Crete, Greece
Overview
"World Music" documentary team travels to Crete, a joyous greek
island, and feels like …flying when watches the steps of the
typical local dance. In the first part, Leonidas Antonopoulos meets
great musicians who keep the tradition alive, but also those who
dare to experiment with it, inspiring the sounds of the songs and
their lyrics. The documentary follows them to their homes and
villages, to festivals and concerts, especially to places where the
traditional dances and songs of Crete are still alive.
Leonidas Antonopoulos is having an interesting conversation with
the first woman that recorded Cretan songs, Lavrentia Bernidaki,
and also meeting Psarantonis as well as his son Psarogiorgis, the
best lute player in the world. Then he attends wedding ceremonies
at Anogia and celebrations at Kissamos and Lasithi, has a talk with
the most important contemporary rhymer, Mitsos Stavrakakis, bears
witness of the art of Dimitris Sgouros, Stelios Lainakis, Vangelos
Vardakis and Stelios Petrakis. He also encounters the man that
strongly affected musical creativity in Crete, Ross Daly.
During the second part, "World Music" makes a stop at Anogia, the
biggest music tank of Crete, also the birthplace of the famous
Nikos Xylouris. The musical identity of this village has been
created by the famous "Anogian company", that gave this place its
special music style. Leonidas Antonopoulos unfolds the history of
the musical tradition of Anogia through the members of this company
especially their lead lute player Nikiforos Aerakis, who manages to
maintain this long lasting tradition.