If I go out walking with my dead friends- Rita Mboumi Pappa (GR)- Aleksandra Corovic (Germany)- Alkistis Kafetzi (Greece)
The Institute for Experimental Arts presents the video-poem “If I go out walking with my dead friends” directed by Aleksandra Ćorović & Alkistis Kafetzi, based on a poem by Ritta Boumi-Pappa from the book “A thousand murdered girls” which was published in 1964.
Ritta Boumi-Pappa (Syros, 1906 – Athens, September 8, 1984) was a Greek poet and translator and also a member of the Academy of Athens. She was born in Syros and at the age of 20 she settled in Syracuse, Sicily. During her stay in Italy she studied Pedagogy and specialized in the Montessori method. She collaborated with many magazines and worked in several newspapers, including “Avgi”. She made her first appearance in literature in 1929 with the poem “My little Bum …” which was published in Nea Estia. She translated works by many foreign authors, such as Samuel Beckett and Victor Hugo. Her poems have also been translated into foreign languages. She was a leftist artist and she had taken active part in the Antifascist Resistance during WW2.
If I go out walking with my dead friends
Poem by Rita Boumi-Pappa
Directed by: Aleksandra Ćorović & Alkistis Kafetzi
Script by: Aristoteles Chaitidis
Camera & Editing: Alkistis Kafetzi
Sound Design: Konstantine Margaritis
Model & Voice Over: Aleksandra Ćorović
Translation: Eleni Fourtouni
Produced by +the Institute for Experimental Arts and
commissioned by the art platform filmpoetry.org
as part of the Digital Culture Programme, Ministry of Culture / Greece
Director’s note
The poem “If I go out walking with my dead friends” belongs to the book “A thousand murdered girls” which was published in 1964. The book consists of 65 poems, each named after a woman who was sentenced to death for participating in the Greek Resistance against the Nazis. “If I go out walking with my dead friends” is a humble memorial for the female heroines mentioned in Papa’s verses but also for today’s freedom fighters. It rings the bell in the consciences of people, pointing out the risk of suppression of freedom within a decaying social system. The past and the present are connected through a visualized dramaturgy of associative patterns. The human body becomes a canvas on which mankind paints its struggles and battles. Its reality is caught in confrontation between projected values and societal demands. How do society’s proceedings reflect on the individual experience?
Aleksandra Ćorović was born in 1986 in Herne, Germany. She studied drama at the Music and Arts University of the city of Vienna. Together with Aristoteles Chaitidis she produced several theatre plays since 2016. She currently performs at Burgtheater in „Die Bakchen“, directed by Ulrich Rasche, in „Oxytocin Baby“ at Schauspielhaus in Vienna and in „Elektra“ at Berliner Ensemble, Berlin, both plays directed by Rieke Süßkow. She received several international awards for her performances, such as the award „Actress of the Month“ at the TMFF-Festival for her performance as Sara in the short movie „Fantasten“, directed by Willi Kubica in 2017. Ćorović lives as a freelancer in Vienna. “If I go out walking with my dead friends” is her directorial debut.
Alkistis Kafetzi is a filmmaker and video artist who lives in Berlin, Germany. After finishing her studies on theatre and film (National Kapodistrian University of Athens) she moved to Germany and works as a freelancer filmmaker. She has been a steady collaborator of the Institute for Experimental Arts and the theatre director Taso Sagri since 2011, working as a video artist for their theatrical productions („Dying as a Country” 2012, “Psychosis 4:48” 2013, “Night” 2017, „Metamorfosis”2020). She made her directorial debut with the short documentary “Unterwegs” on 2016 which was screened at Tirana International Film Festival. The last five years her work has been shown in several art exhibitions and film festivals around Europe (Missing Nature at Illuseum Berlin (2020), Surfaces Festival – Places | Venice (2018).
Aristoteles Chaitidis was born in 1981 in Munich, Germany and grew up bilingual in Munich and Thessaloniki. He studied Literature and Philosophy and later got actively involved in artistic projects. Producing his own theatre plays since 2016, he currently is involved in several film projects mainly as a writer. He lives in Berlin.
