By ALESHA CAPONE
A GREEK-speaking great-grandmother is enjoying her new-found fame after starring in a documentary.
Natalie Cunningham has made a short film about her beloved grandmother Giannoula, who emigrated from Greece to Australia during 1955.
The movie, titled ‘You know what? I love you’, was shot in Sunshine and has screened at festivals across the country.
“She really loves it and is really enjoying it,” Ms Cunningham said of her grandmother’s reaction to the film’s success.
Giannoula, who was born in 1918, was delighted to let her 27-year-old grand-daughter spend hours interviewing her for the documentary.
Ms Cunningham said Giannoula was under strict instructions to look at the camera during filming and focus on the lens – but her grandmother’s generous personality dictated otherwise.
“We would be halfway through a story and she would turn to the cameraman and say, ‘Do you want a cup of coffee?’” Ms Cunningham said.
“She was more concerned about us and our comfort and whether we’d eaten that day.
“The thing I enjoyed most was the chance to sit down with her and hear her tell stories and know we were filming and would have a record of it, also for the family.
“She had endless stories about life in the village, what she was like as a little girl, her mum who passed away when she was in her late teens and how her mother made her dresses and the friends she used to play and also the mischief she used to get up to.”
The resulting 10-minute movie has been selected for the Palm Springs International ShortFest and Film Market,the Melbourne International Film Festival and the Down Under Berlin Australian Film Festival.
‘You know what? I love you’ will also be screened on 21 November as part of the Greek Film Festival in Melbourne.
The documentary has also won a swag of awards from the Victorian College of the Arts, where Ms Cunningham is completing her masters degree.
See http://greekfilmfestival.com.au for more information.
