In Part 2 of an interview with Nicholas Franghias of Ember Frames, we follow the continued journey of the award-winning filmmaker.
Recall that on the eve of Ember Frames’ one-year anniversary, I had the opportunity to speak to its founder, Award-winning Filmmaker Nicholas Franghias, about his life and work. In Part 1, we revealed his journey to storytelling, with all its twists and turns. This time, we’ll look at his early work, which garnered him awards, presented challenges, and led him to a whole new world.
A slight detour
One might think that with Nicholas’ collective experiences and time honing his craft that he sailed right into making films and winning awards. Not exactly. But every experience along the way has informed his work and path forward.
“When I started out 35 years ago, Greece lacked the film infrastructure and outfacing networks it has today,” he explained. So from 1989-2006, he worked in advertising as an agency producer, copywriter, and director. “I created numerous rip-o-matics and directed select commercials and corporate projects.”
Working at major agency added valuable knowledge to his creative toolbox. He described the work as “adjacent to filmmaking” and “a master class”. During this time, he continued to create and develop his own work.
639+1 NIGHTS (1990)
In 1990, the Greek Film Center, Greece’s state film agency, selected his short film script 639+1 NIGHTS for funding. With unpaid leave from the agency to make the film, he wrote, produced, and directed the half-hour drama. Inspired by Nicholas’ military service, the story follows a young man on night guard duty on a remote island, on the eve of war. As listens to news bulletins and music from his transistor, he begins picking up strange frequencies, and the veil between the physical and the spiritual grows thin. The night drifts between reality, memory, and fantasy, as childhood friends, buried moments, and the ghosts of his loved ones appear, awakening him to the invisible battle behind the war.
“This early hands-on experience was valuable,” he said. “The Greek Film Center’s contribution supported the project meaningfully, and I covered the remaining budget through my next two years of advertising work.”
Juggling work and passion
During this time, several of Nicholas’ agency collaborations earned recognition at the annual Greek Advertising Creativity Festivals and advanced to Cannes Lions, the world’s most prestigious event for creative communications. But after five years of juggling his agency work and his creative passions, he burned out. “The relentless, constant motion left me with no peace of mind to believe I’d ever write or develop another film.”
Something brought him back to an early spark. “I kept returning to the Sound of Music and felt the echo of those first childhood chills.” This ritual eased his mind and heartened him to make a big decision. He left the security of a corporate job for the uncertainty of freelancing. He said that reclaiming his time—and his life—was “like jumping out of a top-floor window without a parachute.”
As a freelancer, he lived lean. But the ideas flowed. Though he continued to take on corporate films and commercials, he was determined to break out into something new and different. Adding fresh inspiration to all the experience he had garnered thus far, it was time he said, “for a breath of fresh air”.
MADE BY LISIPPOS (1996)
That came in the form of a 57-minute creative art history documentary called MADE BY LISIPPOS. He wrote, directed, designed, and directed; while Fay Katsaris produced. The original score was composed by Anastasios C. Katsaris. It’s the story of Alexander the Great’s sculptor. Nicholas explained that though Lysippos worked exclusively in bronze, most of his creations have reached us through marble copies.
The Spirit of Bronze and the Spirit of Marble guide viewers through time in an exploration of the life and artistry of Alexander’s portraitist. “Although it is a documentary,” he said, “it’s creative and visually rich approach has always made it feel more cinematic. People often tell me it feels like a movie.”
At the film’s debut screening at the inaugural AGON – The International Greek Film Festival of Archaeological Films, it received the Screenplay Award. Soon after, it received the Audience Award at Italy’s celebrated International ArcheoFilmFest. Over the years, the film has traveled widely. In Greece, from Megaron in Athens to Delphi, and the Archaeological Society at Athens. Then across Europe. On its 20th anniversary in 2016, it appeared in a dedicated series of screenings at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, presented in conjunction with the exhibition, “Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World.
PARAMYTHIA!: Poupaʼs Dream, an early cinematic concept art designed by Ember Frames. IMAGE: NICHOLAS FRANGHIAS/EMBER FRAMES
PARAMYTHIA!
Drawing on his love for movie musicals, Nicholas set to work on his second musical production. The Greek word paramythia often evokes “paranormal myth” but Nicholas reminds us that it also means “solace”. Originally conceived as a “whimsical, private musical amusement”, the piece gradually evolved into a full-fledged cinematic story. He also composed the score. It gained Nicholas his second script development award from the Greek Film Center.
The fantasy drama centers on a little girl named Poupa, who finds solace through song and dance to channel her recently deceased father, a devoted lover of movie musicals. When she is sent for Easter week to her anti-authoritarian priest/uncle Father Breeze, in a rural village in Meteora, she encounters in the church graveyard Pinkoffer, the spirit of a young Broadway choreographer who asks for her help to reach his loved ones. By helping Pinkoffer make contact and then find his way to the afterlife, Poupa unwittingly sets in motion events that shake the core of her uncle’s ecclesiastical world.
“The story explores the solace that the existence of consciousness beyond the physical world offers us in the wake of loss, free from the dogma of religion,” Nicholas said.
WOMAN IN AUTUMN
Next came a Cold War romance that unfolds into a political thriller in 1948 Civil War Greece. Against the backdrop of the country’s fight between establishing communism or restoring the pre-war, pro-Western monarchy, Ellie, a young idealist schoolteacher, is posted to the Children’s Colonies founded by Queen Frederica on the island of Rhodes to educate orphans displaced by the war. There, she becomes entangled with two suitors of opposing ideologies. As she navigates their competing affections and reflections on the national division shaping people’s relationships, Ellie begins investigating the children’s fragmented family histories, and the search draws her into the turbulent politics of the era and toward the discovery of a nascent, covert effort to steer Greek orphans into adoptions in the US, a truth that ultimately costs her both men.
The film touches on a subject that has recently received much attention, as Greek adoptees’ Greek citizenship has been restored and files are opening, divulging scandal, secrets, and lies. “The story reflects one of the bitterest pages in Greece’s history and in the wide story of the Cold War.”
Nicholas submitted the screenplay to the Greek Film Center. It’s then-director, Award-winning Screenwriter Thanassis Valtinos invited him to meet. Valtinos praised the work but suggested that Nicholas “open up the story to expand it to a wider canvas.” Having authored two ambitious projects, Nicholas wanted to keep it small and intimate—and production costs low. Ultimately, Valtinos encouraged him to withdraw the project, and create a large-canvas version, then resubmit it the following year for the Film Center’s highest production program, which each year awards one emerging writer-director with top distinction. He did submit as suggested, then left for the US for some respite.
In April 2008, the project unanimously received 250,000 euro for production development. But the funds wouldn’t be released until the project officially entered production development. With the project’s budget double the award, he sought funding in the US.
American ideas
With full support from his Greek co-producer, Nicholas set about making connections in the US. Through a trusted colleague in Los Angeles, he met a potential producing partner, but they did not align. He returned to Rhodes for further research for locations for the next draft, then back to the US to try again. “I learned early on that the American film industry operates on a different logic. A project rarely advances simply because it’s been recognized by another country’s official film agency. The ecosystem here is built on strong and valid relationships—essentially referrals—so as a new face in the US, I focused on connecting with people and contributing where I could.”
Hello Chicago
After a screening of LISIPPOS at the National Hellenic Museum, Nicholas met members of Chicago’s Greek community. “They approached me to helped establish an annual Greek film festival. It offered me a way to meet people and contribute to the Chicago community and to my filmmaker colleagues in Greece. And find my footing in a new country.”
Together with Diplomat Kostis Daskalopoulos and Professor Alex Papadopoulos, FilmHellenes was born, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, with a mission to celebrate Hellenic storytelling. Greek Film Fest Chicago launched in 2011. Bimonthly film screenings followed. Nicholas served as festival director from 2011-2013.
During this time, he remained in close contact with the Greek Film Center, updating them on Woman in Autumn’s status. “I collaborated with them closely, as they regularly sent films for our festival.” But the production with the Center didn’t come to fruition. After four years, the Center’s board of directors was fully replaced. And then the Greek financial crisis erupted. “The perfect storm,” Nicholas recalled. “The Center was paralyzed and funding was suspended.” This marked a turning point. “It was at that moment that I knew that my American film story, almost by force, took on a life of its own.” He decided to stay, with the goal of developing Woman in Autumn as an American project.
From his early days as creator, Nicholas’ journey to storytelling led him down twisting paths. But it only fed his passion and creativity. In Part 3, Nicholas reveals the beginnings of Ember Frames, and shares the exciting projects in development.
For more information about Ember Frames, click here.
Read more:
Part 1: Award-winning Filmmaker Nicholas Franghias’ Unorthodox Journey to Storytelling
Also by Maria A. Karamitsos:
Author Kathryn Gauci Reveals ‘Odyssey’ that Changed Her Life
Author Shelley Dark Chased Down a Greek Pirate in a Life-changing Adventure
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