Documentaries focus on children’s rights
The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, the second leg of the International Film Festival that takes place every November, is currently under way at the Olympion complex in Aristotelous Square. Featuring over 100 documentary films by local and foreign artists, the festival is in part dedicated to children in developing countries, after an idea by the festival director, Dimitris Eipides (also the director of the Film Festival’s New Horizons section). The festival’s core, «Children of a Harsh Reality,» consists of 12 documentary films highlighting specific problems faced by children throughout the world, a one-day conference on children’s rights, a videoconference with linguist/sociologist Noam Chomsky on the same subject, and a telemarathon on state channels NET and ET3 to raise public interest and support for the plight of Afghan refugee children. The idea for this focus arose, according to Eipides, who spoke to Kathimerini English Edition last week, at a meeting the festival director had at last year’s Cannes Film Festival with Iranian film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf – an artist known for his activities in support of women’s and children’s rights in Iran and whose latest film was «Kandahar: The Sun Behind the Moon.» «He [Makhmalbaf] told me about the Afghan refugee children living in Iran: 670,000 children, he said, who are not allowed to go to school in Iran because they are there illegally. These children, as far as I am concerned, are already fertile ground for political abuse. This is something we saw after the September 11 events. Children holding guns on their shoulders. Children who have grown up with prejudice, violence, hate and fear. No amount of bombardment can reverse this reality or change it. Education could give them a concept of the global family, of tolerance,» explained Eipides. The idea gradually began to take root in the festival director’s mind. «It takes just 1.5 dollars to send one of these children to school for one year. 1.5 dollars! I spend just about that amount every day on newspapers. Who could resist the challenge? I wanted to do something to help. After the events of September 11, I began thinking about it even more seriously.» Conference The resulting events will commence tomorrow at the Museum of Byzantine Instruments in the Ladadika district of Thessaloniki’s city center, starting at noon every day and running until late in the afternoon. Apart from Makhmalbaf himself, speakers at the conference on children’s rights will include Yvonne Bezera de Mello, a sculptor and the director of a special program for the protection of street children in Brazil; Peter Wintonick, a Canadian film director; Margarita Papandreou, the president of the Greek branch of the non-governmental organization Winpeace; Patricia McCarthy, a specialist on refugee issues; Zisis Papadimitriou, a professor at Thessaloniki University; Nikos Papageorgiou, the president of the Greek UNESCO Commission. The conference is open to the public, who will be able to pose questions and provide input in what promises to be a lively debate on the problems being faced by the world’s children today, state initiatives for combating these problems and the role of civil society in both prevention and resolution. Telemarathon The telemarathon, organized for NET and ET3 by journalist Stelios Kouloglou will start on Friday at 4 p.m. and run until 6 p.m. with a program dedicated to children and a telephone fund-raiser. The last event, the videoconference, will take place through a live satellite link with Chomsky, a writer and theorist known for his somewhat controversial views on global politics, especially in terms of developed vs developing countries, presented in books such as «Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs,» «Profit Over People: Neoliberalism & Global Order,» «The New Military Humanism: Lessons From Kosovo,» «Acts of Aggression» and «World Orders, Old and New,» to name but a few. This event will take place on Friday from 5-8 p.m. at the Olympion complex and is also open to the public. However, a picture paints a thousand words and the focus of the festival remains on documentary films. The screenings of «Runaway,» «Children of Shadows,» «Imit Ikula,» «Nisha,» «Children of Kosovo 2000,» «Close to Home,» «Promises» (nominee for this year’s Academy Awards), «Casual Lives,» «Afghan Alphabet,» «A Child’s Century of War» and «Children’s Stories: Chechnya» will be the strongest testimonies of a growing problem that, while occasionally in the media spotlight, remains mostly unaddressed. Looking for change «Let’s not fool ourselves,» warns Eipides. «We – as a society – create images that have little to do with reality in order to soothe people. That’s why I started putting together the films on children in developing countries. «The themes are shocking and many of the documentaries I saw and chose are really magnificent: The problem of children with AIDS in Africa – it’s huge! There aren’t even the numbers to show the magnitude of the problem. We are talking about the eradication of an entire generation. «Nobody is taking any interest and these children are dying. Then there’s the problem of child labor in South America and Asia. Children in war zones – who are orphaned or displaced, homeless and at the mercy of everything – in Kosovo, Chechnya, Zaire, etc. «The children of Brazil. I read a story in the New York Times several years ago when they discovered the bodies of a number of children in the parks and streets and it was proven that the local police had been using them for target practice. Just like that. Without reason, they shot them.» Some might wonder just what an event like this hopes to achieve. A drop in the ocean, they might argue, but Eipides retorts that naive as the efforts may be, «we are doing what we can.» «I don’t have any illusions. I am not a politician or a philosopher, neither am I under the impression that I can really have an effect on anyone. But within the bounds of what’s possible, I want to give the public an opportunity.»
