Ayla, The Tsunami Girl
Netherlands, 2005, 15’, Script - Direction: Wilma Lighart
Dutch language, Greek subtitles

Ayla still has nightmares sometimes. In December 2004, she spent the Christmas holidays in Sri Lanka with her family. Through their hotel window they could see the sea swell and rise. A huge tsunami flooded the country. Ayla was very fortunate. She went back home and is doing fine. She paints a lot. Such an experience takes time to deal with. It will be a while before she can play worry-free on a Northern Sea beach  again.

Debtocracy
Greece 2010, 74’
Direction: Aris Hadjistefanou and Katerina Kitidi

A documentary that tracks the evolution of global capitalism from the 1970s until today, considering the position of Greece in the global economy but also the traps of the so-called "free market system". It also explains "the concepts of pernicious and illegitimate debts of the Greek economy", by talking to economists, journalists, intellectuals, politicians and other specialists from around the world, such as David Harvey, Samir Amin, Kostas Lapavitsas, Gerald Dumenil, Alain Badiou, The President of CADTM Eric Toussaint, the Argentine director Fernando Solanas, journalists, such as Avi Lewis (writer / director of the documentary The Take), Jean Quatremer (Liberation), Greek World War II Veteran Manolis Glezos, and Sahra Wagenknecht, deputy chairman of the German left-wing party Die Linke.
Aris Hadjistefanou and Katerina Kitidi show similar situations which prevailed in Latin American countries, such as Argentina and Ecuador, which also faced unbearable debt. Apt descriptions and interesting views reveal the disastrous effects of the International Monetary Fund dominance on the living standards of those countries. Due to the imposed austerity measures entire populations were forced to deal with the nightmare of mass unemployment and poverty.
In Ecuador, however, the Socialist government of Rafael Correa set up a Commission of Public Debt as an alternative solution. A similar effort could begin in Greece, with dozens of internationally known intellectuals, such as the American linguist Noam Chomsky, signing in favour. Nevertheless, the Greek ruling party (PASOK) refuses to implement such a plan, while its leadership has repeatedly threatened with expulsion the party members who are against the IMF memorandum.

The Free School
Netherlands 2003, 15'
Script-Direction: Ingeborg Jansen
Dutch language, Greek subtitles

Twelve-year old Junior changes school for a week, from his regular school to a «free school». What is a «free school», and what is it like to attend one?

Living without Money
Norway, 2011, 52'
Direction: Line Halvorsen
German/English language, Greek subtitles

"I had everything I needed, I had a house and I had raised two children. I gave it all away."
The documentary Living Without Money portraits the life of 68-year-old Heidemarie Schwermer, a German woman who made a deliberate choice to stop using money 14 years ago. She cancelled her apartment, gave away all of her belongings and kept nothing but a suitcase full of clothes. This was a decision that changed the entire outlook on her life dramatically.
In the film, we follow Heidemarie in her day-to-day life and experience how she goes about to find food, transport and a place to stay. In addition to showing the daily challenges she meets from living without money, we get to hear more about Heidemarie’s life philosophy and why she has chosen to live this way. We see that it is not only easy for her to live without money in a society where everything is based on money and the value of a person is measured on how wealthy he or she is. People Heidemarie meets on her way, often have strong opinions about her lifestyle. Some call her a "parasite" and claim she is living off others, while some see her as a "visionary source of inspiration". Through her story we can consider money’s influence on our way of thinking, living and acting and the impact this has on our own lives and health, and our environment. This film explores these ideas and reflects on themes of materialism and over-consumption.

Living Without Money - trailer from Without Money on

City of bees
Denmark 2004, 30'
Script-Direction: Laila Hodell & Bertel Torne Olsen
Danish language, Greek subtitles

Call of the Mountain
Greece, 2009, 52'
Direction: Stelios Apostolopoulos
Greek language, English subtitles

The story of a man who pledges to honour his family by tending the family herd in the White Mountains of Crete. He leaves his wife and eight-year-old son back in Athens.
Returning to the small, remote community where he grew up, Yiannis confronts his past and struggles to carry on his cousin Ilias’ calling, a dying tradition kept alive by a handful of isolated men, high on the barren mountainsides of Crete overlooking the Libyan Sea.

Samuel, Condemned to Dental Braces
Netherlands 2002, 15'
Script-Direction: Noud Holtman

Documentary Days 2010, Sikinos 17, 19, 22/7 and Galaxidi 30/7, 31/7, 1/8
Courtesy: Goethe Institut - Athen, Anemon, Feelgood, Euroarts

Saturday, 17 Jul., Sikinos / Friday 30 Jul., Galaxidi

The game must go on
By: A. Andrikopoulou, A. Tsepelicas
Greece, 2009
Greek, English subtitles

In a crowded part of a small city, each day after school, Alexandra,
Vlad, Chrysa and the rest of their crew gather in front of Christo’s
house to play soccer until bedtime. But as soon as they begin the
neighbours assault them with curses, threats and sometimes violence.
The kids’ reaction is fiercely defiant. There’s nowhere else to go.
Alexandra decides to talk to the mayor and insist that he see the
situation for himself. Thus begins a yearlong campaign to get the town
to build them a play area. Over this time the kids’ lives and
perceptions are revealed while their determination and friendship
fuels their coping skills and sharpens their resolve. Intimate access
to a remarkable cast of characters.

Monday, 19 Jul., Sikinos / Saturday 31 Jul., Galaxidi

Rhythm is it!
A film by Thomas Grube and Enrique Sanchez Lansch
'You can change your life in a dance class!'
Royston Maldoom

Berlin, January 2003. Amazing things are happening in the Arena down at Berlin’s industrial harbor. 250 Berlin children and teenagers of 25 different nationalities are dancing to Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, choreographed by Royston Maldoom and accompanied by the Berliner Philharmoniker: This is the orchestra’s first large scale educational project with its chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle. RHYTHM IS IT! accompanies three teenage protagonists during the three-month rehearsals. Marie, who is still desperately trying to pass her secondary school leaving exams; Olayinka, who has recently arrived in Germany as a war-orphan from Nigeria and Martin, who is battling to overcome his inhibitions. Royston Maldoom and his team require perseverance and love to teach the first dancing steps to the children and teenagers; for most of them it is their first encounter with classical music. During the rehearsals they all experience ups and downs, insecurity, self-confidence, doubts and excitement: An emotional journey into new, unforeseen worlds and to hidden facets of their personalities.

Screening schedule:

• The other
  Directed by: Loukia Rikaki. Greece, 2004, 75'.
  In Greek with English subtitles
  
  Greece, a country of immigrants who have left the country for many decades in the hope of ameliorating their lives, is now experiencing for the first time in the country's history the social reality of a host country for immigrants coming from poorer nations from Asia, Africa and the Arab world. In recent years over 1 million Albanians have migrated to Greece looking for a better future. In Patsideros, a small village named after the word "patsos" meaning peace we find the only Greek school with one single Greek student. All the others are Albanian. this small school in Northern Crete, life is made to feel better for people that were forced to leave their country and especially young ones who followed their parents choice. Immigration has recently become a major issue in Greece, a country which only few years ago use to migrate in almost every continent. Now we need to learn to welcome immigrants here.
  
  
• Cyclown Circus
  Directed by: Dimitris Sfyris. Greece, 2008, 72'.
  In Greek with English subtitles
  

  They travel only by bicycle. They are talented musicians and acrobats. Though they could have had a brilliant career in show business, they chose to travel from continent to continent, from country to country and from town to town giving open-air performances. On their way, they draw others interested in living out the same experience. Over the last six years they have crossed 27 countries in four continents. Over 125 people have traveled with them. Their bicycles are made by themselves from parts of discarded bicycles that they find along the way. They are the Cyclown Circus. The film documents their passage through the city of Hania in Crete, following their performances in parks, squares and schools, and talking with them about their experiences, thoughts and philosophy.

• Elias Petropoulos - an underground world
  Directed by: Kalliopi Legaki. Greece, 2004-5, 61'.
  In Greek with English subtitles

  A restless and inquisitive spirit, a foe of academics and the establishment, Petropoulos was the first folklorist in Greece who dealt with social outcasts and described people and situations ignored by his country's official history.He lived next to rebetika singers, bums, street-urchins, whores and sissies, prisoners and underground people who became the heroes of his books: The Brothel, Kaliarda (an Etymological Dictionary of Greek Homosexuals' Slang ), The Handbook of the Good Thief, The History of the Condom, The Rebetika Songs, The Holy Hashish and others.
  In this documentary, all these people meet in front of our camera. Their testimonies about their life and their relation with the writer; join Petropoulos' confessions, who was persecuted and sentenced several times for his books.

• Dialogues in the Dark
  Directed by: Melek Ulagay Taylan. Turkey, 2006, 65'.
  In Turkish with Greek subtitles

  A Swedish cameraman Ulla and a Turkish filmmaker Melek travel in the southeastern region of Turkey, pursuing the stories of women who are under the threat of being killed by their male relatives because of their unapproved relationships with men. The stories they hear from the persecuted women and others lead them into questioning such concepts as honor or shame, the victim and the aggressor, and the customs of tribal patriarchal society, which victimize both the male and the female. They begin to interview men alongside women. They meet with women from the region who have set-up an organization called Kamer (Women's Center), working for the women rights.

• Meant to leave
  Directed by: Loukia Rikaki. Greece, 2007, 54'.
  In Greek with English subtitles
  
  They left their countries the live amongst us and they consider Greece their second homeland.
  Bella, Bulgaria:"Everyone has a right to choose freely his job and to benefit from fare and satisfactory working conditions in this working environment."
  Mahmood, Palestine: "There is no one that abandons his home and country for no reason."
  Grace, Lebanon: "War destroys not only the land but also in our hearts War makes our hearts of stone our eyes blind."
  Nadia, Ukraine: "Immigrant is the man without a home Home is not a place but a face that recognizes you.
  Ziad, Syria "Immigration embodies personal hope with a future without a face."
  Aifa, Kenya "The unforeseen can be regarded as injustice which resides in the new "promised"lands."
  

• The more you speak the more you cry
  Directed by: Dimitris Kitsikoudis. Greece, 2007, 82'.
  In Greek with English subtitles
  
  Three anthropologists, a historian, an islamist and a lot of Pomaks guide us to the mountain range of Rhodope in the Balkans so that we may get familiar with the population of the Pomaks, their history, their culture, their problems, their fears and their hopes. The Pomaks live in the mountains of Rhodope, in Greece and Bulgaria, along the borders. Their language is south-slavic and their religion is Muslim. Their origin has not been scientifically documentated. They determine themselves as Greeks, Bulgarians, Turks. There is a typical proverb: \"Beware of the Turk\'s shot, the Bulgarian\'s beating the Greek\'s pencil\", because shooting and beating are forgotten, but the pencil does not forget.

• Birds in the mire
  Directed by: Alinda Dimitriou. Greece, 2008, 104'.
  In Greek with English subtitles
  
  The film refers to the participation in and contribution of women to the Greek Resistance during the German Occupation of 1941-44, as well as to the consequences they suffered. The film is based on the oral testimonies of those women that survived and follows the historical sequence of events. However, the focus of the film is not on the description of the historical events but rather the memories of these women's experiences and emotional traumas. The film reveals these women's life stance in the face of extreme circumstances that are usually experienced by men, as well as the fact that under similar conditions women are equally capable of acts of heroism.
  
  
• The lovers from Axos
  Directed by: Nicos Ligouris. Greece, 2007, 80'
  In Greek with English subtitles
  
  In a village high in the mountains of Crete, 69-year-old Maria works at her loom. Watching Maria is her 73-year-old husband, Υorgos. Υorgos finds Maria as beautiful as she was when he first met her. The love that bound Maria and Υorgos together when they were young has endured 55 years and only deepened over time. But something has recently clouded the couple's happiness: Υorgos is seriously ill and could die at any minute.
  
  
• Summer Lightning
  Directed by: Nicos Ligouris. Greece, 2003, 81'
  In Greek with German subtitles
  
  The film chronicles the daily life of a family who own a small hotel on the southern coast of Crete. The family spend most of their days sitting in the shade, hoping for customers to appear, and gazing out at the sea. When they find a camera someone left behind, they begin to photograph the sea as it changes throughout the day. Their idea is to document the rich variety of light and colour. At the same time, they also hope to capture on film the rare weather phenomenon of summer lightning.
  
  
• Parvas
  Directed by: Gerasimos Rigas. Greece, 2008, 78'
  In Greek with English subtitles
  
  The film focuses on the daily life of Dimitri Yiannakos, his wife Flora and their daughters, who come from the island of Amorgos. Dimitri and Flora have three daughters: Dina, who lives in Amorgos with them and her own family; Rinio who lives on the island of Naxos with her own family; and Maria who lives in Piraeus with her husband Dimitri who often comes to Amorgos to help out. Nature also becomes a relative, sometimes peacefully, others with hostility.
  
  
• "Metaxario"
  Directed by: Vangelis Vassalos and Yulie Tsotsoli. Greece, 2005, 40'
  In Greek with English subtitles
  
  Silk production is an age-old tradition in Amorgos. After an invitation for a speech about sericulture in Amorgos, it was considered appropriate to let the producers themselves be heard: the women who produced silk by growing silk-worms, mainly in the village of Langada. So, an amateur filming of these women talking, recorded their accounts on the ways they produced, processed and used silk, either for everyday uses or for handicraft.
  
  
• The Archelon Βubble
  Directed by: Eleftherios Fylaktos. Greece, 2007, 30'
  In English with Greek subtitles
  
  Every year volunteers from all over the world join the Archelon, the sea turtle protection society of Greece. The volunteers, regardless of age and nationality, offer their free time to perform what we cannot. They wake up early in the morning, walk the beaches at night, live in a camp with no electricity and maintain a remarkable community which is bound by their love towards the environment.
  
  
• Grizzly Man
  Directed by: Werner Herzog. Canada/USA, 2005, 103'
  In English with Greek subtitles
  
  In his mesmerizing film Grizzly Man, acclaimed director Werner Herzog explores the life and death of amateur grizzly bear expert and wildlife preservationist Timothy Treadwell. In Grizzly Man, Herzog plumbs not only the mystery of wild nature, but also the mystery of human nature as he chronicles Treadwell's final years in the wilderness. Herzog uses Treadwell's own startling documentary footage to paint a nuanced portrait of a complex and compelling figure while exploring larger questions about the uneasy relationship between man and nature.
  
  

ECOCINEMA



• Sun come up, sun go down
  Directed by: Angelos Kovotsos. Greece, 2007, 52'
  In Greek with English subtitles
  
  "Sun come up! Sun go down!" says Dimitris Kamposos, talking about his life from sunrise, to sunset. The five members of his family are the entire population of the island of Levitha. In this part of the Aegean Sea, there is no frequent sea transportation. Crafty and inventive, they survive working as stack-farmers, fishermen, but also as owners of a small tavern, operating during the summer season. Although often isolated because of the weather conditions, they remain self-sufficient, insist on living in this inhospitable place because they really want to. Until when?
  
  
• Palestine Blues
  Directed by: Nida Sinnokrot. Palestine, 2006, 73'
  In English and Palestinian with Greek subtitles
  
  What is left for Palestinian farmers who learn that in 24hrs the Israeli Army will confiscate their lands for the construction of a Security Wall? What do people do when their survival is threatened by one of the world's most powerful armies? Palestine Blues tells the story of a village's confusion, desperation and resistance, their daily victories and wrenching defeats. Filming with both, a handheld camera and a hidden one, Nida Sinnokrot is presenting a chronicle of a community threatened by destruction.
  
  
• All in this tea
  Directed by: Les Blank, Gina Leibrecht. USA, 2007, 70'
  In English with Greek subtitles
  
  Unable to find anything but insipid tea bags in the U.S, world-renowned tea expert David Lee Hoffman began travelling to China only to discover the rarity of good, handmade tea even there, where the ancient craft of making tea has given way to mass production. The film moves from a modern, urban setting to a pastoral China rarely glimpsed by westerners.
  
  
• Battleship Antarctica
  Directed by: Morgan Matthews. UK, 2007, 48'
  In English with Greek subtitles
  
  The thirty-seven crew of the Greenpeace ship the Esperanza have one clear goal: to document and hinder the Japanese from illegally hunting whales against international protocol. They are determined to achieve this through the non-violent means that have characterised the charity's thirty-year existence. Director Morgan Matthews is along for the ride. In the vast expanse of the ocean, events suddenly take a dramatic and truly surprising turn.
  
  
• Atlantis approaching
  Directed by: Elizabeth Pollock. Tuvalu/USA/New Zealand/Fiji, 2006, 51'
  In English with Greek subtitles
  
  Is the tiny island nation of Tuvalu doomed to vanish beneath the waves? As the sea slowly rises in a warming world, some residents are fleeing to New Zealand in search of a new future. But rising sea levels are just the beginning of the story. Issues like a mythic flounder, dying taro crops, the lingering effects of World War II, island SUVs and a sobering look at the costs of development take place in the film.