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 from Theater Studies faculty of University of Peloponnese team.
Sjoerd van Grootheest & Irene Vélez-Torres "Bajo Fuego"
Sjoerd van Grootheest (director/producer), graduated in Cultural and Media Studies (MA) and Anthropology (Bsc.), with a specialization in Visual Ethnography, and is currently active as an independent documentary producer and director in Colombia. His latest production is called Voces de Guerrilla that depicts the year of demobilization of the 6th front of FARC-EP in a rehabilitation camp in the North of Cauca province. It has been selected by international film festivals in Europe and the America’s, received several special mentions and won the price for best feature documentary at the Festival de Cine por los Derechos Humanos en Bogotá 2018.
Irene Vélez-Torres (producer/producer) is currently attached to the University of Valle as Full Professor and specializes in socio-environmental conflicts and ethno-racial inequalities. While engaging in research she frequently applies audio-visual technology as a research methodology or as a means to present her findings and experiences to a broader audience rather than just an academic one. In 2015 she produced two mid-length documentaries as part of a broad and international research project about environmental conflicts in the Cauca province. Her latest production is called ‘Voces de Guerrilla’, which she produced together with Sjoerd van Grootheest.
You can check out the interview by Daphne Alichontzoti with Sjoerd and Irene here
Nerijius Milerius "Exemplary Behavior"
Nerijus Milerius is a scriptwriter, philosopher and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vilnius University, Lithuania. He is teaching film philosophy, religious cinema, cultural studies and aesthetics. He is the editor and one of the authors of the monograph “Film and Philosophy” and the author of the monograph “Apocalypse in Cinema: The Philosophical Presuppositions” (Vilnius University Press, 2013). Milerius is an author or co-author of several scripts for feature films, such as “Isaac” (director JurgisMatulevičius) released at Black Nights Film Festival , Tallinn 2019; “Antigonė” (director OskarasKoršunovas) which is in development. Milerius was the script editor of the documentary film “Exemplary Behaviour”; from 2017 he is the co-director of this film.
You can check out the interview by Andrianna Giannakopoulou with Nerijius here.
Don't forget to check out the films in today's program 8/2 from 00:00 till 23:59 GR Time in this link.