“Meteor and Shadow”
After a successful series of screenings, the action “The Cinema in the Center – Athens in the Cinema” organized by the Union of Greek Film Directors – Producers (ESPEK) is going to drop the curtain on Holy Monday (29/4) at the Astor cinema.
The last topic has a title “Queer Athens” and is flanked by the screening of two iconic films and three shorts. According to the rationale of the program: “Places do not become landmarks through any institutional decision from above but through their use. The Athens of monuments may attract the tourist, but the city that interests the explorer is the one that reveals the map through the successive layers of meaning created by the use of streets, parks, and squares. This is a city full of erogenous zones. A city usually nocturnal. From the edge to the center of the city, the films of the tribute wander in an Athens of love encounters of another era, far removed from the age of online dating. Angelopoulos’s naked Angel of Athens wanders on his motorcycle from the edge of the city, Menidi. of Giannaris, in its center, to meet the gaze of the poets of Spetsiotis in the parks of another era or in the different Omonia of Haris Papadopoulos. The city is there to accommodate the erotic gaze and ultimately transform its public body into a private one.”
After the screenings, there will be a concert – closing party with Larry Gus. See the detailed screening program below.
“From the Edge of the City”
Cinema in the Center – 29/4:
Astor (€6, €10 – daily).
● Meteor and Shadow, Takis Speciotis, 1985, 101′ | 18:00
The film’s director, Takis Speciotis, forewords.
The life of the freehand poet Napoleon Lapathiotis. Homosexual, drug addict and communist, he was a scandal for the conservative Athenian society of his time and for the social class from which he came.
● Short Queer | 20:10
Foreword by the professor of the History of Greek Cinema, Konstantinos Kyriakos.
– Athens, Return to the Acropolis, Thodoros Angelopoulos, 1983, (medium length 43′)
Thodoros Angelopoulos, after his cinematic wanderings in the countryside, returned to his hometown and to the documentary, in the form of a poetic diary. His documentary was commissioned as part of a TV series about European capitals. With scenes from his previous films and modern neo-Greek poetry, painting and music, he created the portrait of “a different Athens”.
– Poste Restante – Omonia, Haris Papadopoulos, 1982, (short length 14′)
A mix of reality and fiction about nightlife in Omonia Square and the surrounding areas.
– A Position in the Sun, Konstantinos Giannaris, 1995, (medium length 45′)
Athena. In the wake of the collapse of the communist bloc, another train arrives full of economic migrants. Among the desperate and poor is Panagiotis, 18 years old, an ambitious kid from Albania. In the lighted night streets, Elias, handsome and lonely, goes shopping, looking for someone who will distract him from his empty life.
● From the edge of the city, Konstantinos Giannaris, 1998, 94′ | 22:20
The director of the film, Konstantinos Giannaris, forewords.
Dreams, jokes and hard everyday life of a group of young Russians who live on the “edge of town” and on the fringes of Greek society.
● Party | 00:00
Stadiou 28 (entrance from Korai gallery) (METRO University)
