21st THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL [1-10/3/2019]
Special Screening in memoriam of Greek filmmaker Giorgos Karipidis
The 21st Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, in an emotionally charged ambiance, honored the memory of the recently deceased Greek filmmaker Giorgos Karipidis (1946-2019) with a special screening of his rare short film The Painter Theofilos, held on Monday March 4th, at Pavlos Zannas theater. The film had been bestowed with the first prize, as well as the critics’ award, in the 1979 Thessaloniki Film Festival. The widow of the deceased Rania Mprilaki-Karypidi also attended the event.
“Thessaloniki Film Festival bids farewell today to Giorgos Karipidis, a great filmmaker closely attached not only to the Festival and its history, but also to the city of Thessaloniki, as he was born here. Besides his fiction films, Karipidis had directed more than 100 documentaries, mainly for the national TV broadcaster, and in particular for the programs Monogramma and Paraskinio. The documentary The Painter Theofilos, that follows the life and work of the iconic Greek painter, is such an example, carried out within the framework of Karipidis’ collaboration with Monogramma”, mentioned TFF’s Artistic Director Orestis Andreadakis in his introductory greeting speech.
The screening was also granted with the presence of the Greek writer, filmmaker and vice-president of TFF’s Board of Directors Achilleas Kyriakidis. “The documentary we are about to watch is one the many films through which this tireless Renaissance man honored the art of documented cinema or cinema of documents, that is the noble art of reinventing reality, in parallel with his course in the world of reality recorded as fiction, the only world substantiated through the artist’s talent, sensitivity, and fruitful imagination”, said Mr. Kyriakidis.
Mr. Kyriakidis, in a state of profound emotion, also referred to the ties of friendship that bound him to Giorgos Karipidis. “Three books of internal and external wandering, the only way to get acquainted both with our world and our inner self, so as to depict them, transformed and recast, five feature films, the second of which (by chronological order) In the Shadow of Fear will be screened in this year’s 60th Thessaloniki International Film Festival that will be held in November 2019. In this way, along with the Festival’s 60th birthday, we will also celebrate the 31st anniversary of a film that conquered, armed with the peacefulness and nobility inherent to great art, the hearts of the audience and the minds of the jury”, added Mr. Kyriakidis.
Mr. Kyriakidis went on to say the following: “I quote from the festival’s program: Giorgos Karipidis shined not only as an artist, but also as a good-natured and upstanding personality. His close ones speak of a man who lived his life in accordance with his values. A dreamer with an uncompromising sense of justice, a modest and kind person, empathetic towards others, especially those facing social injustice. Therefore, I feel blessed. Not only because I had the privilege of knowing him in person, but also because he granted me with the gift of his tender, generous, nonnegotiable, unconditional and selfless friendship. I cannot find a more proper and suitable way to conclude this minimum expression of love and emotion than the Shakespearian words through which Marcus Antonius saluted the deceased Julius Caesar: thou Art the ruins of the noblest man / that ever lived in the tide of times”, said Mr. Kyriakidis, receiving a warm applause by the audience.
