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:
78/52 by Alexandre O. Philippe
“I do not recall watching Psycho for the first time. In a strange way, it feels like I’ve always been familiar with that film. This actually makes me a bit sad, and I envy those who distinctly remember experiencing the shock of the shower scene for the first time. My parents pretty much allowed me to watch anything from a very young age, including horror films, so Psycho wasn’t off-limits. Had I been forbidden to watch it, I imagine I would clearly recall my first viewing of the iconic shower scene”.
A Greek Winter by Ingeborg Jansen
“I really look forward to the documentary’s screening at Thessaloniki, the place where it was shot, and dread it a bit too. Have I portrayed people and situations well? Have I conveyed opinions well? How will the jokes and curses go down? To my amazement, some Dutch and other Northern viewers took all shouting in the film quite seriously; too seriously I think. I wonder how the Greeks will react. All in all, I very much hope that the Greeks recognize and like this portrait of current everyday Greek life and I'm open to criticism and discussion. That's what documentaries are for, too”.
Boobs by Agnes Sklavou & Stelios Tatakis
“Our choice to celebrate female breasts has to do with the fact that everyone admires, thinks and is concerned about them, but we rarely really talk about them, apart from the context of Love and Illness. We wanted to let the breasts speak for themselves, to tell us their story: breast-feeding, motherhood, cancer, passion, sexuality. We tried to include as many aspects of the female breasts in our documentary”.
Cine Thission of Athens by Maria Douza
“What is special about the Cine Thision in the eyes of the foreign media and visitors in general, is its special location at the foot of the hill of the Acropolis. The fact that while the spectators watch a film there and when they raise the eyes they see the lit Acropolis is very important”.
The Great Utopia by Fotos Lambrinos
“The documentary is fiction by other means. In a way that the use of archival material, as in my film, adds interest on the fictional use of documents, recounting an unknown story with a beginning, middle and –unfortunately- an end. Even so when this story sums up in one and a half hour the essence of an entire century, the 20th century. When Fidel Castro died, Ezio Mauro wrote in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica: ‘With Fidel's death, the 20th century finally ended and from the revolution only iconography remained’. My film is a part of this iconography”.
The Snake Charmer by Nina Maria Paschalidou
“Sexism in Bollywood existed for many years. In the past it was much more evident. Raping was promoted because the sexually oppressed Indian community had a need to see nudity. Fortunately, there has been an attempt over the past few years to change the stereotypical, derogatory way women are presented through mainstream, but also independent cinema”.
Zooland by Pary El-Qalqili
"By listening to the people, their stories and way of speaking, you can grasp that the people are not only re-/acting to the powers around them. They become creators by talking the way they do. Humour can be a form of resistance and subversion. Emphasizing the humoristic elements in the montage of this film was a conscious decision to transgress the walls of societies, may they be invisible or concrete".
