From the late 1940s until the late 1970s Melbourne was home to a dynamic Greek cinema circuit made up of some 30 different inner-city and suburban venues operated by a handful of vertically integrated exhibition/distribution businesses. Dionysos Films was amongst the first Greek film exhibition/distribution companies to form in Australia and from 1949 until 1956 it operated with little significant competition, establishing the parameters for a diasporic Greek film circuit that stretched across regional and metropolitan Australia and into New Zealand. This article measures the shadow cast by Dionysos Films (and its charismatic proprietor Stathis Raftopoulos) over the history of Antipodean Greek film experiences and the implications that this neglected aspect of Australian and Greek film history has for our understanding of the national cinemas in both countries.
Keywords: migrant audience; foreign-language film; art cinema; cinema-going; diaspora; Greek cinema
Maria Chalkou
Principal Editor
Dimitris Eleftheriotis
University of Glasgow
Dina Iordanova
University of St. Andrews
Vrasidas Karalis
University of Sydney
Lydia Papadimitriou
Liverpool John Moores University
Maria A. Stassinopoulou
University of Vienna
Eleftheria Thanouli
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Deb Verhoeven
University of Technology Sydney
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