By Thodoris Roussos.
The San Francisco Greek Film Festival, together with co-host the Greek Film Festival of Sydney, held their annual Summer Party in Athens, Greece on July 12.
The event saw guests reunite with old friends, make news ones, and raise their glass to all the Greek and Cypriot filmmakers who’s films have travelled to film festivals around the world.
Present at the joint event were a number of distinguished guests including the Presidents of numerous Greek Film Festivals such as Nia Karteris (Sydney), Kleon Skourtis (San Francisco), Sofia Stavrianidou (Berlin), as well as Dimitrios Chatzidimetriou and Jimmy DeMetro (New York).
There was also the well-known Greek director, producer and writer, Manousos Manousakis, the Greek diplomat and director, Vasilis Xiros, the Hollywood composer, Mark Chait, and many other emerging directors and actors, many of whom shared with guests their vision for Greek cinema and beyond.
Speaking with The Greek Herald on the night, Ms Karteris said she wanted to “thank the San Francisco Festival for agreeing to collaborate this year” on the summer event.
“After 28 years of doing the film festival in Australia, we have achieved our goal, but the fight never stops because we need to embrace new generations as well,” Ms Karteris said.
“That is why for the past ten years we have started a festival of short films for children. It is aimed at children aged 5 to 16 who have to organise and direct short films themselves in order to keep the Greek language alive.
“It has been a great success and we’ve had a great response from children and schools… Being a child in a classroom and learning a language might be a bit boring. But encouraging them through cinema, theatre and music, is very important so they embrace our language.”
The event was an unforgettable night surrounded by live music, a variety of food, plenty of wine and endless discussions which had the aroma of Greece.
