Ask The Plantain (2023)

Premiering at the 30th annual Slamdance Film Festival

Synopsis

In a powerful exploration of her Greek Canadian heritage, a woman embarks on an introspective journey through the depths of her heart, akin to traversing a black hole, in search of the gifts hidden within her wounds. Guided by the presence of the plantain, a resilient plant often referred to as "white man's footprints" due to its association with European settlers, she unravels the fragmented threads of an ancient myth and pre-Hellenic ceremony. Through this profound exploration, she seeks to rediscover the art of navigating the loss of identity and the cyclical nature of life's transitions.

Writer/Director/Editor: Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos

Executive Producers: Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos, Boldly, Shelby Manton, Geoff Manton, Kristoff Duxbury, Sebastien Galina 

Producer: Shelby Manton

Director of Photography: Antonia Rameriez

Editor: Jaime Leigh Gianopoulos

Alongside releasing my film Ask the Plantain, I’m so honored to share a contemplative talk with one of my mentors, Dr. Eirini Kotsovili.

Laced within the film are threads connected to deep research and history I fell in love with along the way! In this discussion we explore the myth of Demeter and Persephone, the Eleusinian Mysteries and their roots reaching back to Minoan Crete. Our conversation moves from myth into ancestral grief, the ache of belonging neither here nor there, the patterns of violence against women linking witch hunts and colonization to the erasure of earth-based practice, and what it means to reclaim our medicine and figures like Medusa along the way.

I’d love to invite you to dive deeper into this contemplative talk and exploration with Dr. Kotsovili and I.