LOS ANGELES – The UCLA Stavros Niarchos Foundation Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Centre for Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University present a screening of ‘My Rembetika Blues’ and a discussion with the filmmaker Mary Zournazi on Saturday, December 10, 3 PM, in the Royce Hall Room 314 at the UCLA Campus in Los Angeles.

This event is co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Greek Film Festival (LAGFF) and is being held under the auspices of the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles. Part of the UCLA SNF Center’s collaborative initiative with Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, this event is made possible thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

Register online to attend: https://bit.ly/3Vi06TK.

My Rembetika Blues is a film about the power of music and what makes us human. Rembetika music or the Greek blues is a music of the streets and a music of refugees. The film explores the heart and soul of Rembetika music through peoples’ stories of love, loss and belonging.

Rembetika developed its roots from migrant experience. Mary Zournazi’s grandmother was one of the 1.2 million refugees who fled the Smyrna disaster in Turkey in 1922 and arrived at the Port of Piraeus in Greece. She, like many, became part of a movement of people, and of tradition, which saw the birth Rembetika.

Through its rawness and unique style, Rembetika provides one of the world’s foremost musical accounts of migrant experience. Through Mary Zournazi’s grandmother’s story, Zournazi narrates a personal account of the depth of longing and belonging that is part of the migrant life. By weaving together different stories and interviews, the film looks at the legacies of history and migration, and how music can connect people in times of struggle and in times of need.

Drawing on the parallels of the migrant and economic crisis in Greece, the film explores the revival of Rembetika today, and how it continues to convey everyday life and struggle through the fusion of street music, hip-hop, and other influences such as Byzantine music and the Blues.

The film documents peoples’ memory and experiences that are often left out of the chronicles of history. It is a universal story about love, life and music.

The conversation following the film will include musician Alexis Cohen. A reception will also follow the screening. The film length is 83 minutes.

Film Trailer: https://vimeo.com/536176096

Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/rembetikablues/.

More information is available via email: [email protected].