A moving documentary about Montreal’s legendary Park Extension neighborhood, as seen through the eyes of some lifelong Greek inhabitants, was broadcast on CBC last week.
Return To Park Ex is a candid and bittersweet rumination on Montreal’s Park Extension neighbourhood, once considered as its Greek area.
The neighbourhood is seen through the pensive eyes of filmmaker Tony Asimakopoulos; the son of Greek immigrants, a recovering addict and current resident of the neighbourhood.
At one point there were 25,000 Greeks in the neighbourhood, and now there are less than 3,000. Park Ex was a tight-knit place back then. In the documentary, someone says that if you were heard swearing or seen behaving badly, somebody would inevitably tell your mother, because they knew your mother.
But the documentary is not about blindly sentimentalizing the good old days. Asimakopoulos is keenly aware that tight-knit meant oppressive, and sometimes, intolerant.
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