Project Description
April Householder
[email protected] 410-242-0014
The Brave Stepped Back: The Life and Times of Laskarina Bouboulina is
an hour-long documentary film, produced independently, as part of a multimedia dissertation at the University of Maryland, College Park. Support for the
project was provided by the university’s Comparative Literature Program and the
Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities. It was produced for broadcast in English, with
Greek subtitles. I have worked closely with my dissertation director, Dr. John Fuegi (Comparative
Literature Program, University of Maryland) and his “Women of Power” documentary series, which
served as the inspiration for this project. Other committee members include Dr. Martha Nell Smith,
Department of English and Director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities; Dr.
Mary Pittas-Herschbach, Department of Hellenic Studies; Dr. Eugene Robinson, Comparative Film
Studies; and Dr. Regina Harrison, Comparative Literature Program. Consultants on the project are
Dr. Madeline Zilfi, professor of Ottoman History in the Department of History, University of
Maryland; Mimi Denisi, Greek actress and playwright of Ego Y Laskarina; and Mr. Irvin Kershner
(American director of films such as Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.). Both Dr. Zilfi and Dr.
Pittas-Herschbach appear in interviews in the film, along with Dr. Charles Robinson, Professor of
English and Director of the Lord Byron Society of America, University of Delaware, and Dr. Maria
Anastasopoulos-Krimigis, Professor of 19th Century Women’s Literature, University of Athens.
These scholars provide the contextual information about the period in which Bouboulina lived, and
the historical figures with whom she interacted. These voices will combine to present a balanced
portrait of a woman who fought a necessary battle, but who also forged new friendships between
East and West, Muslim and Christian, and speaks to current world events concerning religious and
political struggles.
To my surprise, my research has shown that no documentary film has been made on the
extraordinary life of Greek freedom fighter, Laskarina Bouboulina, in English, Greek, or any other
language. This presented an exciting opportunity for me to conduct research and shoot footage in
Greece, which began in September, 2001. The film was completed in August, 2005. For this
project, I have obtained the permission of Philip Demertzis-Bouboulis, a fifth generation descendant,
and founder of the Bouboulina Museum on the island of Spetses to shoot important artefacts, living
spaces, and documents housed at the museum. Mr. Bouboulis has also appeared in an on-camera
interview. Mr. Bouboulis is an invaluable resource, and a unique figure who should be recorded on a
permanent medium like film. Drawing on documents housed at the General Archives in Athens, the
Spetses museum, interviews with specialists in the areas of Greek and Turkish history and culture,
and various art galleries, war museums, and merchant marines museums, the film presents a vivid
portrait of an extraordinary life. Most importantly, it will provide audiences outside of Greece with a
new perspective on Greek culture.
Like many children of European immigrants, I have only as an adult learned to appreciate my Greek
heritage. Through the study of Comparative Literature at the University of Maryland, I have been
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exposed to ideas and texts from around the globe. Perhaps this made me curious about my own
identity. When I visited Greece in 2001, I was twenty-nine years old. It was my first trip since I was
a child, and because of the personal relevance, as well as the intellectual, it became a kind of nostos,
a homecoming. I became interested in Bouboulina after visiting her home in Spetses, and
Thessolonikki, the birthplace of my own grandmother. Bouboulina quickly became the symbol for
my own Greek womanhood, and a way for me to communicate with my maternal heritage.
Largely unknown outside of Greek diasporic communities, Laskarina Bouboulina (1771-1825), now
widely recognized as the first and only female naval admiral in the world, is an icon of the Greek
War of Independence. A uniquely independent woman for her time, Bouboulina was a true patriot of
Greece and heroine of the sea. She was born in a prison in Constantinople, and was self-educated.
Not only did she finance the construction of the largest Greek fighting ship of the war (the
“Agamemnon”), she armed, fed, and paid her crews with the fortune she inherited from the deaths of
her two husbands. Bouboulina was also a stern business woman and continued her fortune in
successful trading ventures.
In 1816 she sailed to the strategic city of Constantinople to meet with the Russian ambassador Count
Stroganoff, thus marking the beginning of a long and important relationship between the two
countries, which would lead to the defeat of the Turks in 1833. Her alliances spanned much of
western Europe, and into the East, where she formed friendships with distinguished leaders like
Sultan Mahmud II, Nakshadil Valide Sultana, Tsar Alexander I, Orthodox Patriarch Gregory I, and at
home with Greece’s General Kolokotronis. The general’s son, Panos Kolokotronis led the Morea
after its recapture from the Turks, and became Bouboulina’s son-in-law.
In 1818 she became the only woman allowed to join the underground organization, Filliki Etairia
(Friendly Society,) the group which organized the first uprisings against the Turks after nearly four
hundred years of Ottoman occupation and oppressive rule. On March 13, 1821, the flagship
Agamemnon raised the first revolutionary flag in Spetses harbor, and fired cannons announcing the
fight for independence had begun. The cry “Eleftheria y Thanatos” (“Freedom or Death”) became
the call for Greece to unite. A few days later, the islands of Hydra and Psara joined the struggle in
the Aegean. Bouboulina was fifty years old. She led the siege at Nafplion (then the capital of
Greece, surrounded by a fortress with three hundred cannons) going herself into battle, and won one
of the most important battles of the war. Later, sent supplies and helped blockade the strategic
coastal towns of Pylos and Galaxidi. At Argos, she single-handedly saved hundreds of harem
women by helping them to escape to a neighboring village, before her own soldiers destroyed the
town.
Tragically, Bouboulina’s life did not end gloriously in battle. She died in a domestic dispute on May
22, 1825 when a member of the Koutsis family shot her during an argument over the elopement
between her son, Yiorgos Yiannousas and Koutsis’ daughter, Eugenia. Bouboulina did not live to
see Greece’s independence, which came some eight years after her death, after much civil war and
political chaos. I have conducted a rare on-camera interview with Christos Koutsis, fifth generation
grandson of Bouboulina’s murderer, who still lives in the Koutsis mansion on Spetses. Mr. Koutsis
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provides an alternative perspective on the controversial events surrounding Bouboulina’s death.
Despite all her passion and influence during the war, and her admiration by the Greek state,
Bouboulina’s story has been forgotten by many non-Greek historians in recollections about he events
of the war. When she is included in these histories, she is subject to the stereotypes that women have
endured in all forms of representation, as a vicious war-monger, and as a mannish, over-sexed
creature: “...A redoubtable woman, mother of six and twice widowed... She could drink any man in
the fleet under the table, and she was so unattractive she had to seduce her lovers at pistol-point .”1
Often, she is grouped in discussions of the war that are tangential, as in David Howarth’s study, The
Greek Adventure: Lord Byron and Other Eccentrics in the War of Independence.
Both
contemporary books written in English on the war, Peter Paroulakis’ The Greek War of
Independence,2 and David Brewer’s The Greek War of Independence3 contain only one sentence
each on the heroine. Elsewhere, Historians like Brewer have been openly hostile in their writing. In
his review of the Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition, Brewer writes: “Bouboulina
is prominent in legend rather than reality, and the eulogistic account of her here ('waxing
tall, dark and athletic') needs to be balanced by a judgement such as that of George
Waddington, the English traveller who met her: 'I am brought to confess that this warlike
lady, the Hippolyta of the nineteenth century, is old, unmannerly, ugly, fat, shapeless and
avaricious'. In any case Bouboulina hardly deserves to have an entry to herself...”4 These
histories have nothing to do with Bouboulina’s accomplishments, and more to do with her physical
appearance, a telling remnant of the ways in which women have been (de)valued as historical agents.
There are many contradictory accounts of Bouboulina’s actions, as in historian Anagyros HatziAnargyrou’s eyewitness description: “...Like and angry Amazon, she shouts, ‘Are you women then,
and not men? Forward!” This account tells of a woman of power, whose uncompromising attitude
links her to the independent Amazons of Greece’s mythical past. The historian Orlandos writes, “No
where...any woman found in the uprisings of nations having such a character and able to induce the
world’s admiration.” And the Greek historian Filimon: “Against her, the unmanly were ashamed,
and the brave stepped back.” In 1930, Bouboulina was immortalized on the one drachma, a coin
which circulated until this year, when it was replaced by the homogenous “Euro”. Her life is also
celebrated with cannons and fireworks every September at the Armata festival in Spetses, established
by Mr. Bouboulis’ grandfather in 1930. These are the descriptions that the film will attempt to bring
to the forefront. By revising mainstream accounts of the War of Independence, Bouboulina’s life
will forge a new perspective on history, and give voice to the important contributions of women in
the nineteenth century.
During my time in Spetses, I shot some amazing scenery that illustrates present day Greece and draw
links to the past. The island is littered with pine trees, most of which have been burned by the sun
into black sticks during brush fires. This makes for a poignant metaphor of the island’s tumultuous
history. I have also traveled to Hydra, Nafplion, and Tripolis, where important battles which
involved Bouboulina took place. The church of Saint Nicholas, where the people of Spetses first
rallied together to fight was also filmed. The film provides critical commentary on the connections
between Greek Independence Day, the birth of the modern Greek nation, and the Holy Annunciation,
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one of the church’s biggest religious holidays, celebrated on March 25. Footage from the annual
Greek-American festival will be included in this section of the film.
Artwork from the period, which includes Greek painters like Zographos, Volonakis, Lopretsis, and
Gyzis, and European maters like Delacroix, Gericalut, Von Hess, and Friedel fill out the visual
emphasis of the film. The Benakis and the National Archeological and Ethnographic Museums in
Athens hold many portraits and paintings from the war that I have filmed. Images of philhellenes
from Europe and America, like Lord Byron tell the story of how the war in Greece echoed
throughout the world as a symbol of the triumph of democracy and humanity over tyranny. I shot
footage of the monument dedicated to these philhellenes, located in the Peleponeses, that includes a
list of their names. The poetry of Dionysios Solomos, and others adds layers of meaning through
voice over and dialog. Maps, plans, and letters from the archives in Spetses also decorate the film,
as well as images of the navy frigates and steam-powered warships of the nineteenth century. The
fictional film about Bouboulina that was made in 1959 by Costas Andritsos, starring Irene Papas
provides additional material, along with clips from films in which Bouboulina is mentioned,
including Zorba The Greek, and Ego Y Laskarina. During the first week of September, there is an
annual festival held on the island that re-enacts the battles at the Spetses harbor, with fireworks,
cannon explosions, and replica ships. The week-long folk festival provides interesting cultural
material for the film. Beside this event, there have been no re-enactments used in order to maintain
the integrity of the piece in terms of its historical accuracy.
The film “premiered” at the Armata festival in Spetses on September 8, 2005. My hope is that the
film will be useful as a cultural tool, to be used by libraries, institutions in the U.S. and abroad such
as embassies, museums, churches and galleries, and as a teaching instrument for the classroom. In
this way, the remarkable story of Bouboulina’s life may educate beyond the confines of the academy,
and put this history into a public sphere where different kinds of discourses can be created.
George Seferis wrote in Mythistorema, his infamous poem about the anxiety of influence of the
classics in Greek and English poetry:
I woke with this marble head in my hands;
it exhausts my elbows and I do not know where to put it
down.
All too often, history is about men and violence. In the case of Greece, there is the added obstacle
that the study of history and culture often stops with the classics. By drawing attention to
Bouboulina as an icon of modern Greek history, this film will help to undermine these institutional
biases concerning history, gender, and value.
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Bibliography
1. Howarth, David. The Greek Adventure: Lord Byron and Other Eccentrics in the War of
Independence.London: Collins, 1976, p.46.
2. Paroulakis, Peter. The Greek War of Independence. Darwin: Hellenic International Press, 2000.
3. Brewer, David. The Greek War of Independence: The Struggle for Freedom From Ottoman
Oppression and the Birth of the Modern Greek Nation. NY: Overlook Press, 2001.
4. Brewer, David. Review of the Encyclopedia of Greece and the Hellenic Tradition. In History
Today. Sept 2001, Vol. 51 Issue 9, p.56.
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