Camera Zizanio

The Greek team at the International Meeting of Children and Youth Film Festivals and Video Workshops Makó - Agyagfalva

Although 2010 is a year of economical crisis, without any government assistance, the Olympia International Film Festival and the Camera Zizanio, turned to advantage their international contacts and were able to organize nine delegations to travel abroad from April to October.

At these trips, 18 children from Greece participated, mostly from the region of Ilia. For most of the youngsters, it was their first trip abroad and that has offered them the opportunity to live a unique experience. They had the chance to get educated at the creation of audiovisual works, to present their work to begin making international contacts.  To open a door in the world and the future.

Along these trips, we had the opportunity to present the work done in Greece – in the frames of our festival – to an international audience. And also to screen many films by children that have won an award in Camera Zizanio.

Finally, it should be mentioned that there were other invitations to attend festivals from abroad, but unfortunately couldn’t be realized due to lack of money.

Briefly the trips from April – October 2010:

1. April, SERBIA, VRSAC. Participation at the BALKAN + FUTURE held in the city of VRSAC, in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, April 22 to 24, 2010. The artistic director of Camera Zizanio, Nikos Theodosiou, presented a tribute about the 10 years of Camera Zizanio. In parallel, youth films from Greece were screened, which participated in the Balkan Kids for Kids Festival. A Festival’s colleague, Nick Repoulios, run an animation workshop that was attended by refugee children from Croatia.
2. May, SPAIN, Don Benito.  Participation of Nikos Theodosiou in the Student Film Festival in Extremadura (Certamen Audiovisual de Centros Educativos de Extremadura), where event Camera Zizanio and Olympia Festival were presented during a special event,  as well as films made by children from Greece. The Camera Zizanio’s delegation was the only foreign participation.
3. May, GERMANY, Berlin.  Participation of a delegation to the International Youth Film Festival “Jugendmedienfestival” in Berlin 2010, which films from Greece were screened at the Competition section.  The delegation consisted of two youngsters.
4. July, HUNGARY-ROMANIA (Transylvania). The participation of a large delegation, to a ten  days film workshop in the frames of the European Youth in Action program that was held in both countries. (International Meeting of Children and Youth Film Festivals and Video Workshops Makó – Agyagfalva, July 6 to 17, 2010). The Greek team consisted of 10 children and two chaperones.
5. August, SERBIA. Participation at the International Film Workshop at Mount Tara, organized by the Media Education Center of Belgrade (International Youth Film Camp, July  30 to August 8, 2010). The workshop attended three youngsters from Greece.
6. August, SERBIA, Belgrade. Participation of a Greek delegation at the 5th International Youth Media Summit, August, 11 to 20, 2010. The Greek delegation consisted of two youngsters and a chaperone.
7. September, ITALY, Venice.  Participation of Zoe Chaita (university student at the Technological Institute and also a colleague of the Festival) as a member of the The 27 TIMES CINEMA Jury at the International Film Festival in Venice. The participation was ensured through the Europa Cinemas in which Youth Plan -that runs Cinema Filip in Athens- is a member.
8. October, Iran, Hamadan. Participation of two youngsters from Greece,  as members of the Jury at the Hamedan Children Film Festival 2010 that will take place from 6 to October 12, 2010.
9. October. AUSTRIA, Vienna. Nikos Theodosiou participation in the Media Literacy Award, during this, the possibilities of a further development of international cooperation will be discussed. A film from Greece, will take part at the Competition Section of the Media Literacy Award.

Also, there were many cases where  films from Greece participated in festivals such as Korea, Lebanon, Ireland, Brazil, Hungary etc, as our Festival initiative.

We are forgivably proud of being the only ones in Greece to have such a rich activity and to be the main representatives of our country, when it comes to the young audiovisual creation and education of the youngsters.

We want to warmly thank our friends and partners abroad who helped us to realize all of the trips:

• The Media Education Center Belgrade, Serbia
• The The Video and Art Workshop of Makó, Hungary
• The Certamen Audiovisual de Centros  Educativos de Extremadura, Spain
• The Jugendmedienfestival Berlin, Germany
• The Farabi Cinema Foundation, Iran
• The  Media literacy award, Austria
• The Europa Cinemas Network.