A camera and a laptop
Theodoros Kalesis and Greece’s new generation of directors

Theodoros Kalesis

First there was "Freddy", the low-budget tragi-comedy about an Albanian clown in Greece. Next followed "Heroes’ Square", a short film about Florina city’s annual bonfire. Director Theodoros Kalesis provides a close up on real people and a sense of humour in both short documentaries. In person, he is young (33, with close-cropped hair) and inquisitive (his eyes register curiosity). Kalesis is pleasant and funny, but not a show off. This low-key manner permeates his films.

From the border to Paris
The first thing that shaped Kalesis was growing up in Ano Poroia, a village in Greece’s Serres region, which borders both Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. It instilled in him the kind of "Balkan pathos", he says, that is found in Emir Kusturica’s films. He grew up with the mystery of what was on the "other side" - until the borders opened a few years ago, and his village surreally discovered a village identical to itself on the other side.

Another clear influence has been going to film school for five years at the University of Paris 8 (Sorbonne’s St. Dennis branch), after initial training at Thessalonikis’ Paralaxi Film and Television School. Kalesis absorbed film theory, while participating in France’s prolific short film production with his own "Termometro and Stalingrad". He enjoyed "watching the city wake up each morning," as he returned from his security guard job at dawn.

France also left him with the latest technological savvy. Like most of his old Paris classmates (and only a few Greek documentary-makers), he edits his mini-DV camera material on a laptop. To edit, Kalesis often takes his computer (loaded with Final Cut Pro software) and a few hard drives and visits friends in other towns, to change the scenery. "I’m like a deejay, when I edit," he says. He sometimes strings a monitor above his bed, using a wireless mouse to manipulate images. Corporate video work helps pay the bills.

Freddy and Heroes’ Square

"Freddy"

When Kalesis returned from Paris to Thessaloniki two years ago, it was clear to him that the city had changed. The many migrants from neighbouring countries had made an even bigger mark than five years before. One of them, Albanian Freddy Gjoka, was making city residents giggle from within his inflated clown’s outfit. He had a particular way of making the ridiculous costume come to life and touching people without words.

Kalesis, got to know Freddy and his Greek stripper friend, Theo, before convincing them to appear in his film. The independent production makes up for its technically rough spots with a fascinating look at how the clown views himself and Greece. Both Freddy and Theo take themselves seriously, even if the camera reveals the light side of their professions too. In one of the most memorable images, Freddy bounces cheerfully over yellow fields; his big dreams are in stark contrast to the bleak experience foreign workers often face in Greece. The film ends up lacking the patronizing perspective of most other films made by Greeks about migrants recently.

"Heroes' Square"

The next documentary, "Heroes Square", was actually started before "Freddy". In 1999, Kalesis started shooting northern city Florina’s Dionyssian annual bonfire. He’d return each year, documenting the process whereby the city’s residents (using only stolen wood, mostly from railroad tyes), would stop everything Π work, school, family obligationsΠ to pile up wood and prepare for a massive all-night celebration on December 23. The film reveals the community of bonfire-builders, as they drink, brave cold temperatures and dream of the biggest, brightest fire ever. Like "Freddy", this film lets people speak for themselves. Kalesis was drawn to the subject due to the strength of the people’s passion for the bonfire in a time when similar community rituals have been extinguished. The church’s opposition to the Florina bonfire is made clear through an interview with a clergyman.

The film bears an interesting similarity to Thessaloniki-based Lukas Kuhtin’s film www.ragouzaria.gr. That film shows the annual drunken festivities in January in northern Kastoria. Pointing to the work of his friend Kuhtin, Kalesis believes that "something is happening up north." He thinks Thessaloniki could be Greece’s documentary-making city; it’s a place Kalesis prefers to Athens, where he’s been living recently. Since he’s returned to Greece, Kalesis has sensed an undercurrent of young filmmakers who "still haven’t spoken" but are waiting. He feels a "change of the guard taking place," pointing to impressive young filmmakers at the Drama Short Film Festival each year.

The chess touch
In the meantime, he’s one of Greece’s filmmakers most prone to "taking a camera and running". He went to Istanbul recently for a 10th Chess Individual World Championship for the Blind and the Visually Impaired. His next film is about the Greek blind chess team says Kalesis. It will be very experimental, with the picture intentionally "rough" and the music by Vasilis Dokakis reminiscent of the soundtrack of Darren Aronofsky’s Pi. Kalesis is aiming to complete the project in time for the March 2004 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival.

Angelike Contis

http://www.usuarios.com/ib316564/
International Association for Blind and Visually-Impaired Chess Players

http://www.paris-university.net/parisuniv08.html
University of Paris 8

http://www.dramafilmfestival.gr/en/index.html
Drama Short Film Festival