Amateur Films from the Cyclades: Screening and Discussion in Ano Syros

What if the story of the Cyclades was told from the bottom up?

Archipelago Network invites you to a special event on Saturday, April 26 at 17:00, at the Aigaio FM Municipal Radio Station (across from the Markos Vamvakaris Museum), in Ano Syros.

In Spring 2024, faculty and students from NYU’s Moving Image and Archival Preservation program partnered with Archipelago Network on the Greek edition of the Audiovisual Preservation Exchange (APEX) program. In Athens and Syros respectively, they worked to organize, catalogue and preserve significant elements of the ‘Of the Anonymous’ and ‘Aigaio TV’ collections.

In collaboration with the Aigaio Radio & TV station, “Of the Anonymous” film archive and amateur film scholars Karianne Fiorini and Gianmarco Torri, the event showcases selected amateur films and short home movies from the Cyclades. This material, drawn from the “Of the Anonymous” and “Aigaio Radio & TV” archives, offers an alternative, experiential narrative of the history of Syros, Naxos, Amorgos and Delos over the past sixty years.

Following the screening introduced by Juana Suarez (Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program, NYU), there will be a discussion with Nikos Mitrogiannopoulos (“Of the Anonymous”), Karianne Fiorini and Gianmarco Torri, focusing on the art of amateur filmmaking and the importance of documenting everyday life through the lens of residents themselves.

Acknowledgments to New York University, Martin Scorsese Department of Cinema Studies and its Moving Image Archiving and Preservation Program (MIAP). APEX is a transformative memory project that works with collectors, institutional archives, orphan collections, minor archives, grassroots archives, and counterarchives. Based on consulting with stakeholders, APEX fosters community, supports DIY practices, sustainable solutions, and long-term local and translocal collaborations to contribute to the preservation of audiovisual legacies.

Event supported by Culture Moves Europe