Images of the 21stCentury
March 14-23, 2014
JUST TALKING 20/3
The “Just Talking” sessions of the 16th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival continued on Thursday, March 20, 2014. Participating were directors Nicolas Philibert, to whose work this year’s Festival is organizing a tribute, Nina Maria Paschalidou (Κismet), Shirly Berkovitz (The Good Son), Allison Berg (The Dog), Jean-Michel Dissard (I Learn America) and Drew Taylor (Our Man In Tehran).
Jean - Michel Dissard referred to his documentary, I Learn America which he directed along with Gitte Peng: "It’s the story of five newcomers to America, five children attending public school in Lafayette Brooklyn. The film is having its European premiere at the 16th Festival." In the film The Good Son, Shirly Berkovitz tells the story of a young boy who returns to his family as a woman. "The protagonist stole one hundred thousand U.S. dollars from his parents, who thought that he was going to study at Oxford University, but instead he went to Thailand for a sex change surgery. This is more of a film about secrets that we all carry“, said the director. Gender issues were also raised in the documentary The Dog by Allison Berg (co-directed by Frank Keraudren). The director referred to the main character, who was the inspiration of the feature film Dog Day Afternoon with Al Pacino: "This is John Wojtowicz, who in 1972 committed ??a robbery to pay for a sex change operation for his lover, but things went wrong and ended up with a hostage situation that lasted more than fourteen hours."
Nina Maria Paschalidou’s documentary Kismet, moves along a different path. The director noted that the film's title means ''fate'' and refers to Turkish soap operas, which influence women who watch them throughout the Balkans and the Middle East, inspiring them to radically change their lives and their relationship with men”. The documentary Our Man In Tehran by Drew Taylor and Larry Weinstein transports the viewer from today to yesterday. It chronicles the true events that were described in the fiction film Argo by Ben Affleck. "The documentary explores the history of the repatriation of six Americans hostages in Iran in 1979, a project of the CIA. It also reveals interesting facts about this story which are not included in Argo, such as the involvement and assistance of Canada and the Canadian embassy to the CIA, and the relations between them. It is a fact that our film got a lot of attention because it coincided with Ben Affleck’s movie, but that film contained a great deal of untrue information and it was criticized because it did not reflect any involvement of Canada in the story. Affleck offered to do the narrative on our film to improve his image in Canada. However, both films had a different purpose: Argo’s was to entertain the public, while our documentary presents the hidden side of history ".
Continuing the discussion, the French director Nicolas Philibert talked about his beginnings in the film industry: "I grew up in a family of cinephiles, my father was a teacher and loved films. He was a member of the Grenoble film club, where at the age of ten or twelve I began to watch films. Seeing Bergman and Rossellini, among others, I began to realize that cinema is not only a hobby but a way to get to know the world. Without TV at that time and without the ability to travel, I could understand the world through films, see people and places that I had never seen before. So it was for this reason I wanted to make movies. I still did not know the documentary world. I worked initially for two to three years as an assistant in fiction films. In my first film titled His Master’s Voice, bosses of large multinational companies are talking head-on to the camera about their vision for the world. Even after that I knew almost nothing about the documentary genre, until I saw films by directors like Fred Wiseman and realized that the documentary world is as great as that of fiction, with many approaches and styles". Mr. Philibert also commented: "I do not like the term documentary, because it is restrictive. I think documentary is a different way to create fiction."
Mr. Dissard said: "Twenty years ago I was in Arizona as an assistant while filming Jim Jarmusch’s Dead Man, a great first experience. I followed Jarmusch in New York and started working without knowing what exactly I was doing while dealing with both documentary and fiction. I really like what Nicolas said, that we do fiction. It depends on what choices we make and how we invite those we are filming to enter into the film, how we leave time and space for them and for life itself". Ms Berkovitz spoke of her own experience, saying: "I have never worked in fiction. For me the element of reality is very strong, fantasy does not surpass it. Even if the camera shakes or you don’t have perfect lighting, the energy and the moment are there. For example, when the character of the film tells his brother to supposedly pick up something for their parents at the airport, and then appears in front of him for the first time as a woman, and there is a moment of recognition, this is a time that you cannot reproduce". On the other hand, Ms Berg explained: "I never imagined that I would make movies as I studied Sociology and International Relations. After college, I helped a friend of mine to make a short film. Then I realized that this was what I wanted to do: to tell stories in a creative way; to gratify my curiosity and my obsessions. With documentaries you not only share the story you are telling, but also your own experience through it. It is a valuable process". Similarly, Drew Taylor had never imagined he would deal professionally with cinema. He remarked: "Until recently I did not imagine that I would direct. Before the documentary Our man in Tehran, I had no other directorial experience. I was a baseball player and then I studied biomedical engineering. But I think there is a parallel way of working in both fields. When you write a doctoral thesis in such sciences you have to find this little piece of truth, the evidence to support your theory. In this documentary we had to be very careful with the details. We scrutinize the facts, examine each item from different perspectives and my experience in science helped in this". Speaking about the profession she chose, Ms Paschalidou explained: "Since I have always been a little shy, but because my family traveled a lot, my father always placed me in the difficult position of being in the spotlight. So, speaking with people started to cultivate my curiosity about them. Having lived in many different countries broadened my perception of human communication. Also, documentaries are a challenge to me. I worked, at first, as a journalist, then as a producer and when the economic crisis hit Greece I thought that I would direct the documentaries I want. Then I took some film courses to learn the essentials. Making documentaries is all I want to do.”
Immediately after, the directors submitted their views on the choice of subjects of their films. Mr. Philibert explained: "I ??observe people, I observe 'the human comedy’. Every film is a new adventure, a new relationship with people. Maybe you would consider my comment challenging, but I think the theme of a film is something secondary, almost an excuse. In my opinion, there is no good or evil subject and the quality of a film does not depend on it. Beauty is not associated with the message. Great films can be made about something tiny, almost nonexistent. Everyday life is a very good topic, for example the bar next door, where people are working, drinking coffee and chatting. My films are about the way people live together. I am among groups of people, communities and try to understand and demonstrate how they coexist. The political dimension of my films is not superficial."
Mr. Dissard commented on his relationship with his characters: "In the beginning I just observed and believed that the film would not have interviews. I conducted them because I wanted to include the children in the process. I noticed that the more involved they were, the better the result was. Then I realized that I was not observing, but filming the relationship between us. This is the relationship the viewers see." In turn Ms Berkovitz noted: "I understand that only politicians and wars change the world and that probably my films would not achieve this. But if anyone who has seen my film goes home and thinks; if he phones his mother to tell her that he loves her; if he looks at his life from another angle, then something will have been achieved. These little things are important to me." Ms Berg mentioned the element of the unknown during the creation of a film: "I love those moments where you do not know what to expect and reality unfolds before you in a way you did not expect. Such moments give you pleasure for a long time.” Ms Paschalidou stated: "I ??am interested in observing how different people are affected by the same situation. Also I particularly like the fact that while I am observing something on another level I am noticing something else. Kismet is really about women's rights. There are many different dimensions to the issue. I had read about women in Saudi Arabia who react in different ways to their family life, for example separating from their husbands after seeing the rape of the soap opera character Fatmagul. However, before I met them up close I could not imagine the power of their stories and that they would inspire me." Drew Taylor noted in turn: "In our documentary the individual interviews structured the film. We had planned to have the hostages and the people who participated in the rescue operation meet again in Washington, thinking that after all these years it would be a magic moment, but it was not. Politicians and ambassadors showed much more emotion in front of the camera in the individual interviews. The magical moments were those were these people narrated what happened for the first time on camera. So you never know how a situation will turn out."
Nicolas Philibert commented: "When we talk about observation we assume that the filmmaker is passive, but it is never so. From the moment there is a camera present, things change even if you do not want them to. As spontaneous as we would like to be, the camera is there. Sometimes things do happen that we did not expect and we would like to happen. In my documentary To Be and to Have I was asked me how much time I spent observing children in the classroom. In fact we started shooting from day one. I think that my work, translating from the French, is to plan the accidental, to make things happen."
