Chairman George

Chairman George is a 73-minute 2005 Canadian documentary film about the Greek Canadian musician / troubadour and statistician George Sapounidis. The documentary is directed by Daniel Cross and Mila Aung-Thwin and produced by EyeSteelFilm in association with CTV,[1] BBC's "Storyville" series[2] and TV2.

Chairman George
Directed byDaniel Cross
Mila Aung-Thwin
Produced byEyeSteelFilm
CTV
BBC
TV2 (Denmark)
StarringGeorge Sapounidis
Release date
  • 2005 (2005)
Running time
73 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Synopsis

In Canada, George is a statistician. But in China, George is Elvis ... Chairman George is a documentary feature about a Greek-Canadian troubadour who refuses to live anything but an extraordinary life. ln Ottawa, Ontario, George is a statistician who lives with his mother. But every few months, he takes an extended leave from his job and heads to China where he metamorphoses into an international man of culture. Armed only with his bouzouki, guitar and cellular phone, he becomes a star in China (with both the critics and the ladies) singing Greek songs in Chinese. He concludes that since he is "the only Greek in the world who can sing in Chinese," it is his duty to perform at the closing ceremonies of the Athens 2004 Summer Olympics, as the torch is passed from Athens to Beijing organizer of the 2008 Summer Olympics.[3]

Festivals and awards

Chairman George won awards at the AFI/Silverdocs and at Guangzhou Documentary Festival.

Music of George Sapounidis
Main article: George Sapounidis

Accompanying the documentary in 2005, George Sapounidis released his CD George: From Athens to Beijing[4] Sapounidis is a Chinese folk-singing sensation who has appeared at international festivals across China; on stage at Beijing's Forbidden City Concert Hall, and for China Central Television. In addition to Greek, he sings in more than five other languages including Mandarin.

References
  1. CTV page on the Chairman George documentary
  2. BBC Storyville page on the documentary
  3. Eye-SteelFilm official synopsis Archived 10 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine
  4. CD Baby page on the album George: From Athens to Beijing Archived 4 October 2012 at the Wayback Machine
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