25th TIDF: Two documentaries about humans and the environment from the perspective of S. Danish

Homeless people on the streets of Athens receive the contempt and aversion of the gaze of their fellow human beings. At the same time, somewhere in the Aegean, captains of fishing boats, along with the scarce fish, “fish” for waste and plastic. The two themes centered on humans and the environment, although different from each other, have a common denominator in the journalist Sotiris Danezis, who directed two new films, which he is presenting at the 25th Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival.

“Roofless Dreams” and “Fishing for Litter” are two different documentaries, short and medium length, which will be shown one after the other, as part of the section “Through the gaze of Sotiris Danezis”, with the perspective of which the Festival has chosen to explore the world.

Dreams without a roof

With the screening of “Roofless Dreams”, the viewer's gaze will turn to the people, whom they may have met in the past and outside the darkened hall on some side of the road, and passed by them in a hurry.
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They are people who once had a job, a home, a family, friends and one day they lost it all. “We are talking about people who are literally and metaphorically on the sidelines, about those who face the threat of homelessness or are under the regime of it,” explains the director. As he says, the stories that follow them, have many stereotypes, which he himself came up against during the filming. “I think the film will overturn the impression that these people are on the road by choice or because they are marginalized. On the contrary, they are people like us, who have problems like ours and through a series of events and some wrong choices, they found themselves on the road,” he adds.

According to Mr. Danish, this film — realized with the support of the “TIMA Charitable Foundation” — is not yet another documentary about homelessness. It's more of a walk around town and a series of less well-publicized stories than those that are off the list of media priorities.

“One of the protagonists of this film is also the AMKE “Emfasis”An organization that For ten years, quietly, he has been on the side of these people and trying to support them under very adverse circumstancesand many of them to keep them even alive,” says Mr. Danese, mentioning that during this period, he also encountered loss himself. “Some of the people we approached passed away during the documentary, and in the space that has elapsed between the day filming ended and the premiere date, one more person has been lost.”

The film premiere of Sotiris Danezis' two documentaries will take place today at 18.30, at Warehouse 1, “John Cassavetis” room, in the port of Thessaloniki. Tomorrow, he invites the public at 13:00, to the “Green Room” of the Olympion, for an open discussion on fisheries, with members of the organization that supports this program.

Source: Athenaic - Macedonian News Agency