Thessaloniki's blog

Festival

Festival presentation: 

"The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival was a bet in a way, I really wanted to see the level of popularity of documentary, an art form that informs as well as entertains. " Dimitri Eipides, Director

 

Edition: 

12

Festival Logo: 

Theme: 

Documentary

The 12th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century will present approximately 170 documentaries in the event's flagship theatres, OLYMPION and PAVLOS ZANNAS at the festival headquarters in Aristotelous square. Additional screening venues JOHN CASSAVETES, STAVROS TORNES, FRIDA LIAPPA and TONIA MARKETAKI are located at the Thessaloniki pier, within walking distance from the Festival headquarters, the guests' hotels and the International Doc Market.

The main sections of the event, curated by the Festival Artistic Director, Dimitri Eipides are:

- Views of the World: dealing with subjects of social interest.
- Portraits - Human Journeys: the human being as the focus of the narrative.
- Stories to Tell: brief stories of human interest that stand out both for the nature of their subject and the way it has been dealt with.
- Recordings of Memory: Events and people who played a significant role in shaping contemporary life; the testimonies of a living history.
- Habitat: environmental issues and their social context.
- Music: late night screenings of musical documentaries.
- Greek Panorama: a selection from the latest local documentary productions.
- Human Rights: films that shed light and raise questions on vital human rights issues such as freedom of speech and the right to different political and religious convictions.
- Hybrid Docs: a section that showcases documentaries that defy form and tradition by means of dramatizations, reconstructions, the use of animation, etc.
- African Stories: this new section continues in the wake of last year's tribute to Africa, to provide a permanent voice for documentaries from and about the continent.
- Planet in Peril: this new section is instituted this year to represent the urgency with which the Earth's problems need to be recorded, addressed and solved.
- North Korea from Afar: this new section presents films from all over the world that have managed to record various aspects of life in N. Korea.

12TH TDF PREMIERES

Among the films that constitute this year's program, the 12th TDF is proud to present the following premieres:

Park Mark by Baktash Abtin, Iran (Portraits - Human Journeys). Mark is a homeless drug addict living on the streets of Tehran, stealing from donation boxes, sleeping in the park and only barely scraping by. The film follows Mark for one night; during that short journey, he shares a captivating and genuine account of his past lives as a drug dealer, a husband, a father and a previously affluent immigrant in the US. World premiere.

The Five Cardinal Points by Fridolin Schönwiese, Austria (Human Rights). The now impoverished Mexican village Tres Valles in the region of Veracruz was for centuries a prosperous farming community, cultivating rice, pineapple and sugarcane. With the onset of globalization, the sugarcane companies lowered their salaries immensely; as a result, the inhabitants of Tres Valles became immigrants (legal and illegal), torn between the two very different worlds they are forced to inhabit. International premiere.

Africa Is A Woman's Name by Ingrid Sinclair, Bridget Pickering and Wanjiru Kinyanjui, Spain (African Stories). The film narrates the stories of three very different African women, Kenyan attorney Njoki Ndung'u, Phuti Ragophala, school principal of a remote South African village and Amai Rosie, a Zimbabwean housewife and entrepreneur. Despite coming from entirely different social backgrounds, the three women share their success, against numerous odds, in transforming their own lives as well as those of the people around them. International premiere.

When the Dragon Swallowed the Sun by Dirk Simon, USA (Human Rights). Seven years in the making, When the Dragon Swallowed the Sun takes a close look into the quest to free Tibet and the various political, religious and social questions surrounding the issue. With original music by Philip Glass, Thom Yorke of Radiohead and Damian Rice, as well as the participation of the 14th Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, the film endeavours to show the truth about the Tibetan struggle as it has not been shown before. International premiere.

Kraftur The Last Ride by Arni Gunnarsson, Iceland (Habitat). The "horse whisperer" Orarinn Eymundsson is about to compete in the World Championship for Icelandic Horses in Holland. Due to thousand-year-old Icelandic health regulations, however, this means that he has to leave behind his beloved and extraordinary horse, Kraftur. More than a story about horseracing or championships, this is a film about the unique and moving relationship between a man and his horse. International premiere.

Coming Back for More by Willem Alkema, Netherlands / USA (Music). Alkema set himself up for an exceptional journey when, in 2002, he started looking for Sly Stone, founder of the band Sly and the Family Stone, who had survived the 60s, the 70s and his drug addiction, only to completely disappear in the beginning of the 80s. Seven years after this first attempt, the filmmaker filmed Sly's first interview in two decades, as well as his return to the stage. European premiere.

Winds of Sand, Women of Rock by Nathalie Borgers, Austria (African Stories). The Tubu tribe, whose home is the Sahara desert, has clearly defined roles for men and women. While the men are camel breeders, the women are confined in their homes and not allowed to do anything without their husbands' permission. The annual break to their routines is a 1500 km desert voyage to collect dates, which provides them with financial independence and self-respect. The film follows three women, Domagali, Amina and Mariama in this journey. European premiere.

About Face by Mary Rosanne Katzke, USA (Stories to Tell). 24-year-old Gwendellin Bradshaw was thrown in a campfire by her emotionally distraught mother when she was only a baby. Now an adult, bearing disfiguring burn scars and a long history of depression, mental illness and a suicide attempt, Gwendellin tries to rebuild her life, locate her missing mother and deal with her trauma; Katzke's camera recorded her journey for an astonishing period of 5 years. European premiere.

Meet Me At The Mango Tree by Brian McKenzie, Australia (Views of the World). Another trio of stories makes for this compelling documentary, shot in Tamil Nadu, India, and following the everyday lives of three men of different ages and professions, a coconut gatherer, an ironing man and a TV repairman. Through their various working routines, the film depicts the precarious nature of a worker's daily existence in the region, maintaining a sensitive, but also humorous attitude towards the everyday lives that it records. European premiere.

THE INTERNATIONAL DOC MARKET

The International Doc Market, introduced in 1999 and headed by Yianna Sarri, will be held this year from March 15 - 20, featuring over 450 titles. The market, organized in cooperation with the Greek National Television (ERT S.A.) and with the support of Media Program of the European Union, caters to the needs of TV networks from European countries, while it has already proven to be a useful tool for a wide range of professionals from other parts of the world.
Approximately 50 buyers will be attending from Europe, the US and Canada, such as Madeleine Avramoussis (ARTE - France), Lorraine Hess (Link TV - USA), Jordi Ambros (Televisio de Catalunya - Spain), Sabine Rollberg (WDR - Germany), Francis Kandel (Canal+ - France) and Alain Johnson (Planete Multithematiques - France), to name a few.
For the first time this year, the Doc Market will go Digital. All participants will have the opportunity to watch documentaries from the 30 fully equipped digital booths, without the use of DVDs or VHS; all the films will be easily located in the "digital library" in each of the booths. The Doc Market will be housed in the 1st floor of the Electra Palace Hotel at Aristotelous Sq and next to the Festival headquarters. The market participants will have access a large and well-equipped space to all its participants.

THE PITCHING FORUM 2010 - DOCS IN THESSALONIKI

The Pitching Forum - Docs In Thessaloniki (March 17 - 21, 2010), running since 2001 in collaboration with the European Documentary Network (EDN), gives local and foreign documentary professionals the opportunity to pitch their projects to a panel of international financiers, commissioning editors and representatives of the international audiovisual media. During the five-day programme, consisting of a three-day workshop (17 - 19 March) and two days of pitching (20 - 21 March), 21 projects will be presented.

JUST TALKING

This parallel event, first introduced in 2006, has enjoyed success with filmmakers and festival attendees and continues now in its fourth year. Just Talking brings filmmakers and industry professionals from various parts of the world together, it creates a platform of communication for filmmakers, expands the borders of creativity and forges collaboration. Discussion groups of directors, journalists and buyers are formed on a daily basis and the one-hour sessions revolve around various issues that concern documentary filmmakers, in a friendly and relaxed atmosphere. Apart from the groups, all other accredited festival attendees are admitted to the sessions and can either listen or participate. The JT coordinator is Lilly Papagianni (papagianni-program@filmfestival.gr).

AWARDS

The awards of the festival are:

6 Audience awards sponsored by the Hellenic Red Cross:

Three awards will be handed out to documentaries over 45' (two for a Greek documentary and one for a documentary from the International Selection).
Each award carries a cash prize of 10.000 euros.

Three awards will be handed out to documentaries under 45' (two for a Greek documentary and one for a documentary from the International Selection).
Each award carries a cash prize of 5.000 euros.

In addition, the Hellenic Red Cross will sponsor 2 educational scholarships (of 5.000 euros each), awarded to two immigrant children living in Greece and studying in the Thessaloniki Cross-cultural Education High School.

FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Awards:

A five-member international FIPRESCI jury will hand out

- A FIPRESCI award to a Greek documentary and
- A FIPRESCI award to a foreign film

Amnesty International Award:

For a film in the Human Rights section.

WWF Award:

For a film in the Habitat and Planet in Peril sections.

ERT (Greek Public Television) DOC ON AIR AWARD

The Doc on Air Award, for the best Pitching Forum 2010 project, is equivalent to the sum of Euros 7.000.

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is organized with the support of the Greek Ministry of Culture and the backing of Greek Public Television (ERT S.A.), the Greek Film Centre, and the Municipality of Thessaloniki.