The island of Kastellorizo is ready to welcome for the sixth consecutive year, the great celebration of cinema and culture. The 6th International Documentary Festival “Beyond Borders”, under the auspices of the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou, will take place during the last week of August (22-29/8/2021) and will once again make Kastellorizo a meeting point of documentary filmmaking with history and culture.
The Festival has now established itself as an institution of international standing, as more than 565 nominations from 50 different countries, of which the selection committee, composed of internationally renowned filmmakers, chose the best 27 documentaries (11 feature films, 5 medium films and 11 shorts) from 17 different countries.
This year the awards will be presented Best Historical Documentary, Best Socio-Political Documentary, Best Short Documentary – courtesy of the Hellenic Parliament – the Special Mediterranean Friendship Award, with the support of the National Centre for Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME), the award for Best Greek Documentary under the care of the Hellenic Film Centre, as well as the Special Award of “Odysseus”, with the assistance of the General Secretariat for Hellenes Abroad & Public Diplomacy, which will be awarded to a Greek filmmaker from abroad.
The difficult process of awarding the prizes is undertaken by distinguished members of the global film community, with Klaus Ender – Secretary General of the International Film Critics’ Committee (FIPRESCI) chairing the jury. The committee will be completed by Marianna Economou -president of the Hellenic Documentary Association and an acclaimed filmmaker; Jean Christophe Caron, from the PHOENIX TV channel in Germany; Bruno Chatelin -coordinator of international documentary festivals- and Maro Anastopoulou, a distinguished filmmaker.
For its commendable and long-standing contribution to the support and promotion of experienced filmmakers, the Prague Documentary Institute of the Czech Republic will be honoured as the Honoured Academic Institution. The Festival will also award as Honoured Media television station of the Hellenic Parliament. This year, for the first time, the institution of the Honoured Festival. In this context, the Dutch festival “Movies That Matter“, which supports human rights films, will be awarded by the Festival’s organisation.
The Opening and Closing Ceremony of the Festival will be dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the National Regency. Residents and visitors of the island will have the opportunity to watch the excellent documentary film of the “The Greek Museum of Art” at the opening ceremony on August 22nd. Panos A. Thomaidi “Spetses ’21, At the Crossroads of History”. The evening will conclude with the musical tribute “And we have in our mast the Sun the Elyatore, the everlasting vigilante” (Odysseas Elytis) with the great performer Morfo Tsairelis, the composer-pianist Andreas Anagnostopoulos and the renowned musicians Yannis Niarchos (voice, guitar), Michalis Dimas (bouzouki), Artemis Vavatsika (accordion), Antonia Tsolakis (bass), who will accompany them.
This year, the Athens String Quartet, consisting of prominent members of the Athens State Orchestra, will provide the music for the intermissions. At Closing Ceremony will screen the film by Michel Noll and David Forbes “The Cradock Murders“. The curtain will fall with concert by Vassilis Yisdakis -collaborator and performer of Manos Hadjidakis- and Argonauts music ensemble, consisting of the soloists: Dimitris Papaggelidis (classical guitar), Spyros Pagiatis (piano), Dimitris Koufogiorgos (mandolin) and Mariliza Papadouri Papaggelidis (cello).
The “Panorama” programme will also be rich , with 15 documentaries participating outside the competition, tracing and highlighting the continuity, yesterday, today and tomorrow of the global cinematic scene.
In the framework of the Festival will take place three training seminars (Masterclasses) and 4 film workshops (Pitching Lab) with the following speakers editor-in-chief of Storyville, BBC and ambassador of the Festival, Maddy Chang, Him Klaus Ender, chairman of this year’s Jury and the artistic director of the “Movies that Matter” festival, Margie de Coning, who will impart their wealth of knowledge on feature documentary filmmaking, film criticism and strategies for financing and organising a successful documentary by guiding the aspiring filmmakers.
Throughout the Festival, the Municipal Hall of Megisti will host the exhibition of the National Historical Museum “The Aegean in Flames“, which will be inaugurated by the representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, Metropolitan of Symi, Halki and Castellorizo, Mr. κ. Chrysostom. It is an exhibition with reproductions from the Museum’s collections and the Historical Documents Archive, on the subject of the Greek naval struggle. At the same time, visitors to the island will have the opportunity to enjoy the special sculpture exhibition of the island’s “saint” Alexandros Zygouris.
On the occasion of the recent publication of the ICSMED entitled: “Themistocles L. Chrysanthopoulos, In the intricacies of Greek diplomacy – Ministry of Foreign Affairs 1945-1980”, the first nationwide presentation of the book will take place on August 28th in the framework of the parallel actions of the Festival.
At Island of St George will take place on 25η August 2021 playbill on the unknown contribution of Konstantinos Polychroniadis to the promotion of the Greek Revolution. It is again a recent four-language edition of the ICSF with pre-revolutionary texts published in the European press of the time, which aimed to raise awareness of the justice of the Struggle among the European public opinion.
The event will also be interesting for the young Kastellorizos: in cooperation with the National Historical Museum, our young friends will have the opportunity to create their own artworks using as models portraits and engravings with figures and scenes from the Greek Revolution of 1821. At the same time, through the “Fairytale Musical Journeys” by Lili Tegos and Niki Gountoumi, they will get to know the meaning of freedom and travel to its magical world. Older children will have the opportunity to attend Andreas Katsikoudis ‘ professional photography seminar “I love photography”.
At the end of the seminar, the students’ works will be exhibited at the Municipal Hall of Megisti. The Shadow Troupe of Alexandros Melissinos will give plenty of laughter to our little friends, while the Clown-Magician Mojo Jojo will take young and old alike on new magical adventures.
Participation in the educational programmes, screenings and activities of the 6th International Documentary Festival “Beyond Borders” is free of charge.
The Festival is organized by the The Hellenic Foundation for Historical Studies (H.I.S.ME.), in collaboration with the Ecrans des Mondes (Paris). It has the support and/or sponsorship of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Ministry of General Secretariat for Hellenes Abroad and Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Secretariat for Insular Policy, the of the Hellenic Parliament, of the Municipality of Megisti, the Embassy of Australia in Athens, the Australian Embassy in Athens, the Embassy of the United States of America in Athens, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Athens, of the Embassy of Cyprus in Athens, the Embassy of Spain in Athens, of the Cervantes Institute of Athens, the Cervantes Institute of Athens, the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens, the Italian Cultural Institute of Athens, the Czech Centre of Athens, the National Centre for Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME), the Greek Film Centre and ERT. grtraveller supports the Festival as a communication sponsor.
Find the Official Festival Programme here: https://grtraveller.gr/6th-beyond-borders/
See the promotional spot of the 6th “Beyond Borders” 2021 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhNX8yzMs18 and a short film with highlights from last year’s event at https://youtu.be/ZWDvx-7VMEE
For more information you can visit www.beyondborders.gr or contact the Festival at info@beyondborders.gr
