November 6-15, 2015
HONORARY EVENT
A LIFE JOURNEY OF 60 YEARS: NIKOS KAVOUKIDIS
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival presented its highest award, the Golden Alexander, to the acclaimed Greek cinematographer Nikos Kavoukidis at a special honorary event that took place on Friday, November 13, 2015, at Pavlos Zannas theatre. The president of the Hellenic Parliament Mr. Nikos Voutsis attended the event.
The documentary A Life Journey of 60 Years, directed by Nikos Kavoukidis himself, was screened at the beginning of the honorary ceremony. After the screening, the floor was given to film critic Dimitris Haritos and filmmaker Giannis Daskalothanasis who talked about Nikos Kavoukidis. “It is true that over the years the artist and his work grow apart, in the sense that the work becomes a new, complete entity, consisting of the inspiration and the effort it took for it to exist,” Mr. Haritos noted, also underlying that Nikos Kavoukidis remains a truly unique artist. “I met him during the Metapolitefsi, the years after the fall of military junta in Greece, but I was given an excellent opportunity to know him better, in the Drama Short Film Festival. His emotional endurance is incredible. He has exemplary ethics –young cinematographers are lucky to receive his encouragement, knowledge, ideas and motivation. He is also passionately political, taking a stance in the social context and expressing his views, which might not always be welcome. Kavoukidis himself is a work of art, a film in motion of his own, directing his words, feelings and opinions. I think that he is going through a second creative period in his life as valuable as the first one,” Mr. Haritos said.
Giannis Daskalothanasis took the floor with a special mention to the people who influenced him when he was starting out as a cinematographer, namely Nikos Kavoukidis, Dinos Katsouridis, Didis Karidis and Yorgos Arvanitis. “I thought it would be difficult to approach them. But I was wrong. Nikos Kavoukidis is one of the first directors of photography I had the honor to work with. I vividly remember him with the camera in hand, as we were shooting a promotional film, telling me “grab this equipment to do the shot”. He was so concentrated in speaking through the image that the film flowed without him really realizing it. I owe him this love for filmmaking that he inspired in me, his love for cinematic narratives, which I hope will continue to inspire all of us for many years to come,” noted Mr. Daskalothanasis.
Yorgos Arvanitis, the president of the Board of Directors of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival took the floor, in turn. “I am really moved, as we almost started together with Nikos; he worked in Finos Films three years before me. We did many things together, it was the great era of short films. We shared the same love, the same passion for photography,” he said. Presenting the Golden Alexander to Nikos Kavoukidis, Mr. Arvanitis said: “It might be that you don’t realize it, but through watching you work, I’ve learned so many things from you. Your work is present, thank you for the thrill you offered me tonight and for all the years of our friendship“.
Nikos Kavoukidis thanked Yorgos Arvanitis for the honor, expressed his joy over the 60 years he has been active in the film industry and went on to put on the table a series of issues regarding the contemporary Greek cinema. “I think that the competences of the Ministry of Culture should be widely extended. Greece should have an Arts Academy and a Film Academy, because I truly believe in the value of film education. We have many talents – actors, technicians, directors – and if there was proper film education and training, we would have even better results”. He went on to talk about the preservation of archival material, noting: “The Greek Film Archive, counting 65 years of existence, preserves all intellectual material, especially as regards fiction films. Also, there was the National Audiovisual Archive, mostly a documentary archive, which was closed down and the material remains hidden in paper boxes, somewhere at the Hellenic Public Broadcaster ERT. I believe that the State should provide the conditions for access to archival material, from which documentary films could be made and children could be taught our history through these moving images”. Mr. Kavoukidis talked about the role of film archives as well as the issue of the removal of the special tax directed at strengthening and developing the Greek cinema. “I think that the State is not fully aware of the power of images. My passion, besides fiction cinema is cinema verite, the image as document,” he added and also announced that he is about to complete a film based on the material inherited from his mentor Filopimin Finos, his father –the pioneer filmmaker Yorgos Kavoukidis –, as well as from Prodromos Meravidis and other filmmakers, who recorded a large volume of material – from the years of Metaxas’ rule up to the years of political exiles in Makronissos – which remained unreleased in its greater part up to now. At the end of the evening, Mr. Kavoukidis thanked his wife, Sophia Roumpou, for her support and love during the 45 years of their common life.
