12/03/2009

Boasting a line-up of over 170 titles, the annual Thessaloniki International Documentary Film Festival: Images of the 21st Century is raising its curtains on Friday the 13th. It is counting on its decade-long run to neutralize the opening date jinx of its eleventh edition, which will run through March 22.

Opening with The Red Race, Chao Gan’s award winning Chinese documentary, the festival will seek to justify its reputation as Greece’s go-to gathering for a colorful snapshot of the international documentary circuit’s current state.

The event’s intriguing titles include Fabio Wuytack’s Persona Non Grata (Belgium), acclaimed documentarian Heddy Honigmann’s Oblivion (Netherlands), Joe Berlinger’s Sundance contender Crude (USA) and James Chressanthis’ No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos (USA), reviewing the life and work of Hungarian cinematography behemoths Laslo Kovacs and Vilmos Zsigmong. The latter will be visiting the festival to lead its line-up of masterclasses.

With the event’s primary aim being the annual showcase of local documentarians’ full body of work, Greeks will weigh in with 44 new features. Themes range from beehive honeycomb harvesting (Vangelis Efthimiou’s The Charmer of Grammos) to modern life predicaments (Yorgos Zervas’ Grief: Little Tales of Unemployment), while 10 more titles are grouped into a tribute to influential Greek cinematographer and archive explorer, Fotis Lambrinos.

A wide array of parallel events will also be on offer, including round table discussions and photography exhibits, as well as several spotlight selections whose main attraction is a tribute to Africa. The industry will find its home at the European Documentary Network’s Pitching Forum, EDN’s annual Congress (supported by the City of Thessaloniki), and the fest’s Documentary Forum, co-organized by the MEDIA Programme and ERT (Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation).