As part of the 17th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, the directors Maximilian Haslberger (The Humanitarians), Magnus Gertten (Every Face Has a Name), Evangelia Kranioti (Exotica, Erotica, Etc.) and Kasper Verkaik (Plaza Man) attended a press conference on Thursday March 19, 2015.
In his film Every Face Has a Name, Magnus Gertten tells the story of survivors of World War II concentration camps, who recognize themselves in archival materials from the time of their release. Gertten pointed out that the idea for the film came to him when he was promoting his previous documentary Harbour of Hope, which told the story of three people who survived the concentration camps and reached the port of Malmo in Sweden, where they made new beginnings. “I travelled a lot when I was promoting that documentary and I met with many people that reacted to the film in different ways. One night, after a screening, an elderly woman told me that she recognized herself as a child in one of the black-and-white photos that were in the film. That was the spark.” The director explained and added, “Even though I thought that it would be impossible to find people through archival materials that were over 70 years old, when my previous documentary was shown on television, it brought us into contact with even more people that had identified themselves in it. They became the stars of Every Face Has a Name”. Asked if his documentary was personal, the director explained: “Since I'm dealing with such harsh and moving stories, as a human and as a documentary filmmaker, I consider it a privilege to stay and watch the film and to cry along with the audience, especially since the audience is the protagonist of the film, the people that had to go through all these things.”
Far from Europe and with the USA as a backdrop, Kasper Verkaik’s Plaza Man focuses on the story of Robert Groden, who was an eye witness at the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Groden has devoted his life to seeking the truth about what happened that day, through conspiracy theories and more. The director expressed his thoughts on the nature of obsession. “You almost wonder if it takes a certain kind of mind or character. When I started filming, I wondered if I could capture my hero’s obsession on film. People were fascinated with the assassination because they felt that they lost something that day and it was something that they didn’t want to let go of. The same thing happened to Groden, who in a way has remained stuck on that day in 1963”. Regarding the protagonist of his documentary, Verkaik said: “I didn’t want to make a film about conspiracy theories. That wasn’t what we were looking for. In Groden’s case, his life was destroyed by what happened, because he was trying to hold on to something that was much bigger than himself.” Answering the question of how difficult it was to approach this kind of character, the director explained: “Groden is a living legend. At the time of Kennedy's assassination, people felt like the government was hiding something from them. Groden gave the people what they were looking for, information about the Kennedy assassination. He got people’s attention. I approached him and explained that I wanted to focus on him, something no-one had felt the urge to do previously”.
Evangelia Kranioti, talked about her film Exotica, Erotica, Etc., which is about the ephemeral passions of women and sailors. The director, who boarded ships with all-male crews for filming, talked about her experience: “It all started with an editorial project, initially a photographic one. I had been collecting materials for a photographic exhibition, including older photographs of sailors with prostitutes in the Mediterranean from the 1960’s. I wanted to enlarge and make use of my collection of materials. That’s how I found myself aboard a ship, and then another one followed. I was prepared. Everything had driven me to live this adventure, which was full of tensions and loneliness.” Asked when she had decided to make a film about a subject for which she had been gathering photos for such a long time, Ms. Kranioti said: “Only when I found my protagonist on the ship was I inspired to make a film that would follow a linear narration, that would be an artistic project, a dialogue of the artist with her work on a different level”. When asked if about the romantic image people have of seamen’s lives, the director noted: “Even though we’re not living in the world of The Odyssey, or of the poet Nikos Kavvadias, even today the seamen can objectively experience the circumstances of living parallel lives with different lovers in different locations.”
Maximilian Haslberger’s The Humanitarians deals with the social taboos regarding sexuality of people with disabilities. The director noted: “From the very beginning, because the film combined documentary with fiction under the theme of disability and sexuality, it was my intention to have a kind of dialectical relationship with this group of people that are often victims of discrimination.” Referring to the extent to which a documentary balances between fantasy and reality, the director explained: ”I feel as if we people are inside a vortex, balancing between fantasy and reality. As long as I have been working as a documentarian, I’ve observed there are conversations about authenticity and reality as well as old-fashioned ideas about what a documentary film can actually do. What is true and what is a lie isn’t important, because everything is a performance nowadays. A characteristic example is that, if a filmmaker walks into a crowd, people look into the camera. They act differently. There’s an aspect of performance”. Answering a question about why he decided to talk about the relationship between sexuality and disability, a subject that was once considered taboo, Haslberger said “The world’s perception of this matter has been gradually changing and there has been some progress. Handicapped people are becoming more integrated into society. That's why any kind of action - even this documentary - is a step in the right direction”.
