the fortress
(context)
Chania is the most important town of western Crete, built on the eastern part of Chania bay, on the site of the ancient town of Cydonia. The town existed till late Byzantine period, when it was totally destroyed by the Saracens (828AD).
After the raid of the Arabs, the settlement was rebuilt, but remained a small and insignificant town. Because of the strategic position and the fear of the Saracens, the Byzantines built a new fortress on the hill now called Kastelli.
The Venetians, whose interests were well served by the town, rebuilt and inhabited the city in 1252. They first settled the Byzantine hill of Kastelli, where they built the Cathedral of Santa Maria, the prefect’s palace and the residences of the Venetian officers. At the foot of the hill, various settlements of Greek handicraftsmen started developing, which were called burgs. The burgs were destroyed in 1266 by the Genoese general Obertino Doria.
…. more on Chania fortress’ long history here – http://www.cretanbeaches.com/Fortresses/Castles/the-castle-of-chania/ – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chania
the LAByrinth
(scenario structure)
Crete / birthplace of the labyrinth / Daedalus, architect of king Minos for Knossos….
A labyrinthine structure of the enclosure will be the starting point of our scenario pitching… following a thread of Ariadne in the multiple (schizophrenic) identities of the built structure, a narrative unfolding through story-telling, from the mountains to the cost of the island, reporting one by one the possible existences and destructions of the LAByrinth…
The film and the ‘architectural prop’ will develop simultaneously, each being the subject and object of the other, in a dissociative-identity-disorder scenario…
Ariadne(s)
film series / the Double (splitting identities) / every evening film screening on our theme… (list in progress)
– Persona (Bergman)
– Mirror (Tarkovsky)
– Vertigo (Hitchcock)
– 3 Women (Altman)
– Tropical Malady (Weerasethakul)
– Celine and Julie go boating (Rivette)
– Mulholland Drive (Lynch)
– Sybil (Petrie)
– All about Eve (Mankiewicz)
– That obscure object of desire (Bunuel)
– Eyes without a face (Franju)
– The face of another / The man without a map (Teshigahara)
– Sleepwalk (Driver)
– Rashomon (Kurosawa)
– Last year at Marienbad (Resnais)
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