EDINBURGH NAPIER UNIVERSITY DOCTORAL (PhD) THESIS Oral Histories, Hidden Identities, Silent Waters: an audiovisual journey to the Greek side of the Prespa lakes Georgios Karagiannakis A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Edinburgh Napier University, for the award of Doctor of Philosophy August 2011 Table of Contents Table of Contents..........................................................................................................1 List of Figures...............................................................................................................2 Abstract.........................................................................................................................3 Introductory Statement..................................................................................................4 Chapter 1.......................................................................................................................5 Chapter 2.....................................................................................................................22 Chapter 3.....................................................................................................................43 Chapter 4.....................................................................................................................60 Reflective Epilogue.....................................................................................................78 DVD ‘Silent Waters’ a 38 min documentary..............................................................83 Bibliography...............................................................................................................84 Filmography................................................................................................................96 1 List of Figures Figure 1. Man with the Movie Camera.......................................................................61 Figure 2. Chronicle of a Summer................................................................................62 Figure 3. Silent Waters: Boat ride...............................................................................62 Figure 4. Forest of Bliss..............................................................................................63 Figure 5. Tempus de Baristas......................................................................................64 Figure 6. Surname Viet, Given Name Nam 1.............................................................65 Figure 7. Surname Viet, Given Name Nam 2.............................................................65 Figure 8. Silent Waters: Dissolve edit........................................................................66 Figure 9. Silent Waters: Rhythm................................................................................68 Figure 10. Silent Waters: Talking with Georgios.......................................................68 Figure 11. Silent Waters: Feast sequence...................................................................69 Figure 12. Silent Waters: Bamboos 1.........................................................................70 Figure 13. Silent Waters: Gutting the fish..................................................................70 Figure 14. Silent Waters: Frozen lake.........................................................................71 Figure 15. Silent Waters: Birds 1................................................................................71 Figure 16. Silent Waters: Birds 2................................................................................71 Figure 17. Silent Waters: Bamboos 2.........................................................................72 Figure 18. Silent Waters: Abandoned house...............................................................72 Figure 19. Silent Waters: Greek state symbols...........................................................73 Figure 20. Silent Waters: The waters speak................................................................73 Figure 21. Silent Waters: The pelican and the blackbird............................................74 Figure 22. Silent Waters: Intertitles............................................................................75 Figure 23. Silent Waters: Studio recording.................................................................76 Figure 24. Silent Waters: Yorgos filming...................................................................81 2 Abstract The documentary film ‘Silent Waters’ along with the doctoral thesis titled ‘Oral Histories, Hidden Identities, Silent Waters: an audiovisual journey to the Greek side of the Prespa lakes’ form the main outcomes from a multifaceted inter-disciplinary practice-based research. The aim was twofold: to produce an ethnographically inspired documentary film depicting the history of the Greek part of the Prespa Lakes and the bilingual communities living in this area, and, to produce a thesis containing a reflective account of both the research process and the creative practice. The reflexivity evident in both the thesis and the film aims to acknowledge the constructed and subjective nature of knowledge. The researcher is therefore situated within the wider context of academic film practice, and the selected case study of the Greek Slavs. The written text and the audiovisual representation deal with personal and collective histories surrounding the formation of Modern Greek identities from the late 19th Century until now. The thesis begins by positioning the researcher within the grand narrative of the Modern Greek nation building, and then provides an overview of the history of the area. It continues with a discussion of inspirational ethnographic films and film- making practices. Thereafter, it presents a diary-style account of the fieldwork. The thesis then describes the post-production process and the editing choices that shaped the narrative structure of the film. It concludes with a reflective epilogue summarising the researcher’s journey within this project. Throughout the audiovisual representation of this extraordinary place and its people, the film interweaves the turbulent history and life stories of the locals with the ‘silent’ waters of the lakes. The film’s structure, non-linear and fragmentary, relies on visual and aural metaphors to create filmic sub-narratives. Apart from the testimonies and the landscape, the film also portrays a feast where local people dance, but do not sing their songs; a reference to salvage ethnography. This film therefore is as much a film about some of the most intriguing Balkan histories, as it is about the lives of its protagonists. 3 I realised the importance of this project when I was almost certain that I would fail it. I weighed the effects it brought me and I was stunned. The way I saw documentary had changed. The way I held a camera had changed. Even my views on basic human rights had changed. But then, I also realised that precisely because I changed, the project did not fail. 4 Chapter 1 I was born in Athens, Greece just before the fall of the military dictatorship of the 1970s, the son of a middle class couple1. My parents enjoyed a university level education. They shared the ideals of modernity, such as rationalism, gender equality and trust in technological advances. Both studied different disciplines of engineering. Their modern convictions were also the result of the fact that, for some years in the 1960s, one of them studied and the other worked in Western Europe. In other words, my family was quite progressive and always supportive towards me, and my upbringing was characterised by the beliefs of my parents. The end of the Colonels’ rule in 1974 was a crucial turning point in Modern Greek history. For the restored Greek republic, this signalled the start of a volatile period of political movement and changes. The country became a member of the then European Economic Community in 1980, and voted the first social democratic government into power in the Autumn of 19812. My first political memory, if I can call it as such, was when my mother took me to the centre of Athens to join in the celebrations of this victory. I state these facts here to provide information about the political landscape that I grew up in, to emphasise the constant change that was -and in some sense is- taking place in the Greek society the last 35 years, something that took place much earlier within the societies of Western Europe. The gradual move towards modernisation of the state structures and apparatus, the move towards a secular state in comparison to the oppressive conservative and almost theocratic state of the past are the two main ways in which Greek society went through this ongoing process of change. This was -and still is- a difficult process, especially considering the nationalistic ideology and racial rhetoric of the past. As the anthropologist Jane Cowan writes: 1 Similar reflexivity is evident in the filmic work discussed later where I speak about myself as a researcher/film-maker and about the research process as being crucial in acknowledging the constructed and subjective nature of academic knowledge. Therefore, in this thesis and the film, I place myself in the wider context of the documentary film discourse in general, and the selected case study of the Greek Slavs of the Prespa lakes in particular. 2 The Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) won an absolute majority at the parliamentary elections of October 1981. 5 Greece,