Cinematography:
Claudio Bolivar, Kostas Lazanas, Giorgos Argyroiliopoulos, Giorgos Michelis, Petros Noussias, Elias Giannakakis
Executive Producer for ERT Digital:
Metavision
Produced/Screenplay/Directed by
Elias Giannakakis
Dinos Katsouridis was the ultimate ‘man of the cinema’. Filmmaker, screenplay writer, producer, editor; he also knew how to make film prints and mix sound.
But his main capacity, the one that defined him, was being a cinematographer.
He allowed only two hours for this interview. Claudio Bolivar (who was behind the camera) and myself went to his illustrious office-workroom-storage place on Methonis street, in Exarchia.
I had already known him for many years, mainly because of Pantelis Voulgaris, but that did not mean a lot. Katsouridis was very laconic. He was as tightlipped as it gets; and very intimidating.
But those two hours he gave me after a lot of effort, were pure gold.
Obviously I had caught him at a very unusual moment and it seemed like he wanted to talk very much. So, he granted me the best interview had ever given, either on camera or in any other way.
In effect, he talked about how professional cinema in Greece came about, in terms of quality of photography, he ‘settled’ the score with Finos, coming down very hard on him and moved on to describe what photographic interpretation is.
It was a great lesson in cinema.
After his death, when his daughter Sivylla put together a book based on a first-draft of his memoirs, she included many parts of his interview in this documentary. It is cited as a source in the footnotes.
The film also features interviews by Pantelis Voulgaris, Nikos Kavoukidis, Vasilis Vafeas, Giorgos Arvanitis and Giorgos Tzaneris.
