12th THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL - Images of the 21st Century
MARCH 12 – 21, 2010


A number of approximately 50 Greek films will be showcased in the 12th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century, allotted between the international Official section, the Greek Panorama section and the Greek section Tribute: Aegean Stories. The first two categories represent the most recent films in local documentary production and are projects that have been funded in various ways: by means of documentary production companies, the Greek Film Center and the Greek Public Television (ERT S.A.), private broadcasting stations and also independently. The films that form the tribute have been produced in the last two decades.

GREEK SECTION TRIBUTE: AEGEAN STORIES

The 12th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is paying tribute to one of the most significant geographical, political, cultural and social features of Greece, the Aegean Sea: a symbol of beauty, prosperity and of the country itself.
Greece’s documentary filmmakers have often found their subjects in various locations of the Aegean Sea, thus showcasing a unified whole that is nevertheless replete with its own contradictions, narratives and unique characteristics. There are endless fascinating stories and topics to be recorded: individual stories, the living conditions in various locations, religion, traditions and customs, the relationship between man and nature. The tribute pays particular attention to the work of late filmmaker Yiorgos Kolozis, who, through a series entitled Aegean Nin kai Ai, composed a detailed, multifaceted portrait of the Aegean and its people. His three films that will be screened as part of the tribute were the results of a sea-bound adventure, during which Kolozis traversed the Aegean in a fishing boat and filmed inhabitants of several islands and traditional professions.
Amongst the films that form the tribute, All the Sunsets by artist and filmmaker Mathios Yamalakis records the daily lives of the residents of (the religious symbol that is) Patmos Island and its famous monastery; Aegean Voices by Lydia Karras shifts through archive materials to document the gradual lawless construction that has severely harmed many of the Aegean’s islands and traditional aesthetic; and Leros: Freedom Is Curative by Andreas Loukakos reveals the truth behind the once infamous Leros psychiatric clinic and the people living in it.


THE FILMS OF THE TRIBUTE:

Poros - Seferis, Yiannis Smaragdis, 1990
All the Sunsets, Mathios Yamalakis, 1996
Hammam Memories, Peggy Vassiliou, 2000
Sailing Souls, Nikos Karakostas, 2001
Not Losing Face, Costas Papadopoulos, 2002
Leros: Freedom Is Curative, Andreas Loukakos, 2003
No Name - Syros Anonymous, Vassilis Kessisoglou, 2004
Aegean Voices, Lydia Karras, 2004
Women In Black, Anthi Daoundaki, 2006
Milos Revisited, Nikos Alpandakis, 2008
Express Scopelitis - Mother Of The Islands, Manolis Kazamias, 2008
Kapetan Nicolas o Monachos – Aegean Nin kai Ai, Yiorgos Kolozis, 2002 (English title TBC)
Aeras sta Pania mas – Aegean Nin kai Ai, Yiorgos Kolozis, 2002 (English title TBC)
I Mousiki Galini tis Psichis – Aegean Nin kai Ai, Yiorgos Kolozis, 2002 (English title TBC)