Archive

A selection of films aimed at highlighting culturally unique and methodologically different ways of viewing physical and mental health, in a variety of cultural and institutional contexts.
The tribute features films such as the moving and deeply personal “Tits” of Anies Sklavos and Stelios Tatakis, a film based on the idea and research of anthropologist Liopi Abatzis who is no longer with us, but also Matthieu’s On Gravity Brouillard, the unexpected and moving
story of two elderly friends with chronic health problems and a common goal: to be able to fly.

The Ethnographic Perspectives on Health is implemented within the framework of the Operational Program “Public Sector Reform” and is co-financed by the European Union (European Social Fund) and by national resources.
The screening of the films of the tribute is free for the public, the non-Greek language films are subtitled in Greek and the access to the disabled is ensured, while the three films included in the tribute are shown for the first time in Greece.

The term “European Refugee Crisis” became a dominant term especially after 2015 when one million refugees and migrants arrived on European soil. Apart from its eurocentric character, this phrase constructs a state of emergency within this phenomenon and defines the refugee/migrant situation as an emergency problem that “needs to be solved”.
However, the “European Refugee Crisis” is not entirely a European phenomenon, as we can see from the numbers of displaced populations on a worldwide scale. At the same time, the concept of emergency itself conceals the fact that the “crisis” is actually directly intertwined with the European border regulations and with migration policies and practices that have been formed at least during the past fifteen years. Nevertheless, the “European Refugee Crisis” has been established as a term and, more importantly, as a way of seeing, thinking, and interpreting certain phenomena during the past few years.
The multitudinous representations of the refugees’ and migrants’ arrivals and receptions in Europe have played an important role in the establishment of this terminology. The spectacularization and aestheticization of the refugee/migrant’s journey, as well as of the acts of support, have prevailed over the past few years.
The pornography of pain and the idealized representations of solidarity have fetishistically focused on subjects (such as the dead body of Aylan Kurdi or the elderly ladies of Lesvos), objects (the plastic boats and the orange life jackets), and places (Lesvos and Lampedusa), fully substantiating thus the image of ‘the refugee’. Today, we have moved from mass production, circulation and consumption of such representations towards a distorted belief that the “crisis” is over and we are experiencing a period of “normality”. In reality, the crisis of reception in Europe is worsening, and this is indicated by the xenophobic reactions, the criminalization of solidarity and the harshening of bordering practices – either those are irregular or based on bilateral agreements/statements.

This year’s themed section of Ethnofest, titled “Critical Encounters: the European Refugee Crisis”, attempts to problematize the “crisis” and to approach it as a point of encounter and dialogue, but also, as a condition of violence and division. The program of the themed section includes films from a wide geographical space. Some of them take place in emblematic border spaces, like Lampedusa (“Persisting Dreams”) and Lesvos (“Leaving Greece”) whereas others focus on the everyday lives of refugees and migrants in Central and Northern Europe, as well as in their countries of origin or of temporary residence (“Days of Hope”, “Leaving Greece”, “Napps”, “A Camp is a Wall in the Forest”, “Underground”, “Mahboubeh feeds Athens”, “Unimaginable Dreams”, “Passager”).

A part of the themed section’s programme includes films that deal with the journey, the preparations, and the difficulty of making it happen (“Leaving Greece”, “Days of Hope”, “Passager”), while others indicate that the arrival at the destination is, in fact, only the beginning of a prolonged condition of precarity (“Days of Hope”, “Napps”, “Underground”).

In some of the films, the refugees/migrants remain unseen, either behind (“Napps”) or in front of the camera (“Underground”), whereas in some films they are placed in secluded reception facilities, far away from the host societies (“A Camp is a Wall in the Forest”). In these films, invisibility underlines the unseen violence of these “critical encounters”, but also subversives the direct visualization of the refugee/migrant.
The themed section also includes films that were created through collaborative and cooperative processes (“Gita’s Story”, “Mahboubeh feeds Athens”, “Unimaginable Dreams”, “It was Tomorrow”, “Passager”) and films that adopt different forms of representation, such as animation (“It was Tomorrow”, “Persisting Dreams”).
These alternative choices ask crucial questions that are related to ethics and the politics of representation. Lastly, in the framework of the themed section, there will be screenings that add a historical dimension, indicating that the “European Refugee Crisis” is not a recent and/or conjectural phenomenon (“Leaving Greece”).

The curators of the themed section are the anthropologists Katerina Rozakou (VU Amsterdam) and Ifigeneia Anastasiadi (Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences).

A selection of films that were produced by Summer School students. The Summer School is being co-organized by Ethnofest and the Netherlands Insitute at Athens (NIA).