The Cinematheque

“Any image you create runs the risk of becoming decorative. I want to avoid decoration … Poetry is my weapon—that is: voice, speech, and writing.”

Nanos Valaoritis

Nanos Valaoritis has been called the most important poet of the Hellenic diaspora since Constantine P. Cavafy. This intimate documentary portrait of Valaoritis and his wife, American surrealist artist and writer Marie Wilson, in the last years of their lives reveals a secret world full of wisdom and feeling. Sifting through his artifacts and vast memory, Valaoritis tells stories of his many encounters with artists and intellectuals such as Nikos Kazantzakis, André Breton, William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, and Francis Bacon. He also shares his thoughts about his passion to create. ​“Valaoritis is reflected in the cinematographic lens, weaving personal memory into space and time. A personal microcosm, containing multifaceted manifestations of a creative life” (Thessaloniki Documentary Festival).

The March 31 screening of 01 will be introduced by Eirini Kotsovili, senior lecturer in the SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies at SFU.