Apostolos Karakasis

National Garden

A filmmaker spends a year in the national garden of Athens, Greece and discovers the secret life of this place, by following several characters who seek refuge in its serene setting.

Venizelos: The Struggle for Asia Minor

Eleftherios Venizelos, one of Greece’s greatest statesmen, faces challenges that test his diplomatic and humanitarian skills during the critical decade from the Balkan Wars and World War I, up to the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. His struggle is told through dramatized scenes, rare archival material, and expert interviews.

1821 at the Cinema

In 1821, in Cinema, he records the cinematic representations of the Revolution from the first decades of the 20th century. until the present day. Despite the fact that the Revolution of 1821 constitutes the founding act of the modern Greek state, as a subject matter it is underrepresented in national film production. This is one of the points on which the research looks, which simultaneously examines the periods of concentration of films on the subject of the Revolution or, respectively, the periods of its collective silence. The purpose of the documentary is to study the ideological discourse and the cinematic language of the films with the theme of 1821, in order to highlight the function of the cinema as a carrier of Public History and as a factor in shaping the collective historical consciousness.

Living and Learning: Springtime at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

The current crisis facing the Greek tertiary educational system is examined in this documentary which goes into the university and looks at the issues from the varied and sometimes conflicting perspectives of those involved. It’s spring 2006 and the university corridors are bristling with political activity. Students are getting ready for elections, professors are also voting for deans, while a group of engineering students is totally engrossed in preparing for an international competition and doesn’t seem to notice any of this. They all want a better public university system, but how can they achieve it? We witness a crisis in the making. When students decide to occupy the university, it turns into a standoff between the government, professors and students. Finally, as Professor Vokos observes, “perhaps we’re afraid of facing reality.”

Jiyan's Story

The fascinating story of Jiyan, a female guerrilla fighter who devoted twenty years of her life in the Kurdish militant struggle, reveals women’s determination for freedom not only against another oppressive regime, but also against the patriarchy. Jiyan Tolhildan is a young Kurdish woman living in the Kurdish region of Syria. After years of oppression by her family, her teachers and the society as a whole, Jiyan decides to go to the mountains to join the Kurdish struggle for freedom. When the Arab Spring breaks out Jiyan and her friends decide to go into the cities in Syria to join the protests. They also set out to educate Syrian women on women’s rights in the Rojava region. Now, six years after the Arab Spring, Kurdish forces have a semi-autonomous region in Syria. For the first time in history, women have an autonomous political organisation and an army in Syria. The women named creating this organisation “the women’s revolution.”

Next Stop: Utopia

When the Greek factory of VIO.ME. closes down, a group of workers decides to take radical action. They occupy the factory and attempt to operate it themselves, based on the principles of direct democracy. Their venture inspires activists all around the world, while the ex-owner is astonished to see the family business turn into a symbol for the up-and-coming radical left. For the workers, striving to make ends meet, selfmanagement turns out to be an unprecedented adventure, full of conflicts. They soon realise that in order to succeed, the first thing they have to change is themselves...