It is a little known fact that there were thriving Jewish communities in Greece prior to World War II. The Romaniote communities have been in Greece since the fall of the First Temple in 586 BCE and the Sephardim since the height of the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. It is also a little known fact that 87% of Greek Jews were murdered under the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II. It is important to note that many Greeks risked their lives by hiding Jews or helping them escape deportation.
It was a passion to make these facts more widely known that led Carol Gordon to write a screenplay after many years of intense research. This film script is called ‘Shira’s Journey’ and the story is fiction but the History is real.
Feature films are notoriously difficult to produce so Carol’s passion for the subject matter has driven her to look for an alternate route –
THE SHIRA’S JOURNEY PROJECT.
The Shira’s Journey Project has four main elements:
A Book, a Documentary, a Photographic Exhibition and an Education Package.
Other elements include Public Lectures, Online Events and Educational Tours.
Our VISION for this Project is to share untold stories for a more tolerant world.
Our MISSION is to connect people, cultures and stories via creative and educational platforms.
The VALUES we aim to embrace through this unique project are Respect, Collaboration, Creativity and Diversity.
The Shira’s Journey Project is a non-profit initiative.
The Book:
The script has been published as book in script format and is illustrated with photos by world renowned Photographer and Ethnographer Emmanuel Santos. Emmanuel has documented the Greek Jewish Holocaust Survivors, Jewish places of interest and what remains of Jewish life in Greece today. As food is an important character in the script, the book includes some recipes sourced from the small remnants of the Jewish communities still remaining in Greece.
Synopsis
‘Shira’s Journey’ is a Road Movie -With -A -Difference involving three unlikely travelling companions: Shira, an ex-South African documentary filmmaker from Melbourne; Avram an octogenarian Greek Jewish Holocaust Survivor and his American grandson Jeremy, an idealistic lawyer from New York. On their journey from Corfu to Ioannina, Athens, Volos, Thessaloniki and Rhodos, Avram becomes Shira’s Guide and Mentor and as she learns about the history of the Greek Jews she uncovers her own hurdles to finding happiness, self-actualization and self-belief. Through her blossoming relationship with Jeremy, Shira experiences respect and understanding. Always just a phone call away is Shira’s best friend Sonia with whom she shares her whole life and from whom she receives endless love and support. Her journey through Greece facilitates her inner journey of growth and leads her to understand that she must change within herself in order to leave a destructive relationship. On her return home she changes her life by realizing she is free to choose happiness.
Premise:
When we free ourselves from physical and emotional obstacles that are self-imposed, we can make choices that enable us to fulfill our needs and thus be happy.
Click SHOP to purchase the book.
The Documentary:
The team traveled to Greece in September 2013 to shoot a documentary to complement the book. The documentary is called Following Shira’s Journey: A Greek Jewish Odyssey. The documentary follows the journey of the protagonist in the screenplay. It does not retell the story of the movie but tells the History behind the journey that the protagonist embarks on.
Together with our wonderful Greek Australian Editor and Co-Director – Natalie Cunningham, we have completed the first phase of the Documentary. The film has been screened on Film Festivals worldwide and has been very well received.
The documentary has now been publicly released and can be viewed HERE:
The Photographic Exhibition:
THE JEWS OF GREECE: THEN AND NOW
Οι Εβραίοι της Ελλάδας: Τότε και Tώρα
Photos by Emmanuel Santos have been featured in major exhibitions at the Jewish Museum of Australia in Melbourne, the Sydney Jewish Museum and the Perth Hellenic Community Centre. The Exhibition consists of around 80 magnificent photographs as well as eight screens showing extracts from the documentary. Every section and photograph has curated panels narrating the history of the Jewish presence in Greece as well as captions with descriptions of each photograph.
We hope to take this exhibition to other major centres in Australia and worldwide
The Education Package:
This element of the Project is still in development. The next phase involves translating and subtitling all the interviews we conducted. We will also document the guided tours of the communities we visited. These interviews and profiles, together with the other three elements of the Project, will create an Education Package to be used in schools, Universities, Museums and Institutions.
The educational value of the project will help to create awareness of the history of the Greek Jews and fill a void that exists in Holocaust studies and literature regarding the fate of these communities during World War II.
