Twenty years ago, 173 people gathered in the State Film Theatre to watch a Greek film called The Flea (O Psyllos). The 108 minute drama, set in rural Greece, centred around a primary school student who produced the school newspaper. From the minute the movie started, history was being written. The year was 1993, the year the Greek Film Festival – as we know it – began.
At the time, founders Eleni Bertes, Costas Markos and Kostas Karamarkos were looking for a way to redefine a cultural festival in Melbourne – one of Greece’s largest diaspora communities. As lovers of film, their choice was easy. They were to use film, cinema, as a vehicle to connect, to enhance people’s understanding and to provide an alternative viewpoint of Greece. With a humble retrospective program in tow, the three developed and created a festival that has endured two decades; one that has grown in strength each year.
“The driving factor was a recognition of the need to redefine what a cultural festival meant,” says Bertes from her home in Greece. She remembers the beginning of the ’90s as a time devoid of the media overload we have today. There was no internet, mobile phones, social media – so there was a need to find another way to understand what Greek culture meant in the context of Melbourne. And whilst the Antipodes Festival was well on its way in establishing itself as a vehicle for this kind of cultural forum, the Greek Film Festival allowed the community to broaden its horizons and its notion of cultural expression.
“It’s important because it provides an insight into a developing Greek society and it is important for the Greek community in Australia to develop an understanding of different viewpoints which may not necessarily be the view that they adhere to or believe or want to uphold but they are viewpoints,” Bertes tells Neos Kosmos, adding “it puts Greece in a different context, one that [the viewers] may feel more comfortable in seeing”.
The ’90s for the Greek community in Australia was a time of significant change and shifting cultural notions and ideas. The main connections to Greek identity were through national anniversaries, Greek schools and church. But the first and second generations were looking for more. Their cultural, political and artistic characters were developing and evolving and they were looking for another avenue to understand Greece, identity and cultural perspectives. The introduction of videos gave people a higher turn around of Greek film and greater exposure to the medium; private broadcasting from Greece allowed more to access television series. People were seeing another side to Greece than what was represented by the migrants, by their families, by their parents.
It was a steep learning curve, says Bertes on not only putting together a program, but understanding Greek film in general and what it meant at the time.
“I don’t think I had a clear understanding of film and neither did my colleagues, but it was something that we believed was important,” she explains about the inception of the festival. When asked what she remembers at the end of the inaugural festival, when the last film was screened she remembers feeling really proud and very happy that they had done something different.
“It was a very gentle approach to something that was very new and a bit daring as well in terms of removing oneself of the stereotypes of cultural presentation and motifs.
“Film is a reflection in many respects of the culture, present state of mind, or reactions or phobias or fears – and that can be said of any real national cinema.”
Working closely with the Greek Film Centre, she would access movies for the festival and keep abreast of what was happening through travels to Greece and her work with Film Victoria. The festival was essentially a byproduct of the relationship it had with the Greek Film Centre. The centre would send films to the festival to screen, to the point that directors in Greece had no idea their films were being screened in Australia. In its early beginnings, the festival received access to a large programming event entitled Cinemythology, a collection of in excess of 55 films that ranged from 1920 onward. The Greek Film Festival in Australia screened around 75 per cent of the program, giving them the chance to present more traditional auteurs, but also avant garde auteurs. This gave the festival the opportunity to explore the spectrum of what Greek film meant.
For the first ten years, Bertes worked closely with the festival, reminding us that it was a largely community and volunteer based event. The hard work and passion from all involved are a testament to its endurance. And, its resolution in reaching such a significant milestone. But when asked about the films, or the life surrounding the festival, she says her fondest memories were always of the patrons.
“It was incredibly heartwarming to see throughout the ten years – where, during the rest of the year you don’t have a separate relationship or independent friendship with these people – but every year during that period of time these people were very, very dedicated patrons who would come, ensure they had a season pass and see every film and be so eager and so wanting to discuss films, whether they enjoyed them or not,” she says.
During the film festival, Bertes kept a journal in which she would ask patrons to record their memories and feelings of the festival. She says that these are one of her most prized possessions.
“It’s incredibly moving the way [the patrons] experienced the festival as it was emotional for them, as it was very emotional for me,” she says, even more so when it was time to leave behind the legacy they created.
“It was like leaving your child – it was exhilarating but I was really sad,” she explains when the time came to pass the torch of the festival over.
“I felt very maternal towards the film festival, but again I always felt that if you nurture and nourish something it will flourish in itself. I feel very proud to have been a part of it.”
And it is something to be incredibly proud of. Year after year, the Greek Film Festival has not only grown but has educated and has presented another view into Greece. It reminds us that Modern Greece is a viable and valid cultural hub producing world quality films through renowned filmmakers such as Theo Angelopoulos to the new ‘weird wave’ genre of movies inspiring the next generation of filmmakers, screenplay writers and actors to take an independent and daring chance with film.
But most importantly, it gives Greek Australians – and the wider community – a chance to embrace and enjoy what Greece has to offer, in all her glory.
Congratulations to all involved in the Delphi Bank 20th Greek Film Festival and here’s to another twenty years!
The Delphi Bank 20th Greek Film Festival runs in Melbourne from 7-24 November at the Palace Cinema Como, 299 Toorak Rd, South Yarra. The festival also travels to Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra.
Tickets from www.greekfilmfestival.com.au, www.palacecinemas.com.au, or by calling 03 9827 7533.
The Greek Film Festival is an initiative of the Greek Community of Melbourne & Victoria.