documentary filmmaker
GIRLHOOD
Three teenage girls find refuge in their friendship as they struggle with gender expectations, eating disorders, and an addiction to social media amid a long, emotionally stifling quarantine in Greece.
Credit Director, Filmmaker, Cinematographer, Editor, Script Location Greece
Duration 30 mins Producer Onassis Culture Year 2021
GIRLHOOD follows Vera, Christina and Nefeli, three seventeen-year-old girls i who come of age during the pandemic. From the first frame, we’re invited into their worlds as they talk about their frustrations and dreams. These intimate, sometimes painful conversations are threaded with the Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok videos shaping their self-image in quarantine.
Tough, responsible, and mature beyond her years, Christina shares a room with her brother, helps her mother with the housework, and yearns more than anything to gain her independence. Vera is insecure about her weight and longs for acceptance, while also yearning for a more inclusive world. And Nefeli discovers feminism and stops hanging out with boys, while she escaped through books and social media.
This coming-of-age story shows teenage girls trying to figure out how to love themselves as they transition from girls to women in a society that remains deeply patriarchal. Even as their faces are glued to a screen during quarantine, they find refuge in their friendship as they finish school and begin the road to adulthood.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT: "We wanted to capture how the pandemic’s isolation shaped the ups and downs of adolescence for three girls who come of age in a society that remains deeply patriarchal. We want to get people to think about the pervasiveness of everyday sexism; to show how subtle and harmful it can be, and its lasting impact on girls’ lives; to spark honest, necessary conversations about how girls and boys are raised."
AWARDS
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3rd Award for Best Documentary Short at Docfest Greek Documentary Festival
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Honorable Mention Best Documentary Short/Kids & Docs section, at Olympia International Film Festival for Children and Young People.
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Award of Distinction – Canada Shorts - Canadian & International Short Film Fest.