Mystery 23 Cine Eleusis: IN SITU REALITIES
project
Description
Mystery 23 Cine Eleusis: IN SITU REALITIES was the first Documentary Festival of Elefsina and the wider area, a legacy action that took place from July 7 to 10, 2022 at the Old Railway Station and the Old Oil Mill Factory Parking under the conception of the General Artistic Directorate of 2023 Eleusis and in collaboration with the Athens International Film Festival.
Attempting a conversation with Elefsina and its landscapes, while simultaneously revisiting eight emblematic documentaries paying tribute to the city and its inhabitants, the Festival transformed the train tracks of the Old Railway Station and the Parking of the Old Oil Mill Factory, two locations of particular aesthetics and importance in terms of history and the ever-changing environment of Elefsina, into open-air cinemas, giving the city’s residents and visitors an unforgettable artistic experience. With a rich program of screenings that included a total of eight iconic documentaries from a wide range of cinematographic movements, Mystery 23 Cine Eleusis: IN SITU REALITIES delighted young and old alike. More specifically, the following films were screened: "Smirna, the destruction of a cosmopolitan city 1900-1922" by Maria Iliou, "Raw material" by Christos Karakepelis, "Baraka" by Ron Fricke, "In the land of wild honey" by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov, "WALL-E" by Andrew Stanton, "Paris is Burning" by Jennie Livingston, "A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese through American Movies" by Martin Scorsese and Michael Henry Wilson, "The Beaches of My Life" by Agnès Varda, "Meeting Gorbachev" by Werner Herzog and Andre Singer.
At the Festival participated male and female speakers, who enriched the audience experience with their introductions. The researcher Solenn Patalano spoke passionately at the "In the land of wild honey" screening about the intelligence and vulnerability of the precious bees and the need to protect them, while at the "Meeting Gorbachev" screening the General Artistic Director of 2023 Eleusis ECoC, Michail Marmarinos, interspersed the brilliant artistic career of the great Werner Herzog with anecdotal material, speaking about his iconic "Of Walking in Ice", and the Historian - Scientific Associate of Panteion University, Yannis Antonopoulos highlighted the sad historical development of the pro-European attitude of the Russian leader, when he ended up advertising Pizza Hut.
The aim of the Mystery 23 Cine Eleusis: IN SITU REALITIES was to transform Elefsina into a valuable and mysterious exhibit, through the unexpected conversation between cinematic viewing and the natural setting that hosted it, and the transformation of a series of screenings into a site-specific artistic action. The selection of films and screening locations followed the logic of visual intervention, the reimagination of a space as a hospitable point of culture. Mystery 23 Cine Eleusis: IN SITU REALITIES was inspired by the unique characteristics of Elefsina as an emblematic historical site and a modern industrial urban landscape, and focused on the thematic axes of 2023 Eleusis European Capital of Culture regarding the connection of humans with society and the environment.
Drawing its themes from the entire spectrum of realistic documentation, archaeology, history, ethnography to the environment and ecology, the summer edition of the Documentary Festival was a continuation of the Athens Open Air Film Festival of July 2021 and a precursor to the action IN SITU REALITIES, which was hosted in December 2023 at the Cine Eleusis.
Archival Research
Stages of Implementation
Festival duration: 07-07-2022 to 10-07-2022 Time: 21:00
Tickets Policy
Free admission
Category
Axes
CC-License
Main Categories
Files to download
