By Dimitris Delinikolas
Dimitris Delinikolas, a filmmaker and professor at the university of Athens Cinema department, who directed several short documentaries for gr2me, describes here the experience from his participation as supervisor in an international filmmaking project in China involving several young Greek filmmakers. Looking China is an initiative sponsored by a consortium of more than 40 international and Chinese universities organized by the AICCC (Academy of international Communication of Chinese Culture). The program invites 100 international students and 10 professors every year in various parts of China and supports them in making 100 10-minute documentaries discovering different aspects of this ancient civilization that has equally ancient roots to Greece.
I always loved travelling and discovering different cultures and people. It is a totally different thing to study customs, philosophy and culture and a different thing to experience it and live inside it. Things that feel different suddenly feel common and things that were taken for granted and felt similar are exposed to be radically different. A quote by St. Augustine reads “The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” I validated this in every journey I was blessed to take in my life but more than ever when I started travelling to the Far East.
Half of the world in terms of population has little need to consume our western products and cinematic culture. I was amazed to discover cinema and art that are radically different and self-sufficient in their inception and aesthetics. Customs that stem from different life philosophies. We love to judge and impose our way of thinking on others to justify our choices. But really through documentary filmmaking you learn to observe. To listen intently and to discover.
One of the most beautiful parts of this journey was collaboration. The project brings together international and Chinese students with different backgrounds, languages, and traditions united by a common passion to tell stories and observe the world. In a time when computers can generate almost any image…the power of real human connection, of genuine documented observation, is more valuable than ever. In a world full of digital simulations, authenticity is a gift. I was honored to supervise ten talented filmmakers and aid them to turn their vision into complete films. They allowed me to see the world through their eyes and discover the rich variety of Chinese culture with empathy and openness through their vision that was cultivated in countries as varied as Chile, Turkey, Greece, India and Argentina.
Discovery begins when we stop trying to control what we see…and start allowing ourselves to be changed by it. Gr2me had allowed me in the past to do a similar exploration through short personal documentaries presenting unique Greek personalities. But supervising others humbled me and allowed me to let go of the control that as an egocentric artist I often exerted to my work.
The Chinese people let me in their country and the students in their hearts through their films. This is a journey that I am grateful for and it has changed me deeply through cinematic observation and collaboration.
When we create documentaries, we engage in a kind of deep listening. We tune our attention to the quiet details, the gestures, the contradictions, the silences. We begin to understand that every face has a history, every voice a universe behind it. The documentary is humbling, because it teaches us that we do not know as much as we think. And in that process, something profound happens. We change and we discover ourselves.
Let me humor this by a double complementary set of quotes “Wherever you go, go with all your heart.” by Confucius and “It’s only when I lose myself in someone else, that I find myself” by Depeche mode. I wish every viewer of Gr2Me to feel the same joy of discovery I tasted in this journey no matter what theme or country they watch films from and moreover what countries they make films in.
