The first Online Puppet Festival of UNIMA Greece has being successfully completed! 

During the 3 day festival: 5 online workshops (webinars) were held: people from all over Greece opening their screen-windows -and hearts- to: knowledge, creativity, inspiration, desire for life and -to say it literally-, they played with this new aspect of our nowadays life. 

We participated at 5 live streaming making-ofs of performances and learned secrets, met the people behind the puppets and traveled for a while in the «Past», where a puppet show was always real and live and was welcoming the real «us». 

Also, 2 online round table discussions were coordinated: bringing together puppeteers and artists of the performing arts, from Greece and abroad. During the talks, we shared thoughts, anxieties, we searched for common ground, outed concerns and fears, voiced confused and untangled questions, also formulating new ones. There was much shared during these 3 hours: thirst for communication, longing for sharing, and desire to be together. It moved us, fed us, gave us strength to move forward. 

Finally, we enjoyed one -totally new- documentary screening, a premiere with the title: «The Puppeteers Reintroduce themselves», in 3 parts, about greek puppeteers and their trace through time: elder and young puppeteers spoke of their craft with words of love, they brought memories to life, hope for the «Now» and the «Future». Our common voice spoke of: the love of puppetry, family, Unima. 

The first Online Puppet Festival of UNIMA Greece has being successfully completed! 

We did it! 

Not alone, but all together: 

Enormous gratitude for the coordination, organisation and production of this festival, to the Organising Committee: Stephania Abraham, Lita Aslanoglou, Betty Kokaraki, Stathis Markopoulos, Kostantis Mizaras, Erato Sioropoulou

We would also like to thank Alexandros Seitaridis for the technical support and the festival’s website, Angeliki Gounaridi for the graphical design of the poster and Eleni Vogiatzidou for the secretarial support. 

We would like to thank the Ministry of Culture and Sports of Greece, who financed the Festival.

Special thanks to the round table participants, the words of which, helped us set our present routine aside and address  a more positive future: Katerini Antonakaki, Rene Baker, Damiet Van Dalsum, Fabrizio Montecchi, Kiko Montoto, Simos Kakalas, Cleo Kioulpali, Antonis Koutroubis, Kostadis Mizaras, Pavlos Novak, Eleni Panagiotou, Takis Sarris, Thanos Sioris, Eugenia Tsichlia, Dimitris Stamos and of course the coordinators of the discussions: Stathis Markopoulos and Fay Tsitou, for their farming before, during and even after the discussions. 

We mustn’t leave out the webinar presenters, whose heart and inspiration, produced such a positive result: Patrick Amber, Aggeliki Gounaridi, Valeria Koudomogiannaki, Katerina Liapopoulou, Stathis Markopoulos, Elektra Matsangou, Marialena Tsiamoura. 

On behalf of the festival we warmly thank all the student-participants of the webinars, who by overcoming the mediums’ limitations, offered us their enthusiasm and a general positive mood. 

We would also like to thank everyone who watched us from our YouTube channel and promoted our events online. 

Extra thanks for the documentary team: Pavlos Mavrikidis, Zeta Sakellariou and Lita Aslanoglou for their care on images, words and thoughts shown on the documentary! 

Finally, the Board of Directors of UNIMA Hellas wishes everyone happy holidays with hope, persistence and love! 

 

Let us meet in a better 2021!