Hollywood cinematographer and Philadelphia native James Chressanthis, ASC, GSC will screen his award winning feature documentary NO SUBTITLES NECESSARY: LASZLO & VILMOS at the inaugural Hellas FilmBox Berlin film festival, January 24, 2016.
Director James Chressanthis, ASC, GSC
This documentary traces the careers of cinematographers László Kovács and Vilmos Zsigmond. These lifelong friends are Hungarian expatriates who had been studying cinematography in Hungary and defected following the 1956 Soviet invasion. Coincidentally, they also photographed many of the tumultuous events during the invasion.
Cut off from their homeland, they decide to go to America and as refugees struggle in the underbelly of Hollywood for ten years finally breaking into the mainstream with their pivotal contribution to cinema in films like Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Paper Moon, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Scarecrow, Frances, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and The Deer Hunter.
The documentary chronicles their careers with numerous clips and testimonials from Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Sandra Bullock, Tatum O’Neal, Sharon Stone and Barbra Streisand and others.
However, their profound friendship forged in adversity is perhaps the greater story: Two Heroes. One Road.
Premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and an Emmy Nominee for the PBS version, No Subtitles has screened at more than 36 festivals worldwide.
James Chressanthis will participate in the festival conducting a Master Cinematography Seminar and serving as a short film juror.
HELLAS FILMBOX BERLIN grew out of the current Greek Crisis and the rise of anti-Greek sentiment in Germany and was founded by a consortium of German and Greek filmmakers as a cultural bridge. HELLAS FILMBOX BERLIN aspires to be a platform for “New Greek Cinema” to provide insight into Greece’s current situation, its people, inner conflicts and secrets. To see this land through the eyes of its filmmakers should give the German audience a clear, direct and honest experience – one that is almost impossible to gain through the German media of the last five years. The festival will screen 71 films by Greeks from around the world. January 21-24 at Berlin’s historic Babylon cinema.