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The presentation of the projects taking part in the Thessaloniki Pitching Forum of the 26th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival’s Agora took place on Monday, March 11th, at John Cassavetes theatre. This year's Thessaloniki Pitching Forum features 12 projects from the wider Southeast Europe and the Mediterranean, highlighting diversity and presenting fascinating human stories.
On Sunday March 10th, a discussion took place in the Green Room with Dimitris Papaioannou, on the occasion of his fully-rounded presence in the 26th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. Dimitris Papaioannou signed the Festival’s poster, his video installation Inside, along with the backstage video Backside, are showcased at the MOMus - Experimental Center for the Arts. Eva Stefani’s documentary Bull’s Heart, produced by Onassis Culture, will also be screened at the Festival as a work-in-progress. The film follows Dimitris Papaioannou’s play Transverse Orientation, produced by Onassis Stegi, during its tour on the European stages. In addition, the artist will present his short films Nowhere and Primal Matter on Wednesday March 11th, in Stavros Tornes cinema, at 17:00.
Within the framework of the 26th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, the interdisciplinary installation Xirómero / Dryland, which will constitute Greece’s participation at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, was unveiled to the public for the first time, on Saturday, March 9th, at Pavlos Zannas theater. The artists Thanasis Deligiannis and Yannis Michalopoulos, responsible for the basic concept of the work, co-creators artists Elia Kalogianni, Yorgos Kyvernitis, Kostas Chaikalis, and Fotis Sagonas, along with the curator, Panos Giannikopoulos, attended the event and spoke about their work.
COSMOTE TV’s time-honoured special screening took place on Saturday 9 March, at Frida Liappa theatre, offering the audience the opportunity to enjoy the premiere of the first of four episodes of Kostas Karydas’ documentary Underwonder, introducing us to the impressive, but also inaccessible world of underwater caves in Greece.
The first chapter of Dimitris Athiridis’ 848-minute documentary Exergue – On documenta 14 was screened on Friday March 8th, at the John Cassavetes theater. The documentary recently premiered at the Berlinale Film Festival and follows Adam Szymczyk, the artistic director and his curatorial team for two years as they work on documenta 14.
The President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou kicked off the 26th Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival on the evening of Thursday, March 7th, in the historical Olympion cinema, marking the first time throughout the institution’s history that the Greek Head of State launches the opening of the Festival. Within the framework of the opening ceremony, Mrs. Sakellaropoulou bestowed the honorary Golden Alexander to the Oscar-winning great Spanish filmmaker Fernando Trueba, official guest of the Festival, whose film They Shot the Piano Player kicked off this year’s edition.
