"Hello, I am Anna Vayena, an acclaimed actress and a member of the Hellenic Parliament for the left-wing Syriza government. I am grateful to have been honored by the love and support of Greek people who have followed me through the years in a journey of consistent presence on stage. In these troubled times, where the people of Greece are called upon to pay a deeply unjust price with a huge impact on a national, financial and social level, we the people of culture and the arts are standing by their side, defending their struggle and we endorse the efforts of the Greek government to provide its people with a fair chance for a decent life.
I would like to personally thank Oliver Stone, Susan Sarandon, Tom Hanks, Alexander Payne and Emir Kustirica for supporting our struggle on foreign and social media. Please share this post if you want our voices to be further heard!"
Oliver Stone responded : Been away for a while, 6 months in Germany, D.C., Hawaii, and Hong Kong, to make the Snowden movie. Without major studio support, it was difficult. But Open Road, an independent distributor owned by the AMC and Regal theatre chains, stepped up and pushed it through. Significant help came from Pathe in France and Universum in Germany, as well as other countries.
My Mom passed away in the last days of April at 94. One of the last things she said to me was, “I want so much this movie to be a success.” This is making me work harder than ever.
As a result of being buried in this editing process for the next few months, I can only post occasionally. But much on my mind lately has been ‘Grexit.’ I met Alexis Tsipras almost 2 years ago in Croatia. At that conference, we all knew he was the fresh-faced comer that Greece needed.
Mark Weisbrot, in this insightful article, “Germany is Bluffing on Greece,” gets to the heart of this crisis, so poorly presented to the U.S. public by our corporate media.
U.S. objective is a foul one -- judging from our disgraceful history in Greece. (See “Untold History” Chapter 4, the real beginnings of our Cold War in ’47 – ’49.) Churchill, whose war this was, even admitted that Stalin kept his word to him, and didn’t support Greek rebels in the civil war against Churchill’s monarchists/fascists. This was followed by Nixon’s/Agnew’s crucial support for an ugly dictatorship in ’67 – ’74. (See the fictional movie “Z” for a dramatic intro.) It’s clear there’s never been a real Greek government the people there could respect -- till this one.
I say ‘viva Tsipras!’ ‘Viva a new Greece!’
-- and don’t believe what you read in the American media. I only wish Europe could separate itself from our empire-wide goals.