Press Conference
(Love thy Nature / Putin is Back / Hip Hop-eration / Ecocide – Voices from Paradise / Poverty Inc.)
(Love thy Nature / Putin is Back / Hip Hop-eration / Ecocide – Voices from Paradise / Poverty Inc.)
As part of the 17th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, the directors Sylvie Rokab (Love thy Nature), Jean-Michel Carre (Putin is Back), Bryn Evans (Hip Hop-eration), Juliet Brown (Ecocide – Voices from Paradise) and Michael Matheson Miller (Poverty inc.) attended a press conference on Saturday March 14, 2015.
With his documentary Poverty inc., Michael Matheson Miller wanted to show that poor people are not objects of charity, but rather subjects of it. “It wasn’t my intention to say that charity is wrong, but rather to approach it with a critical eye. In the West we treat the poor as objects of pity and compassion, we display good intentions to deal with their problems and give them all sorts of things, but in the end we don’t manage to solve their problems”, he noted. According to the director, the poor remain so, not only because of a scarcity of resources, but also because of a lack of institutions of justice that could enable them to create prosperity for their families and communities. As the director explained, the charitable stars and celebrities probably have benevolent intentions to begin with, but “the system is so broken and their incentives are so disordered”. The goal of this “industry of poverty” is to be perpetuated, meaning that if the poor are helped to prosper, this industry will no longer have a reason to exist. The poor remain poor and the rich become richer and gain exposure because they help “save” the Third World. Our goal is not to castigate their hearts for doing charitable work, but rather to show that essentially this way of thinking isn’t helpful. The very citizens of developing countries admit that this approach “doesn’t save us, but rather harms us”. I hope this documentary will offer new food for thought and public debate, in order to help re-evaluate our assumptions about the subject.”
The documentary Hip Hop-eration, starring a troupe of hip-hop dancers over 90 years of age, is a work of an altogether different mood. Speaking at the press conference, the film’s director Bryn Evans said that his goal was to tell a story about the “basic right to grow old with dignity and have our voices heard in society”. He added “I wanted to achieve this goal by making a film that would resonate with audiences and appeal to their imagination. Before this film I spent time on stories that had a harsher basis. But the matter was how were we going to convince audiences to pay a ticket to see a documentary and after watching, to leave feeling inspired by it, with a new perspective on the elderly”. The director spent a lot of time with the dance troupe, which initially consisted of 45 members, getting to know each member’s character. “It’s great to work with people that don’t understand the protocol of film-making. In the beginning they’d ask me when they would be able to see it on TV. They soon realized that we were going to be spending a lot of time with them. It was very nice for them as well, because they each had a chance to tell us their story. Another very challenging thing about working with a 96 year-old person is convincing him to be himself, because the members of this dance group felt like they needed to perform in front of the camera. Overall we all had to make adjustments, but the end result was that we grew closer to one another”, Evans explained.
In the documentary Ecocide – Voices from Paradise the director Juliet Brown sheds light on the environmental disasters that were caused by the explosion on BP’s offshore oil drilling rig Deepwater Horizon in Mexico in 2010. After the accident, the director spent two years on Grand Isle documenting its impact on the lives of the locals. According to the director, this area in South Louisiana was “Ground Zero” for the oil spill. She worked closely with Matthew R. Simmons, who had brought the issue to the media’s attention and funded 12 films about the Louisiana coast. “Simmons started appearing a lot on the main news networks. He really understood what was going on. Then in August he died suddenly off the coast of Maine. He was very unpopular because of what he was saying and all of a sudden he conveniently disappeared.” The filmmaker pointed out that the film examines the effects of the oil rig accident on the ecosystem and on the local community of fishermen. “In the film you get the impression that something isn’t right – you can’t see it, but you sense it. The inhabitants feel like they have been exposed to toxic substances, like they have problems, but no serious epidemiological research has been carried out”. Ms. Brown claimed that accidents like this are crimes against humanity, and this is the reason she chose to use the term “ecocide” (like “homicide” and “genocide”) for her film’s title. These crimes need to become more accountable, within a legal context. It’s not out of reach. It’s just a question of getting some heads of state to sign on to draw attention to this matter”.
Jean-Michel Carre film Putin is Back his second one about Russia and, as he disclosed, it will be followed by a third. The first film he made was concerned with Putin’s terms as Prime Minister of Russia, while in Putin Is Back, Carre has returned to show how Putin remains in power even though he is no longer the Prime Minister. “In 2008, for the first time I felt like there was a true opposition force in Russia. My second film takes place at the time when Putin decided to place a marionette in his place, Dmitry Medvedev. I was interested in how he was going to take power and become president. Putin rigged the elections of 2011-2012, and cheated. This was what finally led the Russian people to oppose and demonstrate and show that they were no longer afraid of him. Putin’s approach became more violent and he started attacking freedom of speech.” The director also disclosed that in three weeks time he will begin filming his third film, titled Russia: The Empire Counter-Attacks, which will explain why certain Russian people continue to admire Putin.
He adds: “It won’t simply criticize his political system, but it will demonstrate that western countries today are equally involved and guilty of supporting Putin”.
Jean-Michel Carre also talked about the World War II and Cold War periods. “Russian people have felt humiliated during these last 50 years and Putin has allowed them to regain their pride. When he came into power he was fortunate because the price of gas and oil had increased. Many Russians think it’s thanks to him but it’s not. Today only 15% of Russia’s population are fairly wealthy, but 75% are poor.”
Sylvie Rokab’s film Love thy Nature is about the relationship of man and nature.
“I grew up in nature. I always had a desire to share with people how amazing nature is. People who haven’t realized this are really missing out. It’s a miracle that is bigger than ourselves, our cultures, our civilization”, the director explained. Ms. Rokab spent eight years working on this film and learnt a lot in the process.
“I was very inspired when I started reading about biomimicry. If we made the analogy of the planet’s life with that of a calendar year, then Earth was born on January 1st and today is December 31st. Our civilization corresponds to only one second of the entire year. This is mindblowing to me”, Ms. Rokab said. Finally, she pointed out that the film talks about the potential of a technological revolution: “If we allowed ourselves to be inspired and to learn from the wisdom of nature, we wouldn’t have ecological crises. Every species, from the elephant to the ant, has its place in an ecosystem. If we could apply this to our political and economic systems, the potential is incredible. This is the future of our economies and civilizations.”
