Film festival on Greek island of Syros takes cinema to unlikely locations

The antithesis of business-driven events, the Syros International Film Festival (SIFF) invites the public to discover restyled venues and get lost in moving pictures in the cool of the evening after hot summer days between July 16 and 21 in the capital of the Cyclades and to explore the connections between nature and film, according to ekathimerini.com.

Launched in 2013, SIFF was a plucky venture in the world of film festivals. Hosted out of the historic port town of Ermoupoli in its inaugural year, the self-financed, nonprofit festival was not expected to thrive as it has done – seven years later, founders Cassandra Celestin and Jacob Moe, along with their organizing team and sponsors, have transformed Syros into something of an international film destination.

With an impressive roster of films, the festival includes several experimental works that have not received mainstream exposure. The inventive Rainer Kohlberger, for instance, brings an original performance to the island, merging 16mm film and digital projection.

During recent years, SIFF has also contributed to the rise of Greek filmmakers, and this year’s edition is no different. Eva Stefani, whose short film “Manuscript” garnered acclaim at documenta 14 in Athens in 2018, will lead a masterclass on documentary filmmaking.

All films at the festival will be subtitled in Greek and English. One-day tickets cost 5 euros and festival-long passes are 25 euros. For more information about the festival and transportation to Syros, visit syrosfilmfestival.org.

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Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons License: CC-BY-SA Copyright: Hans Peter Schaefer