Symi in the London Greek Film Festival
It all happens at once. First, a new washing machine arrives (great excitement, Yiannis Rainbow, Jenine, Habib and Jan all involved in getting here) and the new novel, The Saddling, is about to come out. We can add to that the news that I have a screenplay shortlisted for the London Greek Film Festival in May, plus the film I co-wrote, ‘The 13th‘ has also been selected for a premiere at the same festival. The next couple of weeks could be very busy. Let’s just draw a breath and look at that in more detail…
The washing machine arrival is perhaps a story for another day. It was all rather sudden and frantic, but it made it to the house thanks to Habib carrying it up from the Olive Tree on his back. No, honestly. More about that another time.
The London Greek Film Festival takes place between 14th and 20th May, and I have two things selected for it. First, the short comedy film I wrote as part of my screenplay writing course last year, titled ‘Red Handed’ has been selected as part of the short film script competition. I was only saying yesterday that I doubt it will be selected, but there it is. Mind you, it’s in with about 14 other short scripts which I am sure are much more serious and less ‘frothy’, more producible and actually written by Greek people, but still… The completion is/was open to all scripts written by Greeks, or about Greece and Greek stories no matter the nationality of the writers or filmmakers. It’s a great opportunity for Greece to be seen and promoted through the medium of film and screenplay, documentaries and other moving-image formats.
The film, as regular readers will know, is called ‘The 13th‘ and my novel, ‘The Judas Inheritance’ is based on my first draft story for this film. The film is different to the book, as films are, but the main set-up and charters are the same. It went through many developments in the scriptwriting phase and then ‘on the ground’ as it was being filmed. I’ve seen it, and it looks stunning, the music, by Michael Bishop, is wonderful, there are a few extras in it who are from Symi (the children who appear in it), and many local Symi folk and residents were involved in its creation here on Symi, where it was all shot.
There is no definite date yet for the screening, that will come in time, and I am sure the Kickstarter backers will soon receive an update. At least I hope they will as not everyone reads this blog or checks that Facebook thing for news. I know that 1066, the production company behind it all, were waiting for some definite news before letting out another update, but now there is news, there should be something formal when more details are known. All we know at the moment is that the film (and my script) are entered. There is a full list of entries here at The London Greek Film Festival website, and I will let you know more news when I have it.
Now it’s back to plumbing in the new washing machine…
But, you can view the official trailer for ‘the 13th’ right here:
