The auteur: Don’t wait
Thodoris Papadoulakis was born into the cinema 1975. His parents ran a drive-in cinema in South Africa, where he was born and lived until he was 10. At first he worked in radio, but eventually cinema won him over. He made four short films which won him recognition and awards. One of them, «Pilala,» won the State Prize for the best film at the Drama film festival in 2004. Two years ago he made a major decision. He wanted to be a director and go back to Hania, the city where he grew up. Now he and two colleagues run the Indigo View production company, and he is working on his first feature film. The idea of the provinces, which alarms so many, was a positive experience for him and the company. «They know you, they help you, you can ask for things and get them more easily,» he says. «I’m preparing my first feature film in Hania. We’ll submit it to the Greek Film Center (EKK) for funding, but we won’t wait for an answer to start.» Thodoris has developed his own philosophy about the EKK. «All that is difficult, but it’s a sin to wait and let the years go by,» he says. «We are at the stage of experimenting, discovering things, developing. You have to make films at any cost. With EKK and ERT (Greek state television) you go on a waiting list that takes up your time. It’s not the best way to make films, but it is the only way we have.»
