About us
The Emotion Pictures Documentary and Disability Film Festival is in danger of being abolished!! |
The Festival is stopping because supporting this type of initiative is not one of the government’s priorities.
The website is supported thanks to the voluntary and kind support of the Faculty of Informatics and Telecommunications of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Support for cultural events will continue this year as well for as long as the artistic director of the Festival Mary Hatzimichali-Papaliou still has the strength.
The Emotion Pictures Festival was organized for the first time in 2007 and since then has been kindly hosted by the Benaki Museum in Piraios Street, Athens. The first three festivals attracted an audience of over 15,000 people and accepted about 1000 film entries from all over the world, screening in total 120 films.
Emotion Pictures is not limited only to the Athenian audience. On the contrary, it has adopted actions that promote and spread the social dialogue on disability, with events and screenings in various towns and cities throughout Greece, which have gathered more than10.000 people.
For 2010-2011, numerous municipalities, associations and organizations have shown interest in organizing events on the issue of disability, with the screening of films from the Emotion Pictures Festival. Screenings have taken place in Kastoria, Karditsa, Chania, Zakynthos, Kilkis, Ierapetra, Kalamata, Limnos, Filiatra, Patras, Samos, Corinthus, Serres, Agrinio, as well as in various municipalities of Attica.
A major event involving 800 schools in Ipirus is to take place in the first months of 2011, with screenings of award-winning films of thefestival and distribution of the educational package to the students.
We have collaborated in the past with the University of Thessaly, the Technological Educational Institute of Crete, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki to make our films available for educational screenings, and we are continually receiving requests for new collaborations.
Indeed, the University and specifically the Primary Education Department organized an animation workshop for children withdisabilities under the guidance of the award-winning directorial duo Vinay and Minaksi Rai while an international symposium took place on December 3rd, 2010, with the participation of 200 scientists and teachers. The initiative of the University willcontinue with screenings and discussions at schools in four prefectures of Crete.
For 2011, universities in the USA, such as the University of Pennsylvania, Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College and Brown University, have asked for films of our educational package in order to organize screenings and events on the subject of disability.
Concurrently, we have developed close collaborations with other international festivals which organize special tributes to EMOTION PICTURES, such as the International Festival in Cairo, in Rome, but also festivals in Greece, such as the International Festival of Drama, the Athens Film Festival Opening Nights, and others.
With the sponsorship of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the support of UNESCO, EMOTION PICTURES has also been able to send an educational package with the Festival’s award-winning films to 3000 schools in Greece and abroad, in collaboration with associations of expatriate Greeks (USA, Canada, Australia).
Recently we were invited to screen our award-winning films at events organized in cities of Belgium and France, proof that our Festival constitutes a model of action in countries in which there is already an advanced dialogue on the subject of disability.
A series of awarded films of the Emotion Pictures Festival were successfully screened in the presence of 500 scientists from all over the world, in Brussels on May 27-29, 2010, in an event co-organized by the "Extra & Ordinary People! - EOP!" Festival and the European Academy of Childhood Disability (EACD), held under the auspices of the European Parliament, the City of Brussels and Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium.
For 2011, a new event will be organized, under the auspice of the European Parliament, with the collaboration of EOP – Extra & Ordinary Festival, the International Film Festival of Namur, the broadcasting organization RTBF and the initiative CAP 48.
We are also collaborating with the University of Aix en Provence - City of Marseille, the Library of Alcazar and the General Consulate of Greece in Marseille for the organisation of an hommage to Emotion Pictures in Marseille in 2011.
Last but not least, on May 19th, 2011, Entr' 2 Marches of the International Film Festival of Cannes, will collaborate with Emotion Pictures for a special tribute to our Festival.
Particularly important is the support of the President of the Hellenic Republic, Mr Karolos Papoulias, who either attends personally the Festival or sends a videotaped message screened during our opening ceremony each year. The EMOTION PICTURES Festival enjoys also the active support of internationally distinguished personalities, with their presence or via messages, such as actors Daniel Day Lewis and Richard Gere, Special Olympics athlete and actress Aimee Mullins, famous photographer Lyne, popular Hollywood actress Eva Mendes, Oscar-winning director James Ivory, celebrated directors Wim Wenders, Danny Boyle, director of “Slumdog Millionaire”, and award-winning Patrice Leconte, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and chairwoman of international associations to promote the rights of children and women, Betty Williams; and many others.
Leading figures from the cinema industry participate each year in the jury committee of the Festival, presidents of which includeJean-Marie Drot and Theo Aggelopoulos.
During these three years, cultural foundations such as the John F. Costopoulos Foundation, the Institut Français d’ Athènes, the British Council, the Goethe Institut, the Beijing Film Academy, and others, have stood by our side and supported our events.
Our special screenings on the themes of “War & Disability” and “Disability & Environment” were supported by the High Commission of the UN, the WWF, Greenpeace, and Doctors without Borders.
Well-known American journalist and presenter Phil Donahue, the Polynesian Chairman of the “Moruroa e Tatu Association”, which represents victims of nuclear trials worldwide, Roland Oldham, have honoured us also with their presence, among many others.
Alongside the main festival event, EMOTION PICTURES attempts to give voice to and promote activities that develop the creative abilities of individuals with disability, and mainly of children. We have held three film workshops, which resulted in the creation of three films that have travelled to festivals around the world and won awards, as in San Francisco, in the Cairo International Festival for Children, the Indian festival for children Chinh India, and elsewhere.
In our efforts to publicize the Festival’s international profile, we have ensured the support of “TV5 MONDE”, which as a communications sponsor screens the Festival’s trailer on more than 50 channels worldwide. The Festival’s trailer also appears for 10 days in 80 cinemas of Athens (Apollon, Cinemax, ODEON, Village, Ster, etc.).
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