On Friday, December 2, 2022, at Simon Fraser University's Harbour Centre campus in downtown Vancouver, UCLA's SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture, and the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University, co-organized a film screening and discussion with film director Mary Zournazi. Following the film screening of "My Rembetika Blues," Mary Zournazi was joined onstage by Canadian director, writer and producer, Harry Killas, for a discussion on the development of the film. This discussion was recorded.
UCLA's SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture and Simon Fraser University's SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies gratefully acknowledge the support of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) for a brand new pilot program which has made this collaboration and event possible. An initiative which seeks to create networks across the West Coast of North America and between the West Coast and Greece.
DESCRIPTION
Rembetika music or the Greek blues is a music born of exile and the streets. Developing its roots from the mass migration of people in the early twentieth century, filmmaker Mary Zournazi traces the journey of her forebears from Smyrna in Turkey to Sydney Australia but discovers more than family history, she finds out how music connects people during times of struggle and crises. By weaving together different stories of music and migration, she documents experiences that are often left out of the chronicles of history.
SYNOPSIS
My Rembetika Blues is a film about the power of music and what makes us human. Rembetika music or the Greek blues is a music of the streets and a music of refugees. The film explores the heart and soul of Rembetika music through peoples’ stories of love, loss and belonging.
Rembetika developed its roots from migrant experience. Zournazi's grandmother was one of the 1.2 million refugees who fled the Smyrna disaster in Turkey in 1922 and arrived at the Port of Piraeus in Greece. She, like many, became part of a movement of people, and of tradition, which saw the birth Rembetika. Through its rawness and unique style, Rembetika provides one of the world’s foremost musical accounts of migrant experience.
Through her grandmother's story, Zournazi narrates a personal account of the depth of longing and belonging that is part of the migrant life. By weaving together different stories and interviews, the film looks at the legacies of history and migration, and how music can connect people in times of struggle and in times of need.
Drawing on the parallels of the migrant and economic crisis in Greece, the film explores the revival of Rembetika today, and how it continues to convey everyday life and struggle through the fusion of street music, hip-hop, and other influences such as Byzantine music and the Blues.
The film documents peoples’ memory and experiences that are often left out of the chronicles of history. It is a universal story about love, life and music.
MARY ZOURNAZI BIO
Mary Zournazi is an Australian film maker, author and cultural philosopher. Her multi-awarding winning documentary Dogs of Democracy (2017) was screened worldwide. Her most recent documentary film, My Rembetika Blues is a film about life, love and Greek music. She is the author of several books including Hope - New Philosophies for Change, Inventing Peace with the German filmmaker Wim Wenders and most recently Justice and Love: A Philosophical Dialogue with Rowan Williams.
MODERATOR BIO
Harry Killas is a Canadian director, writer and producer whose films have screened at major international festivals including Bilbao, Clermont-Ferrand, Oberhausen, Palm Springs, Torino, Toronto and Vancouver. His documentaries have screened at festivals and museums across Canada and internationally, and have been broadcast by BBC, BBC Worldwide, Bravo!, CBC, CTV affiliates, Knowledge, NHK, TVO and various European broadcasters. Recent credits include three feature-length documentaries: Is There A Picture on the first generation of the Vancouver School of photo-conceptual artists; Greek to Me, an autobiographical look at family, filmmaking and Greek ethnicity; and Superkids 2, a profile of highly gifted learners, filmed over a time span of 15 years. Harry is a graduate of Stanford University (A.M., A.B.) and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Graduate School of Film and Television (M.F.A.) He resides in Vancouver where he is Associate Professor, Film + Screen Arts, at Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
Film Trailer for "My Rembetika Blues": vimeo.com/536176096
SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies: www.sfu.ca/hellenic-studies.html
UCLA's SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture: hellenic.ucla.edu/
Recording by Eric Sanderson (Sanderson Films).