felt really good about it. I posed many ethical questions to myself. In the end, I knew I had been honest with her from the beginning”.
The films are part of the 15th TDF program, which is financed by the European Union’s Regional Development Fund for Central Macedonia, 2007-2013.
