As part of the Dardalis Hellenic Archives Research Seminar Series, Panayiotis Yiannoudes JP OAM is delivering a lecture on the History of Greek Cinema in Australia.
Greek cinema played a very significant social and cultural role in the local Greek community, becoming a weekly social gathering for Greeks to meet, foster long-term friendships and, in many cases, marriage.
They were screened not only the major cities, but throughout the country’s small and larger towns.
As a medium, it also kept the community in touch with their homeland, its language and culture.
From the early 1960s up until the mid-1980s, every week a 10 minute newsreel was sent to Australia from Greece, and was screened before the main film that featured political, social, cultural and sporting events.
This became a very contentious issue during the Junta dictatorship between 1967 and 1974. Many people took offence to seeing the propaganda political views of the dictators on screen. Unfortunately for the exhibitors, they were forced to screen them by the Greek Consulate and if they refused, there was the threat by the Junta that supply of new Greek films would cease.
Additionally, Greek cinema also played an integral role in raising money for charities and various Greek community organisations to help build churches, set up club rooms and halls.
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Between 1949 and 1986, approximately 1,250 Greek films were commercially released in Australia.
Yiannoudes couldn’t be a more fitting individual to deliver the lecture, as the owner of Melbourne’s most notable film distributor and exhibitor of Greek movies: Cosmopolitan Motion Pictures.
He has worked tirelessly on Greek and Cypriot national issues for over 50 years, and has served in various community organisations.
A pioneer of the film industry, he started his cinematic career in Limassol, Cyprus, in 1950 and continued when he migrated to Australia in 1956.
In 1957, he became the sole agent of Finos films in Australia, before forming Cosmopolitan Motion Pictures in 1958 together with Stathis Raftopoulos and Andreas Papadopoulos. Their company had the exclusive rights to the biggest film companies in Greece.
In 2010, Yiannoudes self-published the book Greek Cinema Across Australia: Behind the Scenes.
LECTURE DETAILS
When: Wednesday 2 October at 6.30 pm
Where: Greek Centre (168 Lonsdale St, Melbourne VIC)
Language: Greek
Admission: Free