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GreekReporter.comAustralia"Real Connection with Greece" Article on Greek Cinema in The Age

“Real Connection with Greece” Article on Greek Cinema in The Age

An article coined “Reel Connection with Greece”, by Australian newspaper The Age is dedicated to Panagiotis Yannoudes.  He brought Greek cinema to homesick migrants in Melbourne.

Please find the full article below:

Peter Yiannoudes has dreams for his somewhat musty office located behind his treasured asset, the art deco Palace Westgarth in High Street, Northcote. He fancies the space as a mini-museum of film history, ‘‘to show how we used to do things’‘.
When it comes to movies, Yiannoudes is a sentimental bloke. As a teenager in Limassol, Cyprus, he worked as an assistant projectionist at the local cinema.
And soon after arriving in Australia in 1956, he began importing Greek films to nourish the homesick hearts of postwar migrants.
At one stage Yiannoudes and his partners owned eight movie theatres in Melbourne – we have the Greeks to thank for the survival of cinemas such as the Westgarth, the Astor in St Kilda and the Sun in Yarraville.
Ethnic theatres began closing after video arrived on the scene, but Yiannoudes clung to the Westgarth ‘‘because it was an emotional way of life’‘.
Once a month, for old times’ sake, he screens a nostalgic Greek flick for elderly patrons in the suburb. Decades ago, Greek migrants flocked to the 1429-seat auditorium two or three evenings a week. And they rallied around film across the country, shunning TV for celluloid communion.

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