Greek Cinema - Hellenic University Club of Southern California

lish version the narrator was Aldus Huxley.
The music was written by Howard Broubek.
The director Angelos Prokopiou presented
the historical work about the Byzantine Art
of mosaics in 11th Century that still exist in
one old Church in the area of Daphne.
According to Alida Demetriou 6 in 1953
Roussos Koundouros established the Institute
of Educational and Scientific Cinema. He
made several scientific documentaries most
of which have as their subject medicine, and
the rest of them deal with everyday activities
and tourism in different places. Roussos
Koundouros made a total of forty-five documentaries
during the period of 1953 to 1965.
Nineteen of them dealt with surgery. In the
year 195, three short documentaries were
produced. Two by Roussos Koundouros on
the subject of surgery, and Kerkira (Corfu)
produced by “E.K.T.” directed by Yannis Panayiotopoulods
who made a total of fourteen
short movies from 1953 to 1967. The following
year, 1954, three short documentaries
were produced again. Two of them were
Tragodia Ton Nision Mas (The Tragedy of
Our Islands) and Thessaly. The first one
dealt with the earthquake of Cephalonia and
the big fire on the Kerkira (Corfu). Thessaly
was a historical documentary of that area.
Both were produced and directed by the newcomer
Nikos Koundouros who a year later,
1955, will make his successful debut as a director
in the feature movie Magiki Polis
(The Magic City).
During the five-year period (1955 -1959),
the production of short documentaries was
uneven, with only one short documentary
produced in 1955, six in 1956, eight in 1957,
and sixteen in 1958. Then it decreased again
to eight in 1959. It was not until 1957 that the
short documentary Rock and Roll (Under
the Title: Athens Dances Rock and Roll),
was produced by a new-comer Klearhos
Konitsiotis.The director and cameraman was
Vasilis Maros who gives the picture of the
social and political aspects that this kind of
12
music represents. The same year, 1957 Vasilis
Maros came out with his own short movie
Kato AP Tous Ouranoxistes (Under the
Skyscrapers). During 1957 to 1991, Vasilis
Maros made a total of 19 short movies. According
to Aglae Metropoulou (p. 426), Loen
Loisios directed his first short documentary
Psarades Ke Psaremata (Fishermen and
Fishing). There is no record that this documentary
was released that year. It participated
in the Thessaloniki film festival in 1961. In
1957, out of eight short documentaries that
were produced, one of them was Hydra by
Diana-Film Company, and a certain “scientific”
short movie by the amateur Christos
Stathatos and Roussos Koundouros. These
two film-makers received the first prize in
the First International Festival of Amateur
Film makers.
The following year, 1958, the production
doubled to 16 short movies and documentaries.
The first one was Sparta and Mystras,
produced by Elias Pergadis and directed
by Errikos Thalassinos. The second one was
the short documentary Lefkas to Nisi Ton
Pieton (Lefkas the Island of Poets), produced
by the Greek Tourist Organization and it was
directed by Roviros Manthoulis, while director
of photography and cameraman was Fotis
Mesthenios. It commemorates the mythology
and the poetic tradition of Lefkas where two
great poets, Aristotelis Valaoritis and Angelos
Sikelianos, were born. The third one was
Kos to Nisi Tou Ippokrati (Kos the Island
of Hippocrates, produced by Prodromos
Meravidis and directed by Takis Meletopoulos.
The fourth one was Myconos, produced
by Klearhos Konitsiotis and directed by
Roussos Koundouros. The following year,
1959, we notice a decrease with only 8 short
movies produced. The “Olympic Film Company”
with Elias Pergadis as a producer came
out with a noteworthy short movie O Mikros
Drapetis (The Young Fugitive). The newcomer
director Giorgos Dizikirikis, with
Petros Michalelis wrote the script. In this