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An evening with filmmaker Bill Mousoulis recent Greek films |
Thursday, February 18, 2016, at 7:00 pm, $5 entry Cyprus Community Club NSW |
| Acclaimed Greek-Australian filmmaker Bill Mousoulis (9 features and 90 shorts to his name) started making films in 1982, and worked exclusively in his hometown of Melbourne until deciding to try living and working in Greece from 2009. During the last 6 years, he has made a number of short films in Greece, as well as one feature, Wild and Precious (2012, 87 mins), which the Greek Film Society of Sydney screened in February 2014. This screening will present some of the short films, as well as extracts from Mousoulis' new feature film, Songs of Revolution, which is currently being shot and edited. ALL FILMS WILL HAVE ENGLISH SUBTITLES. |
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extracts from Songs of Revolution A special sneak peak at some of the scenes in Mousoulis' new feature film Songs of Revolution, an inventive musical-fiction-documentary hybrid, about the many songs of resistance, revolution, sorrow and pain that Greek composers have written through the decades for their troubled country. The film features appearances by music legends Dimitris Poulikakos, Giannis Aggelakas, Thanos Kois, Antouan Parinis and others. The film also contains scenes with actors, in music-clip mode or classical "musical" mode, with the actors miming (these scenes to be shot in 2016). image - Dimitris Poulikakos being interviewed |
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Three Strikes An offshoot from the bigger project Songs of Revolution, Three Strikes was commissioned by the Adelaide Film Festival for their 2015 showcase of "vertical cinema", where the frame is tipped sideways, like a portrait frame. Three Strikes takes three songs from the history of Greek revolutionary music and illustrates them in both documentary and narrative ways. “Black-banner-waving” by Nikos Xylouris (1968) is a rousing anthem on resistance; “A Mother Sighs” by Vassilis Tsitsanis (1947) is a haunting ballad about loss and exile; and “Tubes” by Lost Bodies (1997) is an avant-garde punk satire on industrial production and consumerism. Featuring George Avouris, Paraskevi Thymeli, Triantafillos Eskioglou, Emilia Giannakidou. |
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The Fairy Tale Filmed in October 2014, The Fairy Tale is Mousoulis' first attempt at marrying a Greek revolutionary song with contemporary images. Each year in Greece, on October 28, school children march in what is known as "Ohi Day", which commemorates the Greek resistance to the Italian army on October 28, 1940. Nikos Xylouris' song "The Fairy Tale" ("To Paramythi") is used alongside the images of marching children, creating irony yet also matching the exuberance of the nationalistic display. Filmed in Kallithea, Athens. |
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Pig in a Poke Before making his feature Wild and Precious in 2011 and 2012, Mousoulis shot a couple of short films in the north-central city of Volos. Pig in a Poke is shot on European Music Day in June 2010, and coincidentally matches Mousoulis' current interest in the Greek music scene. It shows an outdoor concert and the mixed atmosphere of the people: families, teenagers, music fans, as they listen to the bands and also dance, drink, have fun, be bored. The film is a document of a moment, a record of Greek people. |
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BONUS FILM Before going to Greece in 2009, Mousoulis rarely dealt with Greek themes in his films made in Australia. One exception is this short film, Kosta, which is extracted from the feature Blue Notes. It features Nino Kannavas as a lonely man, bereft of family, looking for a way to connect with the community. Greek Film Society members will remember Nino from his work with his sister Anna Kannava, from the screening in August 2015 Tribute to Anna Kannava. |