In the rural village of Livadia (Larnaca district), Cyprus, two master artisans - Chrystoulla and Pericles Gavriel - sustain the endangered cane weaving crafts of psatharka and kalamoti.

Filmed over an extended period of time as part of her practice-based PhD research at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, and supported by an AHRC TECHNE studentship, the work adopts a feminist lens of care to explore what it means to make, to sustain, and to collaborate.

Part of the wider sympraxis project on endangered craft heritage, the film is rooted in a non-extractive approach to documentary-making. Here, the camera is not a tool of appropriation, but an invitation: artisans are co-creators, occasionally taking up the camera themselves to share what matters through their own eyes. This collaborative method nurtures trust and reciprocity, aligning with the feminist principles of attentiveness, patience, openness, and mutual respect.

The film moves at the pace of the craft - slow, deliberate, and deeply embedded in the rhythms of daily life. Weaving is interwoven with family archives, cooking, laughter, and quiet pauses; intimate coffee breaks give way to candid reflections on the uncertain future of their craft.

In revealing the artisans’ humour, inventiveness, and ecological sensitivity, SYMPRAXIS: Livathkia and canes becomes more than a document of cultural heritage.
It is an ode to friendship and care, a meditation on the politics of slowness, and a call for more porous, inclusive cultural spaces - where heritage is not generalised behind institutional gates or seen through a relic of the past, but shared, sustained, and allowed to live and co-exist.

https://filmfreeway.com/internationalshortfilmfestivalofcyprus