ASKI is the most important historical archive, with an emphasis on social battles and politics during the 20th century. The camera followed ASKI’s people and activities for a period of eight months.
Featuring:
Spyros Asdrahas, Vangelis Karamanolakis and Ioanna Papathanasiou.
Camera - Sound:
Elias Giannakakis
Screenplay & Directed by
Elias Giannakakis
The Contemporary Social History Archives (A.S.K.I) is a unique institution. The basis of the collection was half part of the Archives of The Greek Communist Party, which had been taken to Romania after the Party’s dissolution in 1968. The other half is still kept in the basement at Perissos (the Greek Communist Party headquarters), where access is granted only to die-hard party members and not to researchers.
On the other hand, the ASKI collection, which was expanded along the way, is open to researchers from all across the political spectrum.
I got to know Ioanna Papathanasiou and Vangelis Karamanolakis (chief members of the ASKI staff, at the time), when they helped during the research for my film on “Makronisos”, by generously providing me with a lot of documents and photos, as well as with some very useful advice.
Therefore, the choice to make a “Paraskinio” film on ASKI was obvious.
The shooting lasted for many months. In the ASKI office I got to meet Spyros Asdrahas, Angelos Elephantis, Elias Nikolakopoulos, Polymeris Voglis (who offered great help during the preparation of “Makronisos”) as well as with a younger historian, Tassos Sakellaropoulos, with whom we became good friends and associates, just as it had happened earlier with Ioanna and Vangelis.
Filming the documentary for ASKI was a memorable experience.
