LIVE STREAMING
LITTLE LAND, FOOD FOR LOVE
The innovative “Live Streaming Project” continued with great success on Thursday, March 21, 2013, as part of the 15th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Screening were the films Little Land by Nikos Dayandas and Food for Love by Marianna Economou, in the filled-to-capacity Olympion cinema.
For the third year, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is running this program in cooperation with the Electro-Acoustic and Television Systems Laboratory at the Polytechnic School of Thessaloniki’s Aristotle University, under the supervision of Professor Yorgos Papanikolaou. Thanks to technology, the TDF will reach out to 5 Greek cities - Corfu, Mytilene, Patras, Xanthi and Rethymno -, as well as Nicosia, Cyprus, in collaboration with local University Institutions (Ionian University, University of the Aegean, University of Patras, Democritus University of Thrace, Technological Educational Institute of Crete and Frederick University). The films that will be streamed live are those Festival screenings taking place at the Olympion cinema on Friday, 22/3, at 20:30.
The films of Nikos Dayandas and Marianna Economou focus on Greek reality through two different topics. In Little Land Nikos Dayandas follows 35-year-old Thodoris, who settles in Ikaria at the beginning of the crisis with the intention to live off the land. He discovers a new life there, as well as the secrets of the wondrous longevity of the island’s inhabitants. On the other hand, in Food for Love Marianna Economou focuses on three Greek mothers who send Tupperware with home-cooked meals to their children studying far from home, demonstrating the bonds of the Greek family.
Following the screening of the films, a question and answer period with the audience took place. Aside from the audience at the Olympion, viewers from other cities to which the films were streamed live participated. In the beginning, the directors referred to how they came up with their subjects. Nikos Dayandas noted: “The documentary began as a proposal from the ARTE channel a year and a half ago, about films concerning Greece that aimed to go beyond the stereotypes of the crisis. Looking for an appropriate subject, a colleague suggested the longevity of the inhabitants of Ikaria and this is how we ended up here”. In her turn, Marianna Economou noted: “Even though I had not had the experience of the Tupperware that mothers from Greece send their children, my friends in England received such packages. Finally, the idea came to me again, because I saw that food in Greece is constantly moving from the mothers to the children, and from grandmothers to their own children, and that generally food plays a central role in the lives of Greeks”.
What extreme does the Tupperware food phenomenon reach, and how does it affect the children’s personalities? Answering this question, Ms Economou observed: “I don’t know to what percentage it happens, but it clearly happens much more often than I had expected. It was surprising how many mothers go to so much trouble and cook so many meals that they send to their children. It is also difficult for me to say how great a role this phenomenon plays in the lives of the children. Aside from the food itself, this role is symbolic; the food contains the love and caring of the mothers. On the one hand it helps, but on the other perhaps it makes it more difficult for the children to be independent”.
Then the directors answered a question as to whether they feel that they said everything they wanted to say through their films. Ms Economou noted: “Clearly there is more to say and you can give more depth to the subject. The initial idea was to include the children abroad, but for production reasons this wasn’t done”. For his part, Mr. Dayandas commented: “Naturally, every director would say that he would want a longer film. Thematically, I said everything I wanted to say – even though I believe that there could be a longer version – but from that point on, perhaps it has more to do with the form and a richer narrative. But I am very satisfied with the outcome”.
Questioned whether she sees the relationship presented in her film as problematic, Ms Economou explained: “A balance is needed on both sides. The oxymoron is that parents want their children to go forward and to study, but on the other hand they want to make sure that they don’t forget their home. What I saw was that the joy of the children is always great when they receive packages: they remind them of home, their mother and a certain warmth – these are wonderful feelings”.
In closing, Mr. Dayandas referred to how the Icarians reacted during the film shoot: “They were the most relaxed people I have ever met under these circumstances. The most difficult thing was to demand some of their time, because the Icarians only want to do something when they feel like doing it”.
The Greek films program of the 15th TDF is financed by the European Union’s Regional Development Fund for Central Macedonia, 2007-2013.
