“Where documentary meets History and Culture” (21- 28 August 2022)
A great celebration of cinema and culture will be held for the seventh consecutive year in the island of Kastellorizo. The 7th The International Documentary Festival of Castellorizo “Beyond Borders”, which is under the auspices of the A.E. of the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, will take place during the last week of August (21-28/08/22) and will once again make Castellorizo a meeting point of documentary filmmaking with history and culture.
The Festival has now established itself as an institution of international standing, with 790 nominations from 100 different countries, of which the selection committee, made up of renowned filmmakers, chose the 30 best from 25 countries to compete.
This year in the framework of the Official Competition Section, the Jury of the Festival will award the prizes: Best Historical Documentary, Best Social-Political Documentary and Best Short Documentary – all courtesy of Hellenic Parliament – the award Best Greek Documentary sponsored by CySEC, the Special Award for Mediterranean Friendship, sponsored by EKOME as well as the Ulysses Special Award, sponsored by General Secretariat for Hellenism Abroad and Public Diplomacy. From this year, the Castellorizo International Documentary Festival “Beyond Borders” will establish and award FIPRESCIPrize , to be awarded by a 3-member committee of International Federation of Film Critics.
The difficult award process is once again being handled by distinguished members of the global film community. This year’s jury of the official competition section is composed of Peter Arens – Head of the “History and Science” section of the German public broadcaster ZDF, the Phaedra Vokalis – Director of the Greek Film Academy, Director & Producer, the Marco Gastine – Director & Producer, the Danae Elon- Director & Filmmaker (Best Socio-Political Documentary “Beyond the Borders” 2021) and Uri Cohen – Assistant Professor of Jewish and Italian Literature at Tel Aviv University.
For its commendable and long-standing contribution to the support and promotion of experienced filmmakers, the following will be awarded as the Honoured Academic Institution Porter Institute for Poetics & Semiotics, Tel Aviv University. The Festival will also award the German Public Television Documentary Channel PHOENIX as Honoured Media. The Chania Film Festival will be awarded by the organization as the Honoured Festival.
The opening ceremony will be dedicated to the 100 years of the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the closing ceremony to the memory of the late Mikis Theodorakis. The residents of the island and its distinguished guests will have the opportunity at the opening ceremony on August 21 to watch the excellent documentary film “Radiography of A Family” by Rirouzeh Khrosrovani. The evening will conclude with a musical concert entitled: “I Ruminate and Sing” and the great performer Iro Saia.
The music for the intermissions will be provided by the Athens State Orchestra (AOA) and the DUETTO 16 band. The closing ceremony will feature the film “A Death for Peace. Mahatma Gandhi and the Impossible Quest” by Arnaud Mandgaran, while the curtain will fall with the concert of the ARGONAYTES ensemble, composed of the soloists: Dimitris Papaggelidis (classical guitar), Spyros Pagiatis (piano), Dimitris Koufogiorgos (mandolin) and Mariliza Papadouri Papaggelidis (cello).
The
Panorama
of this year’s Festival comes radically upgraded, hosting in its big screen both landmark films that have left their mark in the documentary field, as well as world and national premieres that aspire to conquer the international festivals. This year, 38 documentaries, which trace and highlight the past, present and future of global cinema, are taking part outside the competition. Special tributes will be held to “boulders” of Greek cinema, such as the late Roviros Manthoulis. In addition, in collaboration with the Hellenic Film Academy, three films (by Thanasis Neta, Lakis Papastathis and Eva Stephanis) from the “Chora, I see you” programme will be hosted. An action, under the auspices of the Greece 2021 Committee, with the sponsorship of the National Audiovisual Centre (main sponsor), the Greek Film Centre, the Athens Epidaurus Festival and the Thessaloniki Film Festival and with the support of the Greek Film Archive and Finos Film. Among the films of the festival Panorama, the documentary “George Bizos Icon” will be screened for the first time nationwide, for which we owe warm thanks to Secretary General of Hellenism Abroad and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ioannis Chrysoulakis.
This year, for the first time, the second competitive screening stage has been established with the category MiCRO, which will include short documentary films by experienced, but also young, up-and-coming filmmakers. Three of them will be awarded with the Golden Palm, Silver Palm and Bronze Palm prizes, exclusively sponsored by the German state broadcaster Phoenix/ZDF.
Three training seminars will take place in the framework of the Festival (Master Classes) and two film workshops (Pitching Lab) with the following speakers Jean Cristoph Caron, Danae Elon, Uri Cohen and moderator of the Pitching Lab Claudia Carpenter. These experienced professionals from the film industry will impart their wealth of knowledge regarding feature documentary filmmaking, film criticism and financing strategies, as well as organizing a successful documentary by guiding aspiring aspiring filmmakers.
Throughout “Beyond Borders” in the Municipal Hall of Megisti will host the exhibition of Foundation of the Hellenic Parliament “The land of Attica welcomes the refugees of ’22”, the opening of which will be held by the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Symi, Halki and Castellorizo. It is an exhibition on the theme of Hellenism in the East. At the same time, visitors to the island will have the opportunity to enjoy the special sculpture exhibition of the great artist, Alexandros Zygouris.
This year three book presentations will be added to the Festival’s assets: “The Chronicle of the Ten Days” by Agapi Molyviati-Venezis, “The Asia Minor Campaign of Kostas Misaelides” and “Unforgettable Asia Minor” by Vasiliki Rallis.
The event will also be interesting for young Kastellorisians: in cooperation with the National Historical Museum, the children of the island will have the opportunity to create their own artworks through a series of craft workshops. At the same time, through the “Fairytale Musical Journeys” with Lili Tegou and Niki Gountoumi, they will be introduced to the magical world of fantasy and fairy tales. Teenagers will have the opportunity to create their first short film, through the Documentary Seminar entitled: “Castellorizo and our dreams“, under the guidance of Andreas Katsikoudis, while at the same time the award-winning free diving instructor Roberto Kalic will give theoretical and practical free diving lessons. Finally, Alexandros Melissinos’ Shadow Theatre “Alexander the Great” will also this year provide us with plenty of laughter. Participation in all programmes and activities of the Festival is free of charge.
The Festival is under the auspices of A.E. of thePresidentof theRepublic Katerina Sakellaropoulou. The organization belongs to the The Hellenic Foundation for Historical Studies (IDISME), in collaboration with Ecrans des Mondes (Paris), the Region of South Aegean and has the support and/or sponsorship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs / General Secretariat of Hellenism Abroad and Public Diplomacy, of Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Ministry of Ministry of the Interior, the of the Hellenic Parliament, of the Municipality of Megisti, the Embassy of Australia in Athens, the Embassy of Australia in Athens, the Embassy of the United States of America in Athens, the Embassy of Spain in Athens, of the Czech Centre of Athens, the National Centre Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME), the Hellenic Film Centre and the Hellenic Radio and Television (ERT).
Watch the official promotional video of the 7th “Beyond Borders” 2022 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcdAEGRVVp0 and a short film with highlights from last year’s event at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSXDVuRnCmM
For more information you can visit www.beyondborders.gr or contact the Festival at info@beyondborders.gr
