Small Planet Documentary Production Company

The documentary "Stealing from the Poor" received the Best Foreign Film award at the 9th International Maritime Film Festival, which was held in St. Petersburg, Russia, from the 23^rd to the 26^th of April. This is the 31^st international award for "Exandas", the most internationally acclaimed, Greek documentary series, created by Yorgos Avgeropoulos.

"Stealing from the Poor" was filmed in Senegal, where pirate fishing perpetrated by huge industrial vessels belonging to developed countries is depriving the inhabitants of this West African country of their main source of subsistence. "Stealing from the Poor" sheds light on the unknown aspects of a huge pirate industry which commits a crime in your dish!

The international market's ever-rising demand for fish has driven European and Asian fishing fleets towards the coasts of West Africa. Hundreds of industrial pirate ships are fishing illegally in the territorial waters of the states of the area, destroying all forms of marine life and condemning millions of Africans to poverty and hunger.

"Stealing From The Poor", a documentary by Yorgos Avgeropoulos, is participating in the competition section for medium films at the 8^th International Al Jazeera Documentary Film Festival. The documentary's screening will take place tomorrow Saturday, the 21^st of April, at 11:00 a.m.

The festival's 8th edition will be held between the 19^th and the 22^nd of April, in Doha, Qatar. Its' target is to become a platform, where filmmakers from all over the world meet and exchange experiences and knowledge.

"Stealing from the Poor" was filmed in Senegal, where pirate fishing perpetrated by huge industrial vessels belonging to developed countries is depriving the inhabitants of this West African country of their main source of subsistence. "Stealing from the Poor" sheds light on the unknown aspects of a huge pirate industry which commits a crime in your dish!

The international market's ever-rising demand for fish has driven European and Asian fishing fleets towards the coasts of West Africa. Hundreds of industrial pirate ships are fishing illegally in the territorial waters of the states of the area, destroying all forms of marine life and condemning millions of Africans to poverty and hunger.

Having already received 5 international awards, “Life for Sale” by Yorgos Avgeropoulos is honored with another one, this time in neighboring Italy. The documentary received the Second Audience Award, at the 8th Film Festival “Cimameriche”, which took place during November 30-December 8, in picturesque Riviera di Levante.  

The First Audience Award was granted to «Waste Land», by Lucy Walker, Joγo Jardim and Karen Harley, (Brazil/UK 2011), while the First Award of the Jury Committee was granted to «MERICA», by Federico Ferrone, Michele Manzolini and Francesco Ragazzi (Ita/Brazil 2007).

“Cimameriche” is a colorful festival, organized by the local community of East Liguria, a place with particular environmental, social and cultural features. It is realized with the support of RAI, and of the authorities of Genova Prefecture and Liguria District. The organizers of the festival think of cinema as an artistic moment that contributes to the beauty of differentiality, to the mix of different cultures through immigration and to the enrichment of collective human experience.

‘Life For Sale’ examines the biggest water market in the world, set up in Chile. Where the country’s water resources do not belong to the state but to private individuals and one company can own an entire river and possess a quantity of water as big as Belgium. A place where water has turned from a public good of life to property and a ‘water right’ can cost as much as a house. Even in the Atacama desert, which is considered the driest place on the planet, the mining companies – big owners of Chile’s longest river, the Rio Loa – draw immense quantities and use valuable water to wash metals, thus condemning thousands of natives and farmers’ villages to thirst and poverty.

The 6th international prize for “Life for Sale” constitutes the 30th international award in total for Exandas Documentary Series.

“Digital Cemeteries”, the documentary by Yorgos Avgeropoulos, will be screened in Building Bridges Human Rights Festival in Venice, on Saturday December 10th at 16:15.

The Festival is organised by Master’s Degree students of the of the European Inter-University Centrefor Human Rights and Democratisation (EIUC). This year second edition of the film festival is called “Movement“ and is addressing the topics of migration and human rights in the context of Globalization.

“Where does your computer goes when it dies”? That’s the question of “Digital Cemeteries, the documentary that has already won 3 international prizes. Our favourite PC parts contain toxic and carcinogenic materials. Thus, when it stops working, it turns into a dangerous electronic waste which must be recycled following rigid specifications.

Filmed in China, the documentary by Yorgos Avgeropoulos, unveils how developed countries find it cheaper to export their elecronic waste to poorer nations instead of managing it. In doing so, they force billions of people to choose between poisoning and poverty, while the planet’s seas, rivers, soil and air are being irreparably contaminated. Up to 50,000,000 tons of our “digital civilization” ends up illegally in China. In cemetery cities, computers are cut into pieces, rinsed in acid baths and incinerated by legions of impoverished workers and underage children, who tear these parts to pieces with their bare hands for a dollar a day.

With two major screenings in November, in Athens and Brussels, the documentaries by Small Planet Production House return to cinema halls, capturing moments of the contemporary history of our world.

On Saturday, November 26, the documentary “Wonderful Macroeconomics” participates in the International Competition section of the documentary Festival des Libertés, in Brussels. The screening will take place at the Théâtre National at 18:45.

In its eight years of existence, Festival des Libertés (Festival of Freedoms) aims to promote the protection of freedoms and human rights. In this context, this year as well, amid interesting discussions, screenings and other events, the festival hosts artists from around the world, who through their work resist and fight for a better world.

“Wonderful Macroeconomics” was filmed in Guatemala, where the I.M.F. has been present since 1984. During the past seven years, the country has displayed an impressive economic growth that many developed countries would envy. Average growth is almost as high as 4%! However, at the same time, 1 out of 2 children under the age of 5 suffers from hunger and malnutrition. This is the fifth highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world, higher even than that in Haiti, which is by far the poorest country in the Americas. A documentary of shocking contradictions, where wonderful economic figures have nothing to do with real life.

"The City of the Dead Women" in the 1st Panorama Films on Violence Against Women of Athens

"The City of the Dead Women" will be screened on Monday, November 28, at 20:00 in Hall A of the Greek Film Archive, under the 1st Panorama Films on Violence Against Women. The festival is organized by the General Secretariat for Gender Equality and the Greek Film Archive in collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in Athens, in honor of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, on November 25. Through the screenings and the parallel discussions with the creators of the films, the festival aims to contribute to public’s information and to combat discrimination and gender violence.

The Greek director and creator of Exandas Documentary Series, Yorgos Avgeropoulos, will introduce “The City of Dead Women”, while after the screening there will be a discussion with the audience on the documentary.  In 1994, in the city of Juarez in Mexico, a mysterious series of murders began. Up to this day, some 500 young women have been found savagely raped, strangled, butchered and dumped in the desert; a recurring crime that remains largely unsolved. The documentary fits together the pieces of the puzzle of the murders and their impunity, and displays most tragically the extreme and untold consequences of the globalization of the world's markets, this time against women.