Restructirung Yes, Closing Down, No
By Pandora Mouriki, Television Programming Director
The closing down of ERT has resulted in 650 proposals submitted by Greek producers and directors for the new season to be unanswered. At the same time, producers that have contracts with, and decisions by the Board of Directors are in a tragic situation, because they have to deliver the productions they undertook and ERT remains closed. ERT is closing and, at the same time, the remnants of Greece’s Audiovisual sector is shutting down. So we are not only speaking of 2700 people who are now unemployed, we are also speaking of the whole cinema sector, the Greek documentary feature film and short film makers, the producers of ERT programmes, and the producers and technicians of contemporary Greek Cinema.
Because it is ERT that allocates funding for Greek Cinema, not the private channels - with the exception of NOVA.
Because ERT has the E.U. MICROFILM project, which funds the productions of new film directors.
Because ERT produces and broadcasts all documentaries as a co-producer, a producer or under contract.
Because ERT produces all children’s programmes in Greece.
Today the producers of cultural programmes, documentaries and the Greek cinema, are finding themselves trapped.
Cultural programmes such as:
“Backstage”, by Lakis Papastathis
“Antennas of our time, Mediterranean”, by Panos Karkanevatos
“Meetings with notable people”, by Menelaos Karamaggiolis
“You are not alone”, by Maria Hatzimichali-Papaliou
“Sextant”, by Giorgos Avgeropoulos
“Handsome as Greeks”, “Remake”, “Books in the Box”, “Docville” and other productions cannot be delivered and paid for, while their producers are already in debt because, as it is known, ERT does not provide advance payments. The productions are paid for after delivery and usually 3-6 months after their broadcast date.
So loan interests continue to accumulate, they do not stop because ERT was closed down.
The closing down of ERT has also created a problem for Greek cinema. The production of the film “Xenia” by director Panos Koutras and producer Eleni Kossyfidou, although it has secured financing from abroad from the ARTE channel and the European EURIMAGES programme with the sum of 530 000 euros, stopped shooting because the closing down of ERT, who is a co-producer of the film. This has created a problem for international directors, producers / production companies and they will not continue financing unless the issue of ERT participation is resolved. The same will happen to other Greek films, where ERT is a co-producer.
This financing, that comes to Greece from abroad, provides work to Greek artists and technicians, but also to the audiovisual production houses that remain open in our country. So, with the closing down of ERT and the way it was done, the cinema community, the new small to medium enterprises of audiovisual production and the production of Greek programme are immediately and silently destroyed.