Sparoza

Written / Directed by Catriona Gallagher

Logline
An experimental Greek garden and its keepers: three generations of women

Artist’s moving image/experimental documentary short
Duration: 18 min
Greece / UK
In pre-production – Supported by Onassis AiR and Onassis Big Short Films Seeking UK co-production

synopsis:  In Attica’s paradoxical landscape lies Sparoza, an experimental waterwise garden nurtured by three generations of women. Lucie, not long in Greece, finds herself thrust into the role of head gardener following the passing of Sally, Sparoza’s devoted custodian of thirty years. Six decades of rainfall records, meticulously kept by Jacky who established the garden and continued by Sally, bear witness to the gradual drying out of the garden and echo the broader climate crisis. The looming question of “when will the rain come” echoes within Sparoza’s walls. In the sweltering heat of midsummer, the presences of the garden’s keepers converge across time to grapple with existential challenges old and new. As the struggle against drought intensifies, the volunteers rush not only to preserve the legacy of Sparoza but also to pass on its teachings to future generations, drawing on Sally & Jacky’s joint wisdom.

info about the process: This experimental documentary film will be shot on 16mm, both lab-processed colour film and hand-processed black & white film using plant-based developers. This is the core idea, to film the women gardeners weeding and cutting plants, which are then boiled into the photochemical developer to process the negatives. This method uses the oxalis plant and other common weeds in the garden to make plant infusions, in the same recipe as caffenol developer, adding soda and vitamin C to the plants. This technique was also used in Catriona Gallagher’s 2024 film ‘Daphne was a torso ending in leaves’ developed in bay laurel leaves, which won the KNF award at International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2024.

Searching for Thule

Written by Yannis Karpouzis and Alexander Strecker

Directed by Yannis Karpouzis

Logline
In her quest to discover the mysterious land of Thule, a passionate scholar retraces the journey of the ancient Greek scientist Pytheas and his Celtic navigators from Marseilles to the farthest reaches of the frozen North. By bringing histories from the margins to the fore, the origins of Europe are profoundly shifted.

Feature Essay Film
Duration: 74min Greece / Iceland / Belgium
In Development
Production by Laika Productions
Co-producers: Firnindi-films, Harald House, Empty Square

Director of Photography: Giorgos Frentzos GSC
Producers: Marina Danezi, Friedrik Thor Friedrikson

Around 300 BCE, the remarkable adventurer Pytheas set out from the Greek colony of Marseille to explore the frozen, fabled, and terrifying lands of northern Europe. Pytheas’s voyage, beginning on the Mediterranean Sea and reaching towards Brittany, Cornwall, Wales, Scotland, the Shetland Islands, and the Faroe Islands, is retraced through a collection of film archives, archaeological surveys, and fragments from ancient literature. Ultimately, the journey reaches the mythical land of Thule, at the end of the earth, on the black coasts of Iceland and the melting glaciers of Greenland and the North Pole. As we retrace this journey in the present through images of everyday life, landscapes, history, myths, and monuments, the complex patchwork called Europe unfolds before us. Threading this patchwork together is the desire for knowledge, exploration, and cultural exchange. This essay film delves into the search for European identity, the continent’s ancient heritage, and the meeting of the Mediterranean Sea with the Atlantic Ocean.

“On the map, the route Pytheas took forms an arc from the 
Mediterranean to Iceland and embraces a large part of the area we call Europe, both geographically and historico-culturally. The story of Pytheas’s ancient journey has as its central theme the interpretation of the physical world using science, experiment, and observation.” Yannis Karpouzis

A short story of resistance

Written by Yannis Karpouzis / Diamantis Anastasiadis / Katia Goulioni

Directed by Diamantis Anastasiadis

Logline
Ioulia Bimba, a teacher married to a blind fisherman enters the Greek resistance movement after an apocalyptic vision triggered by the demolition of the Nazi flag in Acropolis

Political essay, Experimental
Duration: 14min
Greece

Funded by  Greek Film Center

“I don’t know what to say. Something deep inside was calling me, something was pressing me: now it’s your time, you ought to do something. Our time needs it.” Ioulia Bimba

Left Behind

Written / Directed by Yannis Karpouzis

Logline                                                                                                                                                                                     Nefeli, a young left activist, is making a vernacular diary film to tell her boyfriend Pavlos that she wants them to break up.

Diary, Arthouse
Duration: 13 min
Greece
In Production

Funded by Greek Film Center. Supported by Rent Photo Video, Stefilm
Looking for: distribution, film festivals, sales

Cast: Nefeli Kouri, Yannis Beretsos, Eleftheria Konstantopoulou
Music: Pan Pan
Writer / Director:Yannis Karpouzis
DoP: Fili Olsefski
Sound Design / Mixing: Dimitris Miyakis
Graphics /Titles: Andreas Vakalios
Art Direction: That Studio

For the truth of things to appear, their images must suffer.Stavros Stavridis