And so it begins: EcoFrames premiered in Kalamata, in an evening dedicated to cinema, peace, and hope

Last Wednesday, June 18th, the heart of independent cinema beat strongly in the center of Kalamata. The EcoFrames Environmental Film Festival took its first, decisive step, presenting its identity and vision in a warm and vibrant opening event.

The venue that hosted us could not have been more fitting: the Kalamata Creative Documentary Center (Doc Cafe), the official headquarters of the Peloponnese International Documentary Festival. A wonderful, small cultural hub, a precious sanctuary for thinking and active citizens in our city. A space that proves you don't need grand halls to birth great ideas, but one that needs our continuous support, through our presence, to continue to exist and to offer.

In this atmosphere, the core of the festival's program was unveiled: 40 films from 20 countries, a multicultural mosaic that will travel throughout Greece, carrying stories about the planet, humanity, and our common future.

The festival's artistic director, Kyriakos Liarakos, welcomed the audience and shared the thoughts that led to the creation of EcoFrames.

"For this festival to succeed in the way we have envisioned it is perhaps as difficult as saving the planet from the climate catastrophe," he said, setting the tone for this ambitious, yet challenging, endeavor. "But today, we took an important first step. We are here, you are here, and we are presenting our program."

Continuing on a more personal note, he connected the festival to his own roots: "This festival starts from Kalamata, my city. I vividly remember, back in 1989, as a first-year high school student, I came across a Greenpeace magazine with an article about scientists' warnings on climate change. Thirty-five years later, that warning has become a painful reality. And this is precisely what we see, in an almost prophetic way, in festival films like 'The Flood', where leaders are drowning in their own indifference, or 'Plan Z', where scientists reach their limits and turn to civil disobedience. EcoFrames, therefore, is an effort to give image and voice to this anguish."

His speech then became more contemplative, raising the fundamental questions that run through the festival's philosophy: "We live on a planet of incredible beauty, but also of immense contradictions. And the question that hovers over all of us, whether we say it out loud or not, is simple: Is it, in the end, worth the effort? Is it worth fighting for a better future on this planet when we see so much going wrong?"

The answer, as he emphasized, lies in the deeper essence of ecology: "Ecology is harmony. And there can be no ecological balance without its most fundamental component: peace."

On the occasion of the screening of the film "Beloved", which closed the evening, he characteristically mentioned: "This film shows us a model of self-sufficient life that respects the natural cycles. We draw inspiration from this grandmother with her endless love for her cows, who lives peacefully in the mountains of Iran. But let's ask ourselves: how much does this grandmother, in her peaceful daily life, care about international geopolitical interests? You cannot speak of environmental protection when people are being killed and uprooted. You cannot plan for a sustainable future when our own civilization proves to be so fragile and self-destructive. Peace is not merely the absence of war. It is the prerequisite for us to even be able to think about anything else."

Concluding, Mr. Liarakos returned to the role of art and community: "What can we achieve with a festival? Perhaps the most important thing: To not feel alone. To see that our concerns are shared. To sit side-by-side, strangers among strangers, and share a story on the big screen. To discuss afterwards, to disagree, to agree. Perhaps, in the end, the answer to the initial question, to 'is it worth the effort?', lies right here. In the gathering. In solidarity. In the realization that we are all in this together. This is EcoFrames. A small reason to remember that it is worth it."

The evening concluded with the open-air screening of the films on Koutsomitopoulou pedestrian street, where the Kalamata audience embraced the new venture, confirming the need for such initiatives and promising a dynamic and meaningful continuation.

This was only the beginning.