Thessaloniki

Directors Iro Siafliaki (Genevieve Clancy, Instants of Life), Myrna Tsapa (At the Pharmacy), Yannis Vamvakas (Panagiotis Tetsis "Playing... with Colours”) and Morteza Jafari (Dreaming of Democracy) gave a press conference on Tuesday, 18 March 2014, in the context of the 16th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

Iro Siafliaki’s documentary Genevieve Clancy, Instants of Life is a portrait of French poet and philosopher Genevieve Clancy. It is based on archival material and also testimonies from people who shared the same need with Clancy to actively address the issues raised by modern History. “Throughout her life, Clancy was consistent in her work and activism; it was as if her work was a continuation of her actions. She made no distinction between the private and the public spheres,” said the director. Talking about Clancy, who had been her teacher, and later became her friend until her death in 2005, Siafliaki said: “She was one of those people who leave their mark. You are never the same after you have met them.” Commenting on the collective actions that inspire works like Clancy’s, she noted: “I am convinced that only with collective action can we achieve anything today; I expect nothing from politics. We must insist on a different reading of History, disprove the all-powerful and unchanging nature of the crisis, submit a different proposal about all the things currently overlooked, show that we can actively shape our own lives.” Discussing the role of intellectuals, the director said that, contrary to the generation of May ‘68, when intellectuals took a firm stance on issues, their position is less clear today. “We don’t need intellectuals to give solutions; we need them to express the necessity of radical change.”

Myrna Tsapa’s documentary At the Pharmacy is a depiction of modern Greece. “It was not my intention to make a documentary about the crisis. I wanted to capture the current situation in Greece, because the pharmacy is like a café, a place where people have daily discussions about what is happening in the country. I started filming before the Greek bailout, and the film took its final form in the process,” said Tsapa. The film shows how people find ways to deal with the crisis and overcome their everyday problems. “I wanted to show how political and financial conditions can affect personal relationships. In the beginning, my protagonists keep a humorous attitude, but tensions grow as the film progresses,” added Tsapa. The filmmaker also explained her choice to shoot in black & white, saying that “in Greece, black & white is intimately connected to comedy, and I did not want to depress the audience.”

Panagiotis Tetsis is perhaps the only Greek painter from the 1930s generation who made use of vivid colors in his work. “Tetsis’ relationship with colour is closely related to and reflected in his own personality,” said Yannis Vamvakas, director of the film Panagiotis Tetsis "Playing... with Colours”. As the filmmaker explained, most painters of the same generation as Tetsis’ were influenced by the Bavarian school and avoided vivid colors. He, on the other hand, was influenced by the conditions and the warm, strong light in Greece.” Mr Vamvakas added that painting is his repressed passion, which is why he decided to film distinguished Greek painters, letting them talk about their works. Describing how he approached this great Greek painter, the director said it was a difficult endeavour, since he had to “convince Tetsis that the film would become a landmark for the documentary genre. I was in awe when I filmed him, I was thinking ‘what can I say to him?’, ‘how can I give him directions?’. He had his views and he was very austere. I had to do my best to understand how he thought. Sometimes I would try an indirect approach, and when necessary I would take a step back. If I antagonized him, I would surely fail. But he never made any suggestions about my work.”

Morteza Jafari’s documentary Dreaming of Democracy follows seven Iranian immigrants who try to find a different life in Thessaloniki, only to realize that democracy is not what they had imagined. Mr Jafari was inspired to make the film by his own personal experience, since he is also an Iranian immigrant to Greece. “I did not come to Greece to make films, I came to save my life. I am a refugee in Greece,” Mr Jafari said. His protagonists did not have the same motive that he had, that of making a better life for themselves; they were imprisoned and remained trapped in Greece. Today, all of them live in other European countries, and they have been recognized as refugees thanks to the documentary. “I have made many films, and, knowing how the EU works, I was convinced that this documentary would help them,” noted the director. Talking about his own country, he said that Iran is more technologically and financially advanced compared to many European countries, but has no democracy.

-16TH TDF PRESS RELEASE-

Edited by Vanessa McMahon