The Cass staff profiles content store_hidden Ektoras Arkomanis Our staff

Ektoras has taught at London Metropolitan University since 2007. He has also lectured at the University of Cardiff. 

His debut feature film, Another London, is a documentary about architecture and urban space in London. He is currently (2014-present) researching and shooting his second feature film, A Season in the Olive Grove, about the area of Eleonas in Athens.

He writes on film and architectural history.

• Supervisor, PhD
• Module leader, Histories (MArch – RIBA 2; Architectural History, Research and Writing MA; MA in Architecture)
• Module leader, Cinema and the City (MArch – RIBA 2; Architectural History, Research and Writing MA; MA in Architecture)
• Module leader, Critical and Contextual Studies, Levels 4 and 5, Architecture (BA Architecture – RIBA 1)
• Tutor, Dissertation Studio 1: Imperfect Theories (BA Architecture – RIBA 1)

Feature films

• Director/producer: Μια εποχή στον Ελαιώνα (A Season in the Olive Grove; working title) forthcoming, 2019
• Director/producer: Another London (UK, 2014, 60 min)

Short films / exhibition pieces

• Director/producer: Passage Variations (UK, 2019, 20 min)
• Director/producer: Work / Memories of Work (UK, 2017, 17 min)

Ektoras is interested in cities in films; particularly in informal places, marginal in the conscience of the city. He explores his interest through filming, writing, and teaching the postgraduate course Cinema and the City (2007-present). His research and practice are broadly influenced by modernist and imagist writing, visual anthropology and the performative turn. 

A Season in Elaionas (2014-present)

Ektoras is currently collecting notes, stories and footage for a film about the area of Eleonas in Athens. Once known as the ancient olive grove of the city, Eleonas is full of post-industrial, leftover spaces with muddy roads, abandoned factories, kilns, etc. It hosts various migrant populations, scavengers’ markets and small businesses such as tanneries. Eleonas is the city at its most entropic state. It changes constantly, so Ektoras is trying to assemble a rich record of it, while things keep shifting or disappearing.

This project has, since its conception, expanded into various areas: film screenings, writing for conferences, workshops, a series of open lectures, etc.

New Cinema and the City – Migrations (forthcoming, 2019)

Ektoras is currently editing a book about migrations, changes and displacements in the city, as seen on film, through the eyes of emerging filmmakers, artists and academics.

Another London, 2011-2014

Ektoras' debut feature film, Another London (2014), is a documentary about architecture and urban space in London, in collaboration with architectural writer Robert Harbison. The film includes stories about: Nicholas Hawksmoor and Baroque London; currently contested zones such as Deptford, with its atmospheric creek and its colourful high street; modern architecture in the form of Laban Centre, Deptford Library and the Stephen Lawrence Centre; and the river, still the thread through London’s narratives and vicissitudes.