18th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
Images of the 21st Century
11-20 March 2016
PRESS CONFERENCE
MORIOM / IN CALIFORNIA / WILD WOMEN, GENTLE BEASTS
Images of the 21st Century
11-20 March 2016
PRESS CONFERENCE
MORIOM / IN CALIFORNIA / WILD WOMEN, GENTLE BEASTS
As part of the 18th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, directors Mark Olexa and Francesca Scalisi (Moriom), Charles Redon (In California) and Anka Schmid (Wild Women, Gentle Beasts) attended a press conference on Thursday March 17th, 2016.
The first to speak was Charles Redon, who depicts a very intimate portrait of his relationship with his ballerina wife in the documentary In California. “From a certain viewpoint, it is a comment on love: you meet a person, you get carried away, you fall in love, but in the course you discover that he/she doesn't fit in that ‘little box’ you wanted to put him/her in. I started with my passion about this girl I was living with. Her body and beauty fascinated me. In the course, passion turned to terror towards her body and herself, although I still felt desire for her”, the director said. The film, which was shot in a period of six years, touches upon issues like hate and jealousy. As for the director, it was a healing process. "It helped me overcome my fear towards her”, Mr. Redon characteristically said. The director was asked why he decided to continue shooting even when their relationship reached the point of separation and whether another development would have been possible, hadn't it been for the camera recording. "At a certain point, the camera destroys everything. My wife couldn't stand being filmed, but still, I continued without her consent. To some degree, the camera destroyed it all", Mr. Redon concluded. The director was asked whether the film was an exercise in masochism. "I began thinking in a masochistic manner because of all the things I was realizing. The fear for my companion, the repulsion for a beloved person, all these sentiments overwhelmed me. I documented all these down in order to embrace them and come to terms with pain a little bit more”, the filmmaker explained. Now the director lives in Europe and his companion in the USA. As he said, the wish to keep filming their relationship ceased after the completion of the documentary. “Did my reluctance to keep shooting mean that I didn't want us to be together anymore? I do not know. Probably we needed some time apart, in order to find a better balance, as at some point things began to become a little bit dangerous”, Mr. Redon concluded.
The next to speak was Anka Schmid, whose film Wild Women, Gentle Beasts investigates the relationship between women tamers and circus animals. Influenced by the children's novel 'Salto Mortale', the director dreamt of becoming a tamer and working with tigers when she was a little child. Circus re-entered her life when she became a mother. “I always wondered what happens behind the curtains, with regard to the personalities of tamers and animals”, she marked. What really prompted her to make this documentary was the devotion of women tamers to their profession. "I was searching for individuals with a great passion for what they do, who give it everything they have. For these women, animals are their alter ego. They practice a non-politically correct profession, spending 18 hours a day with animals and working with their bodies, exposing themselves to the audience through that profession", Mrs. Schmid said. The material she had at her disposal was exceptional for filming: “The circus is a fascinating world, full of lights, colors, great stages and interesting aesthetic elements. You have these two figures, the tamer and the animal, which wear uniforms and perform their acts under the spotlights. This process involves all senses”, the director remarked, comparing these women to rock stars. For her, the story bears furthermore a powerful symbolism. As she said: "Animals should always be considered wild. You should never tame them completely. On a symbolic level, these women wrestle with this aggression, which, at certain moments, disappears”.
Closing this press conference, Mark Olexa and Francesca Scalisi, directors of the documentary Moriom, described how they met Moriom, their young protagonist. “We were in Bangladesh doing a research for another film. Suddenly, we see this beautiful young girl dressed like a princess walking by the riverside. The children around her were applauding and mocking her and all eyes were on her. She wore a chain on her ankle. Soon after, her mother gripped her from the chain; they crossed the river and disappeared. Immediately, we felt the urge to watch her closer”, Mr. Olexa added. Moriom suffers from a mental disorder and right from the start "falls in love with the camera and treats it like a mirror. We explained everything to her and she agreed to be filmed and so did her parents, for whom it was a form of relief to talk about their daughter", Mrs. Scalisi noted. “It’s possible that due to her mental illness Moriom could appear bolder. She was speaking to police officers and expressed herself in public, in a country where women seldom express themselves outside their house”, Mr. Olexa added. As the directors pointed out, Moriom spend some time away from her community. Today she is better and she has also started working. She hasn't seen the film yet. “Perhaps now she will see it in a completely different manner, having left her illness behind and living a new life”, the directors complemented.
