Greek Cinema - Hellenic University Club of Southern California

lization), To Perivoli Tou Laou Mas (The
Garden of Our People), and Paradosi ki Zoe
(Tradition and Life). He became a “Great
Teacher” for the customs, culture, literature,
art, traditions and folklore. Nestor P. Matsas
gives the messages with his documentaries to
the whole world. The actor Demetris Myrat
had ones stated that “... through the work of
Nestor P. Matsas, Greece existed, exists, and
will exist.” Nestor P. Matsas with his artistic
way in his short movies and documentaries
has become also the poet of the Greek Nation
and his work has been understood by all.
Nestor P. Matsas is a well known author,
scriptwriter and very skilful motion pictures
director. His work in documentaries is forty
years of research for people, their roots,
strife’s, civilizations, and science.
The year 1960 marks the appearance of
the new director Takis Kanelopoulos with a
successful short documentary Makedonikos
Gamos (Macedonian Wedding) with Vasilea
Drakaki as a producer. Takis Kanelopoulos
handled his subject in an excellent manner
from a directorial point of view. The Greek
heritage of traditions, customs, dancing, authentic
costumes, and all the others elements
combine were with Greek coloring, beauty,
harmony poetic realism and unique truthful
style. The wedding is the most imported
event in the village and all its people participate
in keeping the traditions of life over the
centuries. This presentation was very successfully
carried through by Takis Kanelopoulos
who won the “First Prize Award” in
the Thessaloniki’s first Film Festival in 1960.
He and his movie were the most significant
events of the film industry for that year.
The director Roussos Koundouros in
1960 came out with three successful short
movies. One was Diethnis Ekthesis Thessalonikis
(International Thessaloniki Trade
Fair). It has to do with Thessaloniki’s Trade
Fair activities. The second one was Edo
Athena (Here Is Athens), and the third one
was Anastenaria (Fire Walkers). Its plot is
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based on the semi-religious custom that people
can walk barefoot on hot fires after praying
and while holding the icon of Saint Constantine
and Helen.
One more short documentary of note is
Lesviaka Themata (Issues of Lesbos) directed
by Leodis (Leon) Loisios. Leodis Loisios
and cameraman Fotis Mesthenios
touched very close the problems and expressions
of the people of island Lesbos. Like any
other island, it has its problems but it also has
unique traditions and interesting people full
of life. The hard work of picking olives, the
celebration in the island's fairs with dancing,
singing and drinking was the subject of the
film.
During 1961, a total of twenty-seven
documentaries and short movies were produced.
Out of those, fifteen applied for participation
in the festival and only three were
accepted. Included in the above were released
by “Spectra Film Company” the following
three documentaries: Psarades Ke Psaremata
(Fishermen and Fishing), Zoe Stin Mitilini
(Life in Mitilini), and Lesbos. They were
all directed by Leon Loisios. The first one
was with scriptwriters Kostas Kehaedis and
Giorgos Bakoyiannopoulos from a story by
Kostas Ananiadis. Although it was produced
in 1957 it participated in the Thessaloniki
Film Festival in 1961. The director of photography
and cameramen was Fotis Mesthenios
while the narrator was the actor Stavros
Tornes. The first two documentaries presented
authentically every day life of hard working
fishermen of the island of Lesbos, the
enjoyment of the island's fairs with plenty of
singing and dancing giving a folklore picture
with its artistic quality. Zoe Stin Mitilini
participated at the Moscow Film Festival.
The first two films were also presented at the
National Festival of Ethnographic and Sociological
Cinema, in Athens, 1961. The short
documentary Lesbos is totally a tourist
presentation of the island itself.