Exarcheia: An inside story (post-production)
Supported by EKKOMED (Greek Film Center).
The film Exarcheia: An Inside Story is a feature-length documentary that tells the social history of the Athenian neighbourhood of Exarcheia, one of the most important centres of kinetic action in the world, at a time when it is perhaps fighting its greatest struggle, that against gentrification.
Through a multi-layered approach based on urban political geography, flooded with images from the “battlefield” of the changing urban space, the past is revealed in the present and the future is envisioned through archives, audiovisual documents, and the testimonies of the protagonists (activists, anarchists, historians, social scientists, artists, shopkeepers, assembly members, representatives of institutions, etc.). The documentary reveals the unique resonance that the history of the neighbourhood of Exarcheia has (may have) even beyond the borders of Greece and explores the reasons why the area is one of the best known centres of movement action in Europe.
Scientific discourse and direct cinema highlight the diverse physiognomy of the area, beyond and above the “myth” that romanticizations and stereotypes of decades have woven around the mere mention of the word “Exarcheia”. The narrative is structured on the dialectical juxtaposition of past and present, testimony and “silence”, public and private, institutions and self-organization, autonomy and control.
Exarcheia is reduced to a microcosm, highlighting the global resonance of gentrification, touristization, and an institutionally organized plan for the regeneration of public space. On the one hand, assemblies fighting for what Lefebvre calls the “right to the city” (state-funded housing, universally accessible public spaces, citizen participation in city planning and an institutional framework of protection against the displacement of “locals”) and on the other hand, investors, shopkeepers, landlords, who support change. Recalling the historical, cultural and social fabric of the area, we critically examine how these new developments are, if anything, reshaping the identity of the neighbourhood.
