CRISTINA AND BRIAN’S WEDDING, PART ONE.  APRIL 26, 2007

Our ‘Going Home’ segments in each ‘Our Story Of’ documentary have proven to be the cultural core and context of the series.  Not only do viewers get a real feel for the place of origin for many of the stories they’ll see, it’s an opportunity for us to gain an understanding of the folks who stayed behind.  It’s part of the Visionalist mission to portray the sort of personalities who were willing to come to America, often with nothing, and begin again here—in ‘Going Home’, we can contrast those people with their friends and relatives who chose a different path in life.

In ‘Our Greek Story’, the link between the interviews will be the wedding of Cristina Alexander and Brian Abbott, who have generously (a word which we are finding is synonymous with ‘Greek’) consented to allow the Visionalist crew to record the build up and the traditions leading to their big day, and then to travel with them to Sounio in a heartstoppingly beautiful corner of southeast Greece where they will be married near the Temple of Poseidon.

Greek weddings have entered the lexicon of America as big, lavish, family affairs and this one seems destined to be the same.  With a huge contingent of friends and relatives (and Father Nick Pathenos of St. George, Cristina’s church) making the trip to Greece to take part in the ceremony, Cristina and Brian’s nuptials looks rival the fanfare of Joel Zwick’s Oscar-nominated 2002 classic, ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’.  And like the groom in that film, Brian Abbott is not Greek, so we look forward to his take on marrying into a Greek family—though he seems as perfectly suited to his role as actor John Corbett was to his!

It’s shaping up to be a marvelous, rollicking segment.