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My Rembetika Blues: A Film about Life, Love, and Greek Music

Mary Zournazi

My Rembetika Blues
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About

Rembetika music or the Greek blues is a music born of exile and the streets, developing its roots from the mass migration of people in the early twentieth century. Filmmaker M. Zournazi traces the journey of her forebears from Smyrna in Turkey to Sydney Australia but discovers more than family history – she finds out how music connects people during times of struggle and crises. By weaving together different stories of music and migration, My Rembetika Blues documents a wealth of experiences that are often left out of the chronicles of history.


Reviews

"A film that reveals the core of Rembetika that only a Greek from Australia could see. A strong and beautiful film." – Renos Haralambidis, Greek Director
"[A] rare documentary that covers its subject – Rembetika music – so thoroughly documenting its "sound", history, locations, and evolution interviewing performers, scholars and more, but (filmmaker Mary Zournazi) totally engages us by making this her personal journey to discover more of her mother's heritage which co-exists with Rembetika history from Turkey to Greece to Egypt and Lebanon and on to Australia." – Andrew Horton, Professor Emeritus of Film & Video Studies, University of Oklahoma

Film Links

DER Filmmaker Bio: Mary Zournazi DER Podcast: Mary Zournazi on My Rembetika Blues

Subjects:

Credits

Written, Directed & Filmed by
M. Zournazi

Produced by

Tom Zubrycki


Co-producers

Greek Film Archive

M. Zournazi


Editors

Peter Crombie ASE

Sam Zubrycki


Original Musical Score by

K. BHTA


Sound Mix

David McCarthy

Zig Zag Post

Learning Resources

Historicizing My Rembetika Blues: Perspectives on the 1923 Population Exchange

PDF

My Rembetika Blues Viewing Guide

PDF

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