Tania Giannouli in conversation about film music

Potzblitz! We have now praised the unheard-of versatility and willingness to take risks of Tania Giannouli in several texts, which is precisely why she is the festival's artist in residence this year alongside Nik Bärtsch, but have (almost) ignored another of her fields of work: the field of audiovisual media. The reliable film database IMDb characterizes Giannouli in connection with her work in the field of moving images as follows: "Tania Giannouli writes music for her ensemble(s), theater, documentaries, short films, videos and concerts. (...) (Her) compositions are described as lyrical, inspired, complex, eclectic and highly original - "intoxicating orchestrations marked by a European sensibility that evokes the colors of the Mediterranean". For example, the short film "Aristera dexia" (2009) by Argyris Germanidis and Stavros Raptis, the medium-length documentary "A Man's Rave" (2013) by Marcel Michalaris and the feature film "Burning Hope" (2016) by Lotfi Achour are listed there. Giannouli's website features other films, including music for a Greenpeace animation. Of course, this is not yet in the Hollywood blockbuster league, but if you add video art and galleries to the mix, it's already a constant field of work. In this respect, it is a stroke of luck that Tania Giannouli has come across an extremely renowned festival with a long tradition in the Rhine-Neckar region, whose focus is on sophisticated films that "understand aesthetic forms, boundaries and discourses as something mobile" (Filmdienst, Bonn): the International Film Festival Mannheim Heidelberg (IFFMH), which has successfully positioned itself in the premier league of European festivals under new management.

The Artist in Residence program at the Enjoy Jazz Festival is supported by NEUSTART KULTUR/BKM and the Initiative Musik.