John Sooklaris’ Latest Video Crete 1961

I just had an email from John Sooklaris that said:
Ray, If I had realized that these movies that I sat and watched when I was a kid, and fell asleep to, as my father would show them to all of our relatives, time and time again, would create such interest in the world, I would [...]

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Celebration at Agia Triada 1961

This is another of Anthony Sooklaris’s movies published by his son John Sooklaris.
I think that John is a little confused about the whereabouts of this movie but I see it clearly as at the monastery Agia Triada, the monastery of the Holy Trinity in Akrotiri. I don’t know if the day was a special celebration [...]

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O Pramateftis – Iraklion 1961

This next video is taken in Iraklion in 1961. It has been posted by John Sooklaris but the man behind the camera is his father Anthony Sooklaris. They visited Crete on a ship sponsored by the Pancretan Society of America in 1961.
This film shows Iraklion very well. You clearly see the old market in Iraklion [...]

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Film of Hania in 1961

In 1961 a cruise ship called the Queen Frederica set out from the United States to visit Crete. On board were a large number of American Cretans coming to see again – or see for the first time, perhaps, their homeland.
Luckily, one man had what we used to call a Super 8 movie camera. The [...]

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Another clip from Zorba

This is another clip from Zorba, the film starring Anthony Quinn and Alan Bates, where Zorba dances until he is exhausted. In this clip we see the real attempt to display the exuberance of Cretans.

Thanks for all your responses on the last clip. This clip tells more of the story.

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Zorba’s Dance.

I really love this clip from Zorba the Greek. It is the final moments in the film following the enormous disaster that Zorba caused running logs from the monastery on top of the hill down to the sea. The clip is taken on Stavros bay in the Akrotiri peninsular. Anthony Quinn is Zorba and Alan [...]

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Romiosini – The Memory

I wrote an article a while ago called Romiosini, the soul of Greece and I don’t know how many of you read that article. But it was for real. I spent some time back in the sixties and seventies working on what I had discovered as the soul of Greece. For English people coming to [...]

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Carnival Day

Tomorrow is clean Monday, the first day of Lent and the day that all Greeks go and fly a kite on the beach or a high hill. But today, today was Carnival Day. Here are some pictures of our local carnival in the town of Kalives, Hania.

These are a few of the well dressed locals [...]

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Spring Has Arrived In Crete.

Although yesterday was a tad cloudy in Hania, we decided to hunt for spring in the Amari valley – 500 metres above sea level. Around two weeks ago we had a cold snap that was part of the worst cooling period in February for fifty years – all across the northern hemisphere. Yesterday in the [...]

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Joni Mitchell – Star of Crete

I have to say here and now that I am a great fan of Joni Mitchell. The posts that I have written here regarding her time in Crete and the video of the song Carey that I placed a week or two ago have generated so much response that I think that perhaps readers of [...]

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