BROKEN SOUND
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A documentary about the history and evolution of Bouzouki
Bouzouki, Greece’s most beloved musical instrument, went through a notorious phase where rebetiko songs were banned and its musicians were persecuted. Decades afterwards, it became the instrument of mainstream entertainment. Nowadays, numerous crises have hit Greek society and possibly brought along a reevaluation of the importance of tradition and transmission, of coming together and creating solidarity through music. Through the history of bouzouki, Broken Sound offers an overview of the narrative, as well as a cultural identity of modern Greek society. Although consumerism, globalization and digitalization of our social interactions felt as if the tradition of bouzouki and folklore music would fade with time, a new generation of young bouzouki players and bearers of its authentic culture emerge. A collective character of bouzouki player is composed through interviews of major figures in the modern history of bouzouki, but also archive material from films, TV recordings and live performances. Five Times A Stranger
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The extraordinary journey of the 80-years-old Greek artist Stavros, who, has lived five life stories in five different countries of Europe, in just one lifetime! Political conflicts, poverty, mistrust and, always, the decisions of others have shaped his life circle. Starting from a small village in Greece, Stavros crossed Albania, faced Hungary’s communism and Austria’s nationalism, met with Greece’s military regime and finally enjoyed the freedom and tolerance of the 70’s Swedish society, where he studied arts and got married. Nostalgic for his birthplace he moved back to Greece only to find out that his village was shattered. Despite the losses and hardships Stavros remains positive, even though he knows that “history is always written by the winners”.
Arcadia 1900, Champagne D' Orient
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The protagonists, the members of the Papanikolaou family, the owners of a successful winery and vineyards in Arcadia on the Peloponnese, founded as early at 1885. The wines the produced have won prizes at all major world fairs, Paris, Chicago, Liege, San Francisco, plus they had invented a patent of winemaking without adding sulfur, the natural wine in our days. But they wanted more. They wanted to eliminate the “champanoise” label and remake Arcadia into the Champagne of the East. They provoked the opposition of the political and banking establishment in the early beginning of 20th century, which wanted to control every new promising company. 15 years later the political change in Greece-the dethronement of the King and the rise to power of the liberals- offered to Papanikolaou family an opportunity to finance their plans by themselves. But they involved in a scandal and that was the cause of their bankruptcy.
Bitter September
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After the assassination of the Greek-American LGBTQ activist, Zak Kostopoulos, his childhood friend Sophia Farantatou, returns to Greece and finds herself stuck in a dead end. The video of the assassination shot from a passer by, plays on replay in all the national TV channels. Between the media storytelling and her own archive footage from her friend, Sophia has no choice but to isolate and reflect on the meaning of memory. Only time can give her the space to grief and face the absence of her friend.
My Father's Studio
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The box – forgotten for thirty years – that I discovered in the basement of photographer Takis Tloupas’ studio, in Larissa, Greece, was a real treasure for me. A rare film footage ranging from the 1950s to the 1980s, shot by Tloupas himself with his super8 camera, made me search for that man and his work.
Having left, after his death, a rich photo archive, the fruit of his travels around Greece and his homeland, Thessaly, Takis Tloupas is justly considered one of the greatest photographers of Greece.
Today, his daughter Vania works as a photographer too, in the same studio. Through her narration, we get to know her father’s life and record his artistic course, while composing a human geography of Thessaly, as it emerges through his work.
Mykonian Pastoral
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“Mykonian Pastoral” is a real Noah’s Ark, where the last true natives of one of the most cosmopolitan islands in the world seek shelter, along with their animals, from the relentless wave of development that threatens to swallow them whole. Holding on to traditions rooted in the distant past, their lifestyle harkens back to a simpler, slower time when even the most trivial menial task was full of meaning and intention.
Shot in and around Maou, the last agricultural stronghold of the island, we meet a cast of born and bred Mykonians who shed light on a little-known side of the island, closely resembling a lost utopia: a serene place that largely exists outside of time, where simple everyday pleasures are worth their weight in gold. But does that place really exist or is it just a figment of their imaginations?
The Other Half
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As if they never existed.
People on the move. Facing danger in unfamiliar and unwelcoming places.
For 15 years, a photojournalist bears witness to the journey of migrants across the dark crossings of European borders.
Futility, death, and exhaustion from a never-ending struggle, as well as pushbacks, represent a large part of Giorgos Moutafis' work.
His camera delves into inaccessible places, documenting the stories of people who push human boundaries, to reveal how "the Other Half" lives.
Searching for Rodakis
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As a Greek tombstone of unknown origin is discovered underneath the floorboards in an old village house in Turkey, an almost forgotten story from the country’s creation unravels; the
forced population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.
The engraved Cyrillic letters tell of a woman, Chrysoula Rodaki, who died in 1887. And so the search for her descendants
begins: It leads director Kerem Soyyilmaz to local archives, where his own family's role in the history is laid bare; to abandoned ghost towns and through the memories of older villagers - all while
Soyyilmaz meets massive support for his quest from the Greeks on the other side of the border. The stone becomes a portal to the past - and for a while, the trauma becomes redeemed when the previous owners of the village house return.
Searching for Rodakis is a film that reconnects people, culture, and the stories discarded to build a strong, nationalist state - told through the director's personal experiences.
The release also marks the 100-year anniversary of the forced population exchange.
The Thisvi Trilogy
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A photographer recalls the events of The Septemvriana in three stages of her life; as a young woman in "Shared Balcony;" as a student in "A Month of Sundays;" as an older photographer in "Huzun"
Note: All three shorts Oscar Qualified.
Venizelos: the Struggle for Asia Minor
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One of Greece's greatest statesman faces formidable challenges that will test his considerable diplomatic and humanitarian skills and change the lives of millions.
"VENIZELOS: THE STRUGGLE FOR ASIA MINOR" follows Eleftherios Venizelos during the critical decade from the Balkan Wars and World War I, up to the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. The statesman's struggle is told through dramatized scenes, rare archive and expert interviews.
Co-produced by the National Research Foundation "Eleftherios K. Venizelos", ERT and Long Run Productions.
Zakros
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Zakros is a documentary about an archeological excavation of a prehistorical site near a small village of Crete, both observational and poetic, that was shot during a period of 35 years.