The appeals of the 86-year-old filmmaker to save his archive, for the first time they seem to be taking hold
For ten years he has been addressing public and private bodies in the Greek territory in order to achieve the rescue of his film archive. To date, he had received no response. The recent reduction in pensions and the real estate tax he is required to pay for the space that keeps his record have brought the 86-year-old Mr.Nikos Bililis, one of our country's most historic current affairs filmmakers, to consider giving up his effort for good.
«Inside the archive there are historical documents from the recent history of the city and the entire country. Such as the visit of the presidentDe Gaullethe 1963 in Thessaloniki, the Megalopolis earthquake the 1965, the Junta referendum the 1973 or even historical movie moments, like a reprint of one of the brothers' first film screeningsLumiere» says in "Step". All in all the material with historical filmed snapshots covering the modern history of Greece, from 1911 up to 1990, overcomes them 80.000 meters of film. «To these must be added thousands of Greek and foreign films, photos from the city's sports history and much more".
A few days ago Mr. Bililis sent an open letter to the Mass Media communicating his situation, as well as the risk to his file. From,what does it look like, for the first time after so many attempts, some appeared willing to listen to him. «On Wednesday I had a meeting with the president of the municipal council of Thessaloniki. We discussed the prospect of the archive being transferred to the Vafopouleio Spiritual Center. I didn't make any specific commitments, but at least for the first time someone agreed to meet me and seemed interested in the matter" emphasizes.
As he says in "Vima" his goal with this whole story is not to make money. «The file is currently rotting. My pension is too low, for the storage space i have to pay the real estate fee which touches the 600 euro. I only ask for two things. Firstly, saving the file in a suitable place where it can be protected from moisture. I estimate that a space of approx 400 sq.m. And secondly, its immediate use. I don't want the file to go from one repository to another. All I ask is that the material be copyrighted”states in Step.
Before the municipality of Thessaloniki initially showed interest in the utilization of the film material, Mr. Bililis had reached such a point of desperation that he had decided to do something he had so far stubbornly refused to do.. «My goal was for the file to stay in Greece. But I had reached such a level of frustration that I was now thinking of turning abroad».
As a filmmaker he stopped working from 2000. But even today he declares himself ready to shoulder the movie camera and shoot footage, «as long as there is some important event.
Let's hope that the period of lean cows - at all levels- that we are going through should not prevent the rescue of a piece of our cinematic history.
Source : tovima.gr