Guerrillas in the (tv) mist

"The reason why Paraskinio got this far is because of all the people who worked on it," admit filmmakers and series creators Lakis Papastathis and Takis Hatzopoulos. There’s very few examples of local television shows that boast collaborations with the most acclaimed directors in Greek cinema. The original idea belongs to Roviros Manthoulis, one time public television programming director, who inaugurated the show in 1979. The idea was to create a series that would go behind the scenes of the homegrown arts community, hence the name (paraskinio is Greek for backstage). Lakis Papastathis and Takis Hatzo- poulos however, who both had track records in big screen documentary, added another dimension. "The idea wasn’t to report what was happening but rather to reveal it" they insisted, summing up their philosophy on the format of the show, which wasn’t about making content look good but taking a moral stand on your subject-matter. Although "Paraskinio" started out after democracy was restored, a lot of the early shows were censored, which goes to show the innovative spirit of the crea- tors. There’s been more than 1000 episodes and 200 directors in the long history of the show so far, which gave rise a new visual language aiming to showcase both the uniqueness of the artist and the talent of the director.

Kostas Aivaliotis