Greek Cinema - Hellenic University Club of Southern California

lic Award” for the worst movie was also
handed out. The winner of this award for the
worse short movie was to Nikitas Silselis for
his short movie Mi.
The year 1974 marks the production of
several feature documentaries with political
subjects. Before 1974, there were some short
documentaries which lightly touched on political
subjects. After the fall of the Junta in
1974, some liberal directors took the opportunity
to express their point of view and their
political condemnation of dictatorships.
The year 1975 saw the production of seventy-three
short documentaries and short
movies. In addition, the number of feature
documentaries produced that year increased
to eight, with six of them participating in
Thessaloniki film festival. The feature documentaries
selected by the festival's committee
were, O Neos Parthenonas (The New Parthenon);
produced by Giorgos Papalios and
the group of four: Kostas Chronopoulos,
Giorgos Chrisovitsanos, Spiros Zahos, and
Thanasis Skroubelos. The directors were
Kostas Chronopoulos and Giorgos
Chrisovitsanos. The scriptwriter was Spiros
Zahos, the director of photography and cameraman
was Thanasis Skroubelos, while the
music was written by composer Loukianos
Kilaidonis. The theme of their movie was
based on the period during the dictatorship of
Yannis Metaxas in the decade of 30' and 40's.
It included testimonies of ex-political prisoners
after the Civil War ended (1946-1949)
and the life in the concentration camps of
Macronisos and Giaros. The movie is presenting
the leftist point of view as a victim.
Since it does not show all the facts and
events in details from both sides left and
write wings of their political spectrum that
way the viewer can decide on his own what
went wrong and what was right.
The second feature documentary with a
political theme again was O Agonas (The
Strife); Producers, directors, scriptwriters,
directors of photography, and editors were
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the group of six: Demetris Yannikopoulos,
Elias Zaferopoulos, Giorgos Thanasoulos,
Theodoros Maragkos, Fevos Ekonomidis and
Kostas Papanikolaou, while the music was
written by Fivos Ekonomidis. Their theme
was the struggle against junta during the last
two years before its fall in July 1974 when
the Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis
took over. Though the whole movie was
made up of several pieces filmed separately,
with everyone of those six people every one
filming on his own way some political events
during the Junta period, a good editing mostly
by Theodoros Maragkos made a movie
with good continuity.
The third one was Mani with Sakis
Maniatis as producer, director, scriptwriter,
director of photography, and editor. It is a
different documentary from the one that a
few years earlier in 1972 Ermis Velopoulos
had made a short documentary for the area of
Mani under the same title. This time the director
Sakis Maniatis goes deeper with his
personal analysis of the political and social
problems in Mani by skillfully uncovering
the facts and the truth of the economical and
political problems of the area.
The next feature documentary was O Karaghiozis
(The Main Character of Greek
Shadow Theater); with newcomer Lena
(Eleni) Voudouri as a director and scriptwriter.
She presented the historical development
of this entertainment form from 1821 to
1975. The emphasis was on the development
of the main characters involved, especially
“Karaghiozis” who became the means
through which the different aspects of Greek
society (with the notable exception of the
Church) came to be satirized and often ridiculed.
One more feature documentary with political
theme was Martiries (Testimonies),
produced by Nikos Kavoukidis and Kostas
Pitsios. The director, scriptwriter, and director
of photography were Nikos Kavoukidis.