Stella Grammenos-Dimadis Blog

  "Our creativity is what enables us to function, day to day, in a changing environment, without it we would not be a surviving species". Richard Hill ‘The Art In Healing’ explores the role that creativity and art  play in people’s lives, particularly when personal trauma occurs or when people are afflicted by natural disasters. The inspiration for the film came about by contemplating the questions; ‘Why is art such an important aspect to civilisation and our society’? and ‘Does the human brain benefit from interacting with art, and if so, how’? From these questions a number of people offered their experience and research, especially in describing brain plasticity and the ability of the brain to rewire after an artistic experience. ‘The Art In Healing’ showcases a number of professionals, ranging from art therapists Simona Weinstein and Cornelia Elbrecht, therapist Richard Hill, musicians, Merelyn and David Carter, artist, Dr Anne Riggs, street artist, Amanda Newman...

'Kindle a light in darkness' "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.' Carl Gustav Jung, 1962 The world as we know it has disappeared forever, and there will be a different world, it may be a better one or not, we can only wish, but in this dystopian time we have the ability to make the changes that will be needed to make it a better one.  I liken it to an all evolving work of pottery, that is spinning and shaping well, until it doesn't anymore and it collapses in a heap; huge mess.  This is what our world could be doing now, spinning, moulding, but collapsing in front of us.  It is probably time to envisage what a perfect world will look like, and what is needed to shape it into a utopian world.  It could be the time to ask and reflect on what is needed to make that happen.  It is up to us, ultimately, possibly as a collective, but inherently, the respon...

The Academy's failure, yet again, to nominate a female director. "There's been a slow death in a way. On the positive side, there are films getting into the Academy Awards that wouldn't have, but on the negative side, financiers are now dominant and making all the decisions. I can't count the ways a director's vision is compromised." Lili Taylor I opened my computer and settled to continue working on my feature script about a 'disentranced' woman in a world that could be ours, but dare not admit that it is.  'Disentranced' is the title of the film.  I love this word for it basically means:  To awaken   from a  trance   or  deep sleep;  to  arouse   from a  r everie .  Unfortunately I wasn't able to write as I very quickly got diverted by the nominations for the 91st Academy Awards, which have been released today.  I watch a lot of films, intrigued by the way performances are brought to life through di...

Freedom and the Migrant Experience " The secret to happiness is freedom...And the secret to freedom is courage." Thucydides 460-395 B.C The online series, Migrant Stories, is about to conclude with anther two interviews to go and then it will be a few months in the edit suite to complete Series 4 & Series 5.  In May last year, I committed to the idea of creating a series of Migrant Stories, inspired mainly by the stories that we were losing and not recording here in Australia due to the ageing population of Migrants, considering so many came to Australia during the Post War years.  I figured I would dedicate 12 months of my filmmaking time to do this- and this I have done.  With the last of the interviews to be aired between April and May of 2018. In all, there will be 30 stories.  At this stage, I wanted to share that there were a number of common threads between each and every person that was interviewed, and to take a moment to reflect on this. ...

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." Walt Disney I just got back from attending the screening of Memories of a Doll at the 11th Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, which was absolutely amazing and held at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.  Thank you to everyone that helped bring this program together.  It was unforgettable!  It is such a joy to see a film that you had vehemently supported, come to life on the big screen.   Coupled with the 11th LAGFF, I also attended the Produced By conference in LA, which is run by the Producer's Guild of America.  It was the second time that I had gone to this conference and for the second time the conference didn't disappoint.  This year it was held at Fox Studios and always such a great place to be whilst learning about film, for it's surrounds allows you to be a total dreamer about the future of ...

Migrant Stories "I grew up in an immigrant neighborhood. We just knew the rule was you're going to have to work twice as hard." Lin-Manuel Miranda Twice as hard in anything that you have to do, that is what being a migrant is all about.  I arrived in Australia as a baby, so in a lot of ways, it is as if I was born in this  country, but not quite.  I lived in a world that was inherently Greek, with a work ethic that was austere, and as a little girl I had to follow suite to make sure that I was able to keep up.  My parents worked in factories, as hard as any other migrant who arrived in Australia.  They had a goal, and that was to save for a house, for without owning a house the rest cannot follow, priority number one.  Priority number two fell on me, and that was to study hard.  "Να διαβάσεις"  Sometimes I had to create extra work for myself, pretending that Enid Blyton was on the curriculum, or that the poster sprawled...

Lifting Clouds  Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides. -Lao Tzu Director's Statement-Lifting Clouds For the past few years I had been thinking about the definitives in life.  But, no matter how hard I thought about it, there were no ‘definitives’ as such, except one ‘definite’, and that was, once we were born, we were all on the way to a death of    some sort.  It was such a grim thought, but, it was what got me thinking about the types of deaths that humans have and whether there could be some control with the way that humans die.  After all, there is control in every other aspect of the human life, so why the persistence in leaving human deaths to chance, particularly when they are imminent and obvious.  Pets’ deaths, when they are terminally ill,  are not left to chance.  Pets are surrounded by their family, swaddled in blankets and love for their final goodbye.  Yet humans...