Documentary extravaganza in Thessaloniki
Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player,” an animated documentary-style exploration into the history and legacy of Brazilian bossa nova, narrated through the mysterious disappearance in 1976 of piano virtuoso Francisco Tenorio Junior, will kick off this year’s Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (TiDF), featuring both live and online screenings.
The screening will be attended by Trueba, a multi-award-winning writer, director and producer, boasting a career spanning over three decades across film, television, documentaries, theater and music. The Spanish guest will receive an honorary Golden Alexander award.
Currently in its 26th outing, TiDF, one of Europe’s biggest documentary festivals, will run from March 7 to March 17 in Greece’s northern port city, showcasing 112 world and European premieres. With 250 films slated over 10 days, 12 films, three of which are Greek, are competing in the main International Competition for the Golden Alexander accompanied by a 12,000-euro cash prize. A total of 67 full-length and short Greek films will be screened.
Last year, official ceremonies and festivities were canceled amid a national mourning declared following the railway disaster in Tempe. The top prize went to Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, and Ali Wajeeh for “Under the Sky of Damascus.”
As customary, the festival will take place at the flagship Olympion and Pavlos Zannas cinemas on Aristotelous Square, the Frida Liappa, Tonia Marketaki, John Cassavetes, and Stavros Tornes theaters at the industrial complex on the docks, as well as the Makedonikon cinema. Audiences will also have the opportunity to watch movies online through the festival’s digital platform.
Equal
During an official presentation of the lineup on Tuesday, the festival’s artistic director, Orestis Andreadakis, highlighted the growing significance of the nonfiction genre.
“This year, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival endeavors once again to explore various questions concerning the role and significance of documentaries in a world rife with contradictions and challenges, yet also brimming with hopes and expectations,” Andreadakis said.
“Documentary, as an art form itself, has made significant strides over the last 20 years, with its creators asserting an equal and distinctive position among their peers in other artistic fields,” he said.
Among this year’s selections is Canadian filmmaker Daniel Roher’s Oscar-winning “Navalny,” which chronicles the 2020 poisoning of Alexei Navalny, the fiercest domestic opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was found dead in prison earlier this month.
In “Occupied City,” English director and artist Steve McQueen uses contemporary footage of Amsterdam to trace the sites of resistance and atrocity during the Nazi occupation of his adopted city. McQueen’s debut feature-length documentary, based on the book “Atlas of an Occupied City – Amsterdam 1940-1945” by Dutch author Bianca Stigter, premiered at Cannes last year.
“Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Field,” directed by Michael Selditch, offers an intimate behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creative process and extraordinary life and career of Emmy-winning American costume designer Patricia Field, known for creating iconic looks for “Sex and the City,” “The Devil Wears Prada,” and “Ugly Betty.”
Spotlight
This year’s event shines a spotlight on celebrated choreographer, director and visual artist Dimitris Papaioannou (who also designed this year’s poster), delving into the multifaceted aspects of a creator who explores different art forms, redefining the boundaries of representation.
The organizers have planned a special screening of the documentary “Bull’s Heart” (working title) directed by local filmmaker Eva Stefani, which follows the European tour of Papaioannou’s 2021 “Transverse Orientation,” produced by Onassis Stegi.
Papaioannou’s video installation “Inside,” along with behind-the-scenes footage titled “Backside,” will also be showcased at MOMus-Experimental Center for the Arts. Additionally, the festival will screen the artist’s short films “Nowhere” and “Primal Matter.”
The festival will additionally pay tribute to LGBT+ experiences through 33 documentaries that are said to celebrate the liberating act of self-determination in a section called “Citizen Queer.” Artists, activists, cultural figures, academics and scientists will attend screenings and engage in discussions with the audience.
The organizers have meanwhile arranged a tribute to pioneering Athens-based novelist, screenwriter and filmmaker Panayotis Evangelidis, whose documentaries offer intensely personal views on LGBTQ+ life and issues.
On the sidelines of the TiDF there will be a tribute to the 50th anniversary since the end of Greece’s military dictatorship in 1973-74, known in Greek as the Metapolitefsi. It will include four films chronicling the transition to democracy, along with an open discussion featuring ministers and MPs, coinciding with the book presentation of “Half a Century of Elections: Discussing the Contests of the Metapolitefsi (Polis),” edited by Petros Ioannidis and Ilias Tsaousakis. [Combined reports]
