PRESS RELEASE
4/12/2021
2nd day of the 4th International Festival
"The Reflection of Disability in Art"
10:00-13:00
The second day of the 4th International Festival "The Reflection of Disability in Art" started pleasantly with the song "Hands like these" from the 1st Model Junior High School of Thessaloniki in collaboration with the Special Primary School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Panorama.
Then the screening of films about "Access-Accessibility" followed. First was the short film "A sound in motion" directed by Ricardo Teixeira and then followed the Italian documentary "Conversation behind the scenes" directed by Giulia Zumpano. The screening continued with the Indian documentary "Walls that matter" by director Tanmay Shah. The thematic section "Access-Accessibility" was completed with the Greek film "Who is HonorinePlatzer?" by the group Artogether- Art of People with and Without Disabilities directed by A. Hantzi.
After the screening, the Rodi Music Orchestra and the choir of KDAP MEA "Access" Perea presented the song "The Sultan of Babylon", music by L. Machairitsa, and lyrics by L. Nikolakopoulou.
Then, Ms. Doxa Papakonstantinou, Assistant Professor of the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia welcomed the spectators on the 2nd day of the Festival, praised the effort of the organizing committee and introduced the speakers of the discussion that followed. Invited were Ms. Emmanuela Patiniotaki, Dr. of Audiovisual Translation and Universal Access Academic Researcher, Accessibility Services Provider, ATLAS E.P. CEO, Mr. Christos Georgokostopoulos, M.Ed., Ph.D. (c), Vice President of the Association of the Deaf of Northern Greece (EKBE), Teacher of Greek Sign Language (SMIYL) and Ms. Panagiota Koutsoukou, President of the EcoMuseum of Zagori.
The speakers commented on the films screened and the actions of the Festival in general. They also spoke about everyone’s need for access in art and life, as well as the practices and criteria that ensure accessibility. Ms. Papakonstantinou concluded the discussion with the characteristic fraise "The world is one, the perspectives are changing". Finally, the speakers answered gladly all the questions of the audience.
18:00-21:00
The Festival’s artistic program continued in the afternoon. The session started melodically with the traditional Greek music “Baidouska from Thraki”, performed by the Violone Orchestra of the Department of Music Science and Art of the University of Macedonia.
Subsequent to the musical begging was the screening of the films. The section’s theme was titled “ABOVE ALL ART I”. The screening started with two short documentaries. The first one, “TOKE” by the director NonoAyuso and the second one, “HEAL BY ART” by the director Anna Rakhmanina. The program continued with the Italian film “Something about Paolo” by the director Donato Canosa and the short animated documentary from the United States “What to do with your tabloid news”. The screening section was concluded by the film “My Dreams” by the director EirajAfkar.
After the screening of the films Ms. Vasiliki Giannouli, Assistant Professor of the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia welcomed the audience and stressed the importance of the Festival and its every year presence. Thereafter, a video from Ms. Elli Driva, actress, member of the Body of Greek Actors/Actresses (Σ.Ε.Η.) and member of the theatrical team THEAMA (ΘΕΑΜΑ) was screened. Ms. Driva sent her message by underlining the importance of everyone’s participation in the culture with the phrase “A society without art is inconceivable, while also art is not possible without the members of the society”. Moreover, Mr. Nikolaos Mouratidis, writer, talked about his view on disability and commented on the previously screened films.
In the end, the Head of the Festival, Mr. Leukothea Kartasidou, Associate Professor of the Department of Educational and Social Policy of the University of Macedonia, talked about the importance of the volunteering team for the taking place of the Festival. At the same time, she noted the difficulty of the making and happening of this whole project. To verify this statement, two of the members of the volunteering team, Ms. Chrysanthi Manousaka and Ms. Sophia Spanidou, spoke. These two volunteers talked about the difficulties they faced during the selection and subtitling processes and generally the technical problems they came across.
21:30-23:00
The evening of the 2nd day of the Festival started with the song “One Boat”, music and lyrics by Alexandros Dimas that was performed by the Rodi Music Orchestra in association with KDAP MEA "Access" Perea.
Afterwards, the screening of the films continued with the second part of the section “ABOVE ALL ART II”. Two films were screened. Firstly, the experimental short film “FLASHBACK”, by the director Danny Smith, and secondly the film “SOME NEW BROADWAY” by the director Denis Bojic.
