Kaliarda

A pioneer Greek queer activist and her filmmaking team Paola Team Documentaries present their first feature documentary about “Kaliarda,” the secret language of the gay community in Greece, from the 40s until the country’s regime change in the early 70s. Paola became acquainted with Kaliarda towards the end of its use, in the 80s. The team started out aiming to record the history of Kaliarda, but realized they were recording the history of the queer community’s life in Greece during the 20th century. Themes start emerging, such as love, sexuality, hang-outs, the problems faced by gays at the time and how conditions gradually changed until today. In the documentary, we encounter academics and people from the street, who had a first-hand experience of our subject.