The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography PLUS CAMERIMAGE will pay a tribute to late Harris Savides, together with his close friend Gus Van Sant, long time first camera assistant Jason McCormick, colleagues Chris Doyle, Anthony Dod Mantle and other cinematographers. Gus Van Sant, Harris Savides' long time collaborator, will also collect Plus Camerimage Cinematographer - Director Duo Award on behalf of his late friend and himself. As a part of the tribute, the festival will screen two of their films, Elephant and Last Days. The Elephant screening will take place on Friday, November 30th, 9.30 p.m., at Opera Nova, and it will be preceded by a reminiscence by Harris Savides' friends and collaborators. Last Days will be screened after the Festival's Closing Gala, on Saturday, December 1st. On the same day, at 1.30 p.m., in Multikino theatre, Gus Van Sant, Chris Doyle, Anthony Dod Mantle and Jason McCormick will talk about Harris Savides.

Gus Van Sant and Harris Savides
It just so happens that the paths of eminent directors and cinematographers often never cross - they choose their own artistic roads and gain individual success. However, when luck has it that a talented director meets a “matching", equally talented, cinematographer, and the duo collaborates on several films together, something special emerges from such a mixture of visual imagination and creativity - a “third value", an indivisible union of unique dramatic and staging ideas with original cinematography that fleshes out these concepts. As a result, we get to experience works of art that are unique, ones that otherwise would never have been created if different filmmakers had collaborated on them. For that reason, when we say “Bergman's films" we actually mean “Bergman and Nykvist's films", and, likewise, the lion's share of Bertolucci's output cannot be discussed without mentioning the vibrant cinematography of Vittoro Storaro.

Still from "Elephant"
One such duo that equals those mentioned above is Gus Van Sant (b. 1952, Louisville, Kentucky), director, screenwriter, producer, editor and sometimes also an actor, and Harris Savides (b. 1957, New York, d. 2012, New York), a cinematographer. It could be said that these two American filmmakers were destined to collaborate. Van Sant - due to his passion for painting - is a director with a remarkable visual sensitivity. Savides, on the other hand, who began his career as a fashion photographer, was a truly creative cinematographer - he enriched his films with unique ideas and avoided clichés.
However, when the two met in the 1990s on the set of a commercial, each of them were at a different stage of their careers. Though Van Sant had not yet received his Oscar nomination for directing Good Will Hunting, he was a well-established author of films about young misfits searching for alternative life paths. Examples of such pictures are Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, or the comedy drama Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. His directing credits include the splendid black comedy To Die For, featuring a stunning performance by Nicole Kidman. Savides, son of Cypriot immigrants, was at that time taking the first steps in his cinematographic career - he was filming commercials and music videos.

Still from "Milk"
The most notable films created by the Van Sant-Savides duo are six features: Finding Forrester, Gerry, Elephant, Last Days, Milk and Restless. These movies are deeply humane stories in which the director touches upon topics close to him, and characteristics of American cinema, such as love, friendship, tests of character, violence and rejection. However, Van Sant frees himself from Hollywood conventions as far as aesthetic choices are concerned. This is where Savides came in, eager to experiment with unusual solutions: static frames (Gerry), long shots with natural lighting (Elephant), or cinéma vérité style (Milk). It is worth pointing out that it is the collaboration with Savides that brought Van Sant his second Academy Award nomination for best direction (Milk), as well as the Palme d'Or and Best Director Award at Cannes Film Festival (Elephant).

Harris Savides' death on 9th October 2012 marks the end of the ambitious cinematic journey they shared. Regrettably, there will not be any new films by this duo. But the ones they have created together will remain forever in the annals of art house cinema and in the fond memories of film enthusiasts around the world.