Prodromos Meravidis

Born 1912-01-01 · Athens, Greece

Died 1981-08-10

Prodromos Meravidis (Greek: Πρόδρομος Μεραβίδης, born in 1910 and died 10 August 1981) was a pioneer of Greek cinema. He shot the first Greek talking film "Night without Dawn" and organized the first color cinema development. He was born in Constantinople in 1912. In 1933 he shot the film Volos and Pelion and in 1936 he himself presented the first talking newsreels at the Cinema. In the early 1940s, together with other photographers and filmmakers (as a conscript cameraman) he shot a film (newsreels) on the Albanian Front, during the 1940 war. During that period he also lost two cameras. In 1945, together with Kostas Papadoukas and with sketches by Stamatis Polenakis, he presented the first Greek animated film, The Duce Narrates. The film was filmed in the workshops founded by his father Dimitrios Meravidis. During the period 1945-50, he shot films throughout Greece on 16mm film for the "Hellenic War Welfare", which financed the reconstruction of the countryside. His short film Kos was the first Greek color film (1949-50). In 1979, he was honored with a commemorative medal from the Thessaloniki Film Festival. He died at the age of 69 on August 10, 1981 and was buried the following day from the church of Saints Constantine and Helen, at the Zografou Cemetery.