Dimitra Zirou
Director
Dimitra Zirou was born in Athens, Greece. She studied Film and Photography at the University of Illinois in Chicago and did her Masters degree at the Université de Paris I in Ethnographic Cinema, with French director Jean Rouch. In 2001 she did a Masters degree in Interactive Multimedia at the University of Westminster in London. She taught Photography at T.E.I Athens (1988-1999) and at the Aegean University (2001-2002). She was a correspondent to the Pan-African Film Festival FESPACO (1993-2005) and has published numerous articles and photographs on African Cinema. Since 1998 she has been researching, and photographing the indigenous people of arctic Europe, the Sámi and the Aurora Borealis.
Filmography
2021: INTO THE LAND OF ICE AND FIRE, a feature-length documentary inspired by the modern life of the indigenous Sámi in Arctic Norway.
2018: SUDAMÉRICA - THE THOUSAND COLORS OF LIFE, a feature-length documentary, inspired by a 17,135 km journey of the Greek NGO Green Project, from Colombia to the Land of Fire. Under the auspices of the Greek National Commission for UNESCO.
2007: "Gal dat Oahppá go stuorrola - A School Development Project in Sápmi", an interactive feature documentary with the children of the Sámi natives in arctic Sweden.
Awards / distinctions
2021: INTO the LAND of ICE and FIRE was selected and presented as a Work-in-Progress as part of the “Thessaloniki Goes to Cannes” event at the Cannes Film Festival in July 2021.
2019: SUDAMÉRICA - THE THOUSAND COLORS OF LIFE El Rey Award: El Espíritu de España at the BIFF International Festival Barcelona 2010.