Category Archives: EN

Amnesia Diaries, by Stella Theodorakis

Stella Theodorakis takes a page out of her own diary, made up of fragments of the past and the present, a deeply personal work that slowly molds into something that concerns each and every one of us, just as intimately as it does her.

Video diaries have always been a rather “marginal” genre, a combination of words and images, walking the fine line between film and visual confessional, mostly assigned to the depths of experimental cinema - which doesn’t necessarily do its narrative powers justice.

And “Amnesia Diaries”- the cusp of Theodorakis’ rather idiosyncratic career – is living proof. Its experimental format is simply a means to an end, a way to document her journey from past to present, a deeply personal work that slowly molds into something that concerns each and every one of us, just as intimately as it does her.

How else do you explain the fact that her memories, her thoughts and her search for meaning could very well be your own? That her protagonists could very well be your parents, your friends and your lovers? That every incident, from the most riveting to the most trivial, could very well be a story out of your own journal? That there are times when you identify with this fanciful alternation of past and present so completely, that you feel like scribbling your own notes in the margins, adding your own images, your own memories and your own thoughts to the process?

And it’s all down to Stella Theodorakis’ mastery of the medium: the woman has composition and deconstruction down to an art!

Pulling images out of her past (mostly super 8 films, shot between 1985-1986) and combining them with footage from contemporary Athens (shot between 2010 and 2012), the filmmaker acts as a historian of her own life, as well as an entire era: the one that’s already been swallowed by history and the one that’s slipping though her fingers, between protests, violence and the growing vacancies of modern-day Athens. Each and every one of her past/present compositions is a direct contrast between the romantic past and the noisy, chaotic present.

Reminiscing and at the same time criticizing the past, Theodorakis is both the star and the innocent bystander, the girl she once was and the woman she now is. In turns pompous and playful, she tells the story of a woman who rediscovers her forgotten past while her present is falling to pieces. Both timelines are dominated by people: her long lost friends from the retro and rather innocent-looking 80s and her life-long companions that make life worth living in the clunky, ear-shattering 00s. The spaces in-between are filled with life, cinema, her mom always giving her dad en earful about his driving, sex, the lack of sex, a New Year’s cake recipe, tarot cards, astrological predictions, a cop across the street, a move, a French chanson and the random image of a woman bending over in the middle of the street to pick up something she dropped…

Seemingly haphazard images and sounds come together to populate the life of an angry, sad woman who’s trying to find the strength to carry on. And she does. It’s there in her old films and her new footage from the streets of the city. In everything her long lost friends have left behind and everything her life-long companions still bring to the table. It’s there in an image from Melbourne in the 80s, a trip to Tasmania, a New Year’s house party, the burned down movie theaters in downtown Athens in the February 2012 riots and a family vacation in Crete…

Although the effortless charm of the vintage segments always defeats the cheap social criticism of the present, this fascinating collage of images and emotions confirms that political cinema is not about making allegations, it’s about trying to make sense of it all.

by Manolis Kranakis/Flix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsJyvA546AA

IDFA WorldView Summer School 2013

IDFA is looking for emerging documentary film talent!

From July 1 through July 6 2013, IDFA organizes the sixth edition of the Summer School: a tailor-made training program for emerging filmmakers, taking place in Amsterdam and aimed at strengthening the narrative structure of documentary projects. Around sixteen projects from all over the world will be selected for the Summer School 2013. The deadline for submission is April 1, 2013.

The IDFA WorldView Summer School is open to:
• Directors making their first or second feature documentary
• Ten projects in the script development phase and six projects in the rough-cut phase
• Creative documentary projects

It offers the opportunity to meet and work with highly esteemed filmmakers and film professionals who are willing to share their knowledge and experience with emerging film talent. The Summer School combines individual coaching with group sessions and an inspiring cultural program in a relaxed atmosphere. It offers two types of training possibilities: Script Development and Editing Consultancy.

Filmmakers who are selected have the opportunity to bring a sparring partner: a creative producer, a co-scriptwriter, or an editor in the case of participation in Editing Consultancy. If a project is selected, a project fee of €750 (excluding VAT) is due.
Participants will be coached by eight international documentary experts. In previous years experts like Carmen Cobos (Producer, the Netherlands), Kate Townsend (Executive Producer BBC Storyville, UK), Sabine Bubeck-Paaz (Commissioning Editor ZDF, Germany), Debra Zimmerman (Distributor Women Make Movies, USA), Erez Laufer (Editor, Israel), Peter Wintonick (Producer/ Director, Canada), Audrius Stonys (Director, Lithuania) and Janus Metz (Director, Denmark) were tutors at the Summer School.

For information about the IDFA WorldView Summer School and how to apply, see www.idfa.nl/summerschool

Culinary Cinema at the Berlinale

“Dig Your Food – From Field to Fork” is the motto of the 7th Culinary Cinema of the Berlinale to be held February 10-15, 2013. Sixteen films about food and the environment will be presented in the Martin-Gropius-Bau.

"If you want maximum freshness and pesticide-free foods, you should garden. If you want a green city, you may become a guerrilla gardener and throw seed bombs. In Berlin, urban gardening has taken root. The Prinzessinnengarten at Moritzplatz will now be able to remain where it is, while other grassroots movements are spreading all around the world. Gardeners are among us! As can also be seen in the programme of the 7th Culinary Cinema," says Festival Director Dieter Kosslick.

"Our Culinary Cinema pleasure garden is freshly stocked. Many of this year’s films include some aspect of gardening, be it concretely or figuratively," comments Thomas Struck, Programme Curator.

The documentaries:

Peru sabe: Cuisine as an agent of social change with Ferran Adrià
After this film is screened in Berlin, we had better copy this system in Greece.

L'Amour des Moules
Everything - and I mean everything - about mussels, including pearls!

Slow Food Story
Carlo Petrini and his movement - and the philosophy behind it.

Red Obsession
About China's obsession with Bordeaux wine

GMO OMG
Monsanto and Co. in our lives

Make Hummus, Not War
A kitchen conflict in the Middle East - unfortunately not the only one.

The Moo Man
A farmer and his cows in a world damning full-fat products

Following the main-programme screening, at 7:30 pm, Michelin-Star chefs Nils Henkel, Michael Hoffmann, Kolja Kleeberg, Hendrik Otto and Tim Raue will each serve a meal inspired by the films in the “Gropius Mirror” restaurant, an elegant tent lined with mirrors (85€ Film and dinner). (I wish I could be there!)

The late screenings, at 10 p.m., will focus on social and ecological topics.

See the programme brochure (pdf file in German only).

DOK. Incubator’s workshop

SUNDANCE DOCUMENTARY AWARD goes to a debut film from the DOK.Incubator´s
workshop!
The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear, a low budget documentary,
developed within the DOK.Incubator workshop, has just won the award for
World Cinema Documentary Directing at the SUNDANCE Festival! For the
Gurchiani sisters, was the first time both producing and directing a feature
lenght documentary.

„Living for a long time in Europe, I wanted to return to Georgia and make a
film about young people there. So I organised a casting – and suddenly I
saw, that those faces have their own touching stories – and I decided to
listen to them,“ describes Tinatin Gurchiani, the debuting documentarist,
the very start of her road to the amazing success of this visually stunning
movie. The film was developed within DOK.Incubator, workshop focused on
editing and distribution, that provides an individual tutoring for
documentary projects from the rough cut stage to their release. After a half
year of intensive work, The Machine… achived sophisticated editing and a
precise distribution strategy, helping them to approach the prestigious
sales agency, Deckert Distribution, and achieve international distribution.
Their road to success started with their premiere at DOK Leipzig Young
Competition and finished with the most prestigious international competition
at Sundance.

The DOK.Incubator project has been launched in 2012 by a creative think-tank
DocIncubator (CZ), DOK.Leipzig festival (DE) and the Institute of
Documentary Film (CZ) , in cooperation with the Association of Independent
Producers (SK) and Centrala Filmproduction (PL). After the first edition,
beside DOK Leipzig and Sundance, two participant films have competed also at
IDFA, CPH:DOX and they participate soon in MoMA´s Documentary Fortnight.

More information about the workshop you can find at www.dokincubator.net
DEADLINE for the 2013 edition is March 5th.

Making of … A Film Unfinished

listen to the interview with the producer Itay Ken-Tor.

Master Class Werner Herzog online

The Polish Planete+ Doc Film Festival and the VOD platform DAFilms.com present a master class with Werner Herzog at DAFilms.com. Meet the living legend of feature and documentary film, author of more than 50 films and the director who throughout his life has posed questions about the limits that nature and mankind impose on each other. As a filmmaker, he overcomes these limits and presents to the audience what he has found on the other side.

Stream for FREE until 20 January.

dafilms.com

Madeleine Avramoussis (C.E. ARTE) about co-producing in Greece

Madeleine Avramoussis, ARTE's renowned Commissioning Editor has a long experience in Co-Producing. She has been doing it for the past 20 years! In this television interview she gave me for ERT in Spring 2012 she talks about co-production in Greece, the festival, the prices and future plans. Arte is planning a special theme day about Greece in August 2013.

Watch the complete interview:

A new documentary about Greece and Democracy

Democratia, the way of the cross
An independent Greek feature-length documentary made by Marco Gastine about the campaign for the parliamentary election on May 6 2012 in Greece. The film follows four candidates, giving us a unique opportunity to explore the current political situation in Greece from a different perspective. The politicians belong to four different parties - a former minister from PASOK, a young politician with a family tradition in politics (his father was also MP), a woman from the left-wing SYNASPISMOS, and a candidate from Golden Dawn, the extreme right-wing party.Everybody tries to reach out to their voters and no-one has any real answers to Greece's pressing issues.
Demokratia the way of the cross is an observational, character-driven documentary without narration, a great insightful portrait of Greek politics.
Even though it's about the May 2012 election, Unfortunately for Greece it's still topical. Things don't change so quickly, especially when they have been in the same status quo for so many years.
It would have been better if it had been possible to have had this hot documentary ready sooner, but Marco Gastine told me that he preferred to have the premier in festivals, which is understandable.
The documentary was directed and produced by Marco Gastine jointly with Katerina Patroni, Nikolia Apostolou, Haris Raftogiannis, Christos Georgoutsos and Yiannis Misouridis. Each of these Greek filmmakers and camera-men and -women followed one politician. They had already worked together as a team for the series Docville, produced by Gastine.
The documentary (91 min, 52 min) was in the Market at DOK Leipzig and will be distributed in theatres in Greece in January.
On Wednesday December 5, the film will be screened at the French Institute in Athens (Sina 31, Kolonaki).

Marco Gastine
Director Marco Gastine

Listen to the interview (English) Marco Gastin gave me in November 2012 in Athens.

A great Greek feature-length film at idfa 2012

One step ahead (Ena vima mprosta) is the portrait of the unconventional Greek wine producer Yannis Boutaris and his bid to become the mayor of Thessaloniki, the second-largest city in Greece, in 2010. Athiridis' camera follows closely the charismatic entrepreneur throughout his political campain and personal moments, while Greece sinks further into the financial crisis. What I liked the most about this film is its balance, with its second layer where he talks about his background and private life, his alcoholism and the death of his wife, while we watch great previously unseen family footage. In 132 min. (could be 10 min. shorter) Dimitris Athiridis provides  us with a deep look into the Greek society and helps us to understand the current situation in Greece. Artemis Anastasiadou has done a good job in the editing room and both Stavros Gasparatos and Terry Papadinas have chosen great music for the soundtrack of the film. The film is co-produced by ZDF/ARTE, ERT and YLE. It is a world premiere at idfa and will be broadcast on ARTE's special theme day on Greece, in June 2013.

You can still watch it on Thursday November 22 and Saturday 24 at idfa.

Thursday 22/11, at 21.45 Munt 13 and
Saturday 24/11, 14.45 Munt 13

Watch One Step Ahead trailer at idfa

Greek productions at idfa (Amsterdam)

Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, the greatest European documentary festival,idfa, is taking place until November 25 2012 in Amsterdam.
Follow the proceedings at idfa's well-laid-out website.
To premiere and compete in Amsterdam is Dimitris Athiridis' film One step ahead on Yannis Boutaris, mayor of Thessaloniki. In Greece, the film will be screened in the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival in March. It will also be aired during the ARTE special day-long feature on Greece, in May 2013.
Also participating in the EBU pitching: Agora (Εxandas), The New Plastic Road (Myrto Papadopoulos and Angelos Tsaoussis) and Little Land (Nikos Dayandas, Anemon Productions-Rea Apostolides). Based on my idea and research, Little Land is taking place on the island of Icaria. It will be aired as part of the day-long television tribute to Greece by ARTE in May 2013. Also in idfa's main pitch on Monday November 19 2012 in Amsterdam, the Greek-produced and -directed documentary Kismet (Nina-Maria Paschalidou, Anemon Productions-Rea Apostolides) on Turkish TV soap-operas.

http://www.google.gr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDUQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.idfa.nl%2Findustry%2Ftags%2Fproject.aspx%3Fid%3Db9a824a0-de9b-4c8e-a86a-6f9e0f454409&ei=TQrJUJr3Ised0QXh4ICIDw&usg=AFQjCNGkuIaIaRr3DKCGG7Xhu7MLkHbwSg&sig2=SynFUKHsZqHLYOigJj0hXg&bvm=bv.1355272958,d.d2k