19th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
3-12 March, 2017
DIRECTORS’ QUOTES OF THE DAY
3-12 March, 2017
DIRECTORS’ QUOTES OF THE DAY
The Greek and foreign directors who attend this year’s edition talk about their films which are screened today at the 19th TDF:
Beatbox and Winds – Nicos Diminakis by Gina Georgiadou
''The way that the art of beatbox becomes part of the use of aerophones or the use of water pipes that become innovative musical instruments, make Nick Diminakis’ work extremely interesting. This highly successful effort of experimentation that expands the capabilities of beatbox, owes much to the classical music education of Nikos Diminakis”.
Culinary Heritage of Mount Athos by Christos Matzonas
“What I keep the most from the film shooting on Mount Athos, is the absolute serenity of the monks, a serenity passed on to us as well, that comes from the way they experience time. Thanks to a circular concept, based on the repetition of the rituals, these people have beaten the anxiety that plagues the modern way of life, entrapped in the linear sense of time”.
Days of a Lake by Pandora Mouriki
“In order to restore his connection to nature, the modern man must have more frequent contact with it and escape a little from his attachment to the urban environment. The abandoned habitats, maintained mainly by people who care for the environment, must once again become the centre of interest for most people”.
Dil Leyla by Asli Ozarslan
“The people in Turkey know a lot about the Kurdish conflict. So maybe they would be more critical about the ambitions of Leyla to change the city and plant trees. They would maybe know that it is an illusion to change something in a place like that where is a conflict for 40 years”.
Eyes of Exodus by Alexandra Liveris
"At a time when we are overwhelmed by the media news about the immigration crisis in Europe, this documentary reveals a very honest relationship between the island’s local residents and the refugees and makes more human their collective effort to cope with a traumatic change on a global scale".
Greek Animal Rescue by Menelaos Karamaghiolis
"The Greekies are stray dogs that got their name and ethnicity when volunteers who care for animals came across them. Whilst conspiracy theories in Greece want these dogs to end up as laboratory animals, pictures of their happy new life on the internet prove quite the opposite: the foster families who adopted such dogs find them more intelligent and more flexible with a remarkable sense of gratitude, while they do bear the scars of their past life - many of them are mutilated or deformed".
John Berger The Art Of Looking by Cordelia Dvorak
“With John Berger one always experience to cross frontiers; he himself in a way was this kind of passeur. Gauguin used to say: "Eyes can’t get bought!” Yes, but they might get shared or sharpened... We’ve all been lucky that John Berger lent us his eyes and sharpened our vision with such insistence and such generosity”.
Portrait of My Father in Times of War by Timon Koulmasis
“The film highlights the fragments of a life mosaic that makes the lives of these people -Nelli, Fahrner and my father-, to shine once again from the darkness, like the pale light of the stars in the desert sky of the time”.
Shashamane by Giulia Amati
“As one character in the documentary says ‘we were the only ones that really were abused, misused and murdered like we were some misfit race. Even now, police are prosecuting black men’. I think the story of the community in Shashamane is a testimony of how the social scars of slavery and discrimination still play a crucial role in society today”.
