Prism - Giorgos Moutafis

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The Prism GR2011 is a collective documentation of Greece the winter of 2010, a multimedia experiment exploring new formats of non-fiction narratives and multimedia journalism.

The Prism is the creation of Nikos Katsaounis and Nina-Maria Paschalidou, both documentary filmmakers, producers, and friends.

In the winter of 2010, with Greece in the midst of a financial and social meltdown, Nina and Nikos returned home after having lived abroad for many years.

Their desire was to tell the story of the tormented country they witnessed through a new type of narrative. Through a process of creative collaboration and documentation, they put together a group of 14 photojournalists and videographers, mentoring and enabling them to make the transition to a multimedia storyteller.

Here you will find the outcome of the experiment: 27 multimedia stories, as echoed through the voices of people from various walks of life that have been affected by the crisis. In this critical time, we have the capacity to share stories from different perspectives like never before. The Prism GR2011 fuses these stories together with the hope that they allow us to reflect upon who we are.

The films will be gradually uploaded every week. Later this year, a feature-length documentary film will be woven together from all the short multimedia stories in a first attempt at open-source documentary filmmaking.

Please sign up to our mailing list to get updates of when the multimedia stories are uploaded. Become a fan on our facebook page and tell your friends if you like what you see.

What do you see through the The Prism?

Westbound

The geographic position of Greece, at the south- eastern edge of Europe, right above North Africa and surrounded by the Mediterranean, makes it a natural gateway to Europe for people that try to cross over from a number of different countries in search of a better future. Other European countries describe Greece as "the gate of illegal immigration to Europe".

According to the Ministry of Citizen Protection, the number of immigrants that have crossed into Greece has reached the number of 128.000 in 2010. Most of them enter through the border of Evros, in northern Greece, and also from the islands opposite Turkey.

The Greek State claims that the number of immigrants entering the country is no longer sustainable and that the problems caused by overpopulation, especially in urban centers such as Athens, where many immigrants settle, need to be addressed. For these reasons, the Greek State has announced its intention to build a fence across the border of Evros which, along with the presence of FRONTEX border security, will allegedly prevent great numbers of immigrants from entering the country.

While European legislation for the identification of the State responsible for the applications of those who seek asylum has become tighter since the implementation of the Dublin II regulation, the humane treatment of people that have often suffered the ordeal of deracination is becoming an ever-growing challenge for Greece and immigrants alike.