SCIENCE BRIDGES
Documentary · Education · Social Impact · Northern Greece
Building bridges between communities through science.
In the mountainous villages of Xanthi in Northern Greece, geography has shaped far more than the landscape. The Pomak communities of the region have historically lived with a degree of geographical and cultural isolation, creating a unique social environment largely unfamiliar to audiences outside Thrace.
The programme worked with students aged 10–16, inviting them to identify environmental and social challenges within their communities and explore solutions using STEM tools ranging from programming and sensors to 3D printing. The wider initiative was implemented by SciCo in collaboration with the Athena Research Center and supported by National Geographic, the Green Fund and The Hellenic Initiative / Venture Impact Award.
In collaboration with SciCo – Science Communication, Ace House Productions created Science Bridges, a documentary developed alongside EcosySTEM | Science Bridges, an educational initiative designed to use science as a common language between young people from the Pomak villages and the wider Xanthi region.
Our challenge was to create something that went beyond documenting an educational programme.
The film needed to introduce audiences to a community rarely represented on screen, while allowing the landscape, the villages, the students and their everyday reality to exist beyond the framework of the project itself.
Directed by Konstantinos Gourgiotis, with Theodoros Anagnostopoulos of SciCo as co-producer, Science Bridges follows the initiative from inside the communities it was created to serve. Education becomes the entry point, but the film gradually opens into a wider portrait of connection, identity and the ability of shared curiosity to overcome social distance.
Production: Ace House Productions
In collaboration with: SciCo – Science Communication
Director: Konstantinos Gourgiotis
Producers: Konstantinos Gourgiotis, Theodoros Anagnostopoulos
Project support: National Geographic · Green Fund · The Hellenic Initiative / Venture Impact Award