Hellenic Cultural Month

Angell Hall

435 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1003

Lorch Hall

611 Tappan St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1220

Michigan Union (MU)

530 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1349

Modern Language Building (MLB)

812 E. Washington, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1275

Shaman Drum Bookstore

311-315 S. State St., Ann Arbor, MI 48104, Tel: 1-800-490-7023

Fri 10/12/01
8:00 p.m.

Musical Intermission

Pianist Takis Pizanis will perform Manos Hadjidakis's work : For a Little White Seashell, inspired by Greek traditional themes.
 

For a Little White Seashell, Preludes and Dances, Op. 1 :
March and Syrtos
Conversation with Sergei Prokofiev and Tsamikos
Mandinadha and Ballos
Nocturne and Calamatianos
Pastorale and Grand Sousta

Takis Pizanis
Born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1952 of Greek parents began piano at a branch of the National Conservatory, founded by the eminent composer Manolis Kalomoiris. After his family settled back in Greece in 1962, he continued his musical studies at the conservatory while attending Zografou High School in Athens. He began undergraduate college at Florida State studying with Carlisle Floyd and later with Raul Spivak and Gerry Snyder at Florida Atlantic University. In 1977, he began graduate studies in piano performance with Ralph Votapek at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, where he now resides with his wife and two children. He attends Lansing's Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church where he serves as choir director and protopsaltis.

Michigan Union
Art Lounge

Sun 10/28/01
5:00 p.m.

Classical Greek Theater Night

A night of readings from plays of Greek tragedy by students in theater, classical studies, and history. The readings are selected from the following plays:

• Aeschylus' Agamemnon
• Euripides' Iphigeneia at Aulis
• Sophocles' Electra

 
To be followed by a discussion with theater director Kate Mendeloff and classical studies professor Gina Soter. Directed by Nicole Young. For more information on this event, contact Erin Mays at (734) 945-8519 or emays [at] umich [dot] edu

Angell Hall
Auditorium C

Sat 10/13/01
6:30 p.m.

It's a Long Road
(Όλα Είναι Δρόμος)
1998
 

Keynote speaker: Dan Georgakas, editor of Cineaste magazine

Three independent stories about three men in a turning point in their lives. After discovering the tomb of an officer of the Hellenistic period, an archaelogist finally finds the courage to deal with his son's suicide in the remote military camp where the latter was serving as a soldier. An elderly warden at the delta of the beautiful Evros River gets even with unscrupulous poachers preying on an endangered bird species. A factory owner in a small provincial town, filled with desperation because his wife has left him, finds the ultimate way to blow off the steam in a tacky nightclub. Pantelis Voulgaris directs an excellent cast in this critically acclaimed exploration of the human soul. Duration: 118'

A small reception will follow.

Lorch Hall Auditorium

Sun 10/14/01
6:30 p.m.

The Four Seasons of the Law
(Η Εαρινή Σύναξις των Αγροφυλάκων)
1999
 

After the sudden death of the rural guard in a small village on the island of Chios of the 1960s, the local administration has difficulties finding a replacement beacuse of the village's bad reputation. When given a financial incentive, four rural guards finally apply for the job. Each of them is successively appointed and fails, faced with the villagers' varying attitude towards authority, the presence of a mysterious fairy-thief, and their own vices... Dimos Avdeliodis' clever comedy offers a delightful depiction of rural life and its characters with allegoric references to Greece's recent historical past and remains enjoyable until the last minute despite its length. Duration: 178'

MLB Lecture Room 2

Sat 10/20/01
6:00 p.m.

The Canary Yellow Bicycle
(Το Καναρινί Ποδήλατο)
1999
 

A young teacher from a provincial town is hired to teach 6th graders in an Athens elementary school, where he discovers that one of his pupils is almost illiterate and as a result a social outcast among his classmates. Determined to help him, the teacher is faced with the hostility of his colleagues, the apathy of the boy's parents and the distrust of the boy himself... Dimitris Stavrakas' second feature film offers a deeply human look on the protagonists' evolving bond yet manages to keep it real by avoiding easy sentimentality. Duration: 90'

MLB Lecture Room 2

Sat 10/20/01
8:00 p.m.

The Mating Game
(Η Διακριτική Γοητεία των Αρσενικών)
1999
 

Three sisters play the mating game, each with different rules. Emily, 32, a stockbroker, is a control freak and too threatening for any man she meets. Laura, 30, a fitness instructor, is involved with a married man and hoping in vain that will leave his wife. Helena, 23, an architecture student, prefers casual sex to relationships. The sisters conspire among themselves to change each other's lives with doubtfully successful yet surely amusing results... Olga Malea's colorful second film was a record box office hit in Greece. (Viewers are advised of adult content.) Duration: 90'

MLB Lecture Room 2

Sun 10/21/01
7:30 p.m.

In Good Company
(Ένας κι Ένας)
2000
 

The comic adventures of a mental patient and a prisoner who get out on a five-day leave and meet as a result of a car accident in the middle of nowhere. As they set out to retrieve some hidden robbery loot, the mental patient's young and sexy Greek-American aunt joins them. They are followed by a psychiatrist and his assistant conducting a study, as well as two cops looking for the money... Nikos Zapatinas' whimsical comedy was a huge success in the greek box office. Duration: 96'

MLB Lecture Room 2

Fri 10/26/01
6:00 p.m.

Peppermint
(Peppermint)
1999
 

An aircraft engineer receives an invitation to a reunion from a childhood friend. This makes him reminisce about his past in 1960s Athens, from his childhood mischief to the first parties of his adolescence and his doomed first love for his cousin, whom he will now meet again after 30 years... Kostas Kapakas' first feature film is a nostalgic trip down memory lane beautifully recreating Greece of the 1960s. Duration: 105'

MLB Lecture Room 2

Sat 10/27/01
6:00 p.m.

Edge of the Night
(Αυτή η Νύχτα Μένει)
1999
 

Stella and Andreas, a young couple, try to make it in present-day Greece of unemployment, illegal immigrants and closed horizons. From the malt shops and rooftops of Athens to the snowy mountains and cheap clubs of rural Greece, their life moves through trains, buses, stations, freezing hotel rooms and nights with booze and bouzouki music, with female singers-call girls and demanding customers, with boxers-writers and milkmen-philosophers but also with real killers and real guns. Nikos Panayotopoulos bases this uncompromising look on today's Greece on journalist Thanos Alexandris' autobiographical book. (Viewers are advised of adult content.) Duration: 117'

MLB Lecture Room 2

Sat 10/27/01
8:00 p.m.

Balkanisateur
(Βαλκανιζατέρ)
1997
 

Comical road movie about down-to-earth Stavros and wild Fotis, friends and co-owners of an unsuccessful bar in northern Greece, who set out together to make some fast cash through a semi-legal operation involving international exchange rates. Their dilapidated old car will take them from Greece to Bulgaria to Switzerland amidst their constant disagreements and their hilarious interactions with the people they'll meet down the road... Sotiris Goritsas' witty portrayal of Balkan and Western European mentalities and dynamics was a huge box-office hit in Greece. Duration: 97'

MLB Lecture Room 2

Sun 10/28/01
8:00 p.m.

Cheap Smokes
(Φτηνά Τσιγάρα)
2000
 

A young man waiting for something to happen in an almost deserted Athens in the summertime meets a girl who has just had an argument with her boyfriend and convinces her to spend the night with him walking around the city. During their walk, they will come across a mosaic of characters: a small-time crook longing for his teenage love, two novice mobsters oppressing their artistic inclinations, two unrepentant middle-aged bachelors in search of the infallible method of scoring women, a coffee shop owner who likes to recite poetry, a couple whose eleven-year relationship is challenged by the presence of a bodybuilder... Renos Charalambidis directs and stars in this offbeat comedy with a romantic heart. (Viewers are advised of adult content.) Duration: 87'

MLB Lecture Room 2

Organized by:

• Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE) >
• UM Modern Greek Studies Chair >
• Greek Film Center >
• UM Hellenic Student Association >
• Foundation for Modern Greek Studies >