Like the air I breathe… World music at Crete (George Zervas) A matter of luck (Vasilis Nemeas)

Like the air I breathe… World music at Crete (George Zervas) A matter of luck (Vasilis Nemeas)

Best Documentary 2011:
Like the air I breath… World music at Crete, Directed by George Zervas. Greece, 2008. 52′

Duration: 55′
Country of origin: Greece
Director: George Zervas
Producer: Gina Petropoulou
Production: Vox-documentaries

This documentary adopts an exploratory, meditative, poetic approach to the meeting of outstanding traditional musicians from around the world at LAVYRINTHO, a series of workshops, discussions and events organized in the village of Houdetsi on Crete by Ross Daly, himself a musician of international renown.

The musicians’ teaching, their contact with students in the workshops, and the dialogue between traditional musical idioms and instruments from various Mediterranean cultures (Europe, Asia, Africa) all reveal the amazing pluralism of world music, as well as the triumph of difference accepted, of meaningful communication and creative coexistence. The documentary is not an all-inclusive showcase of world musical traditions, nor a flashy juxtaposition of exotic instruments and musical traditions. It is a journey which, free of ostentation and quaintness, lauds music’s global dimension, its resistance to homogenization and the entertainment industry, and its respect for difference, for the world’s great musical traditions all owe their riches to interaction between historic civilizations; of course, it is also a journey which simultaneously bolsters up all those we have in common.

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Best Screenwriting 2012 (Vasilis Nemeas)
A Matter of Luck, Directed by Vasilis Nemeas. Greece, 2009. 95′

Film Category: Fiction Feature
English Title: A Matter of Luck
Duration: 95′
Country of origin: GREECE
Director: Vasilis Nemeas
Producer: Anastasios Vasileiou
Production: doc ltd
Release Date: 2009

Athens, today. Thirty-seven-year-old Johnny, a frustrated musician, watches the years go by, while his lifelong dream of writing and playing his own music seems to be slipping further and further away. For the last 3 years, he’s been playing the piano at an upscale restaurant and drinking endless bottles of whiskey in order to calm that second voice he hears from inside himself. Johnny’s been going out with Maria for the past five years and they’re planning to get married in three months. But life has other plans for him. And so, that night, Johnny, who has always let the chips fall where they may, will watch his life be shattered…