Thessaloniki

A Press Conference was held on Wednesday, March 19 2014, by directors Santiago Esteinou (Years of Fierro), Jean-Michel Dissard (I Learn America) and Drew Taylor (Our Man In Tehran) as part of the 16th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

A particularly important issue, that of adolescent immigrants living in America and how these children are accepted into the country, is investigated in Jean-Michel Dissard a documentary I Learn America. The film takes place in the International High School of Lafayette, a Brooklyn public school, which is attended by teenager immigrants from around the world. "When I was at the International School I was really impressed with what a safe environment for children this was. I decided to spend a year at this school, filming. The children seemed open, comfortable in front of the camera. I believe that the catalyst was the time we spent together. We gave them time to get used to the camera. The end result was something very natural, as the presence of the crew gradually did not make any difference. A two-way relationship with the children was created quickly, we became buddies," the director recounted. In the film, Mr. Dissard presents the story of five students. Regarding the selection of the heroes of the film he stated: "We did not choose the kids. They chose us. Some of them, unsurprisingly, showed greater curiosity about what we did. We took care to shoot not only in the school but also in their homes and had the opportunity to get to know Polish cuisine, as well as that of Guatemala, and also talked with their parents. Eventually, the students told us about things that they had not confided to either their parents nor their friends". Among the characters is a child from Guatemala, who has lived in America since the age of 11, without having seen his mother since he was a year old and without managing to get official documents to date. This problem is widespread in the U.S., explained the director, adding: "America is a country of immigrants, and I myself am an immigrant. Most of these children didn’t choose to come to America. But America is the only country they know as their home. However, they have no documents. At this time there is a movement underway by various dreamers who are advancing the cause of changing legislation for immigrants in the U.S. and I hope that politicians will make this change. The film attempts to give hope to these people. "

Drew Taylor, director, and Elena Semikina, producer, of the film Our Man in Tehran (co - directed by Larry Weinstein) were next. The film brings to light new information about the case of Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor and the CIA, and the secret agreements between the governments of the U.S. and Canada, designed to rescue six U.S. diplomats during the hostage crisis in Iran in 1979. The story is familiar to those who have watched Ben Affleck's Oscar-winning film Argo, but the filmmakers state that any resemblance to it is just the core of the story. Drew Taylor commented: "When we started shooting our documentary, Argo was not even released. Talking with Ken Taylor, we realized that many of the details of the case were not known to the general public, although some movies were made in the '80s about this issue. In any case, Argo did not intimidate us, though you feel awe as a poor Canadian making a film that deals with an issue that has engaged a large company like Warner.” Both emphasized that their intention was to present the facts exactly as they happened. "The former Canadian Prime Minister Joe Clark attended the premiere of the film, and told us "there is no better story than the truth." We pulled a lot of information from the book Our Man in Tehran by Robert Wright and talked with many of the protagonists of the events of that time, making thousands of hours of interviews. We wanted to present the story from a broad perspective. The hostage crisis happened just before the Iranian revolution and so I wanted to have the people who were there be heard, to have a first-hand account of the story," said Elena Semikina. In this respect, Drew Taylor believes that ultimately the documentary is a response to Argo. "In order to know what happened in a situation you have to talk to the protagonists of the events, otherwise you are making a fiction film," said the director.

Years Of Fierro, Santiago Esteinou’s film, takes us inside American prisons, in particular inside the cell of a death row inmate. In 1980 the Mexican immigrant César Roberto Fierro Reyna was sentenced to death for the murder of a taxi driver in El Paso. He remains in prison to this day, waiting to be executed. The director said: "Fierro has been awaiting his execution date for 35 years, always insisting that he is innocent. At the same time, he keeps requesting a review of the case, and argues that the interpretation of the law was incorrect. There is evidence that the police forced him to confess, while he didn’t have a lawyer who spoke his language. Even the International Court of Justice has ruled in favor of a review of his case." The director spent about a year and a half filming inside the prison. "The problem is that the visits last only 45 minutes. Thus, by the time we set up the camera behind the glass that separated us from Fierro, a lot of time had passed. To build trust between us, we visited him several times, about every three months during this period and found that the fact that we went again and again to see him, made him happy, "explained Mr. Esteinou. From this point of view, the director admitted that there is an emotional attachment to the hero: "It is difficult to remain detached, gradually you get emotionally involved. What interested us most was to show the meting out of justice, incarceration and its consequences. How can you even imagine what it is like for a man to be waiting for over 35 years in a cell to be executed? There are many cases like Fierro’s in the U.S. Through our research, we identified over 50. The next execution of a death row inmate is scheduled for April 9. This man claims that, in his case also, the U.S. has violated international conventions. As for Fierro, he does not know the date of his execution. So I feel that all these years the case has been ''stuck''. No one is deciding on a review. I hope that my film will help to at least expose this case. "

-16TH TDF PRESS RELEASE-

Edited by Vanessa McMahon