A Platform of Interactive Documentary Films
Milad and his siblings learn in a violent way how one can find their planet, when their father has to face the hard dilemma: should he send one of his children, unaccompanied, and thus save the whole family?
Jelani married a woman from a different tribe. To avoid getting killed, they fled their country. On foot – and any other way possible – they finally arrived at a river, months later. Some die crossing it; others manage to swim across and enter Europe. But, once they set foot in Greece, the first adjacent European country, they found themselves homeless and socially excluded, without being able to move on or go back. The only solution is to travel illegally to Germany, that’s what the smugglers say. They don’t have enough money for the whole family to pass. Jelani faces this dilemma and has to choose. If one of the children leaves unaccompanied and arrives in Germany sound and safe, it will be able to bring the whole family there. Jelani’s children will have to learn violently what it’s like to discover their own planet or how they can create one from scratch – and whether Germany is the solution or just a new nightmare.
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Can theater as an education and rehabilitation medium help underage inmates, who stage their own lives, to overcome the limitations and obstacles of prison?
Can theater become an educational and rehabilitation medium for underage inmates who have no chance of escaping disobedience?
In a teenage prison, the inmates stage their own lives and become protagonists of a film that attempts to overcome the limitations and obstacles of a “correctional” institution.
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Will these pregnant women or with underage children, alone, find a shelter and be reunited with their families that are scattered around the world?
Mothers with their underage children or pregnant women, alone, persecuted in their countries for political and social reasons, find shelter in a house in Syngrou Avenue, Athens, where a group of specialists help them integrate in society and find the members of their families that are scattered in other countries. These women, who had no other choice than exile, find in that shelter the support they need in order to lawfully redefine their future in a strange continent.
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A school in a juvenile prison? Can underage inmates - convicted for life to recidivism - find the means there to make a new start in their lives?
A prison turns into a bright pause from hard life, when a group of teachers decides to found a school in juvenile prison of Avlona; as a result, knowledge and culture invade the young inmates’ lives, who would not have access to them in any other way. The years of detention become a useful flash of light in the lives of people who grow old deprived of basic social rights and convicted to recidivism. In prison’s school, they find the means to make a new start. Will they make it?
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Can documentary and reality become a theatrical play where the “protagonists” redefine institutions and their own lives on stage?
Document and reality become a theatrical performance and real life heroes become the “protagonists” of their own lives on stage, demanding a better prospect.
The protagonists of the documentary theater play are the people of Lygourio village who, through their narration on stage, depict the history of Epidaurus Festival, along with some doubts about this institution, and the Greek Railways employees who discover the importance of the railways both in their lives and the history of modern Greek life.
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Why are wounded stray dogs from Greece so popular for adoption abroad? Is there a hope for the ill-fated dogs, and an ill-fated area near Athens?
A gravely ill, abused three-legged stray dog, abandoned in the industrial desert of Aspropyrgos, a town near Athens; a London-based charity whose mission is to help the neglected animals of Greece; a group of young volunteers who patrol Aspropyrgos and attend to the strays – these are the characters of the film found in a nightmarish place, a hellhole for many abandoned animals. Does the sick three-legged hound stand any chance of getting adopted, becoming healthy again and running across the fields of Essex? Why are the Greekies – the strays from Greece – so popular when it comes to being adopted abroad? With an unexpected ending, the film tries to discover whether there is any hope for the doomed dogs and for a doomed area outside Athens.
A cinematic allegory of the Greek circumstances during the crisis based on true stories taking place in “invisible” districts near Athens that tourists and Athenians often ignore. The stories of stray animals depict – with a cinematic precision – everything that happens in Greece in times of crisis and motivate a London based charity, that discovered this by chance, to start a European campaign aiming at awakening all those who live “protected” and trapped in big cities.
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Six Greeks put their real stories on stage and wonder whether they should stay in Greece during the crisis or go. So, will they stay or will they go?
Six Greeks perform their true stories on stage wondering whether they should stay in the Greece of the crisis or leave. A German tries to understand whose fault this is and all together they attempt a new kind of theatre that turns documentary into a theatrical play. The camera follows the true lives of the heroes both in Berlin and Athens and along with the audience gets involved in the real stories of the protagonists that play themselves on stage. So, should they stay or should they go?
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Is there ever a second chance in real life? A young inmate from Lithuania learns Greek in the prison’s school and aspires to study at the Technical University. Will he make it?
“…You go out in the yard. On a bench, you find some prisoners talking about how they will break the law without getting caught. On other benches, prisoners talk about drugs and Kalashnikovs. And suddenly, you see a big Lithuanian guy with some other inmates of the same proportions playing chess…”
These are the words of a music teacher that is currently incarcerated in the Special Youth Detention Center in Avlona, Greece.
Is there ever a second chance in real life? A young man from Lithuania finds himself imprisoned in a youth detention center in a foreign country where he doesn’t even speak the language. He can either stay in his cell and give up everything or find a way to redefine his life. He may even try to learn Greek in the prison’s school, discover his hidden talents and study at the Technical University one day. Will he succeed?
For three years, he strives to fulfill these seemingly unattainable goals as the camera records his anguish to start his life from scratch.
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Can drones support - for peaceful purposes - Third World cities that find themselves secluded because of weather conditions and poverty? A new network of transportation and communication, or a science-fiction scenario?
Andreas Raptopoulos, an engineer from Greece, travels around the world and invents new applications that try to find a solution to social problems. In Singularity University, in NASA’s premises, organized by another scientist of the Greek diaspora, Peter Diamandis succeeds in making a utopian dream come true: Raptopoulos is the first one to build drones for peaceful purposes as a means to help Third World populations and cities that find themselves secluded because of weather conditions and poverty. A course that starts in a Technical School in Greece, and passes from London before going to San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Amazon.com, and finally the steep mountains of Mongolia, creating a new network for transportation and communication, which is no longer science fiction.
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Unemployed Greeks find ways to carry out venturesome dreams and impossible ideas by giving birth to dynamic and ambitious startups in Silicon Valley.
Unemployed Greeks, trying to promote their business abroad, arrive at Silicon Valley. The successful Greeks of California support and guide them by financing their bold dreams and impossible ideas, giving birth to new startups. Some of these startups become sought-after and are sold to big companies, like Tech behemoth Google, while their creators present them on camera, describing the whole process, the know-how, exonerating failure, giving a significant meaning to innovation.
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The jobless “new poor” in times of crisis through the first Greek street-magazine find again their hopes so they can get a home, a job, study and a position in the society that has excluded them.
They found themselves homeless in a city that doesn’t know how to help them. The jobless “new poor” of our country have no hope. John Bird, an ex-homeless man and the homeless street paper he created in London, is the starting point, and, through his advice, the film follows Christos Alefantis and his team, as they lay the basis for their “Raft”, the Greek street paper “Shedia”. The camera documents the printing of the first issue, along with the worries whether this endeavor will succeed, so that excluded people are able to find a home, get a permanent job, study and reclaim their position in the society that has chased them away.
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The National Homeless football team competes with other homeless teams from around the globe and proves that football can become an important “weapon” against social seclusion.
A football team represents Greece in a world cup and wind the Fair Play Award. The Greek Homeless Football Team competes with other homeless teams (like the Indonesia team whose players are HIV positive) in Poland. The film follows the homeless players in their first journey abroad, while they score and receive goals, and prove that football, sοcialization and tolerance can become important “weapons” for one to deal with the hardships of a life that seems lost and tries to find ways to deal with social exclusion.
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3:23 min.
Prodromos as an actor, before being initiated into documentary theater.
6:35 min.
Drama students revisit Aristophanes through documentary theater.
5:22 min.
Thoughts on the present and future of documentary theater.
6:37 min.
The radical opinion of a theatrologist who is against documentary theater.
6:31 min.
What redefines the future of theater in a discussion in Onassis Stegi.
2:18 min.
The employees of the Greek Railways stage their own lives.
2:34 min.
The applause after the last performance of the play "A Journey by Train" in the offices of the Greek Railways.
9 images
Models and photos from the sets of the performance "A Journey by Train".
4:05 min.
The platform of the railway station stages two performances for the Fast Forward Festival organized by the Onassis Stegi.
3:28 min.
The last rehearsals for a documentary-play about the ancient drama festival in Epidaurus.
7 images
Models and photos from the sets of the performance "Epidaurus - A Documentary".
3:51 min.
The actress Titika Nikiforaki on Epidaurus festival and the creative relation with ancient drama.
9:52 min.
A protagonist suggests an opening to the daring and radical renewal of ancient drama.
3:53 min.
The recollections of a protagonist on the violence in ancient drama performances, as he experienced it.
1:41 min.
The recollections of an actor on the little theater that was recently discovered in Ancient Epidaurus.
11:59 min.
The restoration of truth on the discovery of the ancient theater by an eye witness, now 88 years old, who became the protagonist of the performance.
7:46 min.
The radical opinion of a theatrologist who believes that Epidaurus festival is a sacred illusion, an invention and a construction of identities, ideological concepts and traditions.
2:10 min.
The excerpt from the “Birds” by Aristophanes that closes the performance "Epidaurus - A Documentary" is in parallel with the Greek history of the last forty years.
41 images
Photos of important people of art and culture, who have been to the legendary "Leonidas' Tavern" in Epidaurus.
The second season of MEETING WITH REMARKABLE PEOPLE will be broadcasted at the second television network of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, the public broadcaster of Greece (ERT2) from 01/11/2020 until 11/04/2021. Find out more about the stories of the protagonists while navigating the platform and the augmented material of each movie.
The Anasa Cultural Center is the only cultural center of African Art and Culture in Athens. Which promotes through art (music, dance, song, literature, storytelling, theater, painting and gastronomy) intercultural dialogue and multiculturalism by implementing pedagogical programs and solidarity cultural actions. The cultural center is working to eliminate racism, exclusion and discrimination, by empowering and integrating young people of African descent who were either born in Greece or came as immigrants or refugees
In their play "Should I Stay, or Should I Go?", Anestis Azas and Prodromos Tsinikoris use Reality Theatre as their main method, which takes theatrical texts from personal testimonies and historical documents and invites everyday people to become the focus of their theatrical narrative. From 2015 to 2019, Anestis Azas and Prodromos Tsinikaris became the new artistic directors of the Experimental Stage of the National Theater introducing new theatrical groups that experiment with theatrical expression. (https://www.n-t.gr/en/experimentalstage) Prodromos Tsinikoris & Anestis Azas (https://www.n-t.gr/en/cv/Πρόδρομος Τσινικόρης & https://www.n-t.gr/en/cv/Ανέστης Αζάς)
In 2000, Helgard Kim Haug, Stefan Kaigi, and Daniel Wechsel founded Rimini Protocol, a group who direct and write theatrical works. Their work in the fields of theatre, radio drama, film and installation is created either by artistic groups or by a solo artist. At the heart of their work is the development of the theatrical means needed to project unusual perspectives on reality.Based in Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, their theatre productions travel around the world, get awarded and create important social interactions. Through innovative theatrical methods starting from reality, key social and historical issues are reviewed on stage.
The Ballhaus Naunynstrasse Theater, initially opened in Berlin in 1983, is now mainly active in theatrical events that explore migration. In 2008, Shermin Langhoff reopened it, focusing on artists who are immigrants or are somehow connected to immigration. The aim was to boost the number of first and second generation immigrants in the arts by initiating a creative dialogue with the German-speaking public. Thus, the Ballhaus artistic network gains a prominent presence in the German-speaking theatrical scene, connecting with previously marginalized performances and diverse artists.
The IIPM – International Institute of Political Murder was founded by director and author Milo Rau in 2007 for the creation and international utilisation of his theatre productions, actions and films. It is based in Switzerland and Germany. IIPM’s productions have been received with a great international response and represent a new form of political art that is described as “Real-Theater” in the words of the German philosopher and author Alexander Kluge. Since its founding, IIPM has focused on the multimedia treatment of historical and socio-political conflicts.
The Greek railway drivers’ website, which hosts news and articles on various railway issues. It includes useful links for vacancies and new legislations concerning OSE employees as well as retired train drivers.
The website of the Municipality of Epidaurus with news and event announcement for both the locals and the visitors. There are links to the Epidaurus Festival as well as the international summer programme for ancient drama study that takes place every year.
The Local Youth Council of Epidaurus, aiming to be part of the development in the area, started representing young people by communicating their views and suggestions to the City Council in an attempt to address and find solutions to certain local issues.
https://www.facebook.com/Local Youth Council of Asklipieio, Μunicipality of Epidaurus
ICAF is a unique festival experience: from large-scale performances to intimate film screenings and meetings with extraordinary artists. This international festival taking place in Rotterdam every three years, is based on the concept that community art is a worldwide cutting edge and highly relevant arts movement.
Dries Verhoeven creates installations, performances and happenings in museums, on location and in the public spaces of cities. On the boundary between performance and installation art, he critically evaluates the relationships between the spectators, performers, everyday reality and art. In his work, Verhoeven highlights aspects of the common social reality in which we live.
The Fast Forward Festival invites us to look at theater today from a different angle, by offering us new forms of art, hybrid performances and installations, unexpected encounters and atypical spaces . It brings artists and audiences together, with an essence of freedom and experimentation, with works that deal with the present as much as with the future. Every year, Fff’s content is the fruit of the research done by foreign artists in Greece and the way they connect their work with the Greek reality.
The Theater of the Oppressed is a theatrical methodology created by Augusto Boal that encourages and inspires people to change society through art and theatre. The Theater of the Oppressed aims to enable participants to act as educators, activists, artists and organizers of social programs.
The ‘Poor Theatre’ of Monticchiello is a social and cultural project which dates back to the 1960s. Since 1967, the people of Monticchiello have been conducting an annual exercise in collective self-analysis and self-motivation by turning their inner struggles, doubts, hopes and fears into art.
The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam offers an independent and inspiring meeting place for audiences and professionals to see a diverse and high-quality program. The diverse nature of the event applies to the form and content of the films as well as to the cultural backgrounds of the filmmakers. IDFA offers an alternative to mass entertainment and uniformity, confirming that there is an increasing need in audiences for high-quality films that delve deep and urge us to reflect.
Mind the fact is an artistic initiative founded in 2016. It is an innovative model of artistic production based on true stories told by the people who experienced them. Within the mind the fact network, professional artists collaborate with non-artists. Concealed or unspoken issues and excluded or hidden protagonists of real life come into light and present themselves, claiming their own space through art. The performances, exhibitions and events of mind the fact are shaped through carefully designed workshops.
SYNERGY-O is an experimental art space in the center of Athens. Founded in 2010, SYNERGY-O in collaboration with NGO Amaka, run the Art and Theatre workshop called 'Station Athens' for refugees and immigrants. SYNERGY-O's mission is to produce artistic work with social content while offering art and theatre workshops to vulnerable social groups.
Compagnia della Fortezza is curated, managed and organized by the Carte Blanche cultural association, founded by Armando Punzo in 1987. Its primary purpose is producing and promoting theatrical and artistic initiatives through experimentation and research.
PELE is an artistic structure of Porto, established in 2007. In 2009, Pele initiated a creative programme at the Porto Prison, resulting in the spectacle ‘Entrado’ which was part of the Imaginarius Programme - International Festival of Street Arts Theatre in Santa Maria da Feira in 2010. In 2014, through Active Citizenship Program / Gulbekian Foundation, PELE started the ECOAR Project in 4 other prisons in the north of Portugal.
C&C is a network organization of institutions and freelancers realizing professional educational art programmes for the underprivileged and people who are or were in trouble with Justice and criminal law.
Artists Corporation for Rehabilitation and Social Reintegration through Art. Τheatre as an instrument of spiritual support and artistic experience towards the path of social mobility.
Synergy’s artistic mission is to create ground-breaking work across theatre and the criminal justice system which inspires change by capturing the imagination, affecting the feelings and attitudes of the performers and audience. The aim is for the artistic work to have a transformative effect on those who encounter it, whether prisoners, ex-prisoners or audience members.
LLECA is a Nicaraguan cultural-artistic organization, created by and for youth, whose objective is to establish spaces of communication, creation, reflection, and freedom. Since 2009, Lleca (slang for ‘street’) is the only continuous artistic educational process of theater in prison, where inmate theater groups are founded and train every year.
The theater group Vice Versa was created in 2009 by Angeliki Girginoudi. More than a hundred members from 29 countries have participated throughout the years: Greece, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Nigeria, Moldova, the Netherlands, Palestine, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Lebanon, Tunisia, Syria, Iran, Poland, Bulgaria, Albania, Russia, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Egypt, Cameroon, Armenia, India, Italy, England, Tanzania, Kurdistan. At each performance, the group’s composition is renewed due to participants’ constant move, claiming a new homeland. The performances unite amateurs with professionals: actors, set designers, musicians, choreographers, theater technicians and this mix is reflected upon the composition of the audience, creating the conditions for a result that cancels the differences and prejudices, through artistic coexistence.
