1968 | Tassos Boulmetis

good evening everyone welcome to the Billy Wilder theater home of the public programs for the UCLA film and television archive my name is Paul Malcolm I'm the senior public programmer for the archive before we begin as a land grant institution the film and television archive at UCLA would like to acknowledge our presence on the traditional ancestral and unseated territory of the Gabrielino and tongva peoples we're grateful to do work in this community we want to thank all the individuals and organizations that have helped make tonight's screening possible all of the archive screenings in the Wilder are free thanks to a gift from an an anonymous donor and we are grateful for their support we also want to thank our co-presenting partners tonight beginning with he hea a co- a collaborative program between the stabos Naros Foundation Center for helenic studies at Simon Frasier University and the stabos narros foundation center for the study of henic culture at UCLA we gratefully acknowledge the support of the starros Aros foundation for this pilot program which seeks to create networks across the west coast of North America and between the west coast and Greece and our other co-presenting presenting partner tonight the UCLA Stavros Naros Foundation Center for the study of helenic culture and our community partner for this evening is the UC Alumni Association I especially want to thank Kathy Sanchez simos zenos and Sharon gist of the helenic center for all of their help and making this evening possible and finally our sincere thanks and gratitude goes to our guest of honor here tonight us alumnist faculty member and filmmaker tasos btis who's here with us tonight where isos so [Applause] much so I'm gonna say a few words about the film and then I'll have tassos come up and say a few words so we are thrilled to be presenting taso's 2018 film 1968 about the matchup between the Greek basketball team the athletic Union of Constantinople and slavia of Prague for the European Cup that fateful year while the the outcome of that extraordinary competition is a matter of record Tso's Innovative approach to its reconstruction on film remains never less than compelling throughout weaving together various cinematic modes documentary archival footage historical reconstruction he explores the layered meaning and significance of that event from multiple perspectives such an orchestration of History memory and personal narrative is not unexpected from the director of A Touch of Spice gree's official entry for the 2005 Academy Awards and one of the highest grossing Greek films of all time after the film please stick around for a conversation on stage with hos and UCLA professor John papadopulos now please help me welcome to the stage writer director tasos [Applause] btis thank you very much I really want to thank you for it's a great honor for me to join to join me in this uh screening tonight uh I always also thank some people who flew from Texas and being here every time I make a film all my family members they fly from wherever they are and come and join so thank you very much ah of course I have to thank my alma matter UCLA film archives and Mr Paul Malcolm for arranging tonight's uh and his colleagues of course I have to thank thank and acknowledge the presence of the Greek Consul in Los Angeles Mr statos thank you so much for being with us tonight sir and uh last but not least of course I have to thank the stav Naros Foundation uh and institution that uh very generously supports my presence here in at UCLA in order to share my humble experience with the students in the classic Department Miss Sanchez thank you very much and please transfer my gratitude to Professor Sharon gell who was the initiator and she had the idea so um I I'll tell you just a few minutes about uh how this film was made possible um when I finished my third film I received a phone call for the president of AEK AEK stands for athletic Union of Constantinople AOS and he asked me to make a film about the 50th anniversary of that great event of that great victory that took place back in 1968 by that time I was really tired and very dry because I had just finished my previous film so I was a little bit uh I had a denial to start a new film because actually uh he wanted to make a featurelength film and I was not ready to get into a big uh such a big production uh of course he influenced me because he said that uh a is a is a sports club which was in uh founded back in 1924 actually next year is the uh 100th anniversary of its foundation and there are going to be a lot of celebrations in Greece he said that since AEK is a sports club with Legacy and it has a historical past uh he wanted to make to keep an archive by having interviews from many people that contributed especially in the basket section of the of the club and uh I said okay let's start taking interview so we can uh uh have an archive for the future uh just to have the legacy of the sports class uh the sports club what was amazing was while I was taking the interviews I found out that there were amazing stories about that uh basketball game so I uh while I was taking the interviews I decided that I should make a documentary especially to make a documentary which I had never done before it was not my genre I never had done a documentary uh a sub genre of documentary which is called docu fiction because it um it presents a real event that took place 1968 but at the same time uh there are fictional elements that I EMB bended in order to reflect how this uh game how what was the impact of that game especially in Greece uh because by that time 1968 it was the first anniversary of the military government but also in the whole planet because uh as you will see in the first level it is an athletic documentary but in a second level it is uh I would say a a political film because it shows what was happening 1968 and how that had an impact uh in the game as well that's that's for for the moment uh I will be happy to answer some questions after the screening please enjoy the screening and thank you again for being here with me our moderator for this evening John K Papadopoulos is distinguished professor of archaeology and Classics at UCLA uh since 2022 he is the director of the excavations in the Athenian Agora he has authored or edited 13 books over 120 articles in some 50 book reviews please help me welcome to the stage John K Papadopoulos and tasos butis what can I say Tel that was just fabulous um it's the third time I've seen this film and it gets better all the time thank you it it it gets better with age and every time I see it I see something that I didn't see before and and it's a it's a very rich and a very deep uh film um I had a few questions before I open it up to the uh to the audience but I wanted to start you began talking about Ike at the beginning and about how you made this film but in 1968 you were 11 years old yes and I was 10 and okay and what what was what was going through your mind in 1968 well in order to answer this question I have to go back some years earlier I for those of you that have seen a touch of spies you probably know that I was born in uh Constantinople today's Istanbul and when a Greek male a Greek boy was born in stanbul I belong to the Greek community of Constantinople as my family as well um the first thing that he had to learn was to become AEK a was a Greek team a Greek Sports Club it's it wasn't a Turkish but the Greeks would you know uh insist for the boy to become AEK so when I was growing up in Istanbul until I became seven years well later I discovered that there was another there was a second layer of reading this uh how you say this uh uh Sports education that we had as boys there uh that it was an indirect way of implying of educating the young male that in a few years he will be displaced with his family as exactly it happens to to me and my family 1964 because of political turbulence so we went to Greece because 45,000 Greeks were displaced were deported from Turkey uh on 1964 so we we went to Greece in 1964 and then the one of the first things that I had to do is to go with my cousins to see AEK and four years later we used to live in a suburb in uh uh Athens which was called PFI maguana uh this great event took place I was a big fan of a but uh I haven't been to a basketball game so I heard the the whole I listen to the whole game from the radio and actually the the the the radio appears in the film as well so and I still have it in nathens and um after the end of the game we went out and we we were celebrating in this all I mean it was amazing in the whole Greece everything was uh very very cheerful all the people were outside the streets uh like a big event like a Liberation like the the End of the World War II you know it was an amazing feeling and of course uh I started playing basketball but I was probably the worst basketball player ever appeared uh actually after the success of this film uh the the the the sports club that I was a basketball player the marusi I grew up in a place called marusi later so they gave me a trophy and I said you're giving me that because I was the worst because you you got rid of me you know so that's how I stopped playing basketball because then you know I started drinking beers as a student in the university and I I be I I I I be I decided to become a filmmaker actually it was much easier and than playing basketball and volleyball well I have two questions um and I'm sure you get these questions all the time but there are two episodes in this film that I'm just dying to know were they real did they really happen I mean that powerful story in all this chaos of these two brothers was that it's a real story uh uh of course in in this in the film it was dramatized but I will tell you what was the real story and actually it was told to me by one of uh of uh of the the uh uh not a son but of a relative of the person that uh happened the story the the the end the game finished so all the people were outside the stadium the traffic was amazing it was stuck so there was a bus station outside the stadium and a whole bunch of people were waiting for the bus so two guys start uh discussing and commenting about the game and uh the time passes by and they they talk about the game they are very cheerful and then after a while one of the masks they where are you coming from the other guy says I come from smirna the other says yeah I come from smirna too which neighborhood well from the upper neighborhood in uh uh such and such well I come from that neighborhood as well what's your name he says papadopulos and the other guy says let's go home mother is still alive and this is a a real story oh that's by that time it was very I don't know if anybody in the audience would live in Athens these years but it was every day 1:00 uh uh afternoon and uh after uh 9:00 in the evening in the radios there were this announcements of from the Red Cross because just imagine that 1968 a person who was let's say 10 years old in the catastroph of smyna in 1968 was around 50 years old so the memories were still there and there are still people uh well actually there were two different periods that they were searching for people it was a catastroph of and also from the Civil War in uh 1949 until 1952 that people were lost or families were divided and they were searching to find their relatives so every day there were announcements in the radio from the Red Cross in order to you know families to get together again such a moving story um the the other episode that I just don't believe you know it's just uh it was probably the funniest part of the whole film if there if there was a funniest part and that is that poor guy and that poor girl and the marriage was that was that for real was that a real story or that story has a reversal very interesting reversal uh during be when I was writing the script the president of hie he was a great person great man very very humble he comes to me and says listen tasos I you can do everything you want in your film of course but somebody told me a story and I just want to tell you if you want to include it in in the film in the script I said yeah which one he said you know his his uh father uh promised to his mother that he's going to marry her because he didn't expect her to get married because he didn't want to get married so he said yeah I will marry you if ik wins the game and you know ik won the game and he had to marry her so I'm alive I said okay that's a great story I will I will include that story well after one and a half year during the premiere of the film the president before the film starts in the premere the president comes to me and say tasos I have to confess something to you I lied to you that was an invented Story by me I said it's okay it works as long as it works it's fine that was not the reversal the reversal is this after the end of the premiere there are three guys coming to me and they say that story happened to our family as well and they are olympos Panos you know from different so there were there were many promises in order to avoid marriage but well they they became happy families that's fine well that was going to be my next question which is you know did they live happily ever after or I hope so they look happy okay um I would like to open it up now um to the audience if you have any questions um there are people around with microphones so um if you put up your hand i'm just if anybody has a question yeah oh no yes in the back and if you if you care to ask if you prefer to ask it in Greek we can happily translate whatever at what point did you decide to open up the historic element of the movie and not just um incorporate the historic events that happened in Athens that year yeah this is very good question Elisa is a great actress living here in Hollywood is from gree I am in awe I just like to add that this was incredible and I think you're carrying all of our heritage and it's just moving because we can all see our Papo our Yaya our B it's it's just incredible and thank you for your it's very interesting because as I told you in the beginning I started working on the film you know just to make a documentary in order to keep and you know to to preserve the legacy of haek and then sundly I started listening to stories and getting to know all the people who were involved not only the play the player the players what what's interesting to know is that uh there are many people especially the wives of some players that unfortunately are gone that they are still leave for that night they call each other even today and they say oh you remember what happened that night and so I I met so many people that the they were Executives of of the sports club from other sports clubs so there were so many stories and of course uh realizing during the research that we did we had a we had a couple of people doing great research we we saw that it's very funny every time AEK had a game since the beginning of that year the beginning of 1968 until the uh April 4th of 1968 every time there was a game there was a major political event either for Greece or for the planet so that was a coincidence which was very interesting so so I thought I should comment on that I should present that because you know 1968 it was a crack in time in terms so many things happened that year the other day here is one of my uh teaching assistants and we were talking about we we showed the film uh Space Odyssey 2001 and the premiere was two days before the game it was April 2nd of 1968 I mean so many amazing things happen uh that year so I decided to include the historical events as you said Elisa yes this gentlemen can can you just um wait for the um microphone microphone because we're being recorded he's exactly at the middle so thank you I just want to reiterate uh what Eliza was saying and there's no doubt there's a lot of buti this and a lot of papayo this that are so proud of you and are smiling from above that are not with us today um that's the first statement um on behalf of the family that is here we are very proud of you um the question is like you said you were he was either 10 or 11 years old besides the ike winning and you being there what else left an impression on you from all these other events that were going around the world at that time well I won't speak about the specific years but what I remember very very strongly as a child in Istanbul was when I came back from school I was in the first grade of elementary school I got into our apartment and I found my mother crying and I said what happened what happened I thought something bad happened of course something really bad happened it was the day that JFK was assassinated so this is a very strong that that has registered on my memory very very strongly uh of course it's not about 1968 but uh that specific uh event especially in Istanbul and how my family and relatives received that uh sad that res the whole planet for the whole planet throughout the world thank you yes that was um 1963 1963 yeah it was actually one of the first of my own memories as a as a Young Man any other questions yes thank you again for being here it's really amazing to see the film up on the big screen I was wondering um the director when the director of Ike came to you to make the film um and you S Suggest seemed to suggest that he would you you were allowed to do whatever you wanted to do but I I agree with you the film is a very political film and and and it it it it talks I mean it it draws out how sporting events aren't just about the individual players or the teams there's really a lot more at stake Nation you know national identity you know cultural identity all those kind that you really bring out in the film was that the film that the ike wanted you to make or did you have any did they absolutely they they are they are so proud about the film they talk about the film I mean unfortunately a doesn't do very well in basketball so they talk about the film now you know and they really enjoyed and they support it as you probably have realize and they're expecting pictures from tonight I mean yeah they they no no no they supported the film they are very proud and actually this is very funny because after that film another team Panos made a film which did really bad in the so even you know the conflict uh uh left the the basketball uh the basketball uh uh court and went to the artistic Court in the in the film making you know now now I they say we can make better films than you can do you know it's so there was a panatha yeah we have a question in the back there in the middle thank you very much it was a wonderful film what was the significance towards the end um there was an empty stadium and there were the suitcases laid out well the suitcases go ahead I'm sorry I interrup I couldn't quite tell what that was well that was uh just a reference that uh among the audience there were many people who left their Homeland and uh they were refugees it was just uh let's say a connection with how ik was founded back in 1924 from people from Greeks who left Istanbul actually these people in 1924 left turkey because they were afraid that what happened in smna will happen to them as well in Istanbul so before something happened serious in Istanbul in 1920s they decided to leave turkey and move to Greece so the suitcases had that connotation to relate to these people that they left among the audience there are many many refugees is there a yes there's a question in the front there if we can bring the mic down um uh thank you uh very much tasus um uh to reclaim my Greek American Heritage a few years ago at LMU uh we watched your film uh A Touch of Spice and that's a marvelous uh Recreation and a poignant Recreation of Life uh in U Constantinople and and the plight of and experiences of of the refugees your films have so much to do with memory and um and they treat memory in a very modern way that is um there's no absolute truth other than the factual truth of the game and the way that marvelous announcer was announcing you know the game but everyone looks back in their own memories and what I admired was as a spectator sometimes I did didn't know uh as your friend here wasn't sure either what was factual real and what was fantasy and your films create a a cultural picture and understanding um that's my comment my question is when you showed the movie to the ike uh fans and participants in Greece what was the reaction their reaction at very positive very positive um there there weren't any any negative comments because unfortunately now the relationship between the the fans of uh different clubs sports clubs in Athens it's very toxic just imagine that uh when during the games you cannot have both uh fans of both teams at the same time only un unfortunately uh I before I come here I was in a football game in Canada and I really enjoyed how I mean families with little kids and fans of both uh uh clubs were there and enjoying and being together but anyhow uh it was very well accepted and actually did very well in the box office regarding being a documentary documentaries uh you know they are not very popular in terms you know to be in the broad audience but uh because it was uh many many fans went there but also many people many people who were inside the stadium back in the 1968 they went with their families to see the film so no no it was very well accepted actually there was a bad accident I'm sorry for uh but I did I I really don't want to comment on that because it's really bad because there was a specific region in Athens who also was a region with many many refugees from smirna catastroph and they didn't want to show the film in their neighborhood because there is this uh I I'll say the Greek the word in Greek and try to translate because it doesn't exist you know who who is more of a migrant a refugee than somebody else yeah so it was a so they didn't they didn't let the the film to be shown in the cinemas in that neighborhood so that was a really but it was an exception it's it's not um we have a question in the center here he's my nephew I always bring my family you know because because because you know but then they go back to their to their cities and gossip about me and say about the you really planted the audience here yeah come on Chris so my question is what was the most challenging part about filming a movie like this I'm sorry I didn't hear what's the most challenging part about filming a movie like this what was the most oh getting to getting to know these people uh especially the oldest people of of of the club like the gentleman who says that's why we won because we didn't want to lose uh I became into a new world these people the I mean I I was a fan of I but I wasn't very fanatical you should see what fanatism means I'm I'm talking about healthy fanatism okay that they go every Sunday and they listen the other games and they start crying if they lose I mean it it has a little psychology inside that so getting to know these people and being friend of these people and of course well I I have become an hero for them I mean they they really love they have they found an identity actually their identity was more uh reinforced by this film actually and they are very proud and you know always they speak about the film I think many of us have you as a hero oh come on are there I don't thank you John are there any other questions yeah Socrates is a fellow director and very good friend of mine you see I know all the audience that's the beauty of yeah just uh I wanted to congratulate you uh the really moved me um I grew up in Philadelphia in oh I didn't know that so yeah I I walk all those and I know some of the people you know they were Legends and and it really really moved me and uh I miss GRE I realize so just the of the lighter thing I I the casting was great I mean I want to commend you about this but I I wanted to ask you a lot of actors they I I recognized that they were Ike so I know some of them so it was a part of the process like the somebody told you like oh well there you get those people because they're Ike or of course they they're amazing all of them well there were many other fans of other uh clubs as well but uh yeah we wanted to be to have because most of these people are very famous so it's not we didn't take them because they were a it was because they wanted to be in the movie they were a and they were famous so you know it's a win-win situation they were amazing I mean they yeah like Cafe jopo you know cafos is how long did you take to shoot it like how well the whole the whole shooting the whole production took uh one and a half year to complete but the actual shooting especially for the fictional Parts it took uh four weeks that's amazing yeah we have a question here from the gentleman just just to your I want to first of all congratulations tesos we're very proud of you I want to follow up uh the question that my godson asked you about what was the most challenging thing about this movie I think for me personally is how you merg together the documentary and also the story like a movie so it was beautifully done thank you Christo I well this is something that I did for the first time and I never expected that I would do that and for me it's also very exciting because every time I see that film I feel that it works this challenging of docu fiction is uh there are amazing directors especially in United States that they started this uh kind of subg of documentaries and uh Errol Morris is one of the initiators of the big guys and actually I heard there is a film now something I heard about Errol Morris that he just uh they're bringing out a film so yeah for me it was amazing as well it had a lot a lot of work to do but also it had an easy part because having all the interview first of all we did all the interviews and having all the interviews and by the way I didn't tell you that in the interviews there was a lot of spicy things which I didn't include in the in the film but the archives are there I mean whoever wants to do research go ahead and do that you will be surprised about several things that happened that they didn't fit in the whole storytelling [Music] um yes I never expected that I would do a docu fiction and now I teach documentary in in Greece as well I'm I'm really excited about this genre and because previously somebody made a a comment I mean a gentleman use the word fact what is fact fact and factual actually documentary is a fiction as well even if it represents it's it's a storytelling it's a point of view of a specific person it's not reality even it reflects a real event okay so that's very interesting and very tricky about the genre of documentary it's still fiction even if it is about a real event and you reflect as as much objectively as you can on that on that event I think you have at least 15 brothers and a mother in in this audience um um one last question in the back T I want to thank you for making those movies as a constantinopolitan make me proud that you've done this and someone has to tell our story and you've been doing that and I congratulate you thank you very much very much I I I grew up in Constantinople I played basketball for for our Greek team and both both of your movies that you made about Constantinople even this one with basketball it touches us really so we want to thank you keep doing what you're doing thank you very much much thank you another question it's just another comment I want to Second what this gentleman said uh your movies Tasha are Timeless thank you for reminding us why we go to the movies and why we make movies just to laugh to cry and to connect thank you very much Ela thank you yes there was a this this will be the last question I think hi um this is not a question just again a comment as a non- Greek probably I'm the only one who has no Greek Heritage here my husband is Greek are you sure we are not relatives my husband is Greek I speak fluently Greek I do understand everything I just wanted to thank you um I was a little bit spectal whether or not to come come but I'm very happy that I came I'm Armenian and I did feel a lot of connection to the movie it did touch a lot of nerves and it was I was laughing and crying at the same time thank you so much thank you very much by the way since you're Armenian there is a great Armenian photographer in Hammer now and you should visit he's amazing photographer so going on in this Museum thank you thank you so much and I'm very happy to be here thank you very much well thank you all for coming I think our time is up um thank you so much daso that was just a fabulous experience to have you here with us um this evening um I do hope you can come every year to Los Angeles thank so much and um he's teaching for us in in in the department of Classics at UCLA Classics 42 which is Cinema and the classics and um it's a very popular course so thank you all for coming thank you taso John thank you I'm proud to be your friend thank you so much thank you Paul for organizing this beautiful event and again I have to thank uh stavos Naros foundation for supporting my presence here thank you all