By: Savas Abadsidis
The mother and daughter team of Alexia Melocchi and Alexandra Yacovlef come from over two decades working in the worldwide film distribution industry. Together they founded LITTLE STUDIO FILMS in 2000 as a bridge for networking, business , alliances and collaboration between the International Film Industry and Hollywood.
“It is very difficult for an international film maker writer producer or distributor to be constantly in the know and cultivating relationships without being physically here,” says Melocchi, “so we became that link to make it happen — given our incredible network of connections in all areas of the film business and Hollywood.”
Their experience and ability to speak several languages was pivotal in smoothing rough patches between their international clients and Hollywood. Concurrently, Little Studio Films offered the same type of service for US Entertainment Companies wanting to have a footprint overseas. This bridging process allowed them to produce several pictures in English and foreign languages, as well as make sure they were seen and distributed in the US and International markets “not to mention discover and help some wonderful emerging writers and film makers and producers from overseas.”
Melocchi grew up watching the Finos Film movies so she pretty much loves anything with Aliki Bougiouklaki. As a little girl she spent her summers in Greece with her mother and her grandparents, “and those movies were perfect for family gatherings.”
Standing out of the slew of what may constitute new Greek Cinema to Melocchi would have to be Worlds Apart — a 2015 Greek drama film directed by Christoforos Papakaliatis — the film consists of three separate narratives, each following a love story between a foreigner and a Greek.
Each story represents a different generation falling in love during a time of socioeconomic turmoil that dominates Southern Europe as a whole, only to connect as a single story in the end.
Melocchi thinks the story is incredibly powerful and relevant and “it should have been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Film Category.”
Melocchi sees her role as producer akin to being the orchestra conductor of a symphony — that symphony being the movie making process. It all begins with a producer and ends with a producer to translate the written word and make it visual entertainment.
Her mother, daughter of a renown Greek personality, music composer and art connoisseur Nicky Yacovlef, is not only her business partner, but her best friend who not only oversees all the financial deals of the company, but provides the link to all studio executives and Hollywood heavy hitters, as well.
Melocchi’s young life was divided between Italy and Greece—always Greece in the summer — and she believes her Hellenic heritage surfaces in the fact that she’s most creative near water.
Her fondest memories of Greece is watching movies under the stars in open air theatres on the rooftops of the Athens suburbs, with my friends, eating Pasatempo and dreaming that one day, “I too, would make a Hollywood movie.”
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