In addition to the “Last time on stage”, I had filmed Lefteris for two separate documentaries for “Paraskinio”. One was a portrait of Dimitris Rondiris, in 2006, and the other of Amalia Moutoussi, (Paraskinio, season 2006-07).
There existed, however, some other great movie material. Some footage from 2005, where Lefteris converses with me, in his dressing room, Immediately after a performance of his magnificent "Bella Venezia". The interview was intended for an episode on Lefteris Pavlopoulos, that was part of my documentary series about Greek Cinematographers. The series, entitled “Shadows and Light”, was finally approved by ERT, but only for six episodes, mostly about older and more classical cinematographers. Therefore, the portrait of Lefteris Pavlopoulos never came to be and the footage of Lefteris Voyatzis talking about his collaboration with Pavlopoulos, was left unused.
Lefteris Voyatzis’ demise, in May 2013, affected me enormously, like so many others. I was deeply saddened. Suddenly, I had the urge to put together everything that I had filmed, which involved Lefteris, even the slightest bit. Then I remembered that interview.
I edited it with Myrto Lekatsa again. I decided to leave the material as it was, raw, without using other images to ‘dress it up’ or interject. It was going to be a close-up of Lefteris in his dressing room; just that.
Claudio Bolivar was in charge of the camera, that evening.
Myrto and I edited out everything that needed to be edited out, which were only one or two things, and kept my questions and his words exactly as filmed.
All of a sudden, that old interview had taken on a new and greater meaning. Starting from the subject of light, Lefteris discussed his art in its entirety; the many artistic and intellectual questions that concerned him. And he did that, seemingly oblivious of being filmed, even though he talked at the camera. He was in a discourse with the camera and at the same time it seemed as though the camera was not there. That made for an extraordinary testimony. Some details of his daily routine, such as his rowdy exchanges with his assistant or his characteristic distraction while he was removing his make-up, inside his chaotic dressing-room, were kept intact.
And that resulted in a great testimonial film on Lefteris. Made in the simplest and most unaffected way.
