Camera Zizanio

I cannot believe I have come to say that “time passes quickly”. I cannot believe Camera Zizanio celebrates its 10^th anniversary… And this is why 3 years now that I’ve finished school and have been living in Athens, every December I act like nothing has changed and I go back to our Film Festival.

It all started by watching films from the Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young people and this is how I got “infected”. That was not long before I took part in the Zizanio Newspaper and my 1^st direction workshop. I kept going more into things, by travelling to foreign Film Festivals, participating in a more demanding, more “personal” workshop, the Daily News and finally by presenting the Camera Zizanio Film Festival.

How could I possibly leave all that? Camera Zizanio has offered me a lot and that is why I am here all year long, available to help with anything needed.

Pyrgos is being transformed during the Festival’s week, the change is dramatical. That is why I do not think I am the only person who feels like that about this event. Everybody who has given themselves the chance to go through this experience, usually return the next year with even more ideas and in a mood for creation. And every year they make even more friends from Greece or abroad. Besides, it is not only that week. It is the whole effort throughout the year, the travels and the experience the Film Festival has offered. One thing I keep wishing all the time, is that parents give their children the motive to participate in the Festival, just like my parents did with me, and not discourage them. Cinematography is education and there are things you do not learn at school. Plus, it does not mean that when you are involved with one of these two, you are not good at the other and that is something I see in me.

Now that we are going through hard times, I was scared about the Festival’s future. I do not want younger kids and my hometown to miss this whole thing. I might not be able to do a lot about it, but as far as I am concerned, I will not let this come to an end. And there are many of us who love it. I wish this year our Film Festival will be full of joy and creation, full of young children’s voices and laughter and show how much it still has to offer to the citizens of Pyrgos.

10 YEARS OF CAMERA ZIZANIO FILM FESTIVAL!

Gesthimani Roumpani