31 October and 1 November 2009

Venue: the Hellenic Centre, 16-18 Paddington Street, Marylebone, London, W1U 5AS

FREE workshops

If you have 1-Day Pass (for the day of the workshop) or 3-Day Pass

you can book for free a place in our workshops!

To book a London Greek Film Festival

1-Day or 3-Day Pass, please click here.

To book a place at the workshops,

please sent an email with your short CV at:

workshops [at] londongreekfilmfestival.com

(please, replace [at] with @ symbol to send email

and write the title of the workshop in the subject)

limited places available; workshops offered on a first come first served basis

Saturday, 31 October 2009, 13.00-15.00

Body Awareness & Acting

How we prepare our bodies physically, mentally, sensually, emotionally before acting? How we can be focused, concentrated, aware & the same time relaxed, grounded and effective front of the camera? In this two hours workshop we will experience through physical theatre exercises and Reichian body techniques (breathing, grounding, relaxation, concentration etc), how we can easily unblock the different parts of our bodies and how we can relate with our instrument to be present at the moment, concrete, balanced and effective. Simple techniques you can use also in your daily life. Please, bring with you comfortable and warm clothes, yoga mattress, socks. Tutor: Depi Mavropoulou*.

Sunday, 1 November 2009, 13.00-15.00

Surprise me!

How to verbalise a concept and transform it into a film that is worth making (script, direction, acting, production); a seminar of ideas, screenplays and intentions. The workshop includes a short time presentation of the ‘Movies don’t grow on trees’, an alternative training in film making; also a presentation of a short movie [ 15’] [ temporary title ‘The Caller’]- supported by mo. do.gr.on t. from the development till the final cut, by Bill Calamakis and some dramatized scenes from our scripts. Tutor: Barbara Dukas**. Guest Tutor: Leon Herbert***.

* Depi Mavropoulou studied Political Sciences (University of Athens-Greece) and theatre (Veaki & Stanislavski drama schools-Athens). Post graduated in body psychotherapy & counselling to the Greek Institute of Vegetotherapy & Character Analysis (Wilhelm Reich Centre). Trained (Greece-Germany) into energetic therapies (bodywork, channeling, reiki, mind control, meditation, etc) and she has taken part (Greece-France-UK) into many theatrical seminars with actors and directors. She has acted on theatre, TV, cinema, has been producer of radio shows, and has cooperated with theatrical magazines. In 2002 she created the "Energy Theatre Training"(=combination of body theatre & body psychotherapeutic Reichian techniques) in which she also teaches, leads group of self-awareness and she works as a psychotherapist individually, while she is being trained to the Family Constellation of Bert Hellinger. Since 2007 she cooperates with Laura Mannila (Finland) by creating the performance «Character Portraits» based on the characters of Wilhelm Reich, which got presented in Finland and France, and still goes on to European theatrical festivals & conferences of psychology. She has tutored to the Turku Arts Academy to the department of acting and direction, while she cooperates with the college of artists Oriveden Opisto (Finland) together with Laura Mannila by leading group to the topic “Body Awareness and Creativity”. From the autumn of 2009 she will work at London leading “Energy Theatre” workshops in different places.

** Barbara Dukas is an actress, director and educator. She played as an actress in a number of greek plays and movies and directed a number of theatre plays in Athens, Greece and New York. In 1990 she established with many other artists and collegues, the theatre company 'SELANNA' in Athens, where she remained as art director till its inactivation in 2000. She worked as an assistant director in documentary Greek films and TV and an art consultant in documentary pre-production in cable TV. at U.S.A. She was the director of the Film Department and the Cultural Academy of the Private Vocational School "Akmi" from 2005-2008. She has been involved with cultural education since 1986. Teaches in art schools and seminars, actors and drama students, Greek Tragedy and her method in Theatre Anthropology: 'Approach in Lament' and 'Deliation of Body Unconcious' recently developed in a Personal Development Training for young artists [ P.D.T. System ]. She was also a teacher in 'Basic Principles in Direction' in the graduates of the University of Athens Theatre School and from this year in 'Mikro Polytechneio' Adults Educational Centre, in Athens. Together with her partner Stathis Paraskevopoulos (Media Consultant and Script Editor) recently established the Cultural Creative Company Para.site. art , and the alternative training workshop in cinema 'Movies don't grow on trees'.

*** Leon Herbert (director, filmmaker). Leon is a passionate exponent of the Uta Hagen method, in which he was immersed while studying at RADA under Doreen Cannon. He has been in the movie business for 27 years both as an actor and filmmaker. His roles include Scandal, Aliens 3 and Batman and most notably as the first black Jesus Christ. After a successful acting career Leon turned to writing and has written 11 feature screenplays and directed numerous plays. He inspires and supports young filmmakers; as a result he has produced nine short films. In August 2005 he completed his first feature film Emotional Backgammon, a romantic thriller set in London. He is currently in postproduction with another feature film ‘Rene Dubois’, a noir detective story. His latest feature film is a street version of Julius Caesar and is currently in preproduction.