Dimitsana – work in progress

The film, which screens as a work in progress at the 2nd Athens Ethnographic Film Festival, focuses on the transformations and transitions of a mountainous arcadic community, Dimitsana, as they are reflected both in space and its representations. The changes in the social structure of the village and their documentation in space as they are affected by its transformations, the gradual transition from a pastoral/agricultural community to an alternative tourist destination, the perception of Dimitsana as a higher aesthetic value habitation place, the new forms of locality and attachment to the space and the nature, are some of the issues that the film is trying to explore. The film-makers are open to ideas and suggestions on how to utilize in the best way the capabilities that audiovisual media provide in the research of these issues. They also want to discuss on how their project can become a medium of communication between the researcher and a wider audience and, mostly, on how it could contribute in the need of the community to self-reflect on its collective memory and identity.

Yiannis N. Drinis

Yiannis N. Drinis has studied History and Folklore at the University of Ioannina, Greece, and Social Anthropology (Master of Arts) at the University of Kent at Canterbury, Great Britain. In 2013 he obtained his PhD in Folklore from the University of Ioannina, Greece. He is head of the Department of Intangible Cultural Heritage and Intercultural Relations, Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports. He is particularly interested in space and place anthropology, ritual and religion, kinship systems in rural Greece and intangible cultural heritage.