International Competition - Greek Participations
Simple people, simple as Children
A noisy silent movie
Performance
Christini, a princess
Stelios
Chip & ovi
MasterPiece – Part Ι
Simple people, simple as Children
Yannis Kaspiris | Hellas | 2007 | 35 mins
Synopsis: We follow a group of patients in the Attica Psychiatric Hospital, better known as “Daphni”. We visit them in two periods, seven years apart. Principal characteristic of these people is their struggle to survive in the psychiatric facility, through “personal expression”. The relationship between mental disorder and creativity is still an open question. Inside asylums the products of the more or the less creative moments of madness, made in secret, are destroyed immediately, either by the patients themselves or by the personnel. Those that survive remain forgotten in the deep institutional silence. Just as the inmates themselves remain forgotten, immobilized, neutralized, hermetically imprisoned, not only in the asylum but also in the enigma of their insanity.
Bio: Since 1980 Yannis Kaspiris has been directing and producing features for Greek and international television channels. He founded the production company “Illusion Yannis Kaspiris”. He had the production of the documentary The Network (2005) that was broadcasted in Europe and the US.
A noisy silent movie
Alexandros Papaeliou | 2007 | Hellas | 16 mins
Synopsis: This is a film of a play entitled "Making a Film", written by pupils of the High School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, in Aghia Paraskevi. The play was successfully performed by them and their teachers at the Panhellenic Art Festival for Schoolchildren. A director is waiting for his actors on set, and when they finally arrive shooting begins. Nervous, slow, fast, sad, happy shots, until the best result is achieved. Making a film is tiring and never-ending. In the end, the cameraman was bored and fell asleep. The best shot was lost ... but the joy of participating in the creative process is the true gain.
Born in Athens. He studied Economics and Film Studies. He has worked in montage, film direction and film production. He is a member of the Greek Filmmakers’ Guild Board since 2000. He publishes, along with other filmmakers, the cinema and arts magazine “Null Behaviour”.
Performance
Nikos Alevras |Hellas | 2004 | 20 mins
Synopsis: Once upon a time, near a big city called Athens, there was a suburb called Nea Penteli. At Christmastime it would always snow there, near a beautiful house called Margarita (daisy). And then, suddenly, the sun came out and melted the snow, and Margarita blossomed and produced little buds. Lots of children gathered there, and they talked and ate and drank and played and worked and laughed and fell in love, and every day there was endless joy. And then, one morning, they decided together with their teacher to put on a show. They chose the traditional Japanese fairytale “The Girl with the Basket on her Head”.
Bio: He studied at the Lycourgos Stavrakos Film Schoοl. He had an important role in Theo Angelopoulos’ first feature Reconstruction. In 1975 he started producing for Greek television. In 1977 the public prosecutors banned his film A Hail of Bullets. Nikos Alevras is a pseudonym for a man who chose to live a bucolic life, and distanced himself from the field of contemporary arts, where the only purpose is profit.
Awards - Recognition: Eco Cinema 2004.
Christini, a princess
Iris Zahmanidi |Hellas |2007 | 79 mins
Synopsis: Christini’s life is being turned into a movie. Christini is a 31-year-old, Down syndrome girl who spends each day at a training and occupational centre for persons with mental disabilities. She cares about clothes, about make-up, she flirts, she wants to be liked; love occupies a central place in her life. However, her particular involvement with theatre and, most importantly, her part in the play Bella Venezia, written by Yorgos Dialegmenos and directed by Lefteris Voyatzis, take her to the epicentre of the debate about the incorporation of people with mental disabilities in mainstream life.Can persons with mental disabilities collaborate with so-called normal individuals? What have the latter to gain from such collaboration? Can people with mental disabilities benefit from mixed education? Can persons with mental disabilities start their own families? These are some of the questions this movie addresses, to get the response of those involved with the issue, as well as of persons with mental disabilities themselves, whom we get to know as the movie evolves and they make their personal statements. 
Bio: Iris Zahmanidi studied Film-directing in Greece and Political Sciences and Marketing in the US. Her working experience includes the fields of cinema, television and culture. Besides being a director she works for the Hellenic Culture Organization.
Stelios
Costas Cacoyannis and Pambos Kouzalis | Cyprus | 2006 | 26 mins
Synopsis: A lesson in willpower and life from the composer Stelios Pissis. Paralyzed in his bed for years, due to muscular dystrophy, Stelios can only move the fingers of his left hand. With the aid of modern technology he composes and orchestrates. In this documentary, Stelios speaks about his illness and the deeper meaning of life. Also featured are his mother Aglaia and his collaborator, the singer Maria-Elena.
Bios: Costas Cacoyannis is an awarded composer and musical director. He has composed the music for many ballet, theatrical, television and cinema productions. His music has been performed in major theaters and music halls around the world.
Pambos Kouzalis studied Archaeology and History of Art at the Athens University. Since 1998 he teaches Greek literature in public schools. He writes poems, lyrics and film scripts.
Costas Cacoyannis and Pambos Kouzalis founded the cultural center Parakentro and directed a series of music videos, documentary films and video poetry.
Awards - Recognition: 4th Short movies and documentaries Film Festival 2007 Cyprus (Music Award).
Chip & Ovi
Panagiotis Evangelidis |Hellas | 2007 | 46 mins
Synopsis: Chip & Ovi met in an orphanage near the city of Kluj-Napoca in Romania, during their teenage years. They are disabled, Ovi was born with disabilities in his arms and Chip has a severely damaged leg from polio. Their mothers abandoned them shortly after they were born, and they have lived their formative years in state orphanages. They have been a couple for the past year and a half, and they are trying to cope with life, overcome their disabilities and poverty, as well as the problems in their relationship. They dream of having a good life, Chip wants to be an oilman in Texas and Ovi a professional cameraman. I shot the film on my own during ten days on location in Kluj-Napoca, without a professional production team or any financial or technical assistance, with only the help of Chip and Ovi.
Bio: Panayotis Evangelidis was born and lives in Athens. He is an author and translator of fiction. He has written screenplays and published three novels. The documentary "Chip and Ovi" is his first film.
World Premier
MasterPiece – Part Ι
Stefanos Mondelos |Hellas | 2007 | 25 mins
Synopsis: Stelios Payas is the “Masterpiece”, not only because of the interest he attracts through his zest for life, although he is quadriplegic, but also for the opportunity he offers us to re-examine the commonly accepted canons of aesthetics. Given that disability does not seem, by definition, to conform to these, Stelios challenges us to discover new aesthetic concepts, so that disability and beauty are not mutually exclusive.
Bio: Stefanos Mondelos has worked as actor, assistant director in theatre performances and as music producer for radio stations. He has directed a short film and a documentary about the health and safety of workers in building constructions using reinforced steel (You won’t learn unless it happens to you…?).