SPONGE DIVERS OF THE AEGEAN

Danger and defying death has its own beauty for some people.
It is grand and courageous.
The Kalymnian sponge divers start when they are eighteen and devote
their lives till they are thirty-five to their difficult and tough profession.
In this documentary, filmmaker Demetres Anagnostopoulos
takes a brave dive into the "sponge job" as Kalymnians call it,
including all the factors that linked this profession to an entire island
and this unique human race.
Starting from Kalymnos, their island, and its surroundings,
the boat yards where they built their boats, the traditional ways of sponge diving
and the testimonies of the protagonists, captains and divers hit
by the divers' disease, and moving on to show the sponge manufacture,
the world-unique museum where they guard their tradition,
and the folklore artists who chronicle it in their own way.
This is a short clip of the 80' documentary which earned
the First Prize at the EcoCinema 2003 Rhodes International Film Festival.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• SPONGE
• DIVERS