21st THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL [1-10/3/2019]
Line-up, Juries and Sidebar events
The 21st edition of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival presents 178 feature and 49 short documentary films by directors from all over the world, as well as a parallel events program.
The film screenings will take place at the Olympion complex (Olympion and Pavlos Zannas theatres, Aristotelous Sq., Thessaloniki), as well as at the Tonia Marketaki, Frida Liappa, Stavros Tornes and John Cassavetes theatres located at the city’s Port. This year, TDF will host screenings in two additional venues situated in two Thessaloniki Municipalities: Pavlos Melas (“Christos Tsakiris” Cultural Center) and Neapoli-Sykies (Municipal Theatre of Sykies).
FILM PREMIERES
The 21st TDF presents 10 world, 12 international and 4 European premieres (foreign films):
World Premieres:
BORDER OF PAIN, Ruth WALK, Israel
CALIFORNIA DREAMING, Fabrizio MALTESE, Luxembourg
GREEK ROCK REVOLUTION, Miguel Angel Cano SANTIZO, Spain
GOODBYE PARTY, Loghman KHALEDI, Iran
NEFERTITI THE LONELY QUEEN: STORIES FROM THE WORLD OF LOOTED ANCIENT ART, Thorkell HARDARSON & Orn Marino ARNARSON, Iceland, Greece
RIDERS OF DESTINY, Michael NIERMANN, Germany
THE GOLDEN HARVEST, Alia YUNIS, Jordan, Italy, Greece, Palestine, Spain, Israel
THE GREEK OF THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE, Svetlana MUZYCHENKO, Russia
YESTERDAY/TOMORROW, Raul RIEBENBAUER, Spain
ZERO IMPUNITY, Stephane HUEBER-BLIES & Nicolas BLIES, Luxembourg, France
International Premieres:
ADVOCATE, Rachel Leah JONES & Philippe BELLAICHE, Israel, Canada, Switzerland
BEYOND THE BOLEX, Alyssa BOLSEY, USA, Switzerland
CLIMBING OUT / CORPO A CORPO, Francesco CORONA, Italy
EXARCHEIA, THE CHANTING OF BIRDS / EXARCHEIA, LE CHANT DES OISEAUX, Nadine GOMEZ, Canada
ISIS, TOMORROW. THE LOST SOULS OF MOSUL, Francesca MANNOCCHI & Alessio ROMENZI, Italy, Germany
MARIANNE & LEONARD: WORDS OF LOVE, Nick BROOMFIELD, USA
THE MIRACLE OF THE LITTLE PRINCE, Marjoleine BOONSTRA, The Netherlands, Norway
RESTLESS, Bernard ATTAL, Brazil
SHEEP HERO, Ton VAN ZANTVOORT, The Netherlands
TIME AND TIDE, Marleen VAN DER WERF, The Netherlands
THAT I'M FALLING, Eduardo WILLIAMS, Argentina
WARS DON'T END, Dheeraj AKOLKAR, Norway
European Premieres:
ESCHER, JOURNEY INTO INFINITY, Robin LUTZ, The Netherlands
OLYMPIA, Harry MAVROMICHALIS, USA
TINY SHOULDERS, RETHINKING BARBIE, Andrea NEVINS, USA
YOU ONLY DIE TWICE, Yair LEV, Israel, Austria
INTERNATIONAL JURY
The International Competition section of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival presents 10 films of over 50’ that compete for the Golden Alexander and the Special Jury Award. The Golden Alexander award is accompanied by a €8,000 cash prize and the Special Jury Award is accompanied by a €2.000 cash prize.
The five-member International Jury called to judge the films of the International Competition section is composed of:
Ally Derks, former Founder-Director IDFA (The Netherlands)
Elisabeth Klinck, Visual Researcher (Canada)
Sergi Doladé, Director MEDIMED (Spain)
Simon Lereng Wilmont, Film director (Denmark)
Panayotis Evangelidis, Film director, Scriptwriter (Greece)
VR COMPETITION JURY
The jury of the festival’s VR/Virtual Reality documentaries Competition section will bestow one award to a film participating in the section. The award is accompanied by a €3.000 prize, sponsored by the Greek Film Centre.
The three-member VR Jury is composed of:
Olivier Semonnay, Sales agent (France)
Areti Leopoulou, Curator (Greece)
Syllas Tzoumerkas, Film director (Greece)
The VR film screenings are hosted in the Cinema Museum of Thessaloniki (Warehouse A, Thessaloniki Port).
FIPRESCI JURY
An international FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) jury will hand out one award to a film of the International Competition section and one award to a Greek film participating in the International Program segments of the 21st TDF:
The three-member FIPRESCI Jury is composed of:
Carolin Weidner, Germany
Žiga Brdnik, Slovenia
Ioannis Totonidis, Greece
OPENING FILM
Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love by Nick Broomfield (2019)
Friday 1/3, 20:00, Olympion theatre (invitation only)
The film tells the beautiful yet complicated love story of Leonard Cohen and his Norwegian muse Marianne Ihlen from their early days in the island of Hydra, Greece, to how their love evolved when Leonard became a successful musician.
CLOSING FILM
Maiden by Alex Holmes (2018)
Sunday 10/3, 19:00, Olympion theatre (invitation only)
The challenging journey of the first ever all-female crew who entered the “Whitbread Round the World Race” in 1989 becomes a metaphor for female courage and self-sacrifice, against sea waves and prejudices.
SIDEBAR EVENTS
Open Discussion “Why Look at Animals?”
Tuesday March 5, 12:00, Warehouse C
How much and in what ways does humans differ from animals? What are the moral boundaries in experimenting with animals? How fragile is our relationship with them? The 21st TDF invites you to participate in an open discussion on the occasion of this year’s edition tribute "Why Look at Animals?". The speakers are Stavros Karageorgakis, Professor at the University of Athens, author - researcher, Yorgos Skambardonis, author and Louie Psichoyios, film director. Anna Lydaki, Professor at Panteion University, Athens, will moderate the event.
Open Discussion with Gustav Deutsch
Monday March 4, 12:00, MOMus –Experimental Centre for the Arts (Warehouse B1, Thessaloniki Port)
On the occasion of the tribute to his work this year, festival guest Gustav Deutsch will introduce us to his unique experimental cinematic universe in an open discussion that promises to change many of the things we know about cinema so far.
Special Screenings
Louie Psihoyos’ The Cove (2009, Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature) will be screened on the occasion of the director’s attendance this year. In addition, the documentary Theofilos, the Painter (1979) by the late Greek filmmaker Giorgos Karypidis (1946-2019) will be presented in his memory.
Theatrical documentary about the refugee identity
Friday March 8, 2019, 20:00, Pavlos Zannas theatre
An innovative theatrical documentary workshop titled “From Film to Theatrical Documentary” will take place March 2-8, 2019 in this year’s edition, organized by the TDF in collaboration with play2place production company and the Greek Film Center. The theme of the workshop is refugee identity and experience. The event is designed and realized by the theatrical director and social anthropologist Martha Bouziouri. The participants will co-create their own theatrical documentary that will focus on how we approach and outline the refugee identity and experience, attempting to present a modern, anthropocentric drama that defies the stereotype of the refugee seen merely as “victim or threat”. The results of the workshop will be showcased on Friday March 8 at Pavlos Zannas theatre as a work in progress, followed by an open discussion with the audience of the 21st TDF.
“It could be me – It could be you”: Two events dedicated to refugees
Two participatory workshops titled “It could be me - It could be you” will take place in the framework of the 21st TDF. The events are organized by UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, in collaboration with the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr), with the support of the City of Thessaloniki and the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, complementing thus the refugee-themed documentaries screened in the 21st TDF and creating an open dialogue with both the films and audiences.
The events, which form part of the program “It could be me - It could be you”, an awareness-raising project about refugees and human rights, are:
■“Passages”, Sunday 3 March 2019, 12:00-15:00, Centre for Lifelong Learning of the Municipality of Thessaloniki (132 Egnatia str). “Passages” is a UNHCR simulation game allowing participants to understand events and situations that the refugees have to deal with. Submit your application to participate here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeD1NwRae0wE-zjNXj_DG_O2Mxb1WQg8UWDS2ZJn6uTGFFUFQ/viewform
■ “The Multicolored Immigration of the Butterfly”, Wednesday 6 March 2019, 18:00-21:00, Cafe Prigkipos (22 Apostolou Pavlou str). This is an interactive forum theatre performance on issues of xenophobia, hate speech and acceptance of the other.
“Fititivismata”: Greek students make films
Saturday March 9, 10:00, Pavlos Zannas theatre
“Fititivismata” is a program of short documentaries made by students of the Greek Universities’ departments of Audiovisual Studies and Communication, in the framework of the “Diaplasis” internship program. The “Fititivismata” program is screened weekly in the Hellenic Parliament TV and part of it -8 short documentaries- will be presented in the 21st TDF.
Agora Doc Market Awards
Wednesday March 6, 19:00-20:00, Warehouse C, Port
The Agora Doc Market’s Docs in Progress Jury will announce the three prestigious awards to projects participating in the DIP, thus introducing us the filmmakers of tomorrow.
Book presentation
Thursday March 7, 19:00, Ianos Bookstore (7, Aristotelous str.)
American musicologist and renowned collector of old 78 records Chris King presents his book Lament From Epirus: An Odyssey Into Europe's Oldest Surviving Folk Music (Doma Publications) about a special folk music genre thriving in Epirus, Northern Greece. The presentation compliments the screening of Paul Duane’s documentary While You Live, Shine that is inspired by King and its work.