Images of the 21st century
The “battle for our very soul” is joined again this year, in our backyard; or, more accurately, in 6 downtown and portside Thessaloniki cinema venues, from 10-19 March.
Cunningly disguised as an artistic rendition of a bloody headshot, this is actually the poster for the 8th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, less known sibling of the International Thessaloniki Film Festival, which opened today (I obviously liked last year’s poster a lot better). Scavenging around the web for a descriptive summary of the Festival’s main themes, I came across a call for entries posted to SEA-Images, stating that,
This year the 8th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival – Images of the 21st Century centrepiece focus is on Globalisation, Africa and the Politics of Violence.
(Shouldn’t this be up on the Festival’s website somewhere, people?)
185 films from around the world -as opposed to around 150, last year- will be screened at this year’s Festival.Apart from the 6 main sections (Views of the World, Portraits: Human Journeys, Stories to Tell, Recordings of Memory, Habitat, Music), there’s a bevy of tributes (Current Issues: Globalization, Theme: Africa – Unresolved Issues, The politics of Violence – Part 2, Kim Longinotto, Exandas – Documentaries all around the world, Spotlight: Nordic Docs), an extensive Greek docs section (Greek Panorama, TV Portraits, Open Screen), a cartload of “sidebar events” (conferences, workshops & masterclasses, exhibitions and the usual nightlife and VIP spotting gigs for visiting and local socialites), the Doc Market and the Pitching Forum, this last being an
annual workshop [which] includes the development and pitching of 22 fresh documentary projects from Europe through intense training sessions for the selected participants and open pitching sessions that welcome all festival guests.
I readily admit to not quite getting what “open pitching” means in this context, seeing as there’s a 150 € attendance fee for observers, but I guess we’ll find out.
Of special interest to those not familiar with Greek TV (lucky sods!) and in tune with this year’s theme, the Exandas tribute will screen 10 out of the 40+ documentaries shot during the last 7 years by journalist Giorgos Avgeropoulos and his team, at trouble spots around the globe.
The screening schedule (sadly, not yet available in booklet format) looks promising at first glance, but I haven’t really found the time yet to digest the summaries and plan an “itinerary”. Booking arrangements are awkward this time around, to say the least, since each of the 2 box offices only issues tickets for its own venues (two per box office). For some bizarre reason, while it’s possible to book same day and next day screening tickets at the Olympion cinemas, tickets for Warehouse 1 venues are issued for the next screening only. Also, it’s not exactly obvious where to buy tickets for screenings at the Cinema Museum. I just hope they don’t make a habit out of this, or we’ll be back to shoving and cramming at the next TIFF.
As the inaugural press release notes, prominent attendees will include pioneering Danish artist Jon Bang Carlsen and internationally renowned British director Kim Longinotto, whose work is the subject of a tribute section. Both directors will be giving masterclasses at the John Cassavetes theatre. Also on hand for the screening of her portrait and to attend a panel will be renowned Hindu activist Vandana Shiva, the so called “queen of Anti-Globalization”. Probably the most illustrious of the “sidebar events”, however, is the -open to applicants only- three-day workshop on digital production by Canadian director and indie doc producer Peter Wintonick (Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, Cinema Verite: Defining the Moment, Seeing Is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News), which I will be attending, and hopefully blogging; stay tuned for more.
PS: I’m not harboring any illusions about this blog having any non-Greek readers, but then again, you never know…
By showing hunger, deprivation, starvation and brutality, as well as endurance and nobility, documentaries inform, prod our memories, even stir us to action. Such films do battle for our very soul.
– Theodore Bikel
See also:
- IndieWIRE’s coverage (1, 2, 3) of last year’s Doc Festival
- Zooming in on global issues (Kathimerini, 2/3/06)
- An article (in Greek) on this blog, inspired by “Seeing Is Believing”
Tags: Thessaloniki, documentary+festival
