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Apollon Theatre, Pyrgos, 29/11/2008

The curtain for the 11th Olympia International Film Festival for Children & Young People and the 8th Camera Zizanio opened once more, to receive films, kids and people from all over the world, in Pyrgos. During the whole previous week, a large number of parallel screenings, exhibitions and events prepared the ground for the grand opening on Saturday.
In the Old Agora of Pyrgos, Kanella Tragousti’s  excellent photo exhibition, “Memories of childhood”, also featured  a classical guitar recital with Bessy Diagoma, an event that left everyone practically speechless with the artist’s dexterity. The old warehouses of ASO, hold Georgia Karahaliou’s  magnificent art exhibition. Screenings of the documentary of the renown Creek writer, M. Karagatsis, the history of the 1st High School of Pyrgos, created by the students of the said school, as well as the concert with Thanos Mikroutsikos, Miltos Pashalides and Rita Antonopoulou, escalated towards the first screenings of the 8th Camera Zizanio on Friday and the grand opening of the 11th Film Festival yesterday.

Young Melissa, flew all over the world, with the flying bicycle, only to land in the Appolon Theatre of Pyrgos, and deliver the last copy of the films to be screened over the next week, to Dimitris Spyrou!!! In a ceremony that was full of joy, of music by the excellent student choir and orchestra, and was packed with people of all ages, the trailers of all of the films that we will watch in the next days, kept us on the edge of our seats with anticipation! The documentary of Nikos Kavoukidis, “The Ash that Remains”, reminded us of the great disaster that the area has suffered from last summer’s fire, for which the whole area still keeps vigil.
The dinner reception this year, after the opening ceremony, took place in the warehouses of ASO, where, surrounded by Georgia Karahaliou’s paintings and with the fantastic music programme of the students’ group, a plentiful buffet was set, and large tables to accommodate all present!!! A unique experience, for a unique festival!

The first Daily News

An interview with Mania Roumpani

Mania Roumpani, a student at the National Technical University of Athens from this year, will be the main hostess of the 8^th Camera Zizanio (November 28 – December 6), in Pyrgos, the Prefecture of Ilia.

And….

Touring Greece with Mania Read more of this post

Zizanio News No2

With the entry applications period for the 8^th European Meeting of Young People’s Audiovisual Creation – Camera Zizanio over, we have a clear picture of what we are going to be seeing in Pyrgos from the 28th of November till the 6^th of December 2008. And we have come to the conclusion that it will be nothing similar to the ones preceding it.

– The entries of young creators have broken the record since they are over 300! They come from 21 European countries while seven countries are presented in the International Panorama, the established view into the rest of the world: USA, S. Korea, Jordan, India, Lebanon, Dubai and Kenya.

– The Greek entries broke the record as well since they are well over 65 (compared to the 50 of last year).

– For the first time this year, the age limit of the entrants from Greece is lowered to the pre-school age! (Short animation films shot in filming workshops in a kindergarten in Athens

– And two special entries:

Α) a film made by young Afghan immigrants in Greece (the children of the Refugee community from the hostels of Makrinitsa and Agria in the Municipality of Magnesia with the support of the Greek Film Center within the framework of the program “First Step” .

Β) an animated film made by handicapped children within the framework of a film workshop of the Emotion Pictures Festival. (30 children of the Cerebral Palsy Greece took part).

Camera Zizanio, however, is not simply a Festival, it is also a great workshop for audiovisual education. For this reason it has established the special presence of the work done in film workshops abroad in order to exchange experiences and promote research and dialogue. This year, however, this presentation will be “greek centered”.

And the reason is because the Festival’s associates, through the experience they have gained from it, have developed pioneer projects that constitute large steps in audiovisual education and creation for which we are very proud and this is why we present their work:

– Spyros Siakas, the first who organized animation workshops for the children of Pyrgos, has completed his study on the methods of the use of animation in a classroom and his work, an easy to use manual for teachers being published by Youth Plan, will be presented in Pyrgos for the first time.

– Nikos Repoulios, for the first time “lowered the bar” in Greece by organizing animation workshops with children of preschool age! And the results were spectacular.

– Kostas Katrakis, transferred his experience from the Festival of the City of Athens by organizing workshops in the summer camps with the prospect of expanding them during the whole year, the first and of such large scale establishment of film workshops for children.

In the about ten film workshops that take place every year during the Festival, this year we have with us two important presences from the area of cinematography who, through their “master class” they will transfer their rich experience to young children:

– Roviros Manthoulis, who celebrates this year his 50 years of cinematic creation, is getting ready to present something exceptional through a selective retrospect of his work.

– Nikos Kavoukidis, who was the first professional cinematographer to film the lighting of the Olympic Flame in Ancient Olympia, as a teenager, is returning to speak about “how it is to film at 16”.

More information in announcements that follow.