13 minutes – 2023 – short documentary, social issue – poetry
CHRISTOS SARRIS
Christos Sarris works at the Onassis Foundation as Head of Creative and is responsible for the Foundation’s digital stage for the past four-and-a-half years. For twenty-five years, he has built a significant track record as a photographer on a worldwide level, working in Miami and Paris among others, while in the last fourteen years he has been also engaged with documentary films. For a certain period, he served as a volunteer in the Public Relations team of the Médecins du Monde – Greece (Doctors of the World), based in Perama. He remained in the area for ten months and it was there that he filmed his first documentary based on the stories of the visitors at the MdM’s polyclinic. As a photographer and director, he has collaborated with BBC World and actively with VICE Greece. Music plays a vital role in his overall work. The series of filmed live performances “Stages A/Live,” produced by the Onassis Foundation and available on its YouTube channel, is conceived and executed by him. Among his other musical collaborations, it is worth noting the film direction of Jeff Mills’ mesmerizing performance at the archaeological site of Delos island, set against the backdrop of the UNESCO world cultural heritage monument, and his recent first stage direction for the musical performance entitled “Beyond the Sea,” with contemporary rearrangements of songs of the eminent composer Yannis Markopoulos by Pavlos Pavlidis
Christos Sarris’s “Walls” draws heavily on his experience working with incarcerated individuals at a prison in Nigrita, Greece, teaching them the basics of filmmaking on both a theoretical and practical level. Through a series of workshops, Sarris provided them with the tools to create a film that not only speaks to their own experiences but also resonates with audiences around the world. In the end, “Walls” is a reminder of the power of storytelling and the human ability to find hope and meaning even in the most challenging of circumstances. The film features both Sarris’s own footage, as well as that from participants in the classes. The film is accompanied by a musical adaptation of Cavafy’s poem “Walls” by Laura Jane Grace, Emmy-nominated artist, author, activist, musician and founder of the American punk rock band Against Me! Find out more here
CAST
Bankin Ahmado
Fikret Oz
Anxhelo Pambuku
Saimir Kacekou
Adnane Sengad
Giorgos Vidakis
Vassilis Grammenidis
Spiros Drosakis
Kostas Barkoulis
Christina Koutsandrea
CREDITS
DIRECTOR: Christos Sarris
SCREENPLAY: Christos Sarris
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Christos Sarris, Dimitris Zivopoulos, Stelios Dulgeridis
EDITING: Marios Kleftakis
MUSIC: Laura Jane Grace
SOUND: Dimitris Miyakis, Giorgos Chanos
AWARDS
ONASSIS FOUNDATION FESTIVAL “ARCHIVE OF DESIRE”- NEW YORK’S NEW MUSEUM
World Premiere
DRAMA SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
Official Selection
“Beyond the Sea,” with contemporary rearrangements of songs of the eminent composer Yannis Markopoulos by Pavlos Pavlidis
REVIEWS