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Interview

For the LINK movie issue, I interviewed Sofia Pouloupati, a volunteer in the documentary festival of Kalamata.

Local Volunteer

Who are you and where are you from? I'm Sofia Pouloupati and I'm from Kalamata. I‘ve been working for the Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival for the last 4 years, contributing to all kinds of tasks, like translation/subtitling, graphics creation, site management/social media, communication with the filmmakers… you name it.

What is your motivation to work as a volunteer on the documentary festival and do you want to participate also next year? At first, it was the contact with new people and filmmakers from all over the world that motivated me to participate. I also thought it was a good opportunity to gain knowledge and experience through my participation. But it is such a great experience, that it is no coincidence that those who participate for the first time as volunteers wish to do so again the following year.

What do you think about volunteering in general and have you also been a volunteer before this festival? It was my first time as a volunteer, and the opportunity came along in a short period that I was between jobs, when someone talked to me about it and suggested that

Name Sofia Nationality Greek Organisation Peloponnisos International Documentary Festival Place Kalamata | GREECE

it would be nice for me to check it out. Before that, I had never volunteered before, nor can I say that I had thought about it. However, in general, I consider the experience gained through the participation to be incredibly positive.

Do you like movies and do you have any closer connection to them? I generally like to watch movies (and series), mostly with company but also on my own when there's time. I watch all kinds of films, though lately I prefer more science fiction and thrillers. I don't have

any closer connection with cinema though and I only see it as an entertainment or a pleasant way to spend your free time.

Do you think that documentary films have a specific function or that they are even more important than other genres of movies? The documentary differs from fiction films both in terms of its creation technique but also concerning its audience and purpose. I see documentaries as a means of education and raising public awareness on issues that are not widely known through the media. And I can see, through my work at the festival, that it reaches particularly young ages, opens up children's horizons and makes them think, raises questions and cultivates the ground for constructive discussion.

Do you prefer movies or books? Well, I never say no to a good book, and even though the stimuli you get from watching a movie are overwhelming, I can say that books travel me in their own way, they stay in my memory longer and they somehow touch me deeper. So I always avoid watching a book’s film adaptation if I haven't read it first and I can say that almost always the result of the film in relation to the book disappoints me. I only wish I had more time for reading books than the time I spend watching films.

If you were a movie character, who would you be? Even though I'm fascinated by movies and I

lean to like -or dislike- some character while watching a film, I don't think I've ever been identified with one so much that I could say that, you know what, this is my life, that's me, that's my personality. But who hasn't said to oneself, watching movies, that “I'd like to have those powers” or “this life”, or - at least – “this body”… So for me, that's the process of watching a movie: to get in someone else’s shoes, be someone else, live somewhere else, do something different through the character, even for a little while. Personally, for me, it is always heroes with superpowers.

What movie title would you give to 2020? Well, that's hard... Judging by all the unpresented things we live and all the crazy things that happen, like the virus straight out of Plague Inc., the international lockdown, our grotesque government, tensions with our neighbor country, the explosions in Lebanon, riots worldwide, nazis and dictatorships nearby…. It could very well be a dark humor doomsday film with an ironic title like “The Year of Living Stupidly” or “2020: Clear Vision of Hell”– and it would be a movie that would instantly become a Netflix blockbuster.

If you were about to get an Oscar, for what category would it be? Well…. I really do not know how to answer this… I guess, if I master film editing and special effects (LOL), I could be nominated for the Best Film Editing… Photos by nik.gr