Στα πλαίσια του 9ου Διεθνούς Φεστιβάλ Ντοκιμαντέρ Beyond Borders προβάλλεται το ντοκιμαντέρ “ΕΣΩΤΕΡΙΚΗ – Ένα πορτρέτο της οικιακής εργασίας” των Λώρα Μαραγκουδάκη και Τατιάνα Μαυρομάτη. Ένα πορτρέτο της «αόρατης» εργασίας των Γεωργιανών γυναικών που δουλεύουν ως εσωτερικές οικιακοί βοηθοί σε ελληνικά νοικοκυριά. Η μονότονη και απαιτητική φύση της δουλειάς της φροντίδας υπογραμμίζει την απομόνωση γυναικών που ζουν μια ζωή στην υπηρεσία άλλων. Είκοσι τέσσερις ώρες την ημέρα, έξι μέρες την εβδομάδα, με μία μονάχα Κυριακή ρεπό.
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LIVE-IN is a portrait of domestic work, as experienced by Georgian live-in maids working in Greece. It explores the monotonous & demanding labour behind care work, and the isolation and insecurity experienced by women who must work to serve others, 24 hours a day, 6 days a week, with one Sunday off.
This short documentary explores the experience of undocumented domestic workers through a portrait of the work itself. It aims to explore and expose the dull, repetitive, strenuous labour performed within the domestic environment, and the isolation and strain that domestic workers must endure in order to perform it.
One woman serving the many needs of a house. One woman performing a multitude of jobs and chores.
The film focuses on a young Georgian woman as she sweeps, mops, cleans, tidies the rooms of a large house. She rushes to manage all her chores on time. In the bedroom, she cares for an elderly disabled woman. She washes the woman’s naked body, she dries it, she massages it with cream. The body is yet another arena of the work she must perform, but one that demands care and softness.
The portrait of her work evokes past images of women we have known and who have done this job in the past. Our mothers, grandmothers, young girls and psychokores (ψυχοκόρες) from our rural past.
Today, the woman performing this work is from Georgia (or the Philippines/ Ukraine/ Somalia). But the work itself has existed throughout the ages and has always been invisible and unrecognized.
The housework scenes happen almost in real time. We watch as the woman mops the whole floor. We watch her as she repetitively irons and tidies clothes. As she slowly washes the whole body. Each scene is a single take. Each room is a stage hosting a monotonous performance.
The sound of her labour acts as a unifying bridge throughout the film: the swishing of the mop, the sound of her hands, of the sponges and brushes as they repeat the same actions throughout the house, create a mechanical universe within the domestic environment.
In the second part of the film, we hear the voice of Inga, an older woman who has done this work for over 20 years. We follow her thoughts as she deconstructs the role of a live-in maid, as she reflects on a life spent caring for others, as she transmits fragments of the harsh reality of living as an undocumented migrant worker.
As we hear her story, we navigate through a seemingly unrelated slide show of personal moments that portray migrant women living their life with their families, friends and loved ones.
Rare moments, often mediated by online digital tools, shared in the few hours they have off form their job as servants to other families and households, that are not their own.
Inga’s testimony explores the overbearing sense of entrapment experienced by migrant women who work under these conditions. As she finishes her story, we find ourselves back in the house. The woman changes clothes, brushes her hair. She goes into the living room, pulls up a chair and looks into the camera, facing the audience directly.
DIRECTORS’ STATEMENT
LIVE-IN was born out of a two year collaboration between photographer Tatiana Mavromati and visual artist/ filmmaker Laura Maragoudaki. Throughout this period, they worked with a group of Georgian women living in Athens, Greece, to address the important yet invisible and undervalued role they play in the everyday life of Greek families.
The community of Georgian women is one of the largest migrant communities in Athens yet it is largely invisible and often misrepresented within Greek society. Most of these women work as domestic workers in Greek households providing care and cleaning services to families, their children, the elderly and the sick.
Thousands of households in Athens rely on the work of migrant women in order to function on a daily basis. Women from Eastern European countries like Georgia, Romania and the Ukraine, as well as women from the Philippines and African countries care for people of all ages as well as clean, organize and serve the houses of Greek familie across the spectrum of society.
In October 2021, Maragoudaki & Mavromati’s work was presented in Athens in an acclaimed exhibition entitled SUNDAY WOMEN, supported by the ROSA LUXEMBURG FOUNDATION, and is now due to travel as part of a national & international tour starting in 2022.
The exhibition is a documentary installation that combines photography, film, audio testimony and archive in a way that investigates domesticity as an arena of gendered work, isolation and exploitation, but also as an arena of female struggle and solidarity.
At the same time, Maragoudaki & Mavromati collaborated to release the short documentary LIVE – IN, which focuses on the experience of undocumented domestic workers through a portrait of the work itself. A historically overlooked subject, female labour within the domestic environment is as relevant today as ever.
Although many women in the West and in Greece, may feel that they are moving away from the confinement of the household and its’ traditional burdens, this work seems to have been merely transferred to other women, specifically migrant or poorer women, often without legal status.
LIVE – IN therefore aims to explore and expose the structural role of domestic work in our everyday life whilst highlighting the difficulties faced by the women who are tasked with this job in contemporary greek society.
Facts & Credits (film)
Title (ENG / GR) LIVE – IN / ΕΣΩΤΕΡΙΚΗ
Genre Documentary
Format HD
Length 13’
Direction Laura Maragoudaki & Tatiana Mavromati
Executive Producer Phaidra Vokali
Cinematography Vaggelis Kasapakis
Camera Assistant Nefeli Athanasaki
Editor Myrto Karra
Sound Stephanos Efthymiou, Valia Tserou
Facts & Credits (event)
Title 9ο BEYOND BORDERS – International Documentary Festival
Location Kastelorizo, Greece
Date 25 August- 1 September 2024
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