Ahead of its world premiere at the 21st Delphi Bank Greek Film Festival, the documentary Following Shira’s Journey: A Greek Jewish Odyssey will be launched at the Greek Centre of Contemporary Culture.
The unique three-part project explores the history of Greece’s Jewish communities and consists of Shira’s Journey, a published screenplay by Carol Gordon; Following Shira’s Journey: A Greek Jewish Odyssey, a documentary directed by Carol Gordon and Natalie Cunningham; and a photographic exhibition by Emmanuel Santos.
It is a little known fact that there were thriving Jewish communities in Greece prior to World War II.
For the past 25 years, Melbourne-based writer and the administrator for March of The Living Australia, Carol Gordon, had a burning desire to tell the story of these communities and, through the movie Shira’s Journey she is doing just that.
More than 60,000 Greek Jews perished in the Nazi concentration camps, and yet the experiences of Greece’s Jewish population during the Holocaust have remained relatively unknown until now. In the post-war years, fear, suspicion, economic hardship and civil war relegated the sad history of the Greek Jews to the horrors of a time people preferred to forget.
Interviews with Greek-Jewish Holocaust survivors, as well as second and third generation survivors, offer insights into these now extinct communities, and their much fewer modern-day descendants determined to keep culture and traditions alive – especially in the face of anti-Semitism.
Shot on location in Greece in September 2013, this fascinating documentary is the labour of love of Carol Gordon and Natalie Cunningham. Through the multifaceted project – documentary, photographic exhibition by Emmanuel Santos and book – the relatively untold story of the Greek Jewish communities can finally be shared with the wider community.
Shira’s Journey is a road-movie-with-a-difference involving three unlikely travelling companions: Shira, an ex-South African documentary filmmaker from Melbourne; Avram, an octogenarian Greek Jewish Holocaust survivor, and his American grandson Jeremy, an idealistic lawyer from New York.
The launch will include a presentation of the published screenplay, excerpts from the recently completed documentary and selected images by photographer Emmanuel Santos, shot on location during the filming of the documentary.
Shira’s Journey will be launched on Sunday 12 October at 4.00 pm, at the Greek Centre, 168 Lonsdale Street Melbourne. RSVP: carol@gordon.net.au
The movie will premiere at the Delphi Bank 21st Greek Film Festival on Sunday 26 October, at 5.00 pm at Palace Cinema Como. For more information about Shira’s Journey, visit www.shirasjourney.com