As every year, SIFF uses in an imaginative way the cultural heritage of Syros by carrying out screenings and actions in selected parts of the island that always come in "dialogue" with the history of the place. From the mansion Pallas Summer Cinema and the iconic Apollo Municipal Theater, to the unique in terms of aesthetics Tarsanas Shipyard and the popular drive-in cinema in Delagratsia, this year's Festival -more festive than ever- will be present to new locations-surprise of the island, thus honoring the 10 years of cooperation with the local community, but also experimentation with different tools and viewing conditions highlighting the cultural heritage of the place.
This year, SIFF chooses the place (topos) as the central theme, wanting to focus on highlighting the locality of Syros as an integral part of the evolutionary, creative course of SIFF and on promoting the perception that the islands, but also other peripheral areas, have the dynamic to function as places of advanced contemporary artistic creation and promotion.
As SIFF co-founder Jacob Mo puts it, “over the last decade, what connects cinema in Syros with SIFF is the place: the locations where we screen movies, host performances, discussions and workshops with site-specific features. Thus, the choice of "Place" as the main theme of the 10th anniversary of SIFF came naturally, as a way to pay tribute to the numerous sites that have hosted the Festival all these years but also to explore the myriad nuances of the concept of Place in local and international context.
This year's SIFF program includes:
Anniversary Audiovisual Project: 10 years SIFF
To celebrate the 10 years of SIFF's presence on the island, a project is being formed that focuses on the holistic promotion of Syros as a Place with unique social, historical and cultural characteristics. Thus, audiovisual animation installations will be created that will function as "interventions" in the urban landscape, highlighting various internal and external locations of Ermoupolis. This artistic "route", as well as historical information about the locations, will be found by the visitor on the digital map of SIFF that will be available on the official website of the Festival.
Movies and thematic screenings
The program of the main screenings includes about thirty (30) short, medium and full-length films on the subject of "Place", while the programming goes through various cinematic genres, without respecting the limitations of the traditional film industry, allowing a wide range of films: independent, commercial, artistic, experimental, documentary and fiction, in an effort to respond to different geographical and social perceptions.
Audiovisual performances
SIFF 2022 will present a range of audiovisual performances that will include the screening of silent films accompanied by live music and musical performances.
Laboratories
The workshops are an integral part of SIFF and focus on local, natural, cultural heritage and cinematic literacy. All sections of the workshops are free for participants. More specifically:
Peripheral vision
Peripheral Vision is a multimedia laboratory aimed at professionals, artists and animation researchers. This year, SIFF invites selected participants from Greece, Lebanon and Egypt to work with archival audiovisual material provided by SIFF, Cairo Cimatheque, UMAM-Documentation & Research (UMAM-D & R) Lebanon, and NAIAS, a participatory archive based in Syros. The workshop will be realized, for the second consecutive year, in collaboration with the cinematographer Tamer El Said, with the support of the Goethe Institute of Athens.
Thesis Interventions
SIFF in collaboration with Point Supreme Architects, an architectural studio based in Athens and deep experience in regional studies and landscape architecture, creates a collaborative workshop, involving architects from Greece and Switzerland, with the aim of designing three specialized architectural interventions in different locations of Syros with emphasis on the characteristics of the local and coastal community.
Sources:
https://syrosfilmfestival.org/el/
https://www.culturenow.gr/to-diethnes-festival-kinimatografoy-tis-syroy-ginetai-10-xronon/