The Thessaloniki International Film Festival, in collaboration with Alpha Bank, the accessibility sponsor of the Festival, continue their collaboration within the framework of the "Cinema for All" program, aiming to offer audiences the opportunity to enjoy the magic of cinema, without exceptions and restrictions, but also to highlight even more the issues that concern people with disabilities. On Saturday, November 9th, Vangelis Serdaris' emblematic crime film Robbery in Athens (1969) was screened at Olympion theatre in terms of universal accessibility, in collaboration with the Greek Directors Guild, on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. The screening was attended by the Director of Photography of the film, Nikos Kavoukidis, and the Head of the Greek Directors Guild, Haris Papadopoulos.
The event was introduced by the artistic director of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Orestis Andreadakis. "We welcome you to another universally accessible screening we organize every year, with the support of Alpha Bank, the accessibility sponsor of the Festival. We donate the file with the subtitles and audio description to the producers of the film so that they can have it either on the DVD or in any other screening they want to use it", said Mr. Andreadakis. "We will watch a gem of Greek cinema, Robbery in Athens of 1969 by Vangelis Serdaris. Most accessible screenings are classic movies, as the goal is to create an archive of such movies. Today's screening is in collaboration with the Greek Directors Guild, we want to honour on the occasion of the 50 years of his presence in Greek cinema". Mr. Andreadakis then invited the film's director of photography, Nikos Kavoukidis, to the stage, saying that "he is a legend of Greek cinematography. One of the most important people working in Greek cinema for 70 years".
Taking the floor, Mr Kavoukidis said: "Thank you for your warm applause. Indeed, I celebrated 70 years of presence in Greek cinema. And today we're going to see a 1969 movie. The most important thing is that upon leaving Finos Film I created an editing workshop, and Robbery in Athens is the first film of modern Greek cinema to emerge from this workshop, the same year as Kierion. In the film you will see that Theo Angelopoulos and Pantelis Voulgaris also appear. It is important that modern Greek cinema has seen an enormous growth. In recent years it has been a great success in Europe as well. What I think we lack is film education. I would like to thank the Greek Directors Guild for making sure that the film I co-produced was screened, while I also did the cinematography and editing. Also, a big thank you to the Festival for screening this film, but also the film Miss Director, where I worked as a DoP", added Nikos Kavoukidis.
The Head of the Greek Directors Guild, Haris Papadopoulos, stated: "I am very moved by this event. It has been going on for years now and it is a great honour and pleasure that today we decided to screen the film of this great director in collaboration with the Festival. The film was shot during the dictatorship and had the name of Vangelis Serdaris written in the gold pages of Greek cinema history. The director recently passed away and we want to honour him with this screening."
The aim of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival is to share the power of cinema with all audiences without exception. For this reason, it screens films with audio description [AD: Audio Description] for the blind and visually impaired and with subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing [SDH: Subtitles for the Deaf or hard of Hearing], both in theatres and online screenings. As part of this collaboration, the Alpha Bank Accessibility Award will be awarded for yet another year either to a personality or to a film highlighting accessibility issues in the arts, accompanied by €3,000.
Following the end of the 65th edition, the Thessaloniki International Film Festival and Alpha Bank will offer all edited subtitles and audio description to the producers of the films, so that they remain accessible for any other future screening, cinematic or otherwise, hoping that with the support of the Festival, the films will be distributed in their accessible form both in cinemas and in home distribution, in order for everyone to enjoy them.
Olympion building, a building accessible to all
Along with the seat change works, the accessibility infrastructure works at Olympion building were completed. It is with great pleasure that we are able to announce that the building is hence universally accessible to people with reduced mobility. Thanks to recent works, the Olympion stage, the Pavlos Zannas theatre, the Green Room, the Room with a View, as well as the Thessaloniki International Film Festival offices on the 5th and 6th floors of the Olympion building, are now universally accessible.
The relevant study was funded by Alpha Bank, accessibility sponsor of the Festival. The study was conducted by Panagiotis Tsalis - Dr. Civil Engineer specialized in accessibility issues. The project was awarded after an open tender to the company Mouratidis Lift and was funded by the Ministry of Culture through the Recovery and Resilience Fund. The accessibility works cost €66,000.
