Greek Events - Return To Park Ex debuts on CBC DOCS POV

Event details

RETURN TO PARK EX is a bittersweet love letter to Park Ex, Montreal's legendary immigrant enclave, as seen through the eyes of its Greeks-past & present, their South Asian neighbors, and a filmmaker rediscovering his roots.

Hidden at the north end of the city's old immigrant corridor and surrounded by affluence and gentrification, this salty hothouse continues to be a major gateway for newcomers to Canada. The Greeks poured into Park Ex and dominated it in in the 70s & 80s, then left en masse for the suburbs as the South Asian diaspora poured in. Park Ex has always been a place of new beginnings: people come here to start over, make money, and build the foundations of a new life. Some stay, many go, but Park Ex is the bridge between what was lost - every immigrant story is a story of loss - and the possibilities of the future.

For some, you haven’t “made it” until you’ve made it out of Park Ex, but those who stay enjoy a uniquely intimate urban life. Many Greek seniors who left for the suburbs fell into a life of isolation, and miss the physical proximity to their small community. After many years, some managed to make it back to Park Ex.

The film offers a taste of what immigrants give us aside from labor and yummy food: a reminder of the struggle of starting over, and the necessity of accepting and helping one’s neighbour. In the three years he was making the film, filmmaker Tony Asimakopoulos—son of Greek immigrants and present day resident of the neighborhood—learned that Park Exers are connected, whether they like it or not . "I've never felt more at home anywhere else, and many others - non-Greeks, immigrants and non-immigrants alike, white Canadians and Quebecois as well, have all admitted to me that they feel the same way about the place."

When the beloved Greek orthodox church Panagitsa burnt down right after Easter 2015, the shock and sadness extended beyond the neighborhood's Greeks. "Everyone could feel something was lost, the corner of de l'Epee and St.Roch is an important place, an open door into the heart of things, a sacred spot whether you were religious or not."

The intimate, dramatic and divergent experiences in the film give us an entertaining and poignant portrait of immigrant culture: the shared struggle of transition, ethnic tensions, the comforts and dangers of homogeneity... and the ways in which we still need each other.

Asimakopoulos brings his insider perspective, and visual flair to this immersive, music-filled, multi-character collage film, in the “symphony of a city” tradition of urban portraits: alternating between personal stories and the epic, shared moments of the neighborhood.

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http://www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/episodes/return-to-park-ex

Return To Park Ex Debuts On CBC DOCS POV