2005-2015. The Years of Loukos

“HOMMAGE’’

INTERDISCIPLINARY ART PROJECT – SCREENING

Today, I believe the need for a film that captures

the Yorgos Loukos phenomenon as a whole

is more urgent than ever

not only as an overdue tribute, but as a precious trace

E. G.

Yorgos Loukos took over the artistic direction of the Athens Epidaurus Festival during the 2005-2006 season and, along with its identity, he transformed national cultural events as a whole. For the first time, a wind of change blew over the Festival; Yorgos Loukos managed to activate a new world, where the audience, especially young people, local artists and the biggest names of the international artistic community — in dance, theatre, and music — came together united by joy, creativity, and innovation.

Twenty years after Loukos took over the Festival’s artistic direction, Elias Giannakakis presents his documentary as a tribute to the Athens Epidaurus Festival. A filmmaker who has created more than three hundred documentary and fiction films, he systematically recorded the Artistic Director for a whole year — from 2007 to 2008, the first years of the Festival’s ‘boom’ — gathering precious footage. Twenty years later, he gives us a documentary tracing this decade’s footprint, along with new sequences and archival footage.

After discovering a ruined factory in a degraded region of Athens, the then Artistic Director crafted from scratch a cultural space that was meant to make history as an urban landmark. He created the now emblematic Peiraios 260, a space that changed our perception of cultural events forever.

The freedom and love that were given to Greek creators of all ages, both established and emerging, along with the presence of the most important artists from all over the world — at their creative peak — opened the door for Athens and Greece to enter the international cultural sphere, leaving a strong legacy.

‘This film is not a hagiography,’ says Elias Giannakakis. ‘If we want to understand this prominent figure and this exciting era, we have to include all the inconsistencies, the blank spaces, and to consider timing itself. Otherwise, the human approach we need in the fragmented, a basic element of miracle, will be lost.’