Ευρωπαϊκή Συνάντηση Νεανικής Οπτικοακουστικής Δημιουργίας
Since its beginning, the Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People, the first of its kind in Greece, stood out from the other film festivals by giving more emphasis on the educational dimension of this endeavour. In collaboration with professionals of the film trade, as well as with special education teachers and educators, the Olympia Film Festival for the first time processed programs on film education for young people. Programs that multiplied and enriched themselves year after year. Thus today the School Cinema section stands as one of the three pillars of the organization, with an exceptional dynamic and fanatic friends.
Professionals from the film industry, directors, DOPs, editors, animators, but also artists from other fields, as well as specialists from both Greece and abroad, offer their knowledge and experience. Under their guidance, children travel within the magic world of image and create audiovisual pieces. Creativity embraces all kinds of film genres, from fiction films to documentary and from music video to animation. The media used for those creations vary from professional HD cameras to mobile phones. For a whole week, the city of Pyrgos, where the festival is based, and the nearby towns, transform into the biggest film school.
Workshops with consistency and continuity arose through this activity and their longevity still surprises the festival’s fans. It is 12 years since the animation workshop Zizanimation started and the 6th year of Mythos Project (a multinational workshop cherished especially by our foreign friends).
All the videos that have been produced during these workshops are projected in a special event just before the closing ceremony. The participants of these workshops can watch the other projects, judge and criticize them. A selection of the projects is also screened in the closing ceremony.
However, School Cinema does not end here. It also helps the multifaceted training of adults, especially of teachers who want to integrate audiovisual teaching in their educational work. Special seminars by professional filmmakers and scientists or specialized agencies such as the Educational Television or the Children’s Ombudsman, analyze various issues and help teachers to deepen the multidimensional reading of film images in order to make better use of them in school or in the wider social environment.
Film Workshops
2016 is the 6th year that Mythos Project, a program with many fans both from Greece and abroad, is taking place. The children who come to participate to Olympia Film Festival and Camera Zizanio have 5 days to work collectively, to give life to their ideas, to use their skills and to produce short videos. They will form 8-10 multinational groups, discuss, exchange views, and armed with cameras and laptops they will create their own scripts and videos. Each time their videos are on a different theme, but always anthropocentric, since in the centre stand young people before today’s world. Up to now dozens of videos with an exceptional dynamic have been created.
Kyriakos Haritakis and NFFS educators (National Film Festival voor Scholieren) in the Netherlands. Coordinartion: Maria Bedeniti, lawyer.
A five days workshop on film creation. Children familiarize themselves with film language and cinema techniques. They are given guidance on script-writing for a short film. The planning is similar to that of professional productions, and roles are given both in front and behind the camera followed by shooting, while the video is completed with the editing. Kyriakos Haritakis, director
A five days workshop on film creation. Children familiarize themselves with film language and cinema techniques. They are given guidance on script-writing for a short film. The planning is similar to that of professional productions, and roles are given both in front and behind the camera followed by shooting, while the video is completed with the editing. Nikos Alevras, director
A five days workshop on film creation. Children familiarize themselves with film language and cinema techniques. They are given guidance on script-writing for a short film. The planning is similar to that of professional productions, and roles are given both in front and behind the camera followed by shooting, while the video is completed with the editing. Giorgos Kourmouzas, director-editor, Nikoleta Papathanasiou, Filmmaker, MA in Photojournalism
A five days workshop on film creation. Children familiarize themselves with film language and cinema techniques. They are given guidance on script-writing for a short film. The planning is similar to that of professional productions, and roles are given both in front and behind the camera followed by shooting, while the video is completed with the editing. Ilias Florakis, writer-screen writer
In this workshop we will actively and creatively experiment with the productions of film special effects, which were introduced in cinematography by George Melies and Segundo Chomon over 100 years ago, but that remain relevant and useful to this day. Albert Alfonso Moreno, educator specialized in audiovisual teaching
This workshop is addressed to children aged 15-17 and its goal is to teach them the techniques of filming a music track and the creative processes given by the expressive means of cinema in order to visualize a music piece. The process involves the creation of a script based on children’s ideas, teaching pre-production (casting, location scouting, art direction, storyboard, breakdown) and production (filming, editing). During the process photography techniques, the use of playback, shooting techniques and post production are also taught, while children exchange roles in the whole process following the logic of rotation. Kostas Mylonas, director
A tour to the boundaries, conventions, characteristics, narrative mechanisms and the dialogue between documentary and fiction films, through a wide range of examples that intent to raise questions and to seek along with the participants, possible answers…Vassilis Kosmopoulos, director
Many young filmmakers cannot have access to professional equipment because of the cost and they think that it is impossible for them to present a decent work without it. Nowadays, most mobile phone devices have the possibility to capture high-resolution images, and at the same time, with some applications, you can even edit and add special effects. This is great when you work with inexperienced actors, as you avoid their terror in front of the massive, professional cameras. Laura Gaynor, filmmaker
This workshop differs a lot from the others. Here there is no time for ideas to evolve and for their realization. Every day at 20:00 the daily video of Zizanio-Daily News must be ready. It could just be a simple reportage on what is happening in the Festival. But anyone could do this. Zizanio-Daily News is a subversive, incisive, humorous and reflective few minutes documentary. It’s a hard and demanding job. Finding topics, running around the streets with cameras to gather material, editing it and finally delivering it completed with its soundtrack and subtitles and all, on time for its projection on the big screen of the Apollo Theatre. Experienced “Zizania” with the help of young people who learn under the fever of creativity, undertake to carry out this difficult task. Captains in Zizanio-Daily News of this year, the fist year of its second decade, will be two “Zizania” from Spain who see Greece as their second homeland. Iñaki Lamúa, journalist & actor and Marina Muñoz Fortuny, photographer and model
A five-days workshop on short documentary. Initially, children learn the particularities of this great genre and how to distinguish creative documentaries from reportage. The choice of the topic comes through discussion, responsibilities are distributed (camera, sound, etc) and shooting starts. Then comes the arduous task of selecting the useful and necessary visual material for the video and its final processing including editing, music selection and a possible addition of voice over. Nikos Staboulopoulos, director
An animation workshop, the longest of the Festival! Here, small white paper pieces get colour, form, and start to move and tell stories! Children write stories, create figurines and bring them to life using stop-motion techniques. They create one ore two animated shorts. This is Zizanimation’s 11th year in the Olympia Film Festival! Kostas Katrakis and Tassos Zervas, animators
In our Story labs we write our own stories and we “live” in them. As soon as we learn what composes a story, we write our own and we bring it to life through video, animation & performance techniques. The workshops aim to offer the participants the opportunity to experience their own stories through their visualization. Children’s fantasy gets released as soon as they realize that, through their stories, they can communicate their feelings, concerns or ideas. Agathi Darlasi, script-writer and director, specialized in Storytelling
One hour of theory and two hours of laboratory practice; this workshop is an introduction to the basic tools of 3D modeling and animation, by using an open source free program, the BLENDER 3D. We “download” the program in real time, we install it and then set it on the PC and then make a brief show of the basic tools for the composition of a 3D set. Then a 3D model is created, that gets motion by the method of cyber tree, created by Dr. Spyros Siakas, under the relative course that he teaches in the Department of Graphic Design in the School of Art Studies of the TEI of Athens. The program can be set on the workshops PCs for further experimentation and exploitation. Spyros Siakas, professor in TEI of Athens
The animation box by Erling Eriksson serves as the basic tool for pupils of primary schools and children from kindergartens to learn how their favorite animations are made. Furthermore, children have the chance to create short experimental animation videos of few seconds, by using traditional techniques combined with modern technology. Dimitra Myftari, Panagiota Georgakopoulou, Nikoletta Georgakopoulou
We are dealing with dimensions of social life as we think it is and as we believe and we would like it to be… We present an everyday story in the city, with the participation of teenagers, where there are some dilemmas about making decisions and narration stops at some point. The group is divided into three subgroups, each of which prepares a fictional scenario on the continuation of the story. Each group gets a key-word to use as for its own development of the story: Technology, Creativity, Solidarity. The alternative stories are presented in the most powerful performing way (several types of media can be used). In the end, follows a discussion on the obstacles found within the society that prevent it to evolve in a way that would be in the interest and in accordance with the wishes of the majority. Giorgos Moschos, Deputy Ombudsman for Children’s rights and Matoula Papadimitriou, Researcher in Citizen’s Advocate (Ombudsman) / Children’s Ombudsman
In theory we learn shooting techniques for landscape, portraits, street photography, night photography, photojournalism, etc. In practice we reflect the everyday activity of the workshops and other side events of the Festival. Selected photos are posted on the blog of ZizanioNews (zizanionews.wordpress.com) and on social network. Nektarios Liavas, photographer
Pupils and students present the 19th Olympia Film Festival and the 16th Camera Zizanio through the blog of Zizanio News (zizanionews.wordpress.com) with the use of reportage, interviews, reviews, commentaries, etc. Moreover, form the 5th to the 9th of December Radio Zizanio will broadcast from the frequency of VOX FM 103.3, hosted by the show Melting Pot Τhe Radio Show. Ero Riga, journalist and Κostas Diamadopoulos, Τakis Doxas, Αntigoni Skartsou and Sofia Tsapara
Pupils and students cover the events of the competition section of Kids & Docs, as well as the side events and activities of the Olympia Film Festival in the town of Amaliada, for the blog of Zizanio News (zizanionews.wordpress.com) with reports, interviews, commentaries, reviews, etc. and broadcast their own radio shows in the frequency of Radio Ilida 91,1. Nikoleta Georgi, journalist, Εvridiki Georgopoulou, educator
The 11-year-old correspondent of CineLike Lab, Petros Florakis, updates every day, with his own view, the friends of Olympia Film Festival around the world on what is happening in the city of Pyrgos between the 3rd and the 10th of December. He introduces us to young filmmakers who participate in Camera Zizanio, he keeps us posted about interesting cinema workshops and he conveys to us his personal impression and experience. The idea of CineLike TV was born because he wanted to communicate the fresh atmosphere of the Festival to his friends and to those who cannot experience this unique experience. The on-the-scene reports will be broadcasted on CineLike Lab’s channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWL4XgMwC-1ROX5eWTGuRIw) and on Camera Zizanio’s channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/camerazizanio).
Six film analysis workshops for each of the six Children’s Juries:
19th Olympia Film Festival –Feature Fiction Section
19th Olympia Film Festival –Short Fiction Section
19th Olympia Film Festival –Short Animation Section
Froso Sarli, Lazaros Asmis, Golfi, Gavriiliadi, Katerina Geirtona, Sofia Giakmoglidou, educators
19th Olympia Film Festival –Kids & Docs Section
Lina Giannopoulou, producer, Vasilis Ecomomou, film critic
16th Camera Zizanio –Greek Section
Camera Zizanio –European Section
Sofia Giakmoglidou, educator and Angeliki Darlasi, writer
The multi-awarded DoP and director Nikos Kavoukidis comes back with a master class on the importance and the power of film documentary. The class will be based on his last work as a director, the historical documentary ”Memories” that has just been finished, and film clips are going to be shown. The film wanders around the history of Greece from 1935 until 1950 and is based on rare film footage, most of which is shown for the first time. Nikos Kavoukidis, director, DoP
Contemporary anthropocentric documentary tracks human adventure and consciousness, everyday life, society and History, with a much wider range of topics, a bigger diversity of form in relation to the past, more emotion and humor. Documentary has now entered in Education, as more and more schools include it in their work as a complex educational tool. Children like it, it is suitable for analysis and exercises and become a motive even for filmmaking attempts by the children themselves.
The questions that concern this workshop run through three different modules, which are, nevertheless, closely interlinked: a) The use of Documentary in Education, b) The path from a small, personal story to the “big”, universal History, c) Oral testimony and Narration. Vasilis Loules, director
A seminar on the concept and the history of documentary and multimedia with the use of a Power Point presentation. It starts by approaching documentaries and proceeds to the analysis of the structure and the composition of the works. Documentaries are not only about news and reportage. They are stories, facts, researches, causes and effects, images and emotions. What is happening at the beginning forms the raw material. The processing and the connection of all the parameters are the composition through the personal angle and judgment of the creators. We relate to the projects we see and with the projects we create both as spectators and as creators. Nikoletta Papathanasiou, filmmaker, MA in Photojournalism
In this workshop we have an experiential approach of a series of creative activities related to animation technique that contribute to the creative and active participation of the Student-Spectator while watching a film. The proposed activities are found in special worksheets created by the professor of the TEI of Athens and collaborator of the Olympia Film Festival for years, Dr. Spyros Siakas. Dr. Spyros Siakas, professor in the Department of Graphic Design in the School of Art Studies of the TEI of Athens
A seminar addressed to TEI students that presents the general principles of editing theory and enters in more detail in its application through the use of computer and of the widespread professional editing software Adobe Premiere. For a better understanding of editing techniques, we will use as a model a video from the Olympia Film Festival workshops and the procedure followed for its editing. Giorgos Kourmouzas, director-editor
Daily three-hour cinema workshops. They are addressed to groups of pupils that visit the Festival and make short excursions to the city of Pyrgos. Their content is adapted to the needs of the groups and varies from a general introduction of the film language to providing knowledge on cinematic, lighting, sound recording, editing techniques.
Group of educators: Damianos Voganatsis, Kyriakos Charitakis, Ilias Florakis, Nikos Theodosiou
Workshop on Cinema Education. An educational workshop for children and adults –teachers and pupils- inspired by the rich film experience of the BFI (British Film Institute) that seeks to create young critical and smart spectators, through the analysis and the reflection of a short film within the classroom. Clever tricks, simple exercises of content analysis challenge and invite the participants to play with an experiential and collaborative manner focusing as always on a surprise-film of the Festival! Irene Andriopoulou, communications specialist, specialized on Media Education
Seminar under the tribute “Demolishing Prejudices –Learning acceptation”, in which are discussed issues of awareness of the school community on the minorities’ rights and especially on children’s. The film Lola on the pea (fiction, 90΄, Germany, 2014) will be screened, in the presence of the director Thomas Heinemann, whereas an analysis will follow on the occasion of the presentation of the educational file/study guide of the film.
Thomas Heinemann, director, Voula Papagianni, Intercultural Education Centre, University of Athens, Head of Innovation and Intercultural Communication, Akis Kapranos, film critic
Seminar under the tribute “Demolishing Prejudices –Learning acceptation”, which explores intercultural issues and focuses on matters related to refugee crisis. The film Journey Birds (Israel, Italy, Austria, France, docu-animation, 9΄, 2015) will be screened in the presence of the director Daphna Awadish followed by an analysis by the director herself and the writer Gregory Chaliakopoulo. The rapporteurs will use film and literature examples to develop their subject.
Daphna Awadish, director and Grigoris Chaliakopoulos, writer
Seminar on the basic principles of set design addressed to members of theatre companies, educators of primary and secondary education and to the public. The set is the canvas for any artistic activity; especially in theatre and cinema it is essential. There is no Theatre or Cinema without scenography. Settings communicate feeling, charge the image and complement the text. The main data in the work of a set designer are the play and the script, respectively. Additionally, for the construction of the setting and props, obviously, the director’s angle and approach on the piece must be taken under consideration –besides the art of theatre and the art of cinema are related arts. Antonis Chalkias, set designer
Workshop on cinema gendered interpretation in collaboration with the General Secretariat for Gender Equality (GSGE). The relationship between cinema and education is strong and creates a dynamic, an important educational tool, which enables both educators and pupils to practice in a multi-level manner in conquering multiple forms of literacy: critical, cultural, creative, on aesthetics, on literature. Given the above relationship, the objective of this workshop is to approach cinema as a visual text by focusing especially on gendered reading, gendered representations, and on the methods of undermining and strengthening the dichotomies, in the light of the feminist theory and criticism.
The film clips that will be screened will be the subject of discussion and reflection, in relation to their content and their form, in order to find out, both qualitatively and quantitatively, whether the stereotypical point of view of the genders is intervening or not. So, eventually the aim of the workshop is to make clear that studying a film through a gendered point of view, is an important parameter that can be used by teachers and pupils within the classroom in order to eliminate stereotypes, sexism, violence and gender inequality.
Zoe Magoula, philologist, Katerina Bartzoka, philologist – European music theoretician, Viki Saini, social anthropologist, Eva Spathara, philologist – sociologist on sex and gender issues (members of the Group on Education and Culture of the General Secretariat for Gender Equality –GSGE).
Educational files are study guides for films. They are meant to be used by educators. They are about feature films focused on childhood and youth that belong to the Film Archive of Neaniko Plano, which owns their distribution rights, both for Greece and Cyprus. All the films are recent productions and come from several countries. They are the essence of world cinema on childhood and youth, and they deal with a wide range of topics. Each file contains a summary of the film, a trailer, photos, cast and crew, reviews, interviews, structural and aesthetic analysis of the film, description of the main characters and propositions on educational activities. Every file is also accompanied by plentiful factual material, related to the subject matter of the film.
The films that are going to be screened along with the presentation of their educational files, are: Mini And The Mozzies, animation by Jannik Hastrup and Flemming Quist Møller (Denmark) for primary school children and Lola on the Pea, by Thomas Heinemann (Germany) for secondary school children (presence of the film director).
Κάντε κλικ στην εικόνα
Camera Zizanio 