A Xylouris Family Affair

Angeliki Aristomenopoulou has recently visited Australia to make a documentary on the history of the Xylouris family music. The documentary, A Xylouris Family Affair, focuses on the music of three generations of the Xylouris family, which is continued by Psarantonis, his son George Xylouris or, more commonly known as Psarogiorgis, and his children Nikos, Anthony and Apollonia.

The Xylouris family has very close ties with Australia. The camera also recorded one of the most unique moments of the family when all three Xylouris generations went on stage for a series of performances in the Golden Plains, Womadelaide, Sydney and Castlemaine Festivals.

Aristomenopoulou has undertaken the documentary’s direction. She has created a number of documentaries filmed on behalf of ET3 under the general title, World Musicians. The Australian production company Unicorn Films is also involved in the production of documentaries in Australia.

The history of the most famous family of Crete, starting from Psarantonis and continuing with his son Psarogiorgis and his children, unfolds through the documentary.

This 70-minute feature documentary follows the Xylouris family for a period of two years as it travels from Crete to Melbourne and back, on a grueling concert tour and an attempt to deal with the spiraling difficulties of the musical profession.

The film captures how music is passed on from father to son to grandchildren, in a contemporary Greek-Australian family, brought together and apart by their love of music.

The documentary, which is going to be completed in early 2014, is one of the rarest Greek projects supported financially by the public and through an international funding platform called Kickstarter. Through the website specially created for the family and the film, creators invite people to participate actively in both funding the documentary and in the search of rare archival material.