Blog
EXPERIMENTAL ETHNOGRAPHY with Natalia Marín on 25 & 26/2
EXPERIMENTAL ETHNOGRAPHY with Natalia Marín Saturday & Sunday 25 & 26/02, 11:00 - 2:00 @ Exile Room Right after the Berlinale, Spanish filmmaker Natalia Marín makes a brief stop in Athens to initiate Greek audiences into experimental documentary. Part of film collective "Los Hijos", Marín and her collaborators have invented a genre of their own, where ethnography meets avant garde. Somewhere in the Spanish countryside, two young men and a woman are shooting an old man telling stories about crimes once committed in the ...
REVIEW: Finish Line by Eliana Abravanel
How does a shepherd, a barefoot warrior and the oldest Marathon runner in Greece pull off one of the toughest courses in the official marathon circuit? "Finish Line" is here to provide all the answers, documenting fragments of the everyday lives of three very different people, whose only common denominator is their unwavering dedication to long-distance running. Sharing their daily routines with director Eliaba Abravanel, we get to watch them prepare for the biggest race of them all, the Athens Classic Marathon. Their willpower, persistence ...
MASTERCLASS: Sergio Oksman, 27-28/04
MASTERCLASS: Sergio Oksman Wednesday 27 & Thursday 28/04, 19:00 - 21:00 @ Exile Room For the duration of two days, Sergio Oksman will dissect his own and other people's movies, showcasing how reality and fiction feed off each other in documentary filmmaking. The workshop will explore the boundaries that divide the two and how the filmmaking toolkits of each one can be implemented in the other. From the concept all the way to the final cut, he will answer every question, discuss the doubts and moral dilemmas that come up along the ...
A workshop with Tomer Heymann!
Tomer Heymann’s two-day workshop was a big success, under the support of Exile Room and the Embassy of Israel. Through extracts of his films, the director presented his own point of view on the world of creative documentary. From the way you are going to present the credits at the beginning of the movie, the importance of contrasts in a film, until the final cut of the scenes in montage, Tomer explains that the creation of a documentary demands devotion, personal contact with the characters and a lot of open-minded spirit. It is very ...
From the concept to the screen!
“FROM THE INITIAL IDEA TO THE SCREEN”. That was the name of the very successful documentary workshop held at 24/5 in Technopolis, guided by the Greek Documentary Union during the 3-days tribute on greek documentary. The workshop began with an introduction of what is a documentary, how do you conceive the initial idea and later you create a scenario for it. Then comes the shooting and the difficulties you face when dealing with your protagonists. And last but not least, the funding and the distribution: who pays and where do you show ...
HEYMANN BROTHERS TRIBUTE 14-21/5
HEYMANN BROTHERS TRIBUTE, May 14 - 21 Do you know the Heymann Brothers? Well, it's time we introduced you! Spearheading one of Europe's premier non-fiction outfits, the dynamic duo consists of filmmaker Tomer Heymann and his youngest brother director/producer Barak, household names in their native Israel and beyond. The two have produced and directed almost 30 films between them, winning awards and wowing festival crowds all over the world. Some of their best-known work includes “It Kinda Scares Me” (2001), “Bridge over the Wadi” ...
Exile Room raises awareness on bullying
If high school hallways are the equivalent of a horror movie set and the restroom is your own personal nightmare, if the thought of going to school is so unbearable it makes you contemplate suicide, then you’ve obviously fallen victim to bullying. Within the context of "Docs on Wheels", a travelling documentary showcase that tours overlooked Athenian neighborhoods, islands and regional areas of Greece - currently on its second year - Exile Room visited the island of Kos for a series of screenings of Lee Hirsch’s seminal documentary ...
Old father Zaharis
“Life is like a rosary. With the new technology, the man cut off the string and the beads have scattered away. He must get them back before it’s too late. The rosary may not be the same as before, it may be shorter and probably lacking some beads, but it’ll still be a rosary.” According to the doctors, old father Zaharis’ life should have ended at his forties, but the power of the human resolution proved them wrong. Today m.Zaharis’s 88 years old and lives under circumstances that no human being is able to even mentally conceive. ...
MANA: Director’s Statement
When I first met the nuns 20 years ago, I was both fascinated by their resilience and amazed at how the children who were there seemed to have a self-confidence and sense of belonging. Lyrio was their home and they were proud of it. It was also interesting to see so many people from all over Athens visiting on weekends, bringing all sorts of things, spending time with the children and helping in the cooking. It was a much broader community than just the nuns and the children, it expanded beyond the walls of the Lyreio grounds. It ...
MANA by Valerie Kontakos at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival
MANA by VALERIE KONTAKOS at the THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL Thursday 19/3 at 20:45 @ Pavlos Zannas Theater Saturday 21/3 at 17:30 @ Tonia Marketaki Director: Valerie Kontakos/ Country: Greece/Duration: 70’ In 1962, a group of young women made headlines in Greece by running away to join a convent. Each time they were captured and sent back to their families, but they kept trying until they finally succeeded. Uninterested in praying all day, they started a shelter, providing a family for abandoned and abused ...
