Bill Mousoulis – Songs of Revolution and Songs of the Underground
by Manolis Daloukas

August 6, 2017

Film director Bill Mousoulis never wanted a “prosperous” job, there where he lives, in faraway Australia, he only wanted to make films, on subjects he loved and admired. An original misfit, he never let himself be moulded by others. He was born in 1963, in Melbourne, from Greek migrant parents.  His father went to try his luck, leaving the village of Karya, on Mt. Olympus.  His mother, from Ikaria.  His parents had the dream to see their son become university educated, or at least with a stable job, a homemaker.  He, however, wanted to become a film director, an art which he never studied, but learnt by himself, in his own way.

Up until now, he has made over 100 films!  What strikes me the most is that Mousoulis, living in Australia, decided to concern himself with rock music in Greece.  So he boarded  a plane and came here to capture the personalities and situations.  These cinematic recordings of his were done in a particular way, basically in a guerilla style.  Without a script, rapidly, in Koutroumbousio’s definition of the word, these recordings give you the impression that a teenager is filming his friends, the songs, the discussions, the jokes.  It’s so quick and loose, that when Aggelakas saw the result, he asked for his scenes to be removed from the film.  Proof that Aggelakas didn’t understand Mousoulis’ take on Greek rock music.  Pity for Aggelakas.

This film is “Songs of Revolution”, shot in Greece in 2015 and 2016.  It’s about the restistance, the pain, and the anger of Greeks, in the years of the Crisis.  Musicians Antouan Parinis, Dimitris Poulikakos, Thanos Kois, and actors Marianthi Koliaki and Thodoris Arianoutsos, and many others, contribute to this feature-length but fast-paced film.

A smaller version of the film is “Songs of the Underground”, purely documentary in form.