Storydoc Session in Corfu/ 5
21 projects took part in the workshop in Corfu. I have previously written about the 4 selected Palestinian projects which were selected at the Storydoc prologue session in Ramallah, Palestine. The selected projects proved their quality as did the filmmakers who attended: Wafa Jamail (”Coffee for All Nations”), Ahmad al Bakri (”The Neighborhood’s Old Men”), both projects at pre-production stage, AND Nahed Awwad (”The Mail”) and Khaled Jarrar (”The Infiltrators”), both projects close to rough cut stage. (More about Jarrar will follow). It is my wish and hope that these filmmakers will make it to big important markets like DOKLeipzig, idfa and Sheffield DocFest. Not only are their stories important but they have also ideas on how to find the right storytelling solutions.
The hosting country Greece had fine film projects to offer as well thanks to the strong and enthusiastic research done by the founder and chair of Storydoc, Kostas Spiropoulos. For sure we will soon see an interesting, well made observational documentary from the hands of Thessaloniki based director Dimitris Athiritis. ”One Step Ahead” is the working title of a portrait of super-energetic, charismatic Yiannis Boutaris, who describes himself as an alchoholic ”who stopped drinking 21 years ago”, and who got elected mayor in Thessaloniki in November 2010. There is also potential for a great film on the Greek artist Lucas Samaras, who lives in the US and has been a strong part of the American experimental, could one say ”fluxus” movement. Producer Lena Anastasiadou (re)presented the project with the working title ”I Spend Time Wtih Making”.
From Scotland came Finlay Pretsell with clips showing Scottish racer David Millar in his fight in Tour de France. It is the idea of Pretsell to make a film about this complicated, well formulated, interesting sportsman, who was out of the game because of doping, came back and has just published a book about his life and career. Working title: Road to Redemption. Intention: the inner struggle of David Millar.
I could mention many more projects, space makes a limit, so let me stick to one more, the one by Spanish brothers Jorge and Miguel Yetano, ”On the shore”, a visual essay to be, a reflection on tourism, on what we do when we go to places to relax, in this case the Spanish coast where environmentalists have a different opinion on the building activities than have those who construct the appartment buildings. A film to be full of interesting characters, an open film with no finger-pointing on the development.
Photo: Khaled Jarrar in his white t-shirt with the text “The State of Palestine”, ready to stamp passports with the same text. Today (July 18) and tomorrow the Palestinian artist and filmmaker will stand at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin to express his political statement!
