Cinematek
The Melting World
Cinematek magazine was first published in December 2018 and put Athens back on the international map of film magazines. It is distributed every month for free in the cinemas of Athens and Thessaloniki, as well as selected cultural venues, while it is sent free of charge to its subscribers. It is published in collaboration with Cineuropa.org.
Cinematek special edition: “The Melting World”
In November 2020, and amid a second lockdown, Cinematek issued an open invitation to readers to submit critique articles. Having hosted -as a film magazine- hundreds of reviews, Cinematek decided to reverse the point of view, now that the films seem to have sprung from the screen and become almost an absurd reality.
The inspiration came from the plethora of moments when audiences got to experience reality through movies.
So, the people that are part of Cinematek wanted to make a special edition.
For the first time, it would consist of reviews that would narrate the experience of our current historical moment through the eyes of multiple individuals. In other words, the ultimate goal was nothing but a cinematic critique of reality.
This led to a collective edition of 61+1 reviews. A publication that soothes the experience, opens a discussion on what is happening (to us) and detects both aspects of the real and its cracks.
A cinematic critique of reality.
A tender and courageous memento of a melting world – our world.
Read an excerpt from the book, © Courtesy of Cinematek
Abebe Bikila
Baby, it’s cold inside; echoes from a (social) distance
I can only imagine how Werner Herzog must have felt when he realized that as he was filming “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” in the Peruvian jungle, a German 18 years old girl was fighting for survival in the same Amazonian jungle, profoundly hostile to modern man, and that includes “tree-huggers.”
That was back in 1971, a year like any other, let’s say 2009. I wouldn’t include 2020 on the same list; this must be the year of the dragon.
I suppose it must have struck him; Herzog is really not the type of a man that thinks of “coincidences”. On the contrary, he likes to elevate “coincidences” at the level of a miracle.
What our civilization tediously categorize as “coincidences”, signifiers of nothingness, are actually small miracles of life; they resonate to past experiences and every now and then hint towards the future, if you are willing to tune in, that is.
If you do, congratulations, you just fought back against the evil of the banality of everyday life. As evil as it gets; it buries you while still alive!
Every day is for the miracle maker. Or, the thief.
It is March 2020 now and I would have been shamelessly self-destructive if I were to convince myself that coming across the work of Werner Herzog, right before the beginning of “the winter of our disinfectant”, could have been a mere “coincidence”.
I knew the name, I’ve watched some films, what I didn’t know was the soul of the man, his mystic heart, his brilliant mind; a survivalist by principle who lived in the times of the triumph of the leather sofa!
Let me be honest: I need Herzog more than we need Lars von Trier. Not to be unfair, but the idea of walking for 23 days in order to prevent the death of a friend (a mentor!) is enormously more appealing to me than sitting idle staring melancholic at an extraterrestrial entity that is about to wipe out life on Earth.
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