Documentary Educational Resources - Geography / Europe / East / Greece / All Films

My Rembetika Blues

Tue, 8 Mar 2022 15:35:21 GMT

Rembetika music or the Greek blues is a music born of exile and the streets, developing its roots from the mass migration of people in the early twentieth century. Filmmaker M. Zournazi traces the journey of her forebears from Smyrna in Turkey to Sydney Australia but discovers more than family history – she finds out how music connects people during times of struggle and crises. By weaving together different stories of music and migration, My Rembetika Blues documents a wealth of experiences that are often left out of the chronicles of history.

"A film that reveals the core of Rembetika that only a Greek from Australia could see. A strong and beautiful film." – Renos Haralambidis, Greek Director

"[A] rare documentary that covers its subject – Rembetika music – so thoroughly documenting its "sound", history, locations, and evolution interviewing performers, scholars and more, but (filmmaker Mary Zournazi) totally engages us by making this her personal journey to discover more of her mother's heritage which co-exists with Rembetika history from Turkey to Greece to Egypt and Lebanon and on to Australia."
– Andrew Horton, Professor Emeritus of Film & Video Studies, University of Oklahoma

Selected Screenings & Awards

Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2023

Universe Multicultural Film Festival, US, 2022
Social Justice Film Festival & Institute Special Event, 2022

Gold Remi Documentary Award, World Fest Houston Int'l Film Festival, Melbourne, 2021

Excellence in Filmmaking Award, Spotlight Film Awards, 2021

Platinum Award, Women’s International Film Awards, 2021

Best Documentary, Feature Film Competition – World of Film Int'l Film Festival, Glasgow, 2021

German International Ethnographic Film Festival, 2021

Parma International Music Film Festival, Italy, 2021
International Film and Television Festival SIMFEST, Romania, 2021

Docs Without Borders Film Festival, 2021

Williamsburg Film and Music Festival, 2021

Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, 2021

San Francisco Greek Film Festival, 2021

Nevada Women's Film Festival, 2021

World Fest Houston International Film Festival, 2021
Melbourne Documentary Film Festival, 2021

Toronto Greek Film Festival, 2021

EATSA Art & Tourism Film Festival, Portugal, 2021
World of Film International Film Festival Glasgow, 2021
Houston Greek Film Festival, 2021
Malta Film Festival, 2021

Cinque Port International Film Festival, 2021
Nova Film and Music Film Festival, North Virginia, 2021

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Greek series

Wed, 5 Sep 2018 11:07:00 GMT

Greek series
Buy Now: $1,570.00

Filmed through the 1970s and 80s, these six films follow different aspects of life in Ano Ravenia, a mountain village in Greece which has been progressively deserted by its most active population. Within these films, intimate observations of the isolated villagers' daily lives - work, family life, marriage - reveal the profound in the ordinary and everyday.

Films in the Greek series:

Charcoal-Makers

Every Day Is Not A Feast Day

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Charcoal-Makers

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 08:16:00 GMT

Charcoal-Makers
Buy Now: $295.00

A strange landscape in the middle of the Greek mountains. The silhouettes of furnaces emerge from the hazy and smoke-dappled light. Charcoal-makers, who come sometimes from distant places with their families, are burning wood to make charcoal. They rent their services out to contractors during the five or six summer months. Verging on the poetic, the film describes the difficult and archaic process of charcoal-making in a modern world.

Films in the Greek series:

Charcoal-Makers

Every Day Is Not A Feast Day

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Every Day Is Not A Feast Day

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:05:00 GMT

Every Day Is Not A Feast Day
Buy Now: $340.00

Every Day is Not a Feast Day is a chronicle of the daily life in Ano Ravenia, a mountain village in Greece. Although the village appears to be virtually self-sufficient, the truth is that its economical, social, and family life depends on the outer world to a great extent. Like many mountain villages, Ano Ravenia, has been progressively deserted by it most active population. The film shows the painful transformation from the holiday feasts and the temporary return of those who have left to live elsewhere to the monotony and calm of daily life. Without any commentary, the film respects the daily pace of the villagers.

Films in the Greek series:

Charcoal-Makers

Every Day Is Not A Feast Day

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Dead Presumed Missing?

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Dead Presumed Missing?
Buy Now: $295.00

Between 1963-74, about 2000 Turkish and Greek Cypriots disappeared during hostilities between the two communities of Cyprus. Following an abortive coup in 1974, Turkey invaded and occupied the north of the island. 200,000 Greek Cypriots, a third of the population, fled their homes, becoming refugees in the south. During the Turkish invasion, many died in the war, but their bodies were never recovered. Others (including women and children) vanished behind the advancing Turkish army. To this day, Turkey refuses to offer any explanations. The fate and whereabouts of the Greek and Turkish Cypriots missing remains an official secret. In the confusion of 1974, some, but not all, of the missing Greek Cypriots were buried hurriedly on the Greek side. The return of the remains of the rest cannot be realized since they are behind Turkish lines. In spite of various attempts at resolution, including a UN Committee, both sides still guard the unidentified hidden bones of each others' missing persons The film was shot in 2001 when the possibility of DNA identifiication redefined the problem and gave it a new urgency. By following the desperate attempts of two Greek women to discover the fates of their loved ones, the film explores the signficance of mortuary rituals and the different political lives of dead bodies among the Greek and Turkish Cypriots. Useful in Political Anthropology classes, and to those interested in ethnic violence, recuperation, memory, rituals, DNA identification, and politics of the body.

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Dhiava: The Autumn Journey

Thu, 30 Aug 2018 07:04:00 GMT

Dhiava: The Autumn Journey
Buy Now: $320.00

The film takes place in the Pindos Mountains in North Western Greece. We meet two brothers, Tsiogas and Steryios Anthoulis with their flocks of sheep on the mountains, then the third brother Vassilis in the village of Samarina. It is the time of the festival of 15th of August and the village is packed with returning families and relations celebrating their culture and roots. They are all Vlachs, who speak a language closely related to Romanian. We return in October for the Dhiava, the autumn journey.

Tim Salmon, who also narrates the film, travels with the Anthoulis brothers on foot as they bring their flocks of sheep down from the Pindos Mountains to the plains of Thessaly, a journey of a 150 kilometers which takes about 10 days. The shepherds are helped by hired men; mostly illegal Albanian immigrants like Leonidas, whose story we hear at the campfire. We also meet Thodorakis, a Greek born Vlach shepherd who spent 40 years trapped in Albania by the former communist regime. Tsiogas and Vassilis tell through interview the history of the Dhiava and its significance for them today, in a Greece that is changing rapidly.

The journey is the last remaining part of the tradition of transhumance that used to be commonplace all over Europe. A large group of illegal Albanian immigrants turn up and Tsiogas holds them up at gunpoint to search them. There have been many thefts recently and the immigrants are always suspected. The traditional route takes the flocks cross country, over mountain ranges and through remnants of the great oak forests that used to cover this region. Wolves are still common here and a constant problem for the shepherds. The route continues along a dangerous stretch of main highway and with two thousand sheep, thirty cows, goats and packhorses to protect, the shepherds have a busy time. It is in this scene that we feel the crush of time and the pressure to change established traditions for more modern ones. Most shepherds now ship their flocks by truck rather than taking them on the arduous journey down from the mountains. Tsiogas and Vassilis tell us why it is still worth doing the Dhiava on foot. We can understand his position after having experienced the journey through the vehicle of film.

The film was produced by the makers of several programs featured in the BBC's anthropological series "Under the Sun". It is observational and participatory, a valuable tool for teaching anthropology, cultural change and for understanding the relationship between the Greek Vlachs, Romania and the Albanians before the recent collapse of Yugoslavia and the conflict in Kosovo.

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A Hard Life

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 13:26:00 GMT

A Hard Life
Buy Now: $320.00

Kalliopi Kalogerou has spent her whole life in the Greek village of Ano Ravenia where she was born in 1900. Simple witness of the century, she lived through Turkish domination and successive occupations linked to different wars. Most of her family stays elsewhere, in Greece or abroad (USA, Canada, Germany, Bulgaria); her shattered family world is representative of the Greek diaspora.

A Hard Life focuses on Kalogerou's life story, told to a young Epirot friend, Eleni Pangratiou-Alexakis, and to her daughter, Evguenia, both of whom have settled in the States. The result is a rich, yet austere film where nothing distracts the viewer from the dialogue and the face of the storyteller. It also constitutes an ordinary yet important testimony on this long and painful page of Greek history (1900-1983).

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Bilan du Film Ethnographique, Paris, 1996

Göttingen International Film Festival, Germany, 1996

NAFA Film Festival, Bergen, Norway, 1996

Films in the Greek series:

Charcoal-Makers

Every Day Is Not A Feast Day

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I Like Hearts Like Mine

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 12:44:00 GMT

I Like Hearts Like Mine
Buy Now: $320.00

Rebetiko is a musical genre that developed out of the urban working class in Greece between the two World Wars. Similar to jazz and "the blues", rebetiko was not only an art form but also a way of life. In the beginning the rebetes were a social group on the fringe of society associated with anarchism and romanticism. As it evolved, growing in popularity and influence, Rebetiko was gradually accepted by higher social classes.

Markos Vamvakaris was the greatest composer of rebetika songs between 1932 and 1940. He was was born in Ano Chora on the Aegean Sea island of Syros, the capital of the Cyclades, the biggest Greek port of the 19th century. His father was a poor laborer, and Markos was a child musical prodigy who was dancing at the age of three and playing drums at the age of six. In his youth, Markos learned to play the bouzouki by listening to the old musicians who played in the hashish dens. He had the opportunity to play his beloved bouzouki in the taverns and nightclubs among the abandoned mills, coal mines, warehouses and shipyards in Pireaus where he grew up. His expertise was widely recognized and he soon became an extremely successful musician, one of the most famous of his time.

This film will help to introduce rebetiko, a relatively unknown musical form outside of Greece, to an international audience. It includes musical and dance performances of rebetika songs, archival footage, and interviews with the friends, relatives and colleagues of Markos Vamvakaris. This documentary not only creates a vivid portrait of a man, but also presents us with a social and historical framework of Greece during the first 70 years of the 20th century.

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Juliette of the Herbs

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 11:12:00 GMT

Juliette of the Herbs
Buy Now: $320.00

Juliette of the Herbs is a beautifully filmed lyrical portrait of the life and work of Juliette de Bairacli Levy: world renowned herbalist, author, breeder of Afghan hounds, friend of the Roma, traveller in search of herbal wisdom and the pioneer of holistic veterinary medicine.

For more than 60 years Juliette lived with the Roma, nomads and peasants of the world, learning the healing arts from these peoples who live close to nature. Juliette's well-loved and now classic herbals for animals and for children have been a vital inspiration for the present day herbal renaissance and holistic animal care community. Juliette's extraordinary life story is as colourful and as exciting as her tremendous wealth of herbal knowledge.

Filmed on location with Juliette and her Afghan hound in Greece, Spain, France, Portugal, Switzerland, England and America, and interwoven with Juliette's vast collection of archival photographs, together with scenes of Roma people dancing and Bedouins with their herds, Juliette of the Herbs is an inspiring portrait of a remarkable healer.

“This video lifted my heart and made me grateful for all that Juliette has done to help the animals.”
— Helen McKinnon, author, It's For The Animals

“[Juliette of the Herbs] made me look at how my life is now, still close to the earth, but not close enough... I'm happy to have seen a glimpse into her life. It encourages me to live as radically as I want. Tish's film is a grand one.”
— Janisse Ray, author, The Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

“This film is magnificient. It was fascinating to watch our six year old daughter Lillian's responses as well. She said, “Daddy this is so beautiful I think I could cry a little bit.”
— Jim Schley, editor-in-chief, Chelsea Green Publishing

SELECTED SCREENINGS & AWARDS

Feature Award Nominee, International Documentary Association, 1998

Best Documentary, Seattle Intn'l Film Festival - Women in Cinema, 1999

Merit Award for Storytelling, International Wildlife Film Festival, 1999

Honorable Mention, Green Extreme Film Festival, 1999

Artist's Award, Laguna Beach Film Festival, 1999

Winner, EarthVision Film Festival, 1999

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Let's Get Married

Wed, 29 Aug 2018 06:41:00 GMT

Let's Get Married
Buy Now: $295.00

Eleni, who was raised in Greece but lived with her aunt Martha's family in Martin, Tennessee met Demetrios who was living and working with his father in the Greek village of Ano Ravenia. While she was on holiday, they fell in love and married. This observational film follows this Greek-American wedding day in the manner of a home movie shot by professional filmmakers. Delimited, natural, and spontaneous, the film reveals the American influence on Greek culture through behaviors, attitudes, and language.

Films in the Greek series:

Charcoal-Makers

Every Day Is Not A Feast Day

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