Lukas Agelastos is a Greek-German indie filmmaker with a focus on no-to-low budget ("micro-budget") productions. Born in Athens in 1977, he studied Social Studies and Business Administration at Scottish Universities. He began his creative career in photography and video production and then studied Film Directing through the Raindance Masters programme at Staffordshire University in England. He is now a film industry mentor for the Raindance programme.
Lukas often works with his wife, director Spiridoula Gouskou. Their first short documentary "The Unemployed Man Who Feeds the Homeless" (2013) about an Athens soup kitchen went viral on Facebook and YouTube. Their feature documentary about the founder of the soup kitchen "My Human Self" (2017), was awarded Best Documentary at the Festival “Bridges” in Corinth and won the Jury Prize at the Antakya Festival in Turkey. Lukas’s short film “The Line” (2019), travelled to such festivals as Drama, Thessaloniki, Raindance, Foyle (Derry), and received very positive reviews. It is a proof-of-concept for “The Astronaut’s Room”, a social realism project supported by the Greek Film Center.
Lukas often works with his wife, director Spiridoula Gouskou. Their first short documentary "The Unemployed Man Who Feeds the Homeless" (2013) about an Athens soup kitchen went viral on Facebook and YouTube. Their feature documentary about the founder of the soup kitchen "My Human Self" (2017), was awarded Best Documentary at the Festival “Bridges” in Corinth and won the Jury Prize at the Antakya Festival in Turkey. Lukas’s short film “The Line” (2019), travelled to such festivals as Drama, Thessaloniki, Raindance, Foyle (Derry), and received very positive reviews. It is a proof-of-concept for “The Astronaut’s Room”, a social realism project supported by the Greek Film Center.
Lukas and Spiridoula's latest feature documentary "Nowhere to Go" (2022) follows three of the thousands of homeless people in Athens, investigating the state's failure to reintegrate them into society. It premiered in March 2022 in the Official Selection of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival to rave reviews from the Greek press, such as "A blow in the stomach", "It cuts you in half".
As a documentary teacher, Lukas oversaw production for one of his student’s shorts, Barter With Time (2019; dir. Stella Kovoglanidi, premiered at Docfest 2020).
As a producer, he is currently in pre-production for a short film called "Patinage" which Spiridoula is directing and which she co-wrote with award-winning playwright Georgia Pierroutsakou. The short was greenlit by Greek National TV's (ERT) Microfilm programme and is set to be filmed in 2022.
One of his dreams is to make a film based on his time with the Scottish band “Underwood” in the early 2000s.
With the wish that he won't be the only one reading this blog as a personal chronicle of his filmmaking journey, he hopes that it may help film students, aspiring filmmakers, and cinema enthusiasts who are interested in the academic and practical side of no-to-lo budget filmmaking, especially in the sub-genre of Social Realism.
With the wish that he won't be the only one reading this blog as a personal chronicle of his filmmaking journey, he hopes that it may help film students, aspiring filmmakers, and cinema enthusiasts who are interested in the academic and practical side of no-to-lo budget filmmaking, especially in the sub-genre of Social Realism.
Comments
Post a Comment