Herstories: My Roots narrates the story of 6 women living in Greece, in 2022. The women share their stories through memories, instances in their lives and experiences, while crossing paths in the cities of Athens and Thessaloniki.

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In the film, we meet:

• Agapi Koffidou, a woman that was abused as a child, that left her home in Xanthi as a teenager, spent years on the streets and on benches, saved her mother from horrible domestic violence, worked hard for 35 years and was the first delivery-woman in the 80's.

• Elena Toutoudaki, a literature professor in Athens, a lesbian, a mother of a single-parent family, an activist in the lesbian movement and a self-taught musician, among other things.

• Lauretta Macauley, a civil-war refugee from Sierra Leone, an activist, the founder of the organization United African Women. She has been living and working in Greece for 38 years, while learning to read and write in Greek.

• Ioanna Gertsou, a psychologist, working at a public hospital in Athens, with total vision impairment, an activist on disability and human rights issues, the founder of the first guide-dog school in Greece, currently working on her PhD and walking around the city with Babou, her dog.

• Fotini Sianou, a feminist, an activist for peace, non-violence and women’s rights issues. A woman who started from Ptolemaida, went to Australia and then back to Greece, who has been “in and out of prisons”, who travels and politically “organizes” people around the world, talks to trees, cats, protests without shame and shouts for equality in marches.

• Mariya Drangou, a woman born in Bulgaria, formerly homeless, now working at the street magazine “Schedia” in Thessaloniki. A woman that in her attempt to survive, starts her own business, who constantly goes back and forth in the city carrying magazines for sale. She starts in the morning, gets on and off public transport, stands upright in the street as a saleswoman, while listening to the birds.

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Women who converse with death, pain and upheaval throughout their lives. 

Women who, through their survival mechanisms, have transformed into skillful acrobats between the 'ins' and the 'outs' of society. 

Did they bend? Were they afraid? Did they find their balance? Did they fall? Did the rope bear their weight? 

The documentary highlights the story of six completely different women, unfamiliar with each other, records their personal testimonies in the collective memory and follows them around as they attempt to change the world. 

 

Researched – Written – Directed by Wilma Meniki

Additional Cinematography – Video Editing by Eirini Chatzi

Music – Original Composition by Penny Biniari