“We are the canaries”
VR non fiction, 2022-today

Team: Director and writer; Marianna Plomariti, Creative Director; Nikos Eftstratiadis,
Status: Early development
Duration: 15 minutes
Technology included: Animation, game development (Unity), spatial audio, photogrammetry
Description:
"We Are the Canaries" is a VR experience that immerses the visitor in the role of a symbolic canary in a mine—trapped within the consequences of unchecked human activity. The experience begins in the darkness where you embody the fragility of life in the face of environmental and societal collapse. Guided by the narrator, a former resident of a ruined mining town, you follow an intimate journey through their memories, spanning from nightfall to dawn. Through their eyes, you witness the gradual destruction of their hometown and its people—once a vibrant community, now erased by the very industry that sustained it. As the narrator shares stories of joy, betrayal, fear, and hope, you explore the remnants of this world, engaging with everyday life and community rituals.

“Citizens4environment”,
testimonial video & interactive design, 2021-2023

Role: communication and digital lead, visual briefings for the interactive platform ecodialogues.gr, director and script
Description: The project "Citizens for the Environment: Education as a Tool for Effective Public Participation and Decision-Making" was part of the Active Citizens Fund, implemented by WWF Greece (project promoter) in partnership with the Open Technologies Alliance. Its goal was to enhance the sustainability and capacity of the civil society sector in Greece, while strengthening its role in promoting and safeguarding democratic procedures, active citizenship, and human rights. The project outputs included an interactive platform, participatory labs, video testimonies for the targeted audiences and stakeholders.
Video description: In the video of the interactive educational workshop (virtual camp), representatives from seventeen (17) local environmental groups share their experiences with us. The participants were informed about their environmental rights and the legal framework for public participation. They discussed the challenges they face in decision-making processes, jointly explored potential solutions or improvements to the existing public participation framework, and had the opportunity to meet each other and exchange experiences from their active involvement.
Video’s duration is 9minutes and was a WWF and Dotmov production, Nikos Eftstratiadis camera and editing.
Screenings:The video was hosted and porjected by EEA Norway Grants network, projected in several stakeholder events

“Be Activated”
short documentary, light projection & short videos,

2021-2022

Roles: Project leader (communication and digital strategy and implementation), production, direction and camera
Duration of short documentary: 8 mins
Production: DotMov, Nikos Efstatiadis, WWF, Europe Beyond Coal
Description: "Be Activated" was an awareness campaign about clean energy and the benefits of citizen participation in the energy transition. It ran for one year and was funded by WWF and Europe Beyond Coal. During the campaign, where I served as project manager and creative director, we produced a short documentary (where I was director, writer, and camera operator), short videos for social media (writer and editor), three light projections (camera and installation), and several visual materials included a smart guide
The campaign achieved total organic reach 796.999, impressions 702.962
Screenings: WWF social media, events
Visuals: short documentar, stills from light projections & videos (see below and click the images)

Europe Beyond Coal meeting event,
performative activism, 2019

Role: performative activism (design, concept, implementation, video production, photography)

Descprition: I designed a performative act that united the Europe Beyond Coal Network with local Greek communities affected by the devastating impacts of coal mining. This initiative aimed to amplify their voices and create a social media buzz around the urgent need for a Just Transition. The day before the main event, I produced together with Greg McNevin (Head of comms) a video with drone where we placed messages across the damaged village following by discusses.
Screenings: Broader media coverage across Europe (Euractiv, Energy Transition, DW)

“Just Transition Eastern and Southern Europe”,
photography, documentary production 2018-2021

Role: European Communication Coordinator, Photographer, Documentary Producer
Description: The "Just Transition Eastern and Southern Europe" programme was a European project co-designed by WWF Greece, Germany, Poland, and Bulgaria. It aimed to promote transformative pathways for job creation in coal and lignite-dependent economies in Greece, Bulgaria, and Poland, identify the necessary financial tools for implementation, and create an active network of various actors (trade unions, local authorities, civil society, universities, etc.). This network contributed to integrating Just Transition as a key component of national and European policies, further establishing social justice as a core European value.

As producer, I covered a range of diverse task for the documentary On Just Transition.
Over two years, I traveled through coal mines, producing photos for national and international coverage. Selected links from publications:

“Lignite Witnesses”
Short documentary series, 2018

Role: Director, editor, camera, script
Duration: 10 mins
Production: WWF, WhiteRoom
Description: "Lignite Witness" was an awareness campaign about the catastrophic effects of coal and the benefits of clean energy. We produced five short documentary videos (2 minutes each) about lignite power plants in Greece, highlighting the environmental and public health impacts and the path forward. These videos were distributed through the WWF and Europe Beyond Coal networks and translated into three languages.
Screenings: WWF network social media, national media coverage

“Apo to mikro sto Megalo”,

historical documentary TV series, 2018

Description: Documentary series of 30 episodes (35 min) about Greek renowned scriptwriters and cartoonists.
Production: Scriptwriters Guild of Greece for the Hellenic Parliament TV
Role: Camera, production assistance in
episode: Lakis Michaelides. Info
episode: Napoleon Eleftheriou. Info
episode: Giorgos Lazarides. Info
episode: Ilias Skoulas. Info
Screenings: Hellenic Parliament TV

Violence against news persons (VAN) Project, 2018

Role: Research, conduction of interviews, cameraperson, editor
Description: An observatory on violence against, not just journalists but on the entire news production community. Developed and curated by the European Communication Institute with the support of the European Parliament teams up with the Media Governance & Industries Research Lab of University of Vienna,  J.A.J. and S.E.E.M.O.
Production: ECI

Lappas Award,
Short documentary, exhibition 15’, 2017

Role: cameraperson, editor
Duration: 15 minutes
Description: A film about the first art residency in Greece, in honor of the professor and sculptor George Lappas.
Production: A collaboration between the Athens School of Fine Arts and Elmin Bauxites S.A.
Screenings: 2017, 3 day exhibition at Technopolis in Gazi. Find more about the 3-day exhibition here

“Griechenland - Ein Land und die Krise”, 56’, TV documentary, 2015

Role: Camerawoma
Duration: 56 minutes
Production: University of Vienna for ARD, ORF and 3SAT
Descr iption: Filming pre/post-elections Greece, from major greek cities across the country, with a main focus on the expectations, beliefs, attitudes and thoughts of everyday greek citizens during the above mentioned time period.
Screenings: ARD, ORF and 3SAT

Research & academic

2019 - SIR Project, The Importance of Appearances: How Suspects and Accused Persons are Presented in the Courtroom, in Public and in the Media

In the two years between 2017-19 the Hungarian Helsinki Committee and its partners (Aditus, Athena Research and Innovation Center:Fair Trials Europe, Human Rights House Zagreb, Mérték, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and University of Vienna) worked together to increase knowledge and sensitivity to the presumption of innocence among professionals and the public. I worked as a coder and quality analyst for the Greek Media Report. Specifically about how suspects and accused persons are presented in the Greek media and how Greek and European laws affect the professional journalistic codes of ethics of the Union of Athens newspaper editors.

Info about the project here
Info about the Greek media report here

POLK Project , 2014 -2018

Journalistic cross media project (2014-2018). The project attempted to highlight in a digital environment the unsolved murder of U.S. reporter George Polk in Thessaloniki, an incident described as one of the blackest pages of Modern Greek history. The particular project undertaken by the university of Vienna students’ team, aspires to present a digital narration of the controversial case in an effort to connect the historical past with the new era of journalism.

The digital storytelling achieved by means of interactive public discussion among journalists, researchers and laymen alike.

Role: research and analysis, planning, script writing, visual design and archive digitisation

2013 -2016 “Documentarism or how journalism creates art”

Academic Research, and Thesis for University of Austria,Hosted on ECI and SIX PACK FILMS online archive portals (for the year 2017). This study analyzes the way the images can been transformed from shifting information to a node of matter that can influence the audience, the society, even the politics, via the mode of journalistic documentary and visual art.

Role: research, quality analysis, writing, visual documentation

Read the full study here

Read the summary here