Pavlopetri Watch Day and Eco-Marine Film Festival in Greece on July 19-21

ATHENS – For the fourth year, ARCH International will present Pavlopetri Watch Day: a three-day event raising awareness about the ancient underwater city of Pavlopetri, Lakonia. The free events are held in Neapolis and Elafonissos, July 19-21.

For the first time this year, Pavlopetri Watch Day includes the Pavlopetri Eco-Marine Film Festival, organized in collaboration with the Athens International Film Festival. Visitors will have the chance to watch films and documentaries about the marine environment, join a fun walk/run/bike event, and participate in guided underwater snorkeling tours at the ancient city. The program follows:

Pavlopetri Watch Day Program

Friday, July 19

11 AM Children’s Activity, Neapolis Museum of Archeology. A discovery game for children through the Museum.
7 PM Screening of documentary Akra by Dimitra Babadima
9:30 PM Screening of documentary Guardians of the Aegean by Omiros Evangelinos

Saturday, July 20

11 AM Guided snorkeling tours of Pavlopetri archeological site in Greek and English.
7 PM Screening of film Akra Malea by Nikos Dayandas, produced by the 5th Ephorate of Antiquities for the Neapolis Archeological Museum.
8:30 PM – Welcome remarks by Mayor Efi Liarou of Elafonissos. Presentation by Despoina Koutsoumpa of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities, Greek Ministry of Culture: Update on Management Plan for Pavlopetri.
9:30 PM – National Geographic’s Drain the Oceans: Legends of Atlantis -screening with Greek subtitles.

A scene from the film Akra Malea which will be screened as part of the Pavlopetri Watch Day and Eco-Marine Film Festival. Photo: Courtesy of ARCH International

Sunday, July 21

8 AM Fun Walk/Run/Bicycle Ride from Neapolis Limanaki to Pavlopetri.
11 AM Screening of Disney’s children’s film Finding Nemo, dubbed in Greek.
7 PM Screening of films by winners of the International Ocean Film Festival 2019 Student Film Competition: six short films made by middle school and high school students. Simultaneous translation into Greek.
9:30 PM Screening of A Plastic Ocean, a full-length documentary about how the ocean is polluted with plastic trash and the effect on marine species. Simultaneous translation into Greek.

All screenings will be held at the Limira Mare Hotel Conference Center in Neapolis, Lakonia. The admission to all screenings is free.

More about the films

Akra (2019, 52′)

A man dives into the sea to swim 140 kilometers. His dream is to put Kastellorizo, the easternmost island of Europe, back on the Greek map. This journey will teach us how to succeed until we fail and how to start fighting, once we fail and until we succeed again.

Guardians of the Aegean (2016, 87′)

Τhe five-year odyssey of filmmaker Omiros Evangelinos while sailing on board a former fishing caique, through the islands of the Cyclades, investigates the matter of overfishing and the struggle of artisan fishermen throughout the Aegean Sea. Along the way, the news of a conservation project initiated by Pierre-Yves Cousteau brings Omiros and his crew to Santorini Island. There they witness Pierre’s efforts in uniting the local fishermen with scientists and local politicians for the creation of a Marine Protected Area, one of the few bottom-up conservation initiatives in the world.

Akra Malea (2018, 20′)

A journey along the coast from Plytra, through Pavlopetri, to Monemvasia, examining important archeological sites along the way. Produced by the Ephorate of Antiquities of Lakonia for the Neapolis Museum of Archeology. The film is directed by Nikos Dayandas.

Drain the Oceans: Legends of Atlantis (2018, 47′)

The documentary by National Geographic explores evidence of underwater cities, which may be ancient archaeological sites or accidents of geology. Advanced underwater scanning systems, scientific data, and art digital recreations show the sites as they are today, while artists recreate how they looked in the past. Pavlopetri is one of the featured sites.

Screening with Greek subtitles.

Finding Nemo (2003, 100′)

Nemo, a young clownfish is captured and taken to a dentist’s office aquarium. It’s up to Marlin, his father, and Dory, a friendly but forgetful regal blue tang fish, to make the epic journey to bring Nemo home to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. The beloved children’s film by Pixar was nominated for four Oscars — and won Best Animated Feature. It also led to a sequel (Finding Dory).

The film is dubbed in Greek.

Award-winning Films in the Student Film Competition of the International Ocean Film Festival

Pavlopetri Eco-Marine Film Festival will screen six short films, shot by students, which won awards at the Student Film Competition of the International Ocean Film Festival in 2019. The films that will be screened are:
Crashing Waves, by Kendra Leigh D. Osias, 8th Grade, Philippine Science High School-Eastern Visayas Campus, Philippines.
Turtle Crisis, by Chanya Veeranopparat, Punwa Weerapakkaroon, Tattiya Saipetch, 8th and 9th Grade, Pathomtham Homeschool, Bangkok, Thailand.
Our Ocean, by Audrey Cheng, Noel Ayala, Avery Nordenfelt, Ally Flegel, Alayna Woodruff-Milner, 6th Grade, The Hamlin School, San Francisco, California, USA.
Why Seagoers Hate the Color Purple, by Kaden Anderson, 10th Grade, El Molino High School, Forestville, California, USA.
Plastic Sea, by Gabby Goss, 9th Grade, Bishop O’ Dowd High School, Oakland, California, USA.
A Piece of Heaven on Earth, Jesslyn Tristan, Febby Valencia, and Jeanette Eileen, 11th grade, Santa Laurensia Senior High School, Tangerang Selatan, Indonesia

The films will be screened with simultaneous translation into Greek.

A Plastic Ocean

A Plastic Ocean begins when journalist Craig Leeson, searching for the elusive blue whale, discovers plastic waste in what should be pristine ocean. In this adventure documentary, Craig teams up with free diver Tanya Streeter and an international team of scientists and researchers, and they travel to twenty locations around the world over the next four years to explore the fragile state of our oceans, uncover alarming truths about plastic pollution, and reveal working solutions that can be put into immediate effect.

The film will be screened with simultaneous translation into Greek.

The ancient city of Pavlopetri

Pavlopetri is the oldest underwater city in the world. It lies in Vatika Bay, and it is submerged at a depth of two to three meters between Pounta beach and the small island Pavlopetri, north of the island of Elafonissos.

It was discovered in 1967 by Nicholas Flemming, an oceanographer from the Institute of Oceanography at the University of Southampton. A year later, together with professor Angelos Delivorias from the Ephorate of Antiquities in Sparta, they mapped and traced back Pavlopetri to the Minoan times, over 5000 years ago. What they discovered was a city with carefully laid out streets, residential neighborhoods with gardens, a harbor with warehouses, government buildings for administration, temples and for the departed, an area with chamber tombs chiseled into stone.

The archaeological site suffers from the pollution of Vatika Bay, primarily caused by large commercial ships that anchor in the Bay, shifting sediments, small boat anchoring, and looting.

Some info about ARCH International

ARCH International is a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC, focused on promoting, protecting and preserving cultural heritage. Its team consists of archaeologists, historians, engineers and lawyers, among others.

After the continuous effort of the Greek Chapter of ARCH International, Pavlopetri was included on the WMF’s list (2016-2018) of endangered monuments in the world. The World Monuments Fund is one of the most important international organizations for the protection of cultural heritage. Since then, the Greek Chapter of ARCH International organizes a Watch Day, in order to facilitate discussion on the protection of Pavlopetri. The Greek Chapter of ARCH International also succeeded in having the prestigious marine environmental organization Mission Blue designate Pavlopetri, Vatika Bay, and the surrounding Myrtoon Sea as the first Hope Spot in Greece, in recognition of its endangered status and the threatened marine environment.

Pavlopetri Eco-Marine Film Festival and Pavlopetri Watch Day are organized in collaboration with the Athens International Film Festival, the support of Mission Blue, and media sponsor Cinepivates.

More information about ARCH International and Pavlopetri is available online: archinternational.org and pavlopetri.org, and on the Facebook pages:

Pavlopetri Eco-Marine Film Festival: https://www.facebook.com/Pavlopetri-Eco-Marine-Film-Festival-451718282287972.
Greek Chapter of ARCH: https://www.facebook.com/greekARCH/.
Follow ARCH on Instagram: @arch_international.
Follow Pavlopetri Eco-Marine Festival on Instagram: @pavlopetriecomarine.