The Peloponnisos International Doc Film Festival's purpose has always been to introduce the audience of Peloponnese some very special films from all over the world. This year according to the difficult circumstances it was decided that there will be a hybrid version of the festival with an ONLINE release in February and a live premiere in May. In this situation we asked volunteers and festival staff to interview the directors of the ONLINE program to bring them closer with the audience even if they couldn't have met in the theaters. Behind the scenes information, personal stories and more in depth approach to the films are available through these interviews. The interviews of the films included in the "Claiming Freedom" tribute have been conducted by the students of Theater Studies of University of Peloponnese, as one part of our collaboration with the University.
The interviews of the directors were conducted by: Manos Kalafatelis, Dina Sotaki, Stella Papakonstantinou, Kostas Metsos, Giannis Koutresis, Ioannis Manoloudis, Andrianna Giannakopoulou, Daphne Alihatzoti, Ornela Koutrolli, Ilektra Katsimiha, Valia Orfanidou, Antonia Pternea and Maria Siamatra, Maria Nikolakopoulou, Giorgos Geranakis, Aggelos Kourepis, Maria Galani, Kalliopi Kalpodimou, Katerina Mefsout the great team of student from Theater Studies faculty of University of Peloponnese.
Pedro Pires "Alexander the Fool"
After collaborating with François Girard and Robert Lepage, 1998 Emmy Award winner Pedro Pires directed the short films "Danse Macabre" in 2008 which won 43 awards internationally, and "HOPE" in 2010, which won a Telefilm Canada prize for Outstanding Canadian Short. In 2012, he partnered with Lepage to co-direct the feature "Triptych". The film received a Honorable mention of the Ecumenical Jury at the Berlinale International Film Festival. In 2019, he released his first documentary feature "Alexandre le fou" for which he acted as Producer, Writer and Director. The film won Best Editing in a Feature Length Documentary at the 2020 Canadian Screen Awards and was also nominated for Best Cinematography and Best Film.
We would like to thank Pedro for the wonderful interview by Andrianna Giannakopoulou that you can check out here.
Olivier Pollet "Ophir"
Olivier Pollet is an investigative journalist, researcher and documentary director and producer, based in the UK. He directed and produced the documentary “Canning Paradise” (2012, 90min) which won several awards. He also co-directed “When we were Hela” (2014, 14min) and co-directed with Alexandre Berman and co-produced “The Panguna Syndrome”, which was a finalist for the Albert Londres Prize 2017, the most prestigious journalism award in France. He is working on the production of the web-documentary platform “The Colonial Syndrome,” to be released in 2020 as a multimedia complement to the feature documentary “Ophir”.
Credits: Ophir (2020, 97’), The Colonial Syndrome (2020 Upcoming, Online), The Panguna Syndrome (2017, 52'), When We Were Hela (2014,14'), Canning Paradise (2012, 90')
We would like to thank Olivier for the wonderful interview with Katerina Mefsout that you can check out here.
Lucie Viver "Sankara is not dead"
After studies in history and philosophy, Lucie Viver worked as an assistant director. In particular, she worked on movies by Otar Iosseliani, Mati Diop and Rabah Ameur-Zaïmèche. In 2013, she was admitted to La Fémis Screenplay workshop. Since then, she has been developing several documentary and fiction film projects. Sankara's not Dead is her first film.
We would like to thank Lucie for the wonderful interview with Giorgos Geranakis that you can check out here.
Amirali Mirderikvand "Sfumato"
Amirali Mirderikvand was born in 1982 , in Iran and has an MA in cinema studies. He is an independent filmmaker and works a lot with short films and documentary films. He have worked as an Assistant Director for several and has been working as a director the last 8 years.
We would like to thank Amirali for the wonderful interview that you can check out here.
Don't forget to check out the films in today's program till 23:59 GR Time in this link.