The Old Greeks

Book excerpt: How should the people that initiated a journey be remembered? What obligations arise as a result of their passing away? What role do films and photographs play in the process of memorialisation? Drawing on the events surrounding the arrival of the author's family in Australia from Cyprus, The Old Greeks traces how film and photography serve as toolkits for making sense of the experience of migration - at the level of everyday life and creative practice. 'The cinema is not just an art, a culture, ' Jean Mitry once wrote, 'but a means to knowledge...not just a technique for disseminating facts but one capable of opening thought onto new horizons.' George Kouvaros reveals how deeply the perceptual and emotional displacements that define migration are embedded in the forms of thinking produced by photographic media. Combining techniques and methods associated with autobiography, with those associated with critical analysis, The Old Greeks develops a form of writing that approaches complex social and cultural issues with intimacy. It also marks an acknowledgement that migration and the crossing of boundaries can pave the way for new forms of writing that challenge distinctions between literary genre and style. The outcome can be viewed as a new aesthetics of migration shedding light on the complex forms of human interaction surrounding photography and film