Invented Memories: Notes on Filming Industrial Ruins in Eleonas, Athens

ABSTRACT

Filming relies heavily on architecture and other material manifestations, especially when written histories provide little information about a place, as in the case of Eleonas in Athens. Narratives are conjectured in an attempt to deal with disembodiment. But what do built forms, and especially ruins, actually account for when being filmed? This essay uses the area of Eleonas as a case study to contemplate memories - real, collective and invented - through the practical issues involved in the making of a film. It underlines the need for cinematic narratives that lie in the margins of conventional history writing.

Keywords:

• memory
• industrial ruins
• Eleonas
• filmmaking
• scriptwriting
• disembodiment

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ektoras Arkomanis

Ektoras Arkomanis teaches history and theory of architecture in the Sir John Cass School of Architecture, London Metropolitan University. His main body of research revolves around cities and film. In 2014, he completed his debut feature film, Another London. He is currently researching and filming his second film, about the area of Eleonas. He publishes essays about the history of architecture (Architecture: The Whole Story, Thames and Hudson, 2014; Sir Banister Fletcher's A History of Architecture, 21st edition, forthcoming, 2015) and essays and reviews for the online and printed versions of Film International magazine.