Close-Up and Serpentine Galleries are delighted to present a selection of Menelaos Karamaghiolis’ films. Karamaghiolis works in Athens, producing feature films, documentaries, artist films, installations and radio-movies which star real-life neglected heroes and transcend frontiers and stereotypes to serve as an essential tool for dialogue and social change. He is also the founder of Døcumatism, a group of artists, educators, researchers, and filmmakers who aim to find solutions and raise awareness about crucial social issues through the power of cinematography. Karamaghiolis is currently working on film installations and live events for the ongoing collective community projects the AfroGreeks and Greekies.

Programme 1: ROM
With Menelaos Karamaghiolis in attendance

ROM
Menelaos Karamaghiolis, 1989, 75 min

ROM, Menelaos Karamaghiolis’ award-winning 1989 documentary, was hailed as “a turning point and landmark for Greek documentary film history.” In 1979, the UN recognised the Romani tribe by its ancestral name, ROM. A decade later, this daring documentary pioneered in using the term for the first time in the Greek public sphere and attempted to give a true picture of the Romani people in Europe, following four different paths expressed by four narrators.

The Teacher presents the roots of the Roma, analysing rare historical references as though reading from the margins of history. The Photographer documents in pictures the present reality of a people who have never had a written tradition or an official history. Tamara guides us through ancient myths, stories, and terrors that express an entire common history, while Aima introduces us to the gaze of a new generation that looks to the future, seeking a new identity tied to the present day.

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Programme 2: Short Films
With Menelaos Karamaghiolis in attendance

A selection of Menelaos Karamaghiolis’ short films from 1986 to today. In addition to feature-length documentary and fiction, Karamaghiolis’ practice encompasses artist films that often foreground stories of invisible, everyday heroes, located within the ongoing crises that define the social fabric of Greece. His short films weave together an underground, alternative narrative of the country’s history, told through unpredictable testimonies and apocalyptic images of a land in which the past and the present are perpetually clashing.

Mrs Dankbar Speaks Through Me,1986 - 2023, 4’43 min
Reminiscences of an Unprocessed Leather Technician, 2015, 16 min
No One Will Kill You, Anymore Than If You Were a Corpse, 2019, 14 min
Maradona in Search of a Home, 2012-19, 14’10 min
#noborders, 2019, 3’14 min
My Home (Under the Bridge), 2012, 4’52 min
The AfroGreeks - Prologue, 2015-23, 14 min

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This programme is supported by Rodeo, London/Piraeus