"Dimitri
Vorris's DECEMBER RIOTS arrives like a storm that signals the times
are a-changing again and that as a world we're on the cusp between
despair and hope."Amos
Poe, Filmmaker, Leading figure of the No Wave Cinema Movement,
"UNMADE BEDS", "THE FOREIGNER", "SUBWAY
RIDERS", "EMPIRE II", "THE GUITARS", "ROCKET
GIBRALTAR"
"December
Riots is important, timely, and hits it's mark. Acclaimed Greek-born
filmmaker Dimitri Vorris has beautifully interwoven fact and fiction,
to create a dramatic tale, that is both horrifying and
thought-provoking".Christopher
Martini, Director-Producer "The Stone Child",
"Trooper"
....Police
violence. Interpersonal relationships’ violence. A looted country
in despair. Seven characters trapped in an arthouse movie theater. A
countdown to extinction...Three years before the movement of the
“indignados” and OCCUPY WALL STREET there were “December
Riots”.
«DECEMBER
RIOTS», is a feature length film written, produced and directed by
Dimitri Vorris, was in post-production, while a new wave of riots
swept Greece on June 29th, 2011. The film's epicenter is the
cold-blooded execution of 15 year-old student Alexander Gregoropoulos
by two policemen in a downtown Athens café on December 6, 2008.
"December Riots," a film about the Gregoropoulos killing,
an
incident that sparked riots in over seventy cities and twenty-two
countries aound the world including the US,
is produced, and directed by Greek-born Dimitri Vorris. The
filmmaker acquired exclusive access to many never-before-seen court
documents and evidence from the trial that followed Gregoropoulos’s
killing.
Based
on a real incident -the director himself was trapped on December 8,
2008 in a downtown arthouse movie theater during the 2008 riots-the
independently financed, claustrophobic thriller, that was filmed
entirely on location in Athens, Greece, focuses on a group of seven
characters, Europeans and Americans, trapped in an art-house movie
theater during the 2008 riots. 23 year-old newcomer British actress
Lucy Lemos, Duncan Skinner, Fanis Katechos (“El Greco”), prolific
actor Avraam Papadopoulos, popular comedian-director Nikos Giannikas
anchor a youthful and talented supporting cast that includes Vivian
Ioannou, Aris Athan, Nasos Pappas, Michael Angels, Louise Rheas, Aris
Pappas, Maria Floratou, , Kostas Antalopoulos, Christina Mani
(narrator).
Additional
footage was filmed in late June 2011, while the film was being
edited, when violence again erupted in Constitution Square. A new
sequence with haunting and shocking images of Greek riots has been
added.
“...people
have not forgotten about Alexander or his senseless killing.There
is still fury and rage that needs to be purged and there are still
questions that need to be answered. While one film can’t answer
the myriad of questions and dilemmas, ’December Riots’ honors
Alexander’s memory and I do hope filmgoers worldwide are going to
see through the film a new perspective on the systemic corruption and
the looting of Greece. What's happening in Greece, is happening, or is about to happen
everywhere else; Greece is just the canary in the mineshaft!."
