The 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival honors two renowned documentarists. The French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert, who dares to permeate the innermost depths of the human psyche, and the American director and photographer Lauren Greenfield, who foregrounds the decay of the American nouveau-riche society, will attend the 27th TiDF to present their films to the audience.
Spotlight and Golden Alexander to Nicolas Philibert
One of the most prolific documentary filmmakers of our time, Golden Bear, César and European Film Academy winner Nicolas Philibert, with several acclaimed documentaries under his belt such as To Be and to Have and Nénette will be awarded the Festival’s honorary Golden Alexander for his overall contribution to cinema at the 27th TiDF. Nicolas Philibert will also deliver a masterclass, moderated by documentarist, producer and screenwriter Marco Gastine.
In his movies, Philibert expresses a series of topical and fundamental social concerns, displaying loyalty, respect and sensibility towards the issue he touches upon. In his own words: “First and foremost, I am fascinated by the fragile character of the unpredictable, rather than the comfort of certainty. The unseen side is always the most intriguing.”
Within the framework of the spotlight hosted by the 27th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, a trilogy of Philibert’s films on alternative psychiatric approaches will be screened, along with an illuminating portrait of people working as nurse practitioners.
In Each and Every Moment (2018), the director follows the ups-and-downs of a training programme that brings thousands of students, both female and male, faced up against notions such as physical vulnerability, pain and diseases. Their time is entangled between lectures and practical exercise, as part of a strenuous and enduring process, during which they are called to acquire knowledge and get acquainted with complex technical procedures, without losing sight of their humanity and empathy.
On the Adamant (2023), which snatched the Golden Bear at the 2023 Berlinale Film Festival, casts a tender and enlightening glance at the warm and hospitable microcosmos of Adamant, a unique floating day care center of mental health, situated on river Seine, in the very heart of Paris. An invaluable document on a one-of-a-kind care healthcare unit that welcomes adults who suffer from mental disorders.
In his two following documentaries, At Averroès & Rosa Parks (2024) and The Typewriter and Other Headaches (2024), Philibert delves even deeper into the issue unraveled in the documentary On the Adamant. Averroès and Rosa Parks are two psychiatric units located in Paris, which make part of the same network as Adamant. Making use of interviews and recording meetings between patients and caretakers, the director brings forth a psychiatric approach that makes room for what the patients themselves have to say. As the patients open up to the director, an agonizing question gradually emerges: Within the constraints of a worn-out healthcare system, how can the abandoned be granted their rightful place in the world? At Averroès & Rosa Parks had its premiere at the Berlinale Film Festival.
In The Typewriter and Other Headaches (2024), Philibert, alongside a group of volunteers, visit people suffering from mental illnesses in their homes, and take on the initiative to repair and fix their most precious objects and devices: a typewriter, a soundsystem, a printer. The volunteers listen carefully, with respect and patience, the stories, the needs and the concerns of each patient, while Nicolas Philibert engulfs them with the same kind of respect through his camerawork. A touching documentary and call for compassion, at once.
Lauren Greenfield: Filming luxury and wealth
Up-to-the-minute and eye-opening, the work of the top-notch director and photographer Lauren Greenfield castigates the toxic side of hyperconsumerism, leaving a biting commentary on the decay of the nouveau-riche class that wastes itself in ephemeral delights. The 27th TiDF will host a tribute on the work of the American filmmaker, also welcoming her as a member of the International Competition jury.
A multifarious and restless spirit, Greenfield has portrayed the distorted aspects of the modern-day and washed-up version of the American Dream. For over 30 years now, and ever since she read Brett Easton Ellis’ novel Less than Zero, plutocracy has been her main area of focus. The chase of beauty and its commercialization, the addiction to wealth accumulation, the dependence on money, the excess of overabundance, celebrity, power and the sweeping onset of consumerism are only a handful of the issues she explores in her multileveled work as a filmmaker and a photographer.
Her most recent project, the documentary series Social Studies (2024), is a groundbreaking social experiment exploring the effects of social media on the first generation of digital natives, today’s adolescents. By capturing real-time smartphone data and using it as both a sociological tool and a storytelling device, Social Studies examines how social media has fundamentally altered childhood. The film introduces us to a diverse group of teens grappling with school bullying, oppressive beauty standards, the obsession of constant comparison and racism, called to explore their sexuality and make life-altering decisions. A visceral, and revelatory journey through the challenges of the digital era, as well as an intimate and unsettling portrait into what it means to come of age in the era of social media. All five episodes of the series will be screened at the Festival.
In The Kingmaker (2019), Greenfield centers her camera on Imelda Marcos, who gives unprecedented access to the filmmaker, allowing her to record every inch of her daily life. The film examines the unanticipated return of the Marcos family in the power pyramid of the Philippines, as well as the disturbing legacy of the Marcos regime onto an entire nation. In her effort to help her son secure the vice-presidency, Imelda confidently rewrites her family’s history, replacing it with a narrative of a matriarch’s extravagant love for her country. In an age when fake news manipulates elections, Imelda’s comeback story to the public sphere unravels as a dark fairy tale.
Witnessing the boom/bust cycles of a titan of finance, a pornstar, a bus driver, and a child beauty queen, Generation Wealth (2018) tracks down the cost of pursuing excessive wealth. A portrait of a materialist and image-depended society, a groundbreaking document on the falsified American Dream. A revealing testimony on the pathogenies of capitalism, narcissism and greed.
In The Queen of Versailles (2012) we meet Jackie and David Siegel and their eight children; Jackie is a former beauty queen and David is the billionaire “Time-Share King” of the world. The two of them build their dream home, a giant estate modelled on the Versailles palace in France, just before the economic crisis hits. Lauren Greenfield outlines the portraits of family, friends, colleagues, nannies and children while their rarefied world is turned upside down. The result is a hypnotic film of a family and the demise of the American Dream.
Greenfield’s debut documentary Thin (2006), was filmed at a residential facility for the treatment of eating disorders, driving us through an emotional journey in the world of four women struggling with anorexia and bulimia. Τhe film investigates the process of treatment, the culture of rehab, the cycle of addiction, and the unique relationships and rituals that define their everyday life within the treatment center. What emerges is a portrait of an illness that is frustrating in its complexity, difficult to treat, and devastating in the pain it inflicts on its sufferers and those who care for them.
Welcome to “Magic City”, a legendary strip club where dreams are made real. Female and male dancers seek fame and fortune, rappers are rounding up for their big moment, and clients recklessly spend entire fortunes. Magic City (2015) takes us into the heart of Atlanta’s most iconic strip club.
In Best Night Ever (2012), Lauren Greenfield returns to Las Vegas, the location of her film The Queen of Versailles, to film the landmark nightclub “Marquee”, one of the country's highest-grossing nightclubs, where the clientele routinely spend thousands of dollars on a single evening out, surrounded by smiley girls and alcohol, under the sounds of the electronic music performed by the planet’s most famous DJs.
In what ways is beauty defined and revered in contemporary culture? Featuring interviews with the elite echelons of the fashion world, the pervasive and thought-provoking documentary Beauty CULTure (2011) contemplates on how and why daily life has ended up resembling an endless beauty contest. The role of media, the resulting impact on female identity and the notion of “makeover” are only a few of the multifaceted issues explored in this fascinating journey.
A mashup of filmed footage and still photos from dozens of runway shows from Paris, Milan and New York, set against the pulsating beat of Fol Chen’s “The Longer You Wait”, Lauren Greenfield’s upbeat and jaunty Fashion Show (2010) instantly gets you under its skin. A kaleidoscopic glance at both the backstage and the sparkling storefront of the universe of haute couture, modeling, and catwalks.
In Kids + Money (2008), Lauren Greenfield returns to her native Los Angeles to take the pulse of a generation nurtured in the principles of overconsumption and showing-off. In a city of subcutaneous tensions and fierce inequalities, teens from all shades of the social spectrum offer unconstrained and spontaneous answers on their relationship with money; how to acquire it, spend it and live without it. A series of brisk and breezy portraits that capture the disheartening contradiction of a money-thirsty childhood.
