I Am One Greece #onegreece

Lanthimos in Top-20 directors to watch for NYTimes

Lanthimos in Top-20 directors to watch for NYTimes

20 Directors to Watch

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/09/05/movies/movies-20-young-directors.html?_r=0

This is a list of 20 filmmakers to watch. Other than their relative youth — one turned 40 a few months ago, and several more will join him soon — they share little besides passion and promise. But bringing them together, and shining a light on their accomplishments and their potential, seems especially urgent as another new season of serious moviegoing gets under way. Here’s why: We are living in a time of cinematic bounty. In multiplexes and beyond, movie lovers have a greater, more dizzying variety of choices — and of screens, large and small — than at any time in history.

Yorgos Lanthimos

A group of four people — a cult, a start-up company or something else entirely — provides grieving families with the peculiar but surprisingly popular service of impersonating dead loved ones. A mother and father live with their adult children, who they have raised in isolation from society and educated in a belief system built around bizarre superstitions and an esoteric vocabulary. These are the premises of “Alps” and “Dogtooth,” the most recent features by the Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos. The world of his films is very strange but also uncannily recognizable. It is not a place of fantasy or allegory but a zone of possibility protruding at an odd angle from what we might understand as reality. He does not explain his surreal conceits but rather presents them with naturalistic rigor, as if he were shooting documentaries of his own dreams. Or perhaps of a culture’s nightmares.

While the political and economic unraveling of his homeland do not figure directly in “Alps” or “Dogtooth,” Mr. Lanthimos is part of a generation of Greek filmmakers who have come into their own in a period of profound and terrifying crisis. And the feeling of malaise, of living in a condition of hollowed-out meanings and foreclosed possibilities, haunts his characters, in particular the young ones. The adult children in “Dogtooth” inhabit a doomed wonderland, while the ghoulish entrepreneurs of “Alps” fall prey to the emotional chaos their project is designed to hold at bay.

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Official web page: http://www.lanthimos.com    

70th Venice Film Festival poster pays tribute to Angelopoulos and Fellini

70^th Venice Film Festival poster pays tribute to Angelopoulos and Fellini

The cinema of Theo Angelopoulos and of Federico Fellini is celebrated in the image chosen for the new official poster of the 70th Venice International Film Festival.

Source: http://www.screendaily.com/home/blogs/venice-70th-poster-pays-angelopoulos-fellini-tributes/5058067.article

The festival, directed by Alberto Barbera and organized by the Biennale di Venezia, chaired by Paolo Baratta, will be held at the Lido from August 28 to September 7, 2013.

Created by Simone Massi - the animator, director and illustrator of the festival’s opening sequence - the image recalls a frame from the film by Theo Angelopoulos, Eternity and a Day (1998), starring Bruno Ganz. A man seen from behind waves his arms at a boat which, in the distance, is carrying a child and a rhinoceros.

A tongue-in-cheek reference to last year’s poster (which was inspired by Federico Fellini’s 1983 film, And the Ship Sails On), the poster “marks both continuity and a break with the past. It also invites viewers to look beyond, to roam using their imagination.”

The coordinated visual identity and image of the Venice Film Festival has again been handed to Milan’s Studio Graph.X, based on the drawings by Simone Massi.

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Official web page: http://www.labiennale.org   

Greek triumph in backstroke at 4th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships

Greek triumph in backstroke at 4^th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships

4th FINA World Junior Swimming Championships 2013, Dubai

Source: http://www.fina.org/H2O/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4143:swimming-world-juniors-day-2-great-day-for-russia-8-medals-3-of-them-gold&catid=213:world-junior-swimming-championships&Itemid=773  

Apostolos Christou (GRE) swept through the pool with a fine sub-55sec effort in the men’s 100m back, ensuring a great start of the second day’s afternoon session. The Greek’s win was never in doubt, he clocked a new Championship Record. The battle for the silver was a tight one, Danas Rapsys (LTU) had the better touch-in ahead of Grigory Tarasevich (RUS), by 0.09sec.

«The Night Patrols»: Larry Gus new video

«The Night Patrols»: Larry Gus new video

Hear now: L.A. producer Madlib feted by Larry Gus on new mixtape

Source: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-madlib-larry-gus-mixtape-20130719,0,347016.story

Sometimes it can take a Greek to remind Angelenos — and the rest of the world — of talent living in our own vicinity. Specifically, producer Larry Gus, whose recent work for DFA has been on repeat for nearly the entire year, has collected into one essential mix the fantastic creative output of beat producer Madlib.

For those unfamiliar, the artist born Otis Jackson Jr. (but also known as Quasimoto, Beat Konducta and Joe McDuphrey, among dozens of other names) has over nearly 20 years produced countless deep, abstract jazz and soul-inspired grooves.

Artists including Mos Def, Erykah Badu, MF Doom, Ghostface Killa, Joey Bada$$ and dozens more have harnessed Madlib's beats for their rhymes, and Gus examines some of the best in a selection that blends foundational sample material with Madlib’s repurposing to craft what amounts to a sonic docudrama of a master musician.

Design Awards 2013 for Athens pastry shop from Travel & Leisure / Διεθνές Βραβείο design για τον Στέλιο Παρλιάρο από το “Travel and Leisure”

Design Awards 2013 for Athens pastry shop from Travel & Leisure

Source: http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/tl-design-awards/8

Best Retail Space – “Sweet Alchemy” by Stelios Parliaros, Athens

Designed by Stelios Kois for Kois Associated Architects

A confectionery and pastry shop in Athens, Sweet Alchemy creates an atmosphere of mystery around its many delicacies, presenting them in glass-topped cases in a space that feels a bit like a sorcerer’s workshop. Jars, bottles, bins, and trays of candy, jam, chocolate, and pastry fill the rooms, which are lit dramatically from above; abundant sunlight is refracted through a dense grid of tall metal shelves, highlighting the shop’s many unfinished-wood and concrete surfaces and the very refined sweets on display.

To see more click here

Official web page: www.parliaros.gr

 
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Ikaria - Live long and prosper / Ικαρία: Αφιέρωμα των Financial Times στο νησί της μακροζωίας

Ikaria - Live long and prosper

Scientists are trying to understand why residents of the laid-back Greek island of Ikaria enjoy such longevity

Source: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/d3986dfa-d7fb-11e2-b4a4-00144feab7de.html#axzz2X9vQ5Xyx

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Ικαρία: Αφιέρωμα των Financial Times στο νησί της μακροζωίας

Source: http://www.protothema.gr/travelling/article/288826/ikaria-afieroma-ton-financial-times-sto-nisi-tis-makrozoias/

Στο προσκήνιο και πάλι το μυστήριο που ακολουθεί τους ντόπιους και το χρόνο που τους έχει ξεχάσει. Μετά τους New York Times ήρθε η σειρά των Financial Times να αναφερθούν εκτενώς στην Ικαρία, τις ομορφιές της, αλλά και τα μυστήρια που κρύβει το νησί. Ο συντάκτης Chris Moss επισκέφτηκε το νησί και μετέφερε στους αναγνώστες της εφημερίδας την σπάνια εμπειρία του μέσω ενός οδοιπορικού, συστήνοντας το ανεπιφύλακτα για διακοπές.

Όπως και τόσοι άλλοι ο Moss εντυπωσιάστηκε από την ηρεμία, την απουσία άγχους, τη χαρά και τη γιορτή της ζωής που ξεχειλίζουν στην Ικαρία. Δε μπορούσε φυσικά να μην αναφερθεί στο κύριο χαρακτηριστικό που είναι η μακροζωία των ντόπιων: «Ένας Ικαριώτης είναι 2,5 φορές πιο πιθανό να φτάσει τα 90 χρόνια απ' ότι ένας Αμερικανός, ενώ κατά μέσο όρο οι κάτοικοι ζουν 10 χρόνια περισσότερο απ' οποιονδήποτε Ευρωπαίο», τονίζει εντυπωσιασμένος.

Αναφέρεται μάλιστα και σε μια έρευνα που έχει ξεκινήσει εδώ και 4 χρόνια μια ομάδα από την ιατρική σχολή Αθηνών, που πήγε στο νησί, πήρε αίμα από τους κατοίκους και μελέτησε εκτενώς την καθημερινότητά τους, με στόχο να βρουν την άκρη σχετικά με τη φήμη που ακολουθεί τους κατοίκους.

«Η μαγεία μπορεί να είναι κρυμμένη στα γονίδια τους, αλλά από την άλλη μπορεί να είναι κάτι σε ότι τρώνε, σε ότι πίνουν ή κάτι στον αέρα, το οποίο μπορεί να επηρεάσει και τους τουρίστες» γράφει ο Moss, αναζητώντας και αυτός την απάντηση στο μυστικό της μακροζωίας.

WINES OF THE TIMES - As Greek as the Sea / Το ελληνικό κρασί κατακτά την αγορά των ΗΠΑ

WINES OF THE TIMES - As Greek as the Sea

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/29/dining/reviews/white-wines-as-greek-as-the-sea.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0  

The white wine grapes of Greece — with names like moschofilero, roditis and assyrtiko — sound a bit scary, like alien beings. But I think of them as the constituents of a parallel universe in which crowds of people embrace these wonderfully refreshing, intriguing whites, rather than default to generic summer white wines like pinot grigio. I imagine this for the assyrtiko, especially.

Not that I have anything against pinot grigio. From some of the thorough, painstaking producers in Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, pinot grigio can be a delight. But much of it is mundane. Why should anybody who cares about what they eat and drink settle for familiar and icy rather than something full of character?

The wine industry has no problem with that sort of unconscious drinking. It feeds sales and increases profits. Hence it promotes the notion of “starter wines,” mediocre bottles that help ease newcomers past the shock of transition until they are ready to try the better stuff. Nonsense. The idea is merely a rationalization for selling millions of bottles of mass-market junk wines.

Skip the insipid wines. Go right to good bottles. Discriminate.

End of rant. The good news is, the parallel universe of provocative Greek wines, made primarily from this trio of little-known grapes, is very much an available reality, offering a wonderful trove of wines that can be stimulating, even riveting, and rarely boring. A recent wine panel tasting of Greek whites from the 2011 and 2012 vintages affirmed the quality and value of these wines. For the tasting, Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Laura Maniec, proprietor of Corkbuzz Wine Studio in Greenwich Village, and Levi Dalton, a sommelier and host of the “I’ll Drink to That” series of podcasts.

Tasting Report

 The panel tasted white wines from Greece

1.Argyros Santorini

2.Domaine Sigalas

3.Gaia

4.Costa Lazaridi

5.Semeli

6.Kitma Pavlidis

7.Gaia

8.Domaine Sigalas

9.Argyros

10.Kir-Yianni

Olympiacos repeats as Euroleague champion! - Πρωταθλητής Ευρώπης ο Ολυμπιακός

Olympiacos repeats as Euroleague champion!

Source: http://www.euroleague.net/final-four/london-2013/main-page

For the second year in a row, Olympiacos Piraeus roared back from a double-digit deficit to become the Turkish Airlines Euroleague champion. The Reds bested Real Madrid 100-88 at The O2 in London after trailing by 17 at the end of the opening quarter and in doing so became just the fourth team to win back-to-back Euroleague titles in the Final Four era. In something that has become characteristic of the Reds, they got tremendous contributions from their second unit, led by Kyle Hines and Pero Antic, to climb back. Then Euroleague MVP Vassilis Spanoulis heated up in the third quarter and Olympiacos dominated the final 10 minutes as thousands of red-clad fans sang and clapped the night away. Euroleague MVP Vassilis Spanoulis led the charge with 21 points – all in the second half! – as six Olympiacos players scored in double figures. Acie Law collected 20 points and dished 5 assists, Hines added 12 points, Kostas Sloukas 11 and Stratos Perperoglou and Antic scored 10 apiece. The title is the third continental crown in Olympiacos’s illustrious history. Before beating CSKA Moscow last season in Istanbul, it defeated FC Barcelona in the 1997 title game in Rome. Rudy Fernandez led Madrid with 21 points, Sergio Rodriguez scored 17 and Sergio Llull finished with 14. Madrid lost its first final since it defeated the Reds in the 1995 Euroleague final in Zaragoza, Spain, but remains European basketball’s winningest team with eight Euroleague titles.

Toronto Film Festival Heads To Athens For Fifth City-To-City Program / Η Αθήνα τιμώμενη πόλη στο Φεστιβάλ Κινηματογράφου του Τορόντο

Toronto Film Festival Heads To Athens For Fifth City-To-City Program

Source: http://www.indiewire.com/article/toronto-film-festival-heads-to-athens-for-fifth-city-to-city-program   

The Toronto International Film Festival is going to Athens this year in the fifth edition of the festival's City to City program.

Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Festival, and Dimitri Eipides, International Programmer for the Festival, announced today that the Greek city will be the focus of the 2013 program.

“City to City looks for cinematic hot spots around the world," said Bailey. “We want to introduce our audience to new generations of filmmakers unafraid to rewrite the rules. When we started thinking about the startlingly original films emerging recently from this ancient and contemporary city, the perfect choice for us this year was Athens."

“After a long period of hibernation, Greek cinema has finally found its way back to the forefront. A number of young filmmakers — most of them fresh out of film school or, at best, with a couple of shorts to their name — turned things around. Where others saw devastation, they saw inspiration,” said Eipides. “Working with minimal means, often exchanging services on each other’s productions, they churned out films which gained attention around the world. Hopefully this new wave of international exposure will give Greek cinema the confidence to communicate its message from a position where national boundaries will no longer matter.”

The City to City series "showcases filmmakers living and working in a selected city, regardless of where their films are set." Cities featured in past programmes include Tel Aviv, Istanbul, Buenos Aires and Mumbai.

The announcement of the City to City lineup will be made in July.  The 38th Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5 to 15, 2013.

Satire and laughs at World Press Cartoon / Έλληνας ο νικητής στον Παγκόσμιο Διαγωνισμό Γελοιογραφίας

Satire and laughs at World Press Cartoon

Source: http://www.euronews.com/2013/04/19/satire-and-laughs-at-world-press-cartoon/

The World Press Cartoon 2013 carries the scars of the financial crisis – not in quality but in the themes chosen.

Sponsorship was also hit by the crisis this year with some companies abandoning the annual event in Sintra in Portugal. So it wasn’t surprising that the Grand Prix, the first prize, in the editorial category went to a crisis-themed cartoon by Greek artist Kountouris.

He said: “I dedicate it to the victims of the crisis and I wish that very soon we can have the Europe we all want, the Europe which cares about the people and not the banks.”

More than 500 press cartoons published in 63 countries were shown in Sintra.

The forum has been running for nine years. Portugal will hold municipal elections in the autumn. The current mayor of Sintra have said they will not stand again, but both he and the director of the cartoon forum are reluctant to contemplate the end of the World Press Cartoon forum.

Mayor Fernando Seara said: “I will continue to come to Sintra to visit future World Press Cartoons. I think they’ll be a good bet with more and more participants and a growing global interest.” Director Antonio Antunes added: “I think that World Press Cartoon is going to become a really strong event that is not over. The next mayor of Sintra will also want to continue with World Press Cartoon. At the least I would be moderately optimistic.”

Prizes are given in three categories – editorial, humorous drawing and caricature. The humour this year came from Iranian artist Saeed Sedeghi, who explained the premise: “It is a satire about civil law in which it says – compared to some individuals who do not observe the law – some animals seem to be more law-abiding.”

The Greek cartoonist who conquered NASA / Η σκιτσογράφος που κατέκτησε τη NASA

The Greek cartoonist who conquered NASA

2012 Humans in Space Youth Art Competition Awardees Lists

Source: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/humansinspaceart/awards/index.shtml.en

A human-robot sent by NASA in space to detect new planets, "friendly" to humans. The spacecraft passes through galactic wormholes ... and finally arrives on Mars. The news is not - for now - real. Nonetheless, the history of comics, designed by the young from Argos (Greece) and gave the first prize in the international competition of NASA.

Born in Tripoli, where she stayed with her parents and her younger sister up until about four years ago, when the family moved to Meru business in Argos.

Last summer, her mother read on the Internet about the competition conducted by the NASA, Humans in Space - Youth Art Competition. Children who participated had to make a work of art, piece of music or literary text to videos and comics, which would answer the question "How man can explore space, with which technologies and what you find?". Eventually, 2,076 children took place, aged 10-18, from 52 countries, which are considered a total of 220 judges. Angela was the only Greek who took part in the category of comics.