HELBI

Based on genuine archive material, stories and interviews with film directors, researchers and historians who have studied the phenomenon that brought waves of Greeks to the shores of America in the early 1920s, “The Journey: The Greek Dream in America,” by Greek film director Maria Iliou, tells a fascinating story. Iliou, who won awards as the director and scriptwriter of the film “Alexandria” at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 2002 and at the Houston Film Festival the same year, left Greece for the USA on a Fulbright scholarship in 2003. While researching a film on 1913 Smyrna, Iliou saw there was a wealth of material on Greek immigrants in search of the American dream. With her history adviser, Haverford College professor Alexander Kitroeff, Iliou made the documentary with the non-profit organization Proteas that she herself founded for the purpose of preserving archives in cooperation with major cultural organizations. In cooperation with the Hellenic American Union and Proteas, Iliou is presenting the premiere of her film on Monday, January 22, at 8 p.m. at the New Benaki Museum (138 Pireos), in the presence of Parliament Speaker Anna Psarouda Benaki and the museum’s director, Angelos Delivorrias. After that the film will be screened at the Benaki Museum (1 Koumbari, Kolonaki), as of January 23 until February 25, daily except Tuesdays, at 2, 3.30, 5.30, 7, 8.30 and 10 p.m. every Thursday. It will also be shown at the Hellenic American Union (22 Massalias, Kolonaki) on February 6, 13, 20 and 27. Also at the Benaki’s Koumbaris Street building will be a photography exhibition, sponsored by the Jamaris family, the Lucy Foundation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Onassis Foundation, the I.F. Costopoulos Foundation, the Catsimatidis Foundation, the National Bank and Vouli Television.