The Greek Australian Short Film Festival (GASFF) celebrates its 10th birthday this year and the artistic directors, Kat Kotsonis and Jim Koutsoukos are programming a couple of retrospective special events with a selection of Greek Australian shorts and award winners from the past nine years.
The festival has screened over 120 "short films with a Greek connection" from local and international artists.
From documentaries about amazing grandmothers, satirical animations, comedies in the "kafenio" (greek coffee shop) to experimental spoken word pieces, dance films, music videos and award-winning dramas, the festival has presented an eclectic mix to audiences.
SBS Greek at the Opening Night Gala of the 26th Greek Film Festival in Melbourne
Passion for shorts
“The passion comes from being artists and storytellers ourselves that have been involved in the making of short films", says Jim Koutsoukos, one of the GASFF artistic directors.
”Short films are a gateway for many into the film industry and most film artist have started here”, he says.
He states also that the passion comes from wanting to promote films, artists, storytellers and examine them through Greek and Greek Australian lens.
Kat Kotsonis’ passion for short films comes from the drama of telling a story, from the most intimate detail.
"It starts small then ‘from little things big things grow’. Short films, like short stories and short plays enables the response to grow further, to open imagination and dialogue from its audience."
The GASFF directors believe that their drive comes from wanting not only more representation of diverse artists in films.
"We want a better and a more genuine representation of non-Anglo-Saxon artists and stories, particularly in the Australian movie industry", Koutsoukos says.
And Kotsonis goes further: "In the society we live, we engage and are engaged with many stories from a variety of people, but our point of difference is the connection to 'Greekness', to Hellenism, in an Australian landscape and vice versa."
A festival created out by frustration
Kat Kotsonis, Jim Koutsoukos. Source: Supplied
But it wasn’t everything easy ten years ago when Kotsonis and Koutsoukos started the film festival.
“The festival was initially created out of frustration. We felt it was time to be a ‘do-er’ rather than to ‘whinge’ about the lack of opportunities in the film industry", Koutsoukos tells SBS Greek.
“As actors it was very hard to find work due to the limited amount available, in addition to the lack of roles for Greek actors we thought we would take matters into our own hands.”
Koutsoukos says he was fed up of the stereotypes that existed in the film industry.
“When it gets to the point that you wish another 'Underbelly' series so you can get a role as the member of the mafia, then you think it shouldn't be this way.”
Connect, support, and share
Kat Kotsonis says that the support from other creatives was tantamount to the success of the festival.
“As performers, we drew from other performers to promote their work, our work, everyone’s work. We all have done short films in our careers and so working with people who already know the challenges of finding and maintaining work gave us access to a pathway of support. Artists are givers and they share. This made it easier to showcase a variety of work.”
As for the next ten years, one of the major issues is funding.
“We have been working with no budget. And we had to deal with the Greek Film Festival’s time lines," says Jim Koutsoukos.
For Kat Katsonis connection is the key element. "The connection of all creatives; emerging, established, young, male and female, Greek and non-Greek, financed or not".
SBS Greek at the Opening Night Gala of the 26th Greek Film Festival in Sydney
Special screenings
The first special screening will take place on Wednesday the 16th at 6pm of October at Palace Como Cinema in Melbourne’s suburb of South Yarra. The second one is on Friday the 25th of October at 7pm at Melbourne’s Greek Centre.
296 SMITH STREET, Dir. John Evagora, 15 min.
ADDICTED, Dir. Marie Atzarakis, 6 min.
ANTIDOTE, Dir. Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore, 4 min.
BAD LANGUAGE, Dir. Viron Papadopoulos, 14 min.
BY THIS RIVER, Dir. Melissa Anastasi, 14 min.
DAVE'S DEAD, Dir. Alethea Jones, 15 min.
METAMORPHOSIS, Dir. Ange Arabatzis, 3 min.
MILK & HONEY, Dir. Andrea Demetriades & Louise Mignone, 12 min.
MRS METRO, Dir. Aggelos Papantoniou, 4 min.
THE SCREAM, Dir. Christina Heristanidis, 30 sec.
TWO DEVILS, Dir. Jonathan Auf Der Heide & Gregory Erdstein, 10 min.
YOU KNOW WHAT? I LOVE YOU, Dir. Natalie Cunningham, 10 min.
Press Play on the main photo and listen the podcast with the interview with Jim Koutsoukos, one of the artistic directors of the Greek Australian Short Film Festival.
