Olympic Flame: Goodbye Greece, Hello Vancouver

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean’s official visit to Athens has coincided with the lighting of the Olympic Flame, that was passed on yesterday to the organizers of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, in Vancouver.

The Canadian city is becoming the flame’s keeper, after the final run on Greek soil by Greek-Canadian figure skater Niki Georgiadou.  President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias received the Canadian Governor General Michaelle Jean at the Presidential Mansion in Athens, on October 29.  In his welcoming speech, President Papoulias pointed out that Haiti, the country of origin of the Governor General of Canada, supported the Greek War of Independence against the Ottomans in 1821.  He also underlined that “Canada embraced Greek immigrants,” and referred to the humanitarian aid Greece received from Canada, during WWII.  Olympic Movement: The lighting ceremony in Olympia & Greek News Agenda: Ancient Olympia in the Spotlight

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Costa-Gavras Lends Touch of Magic to Immigrant Tale

(www.minpress.gr / Reuters, 06.03.09) “Eden Is West”  Costa Gavras’ new film premiered as a noncompeting selection of the recent Berlin International Film Festival, showing a magical approach to Europe’s big immigration problem. Elias, the main character played by Riccardo Scamarcio, is an immigrant who arrives to a European shore and tries to go to Paris, his perceived paradise. On his ways he faces exploitation by the middle class but finds poor people lending him a helping hand.  The film has strong imagery and Costa-Gavras and co-scripter Jean-Claude Grumberg have tried to give to their hero an essence of the wandering Ulysses.   Costa Gavras has, in the past, been the winner of the foreign-language Oscar for his film “Z”, of Cannes Palme d’Or for the film “Missing” and of Berlin Golden Bear for the film “Music Box”. Read more…

49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   Faithful to its annual rendezvous with cinephiles, the 49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Greece’s grandest and most prestigious film event opens its doors on November the 14, 2008, bringing about the transformation of the city of Thessaloniki to a youthful hive of life and creative association. Multi-awarded Belgian auteurs Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, heretical Japanese actor and director Takeshi Kitano, unconventional English director Terence Davies, internationally renowned and two-time Academy Award winner Argentinean composer Gustavo Santaolalla and Brazilian director Walter Salles are only a few of the big names of modern cinema that are expected to honour this year’s festival with their presence. The event features the International Competition, the Greek Cinema section, the Independence Days programme, the Balkan Survey, and numerous retrospectives and tributes to leading figures in the world of film.  The International Competition Section caters to first or second features by new and emerging filmmakers. Feature films will vie for the two main awards: the Golden and the Silver Alexander. The festival’s Jury includes the writer Michael Ondaatje as president, Director Yesim Ustaoğlu, FilmCritic and Historian David Robinson, and Screenwriter Diablo Cody as members. At the same time various events, such as art exhibitions and concerts, and industry initiatives (special Masterclasses, a Script Development Fund for South-Eastern Europe, the Crossroads Co-Production Forum, and the Salonica Studio student workshops) have turned the Thessaloniki TIFF into a major event on the European film festival circuit. Thessaloniki International Film Festival: www.filmfestival.gr; 49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival: Screenings Schedule

October 28, Greece commemorates its Entry into World War II

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)    The Athens Municipality’s Melina Mercouri Cultural Centre (in Greek) is hosting an exhibition tribute to the Greek resistance at the Albanian front (winter of 1940-41) during WWII. Having fought at the war front, painter and draughtsman Alexandros Alexandrakis (1913-1968) found time to document the harsh life of soldiers up on the Pindos mountains.
The exhibition comprising 149 works will run until November 16. Melina Mercouri Foundation: www.melinamercourifoundation.org.gr
                                                                 Tributes to WWII
On October 28, Greece commemorates its entry into World War II. On that day in 1940, Italy invaded Greece through Albania. Several exhibitions pay tribute to the Greek resistance, such as the one of the Tribute to the Greek Resistance, 1940-1944 that is on display until November 30 at the Memorial Leclerc – Museum Jean Moulin in Paris. Foundation of the Hellenic World: Greece and the Second World War (1940-1945)

A Tribute to the Greek Resistance at WWII

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  The exhibition “Tribute to the Greek Resistance, 1940-1944” will be presented in Memorial Leclerc – Museum Jean Moulin in Paris from October 1 to November 5, 2008. The exhibition is organised by the Hellenic Foundation for Culture and the National Gallery of Athens – Museum Alexandros Soutzos in the framework of the French presidency of the European Union. The event is under the aegis of the Greek Embassy in Paris. These works of art are to be presented to the French public for the very first time. These works of art were assembled after Milliex couple’s initiative: in 1945, Roger Milliex (1913-2006), scholar, writer and former director of the French Institute in Athens and his spouse, writer Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex (1920-2005) had asked French intellectuals and artists for an honourary donation to the Greek people and their heroic resistance during World War II, 1940-1944.   Foundation of the Hellenic World: Greece and the Second World War (1940-1945)