Well in Greece !

The Oscar-nominated short documentary “4.1 Miles” directed by Greek student Daphne Matziaraki is to be screened at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Wednesday, March 1

The screening of the documentary, which depicts the drama of the refugee crisis on the island of Lesbos at its height, was organized by the Greece’s permanent UN representation, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the “New York Times. It   portrays  a day in the life of a Greek coast guard captain on the island of Lesbos, who is caught in the middle of the biggest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

It will be attended by Matziaraki herself and the protagonist of her documentary, coast guard officer Kyriakos Papadopoulos, the captain of a vessel that was involved in the rescue of thousands of refugees that crossed the stretch of water between Lesbos and Turkey’s shores to reach Europe.

Speaking to the ANA from the Oscar awards ceremony on Monday, where Matziaraki’s film was among the contenders for the 2017 Oscars, Papadopoulos noted that “even if the Oscar was not given to ‘4.1 Miles’ the story that took place in the Aegean in which the men of the coast guard played the lead role and saved thousands of human lives, a story that is not over, became known to the ends of the earth. And no one can now say they didn’t know.”

Film already won the Student Oscar

Earlier in last year,  in September 2016, Matziaraki’s film won in the documentary category of the Student Academy Awards, in which the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selects the best student films in the country. The Student Oscars were held in Los Angeles.

The Academy has voted 17 students as winners of the 43rd Student Academy Awards competition. 

Matziaraki said that even though she felt the media was “over-saturated” in its coverage of the refugee crisis, she wanted to tell a different side of the story. “As a Greek filmmaker I felt there was something missing from the coverage. I wanted to make a film that would capture the strength and determination of the unknown heroes working tirelessly in an impossible situation.”

Matziaraki’s hope has always been that the award would  help get her film before a wider audience. “I’m excited by this opportunity because I believe this is one of the most pressing humanitarian crises of our times,” she had said while recieving the Students Oscar .

(source: ana-mpa)