Film editor and founder of the Balkan film portal AltCine.com

Morning is my personal time. It’s the only time that’s really mine. I usually wake up around 8:30 a.m. I never miss breakfast; it’s my morning ritual. I’ll have coffee and then a rather large breakfast, which is unusual for many Greeks. I have oatmeal cakes, milk, scrambled egg whites, a slice of turkey, tomato slices, olives. It’s filling and high in protein–and good for the body. I don’t speak on the phone or read the news while I prepare breakfast. I use the time to clear my thoughts, to calm my mind. Often I’ll catch myself looking at the flowers on my balcony or observing the lemon tree growing there.
Next I shower and dress. I work at home so there’s no commute. My routine doesn’t vary much, but there’s quite a bit of variety in my day because of the different projects I’m involved with.
The first thing I do “at work” is turn on the computer, check email, reply to messages. I use this time to plan my day and organize my work. Around 10 a.m. I start making business calls. This is also the time slot in which I try to schedule meetings. Often, this “administrative” or “organizing work” takes me to lunch. Most of this work is related to altcine.com, a portal for Balkan cinema that will officially launch in late March. Some days I spend the entire morning making  calls to production companies, directors, actors, to request information for the database. Altcine.com is my brainchild. We’re now putting the finishing touches on the portal so there’s a lot of energy and a lot of tension in the team. Today’s meeting is with the section editors, the programmers, and designers. I’m looking forward to it because we also have a “shoot”: the portal has a team of resident film critics–Grifas, Houston, and Ms Celly Loid. They’re puppet dolls that were specially made for the portal and their segments are send-ups of the film industry.
I always break for lunch. And unless I’m teaching that day, I always cook. I love cooking. It relaxes my mind for the rest of the work day.
After lunch, I work on the content for altcine.com through the evening and late into the night. If I’m also working on an editing project, then I split my day between the two, leaving the editing for the evening when I’m less likely to be interrupted by phone calls. I also leave any work that’s more creatively demanding for the evening so I can focus on it. I love editing. It’s very challenging work. I recently finished a project for a Panteion University project on gender and migration that was screened at a conference. It was quite a challenge because thirty hours of film had to be edited down to thirty minutes without losing any of the meaning. But I like working on documentaries because you can go where the material leads you. As with any film, you begin to work from the structure that’s been outlined but the documentary, by its nature, gives you the freedom and the flexibility to deviate from that script; sometimes it even requires you to do so.
I teach editing and sound design at the University of Athens graduate school and a private college. I’ve arranged it so all my classes fall on just three days. These are also my “evening out” days. After class, I go out. Sometimes I meet friends and sometimes we go out with the class–to see a film, an exhibition at a gallery, for a cup of coffee or a drink. Sometimes I go “shopping”, which is actually browsing the stacks at bookstores.
My day ends the same way it began–minus breakfast. Before going to bed, I like to wind down in silence, with just my thoughts, as I go over the day’s events. Unlike morning, when I focus on organizing the day, at night I review it.