Valerie Kontakos

Volta

A mother and daughter start out from downtown Athens and head to the northern suburbs of the city. Nina thinks she's going on a walk.

Living and Learning: Springtime at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

The current crisis facing the Greek tertiary educational system is examined in this documentary which goes into the university and looks at the issues from the varied and sometimes conflicting perspectives of those involved. It’s spring 2006 and the university corridors are bristling with political activity. Students are getting ready for elections, professors are also voting for deans, while a group of engineering students is totally engrossed in preparing for an international competition and doesn’t seem to notice any of this. They all want a better public university system, but how can they achieve it? We witness a crisis in the making. When students decide to occupy the university, it turns into a standoff between the government, professors and students. Finally, as Professor Vokos observes, “perhaps we’re afraid of facing reality.”

Lost Bodies

Thanos, 52, is a prospective pensioner, currently unemployed. Antonis, 51, is a part-time utility meter reader and a take-out deliveryman. Masquerading behind their band, iconic under grounders the Lost Bodies, they've made a life out of ignoring the system, seeking refuge in an alternative universe of their own.

Queen of the Deuce

The unbelievable true story of Chelly Wilson, who escaped the Holocaust and built a porn cinema empire in New York City in the 1970s. Chelly was a Greek-born, Christmas-celebrating, Jewish grandma, who married men but was openly gay. This documentary charts her unlikely rise to wealth as a shrewd businesswoman on “The Deuce,” aka New York’s infamous 42nd Street.

Queen of the Deuce

The unbelievable true story of Chelly Wilson, who escaped the Holocaust and built a porn cinema empire in New York City in the 1970s. Chelly was a Greek-born, Christmas-celebrating, Jewish grandma, who married men but was openly gay. This documentary charts her unlikely rise to wealth as a shrewd businesswoman on “The Deuce,” aka New York’s infamous 42nd Street.

The Last Partisan

An integral part of Greek folklore, Manolis Glezos is best known as the man who tore the swastika flag from the Acropolis during the Nazi invasion in 1941. Since then he has lived a mercurial existence; often caught between moments of glory and controversy as he continued to battle for his ideals. With the country knee-deep in a crushing financial crisis, Glezos is back in the limelight, elected as the oldest member of the European Parliament in 2014, at the age of 92. Yet he won't even discuss "the flag incident" refusing to be pigeonholed as a one-hit-wonder. Scolding, lecturing and joking along the way, he develops a tug-of-war relationship with the filmmakers, as they uncover the man behind the myth.