10th THESSALONIKI DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL
Images of the 21st Century : March 7 – 16, 2008

The work of the directing-producing duo Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky and that of Finnish director and DocPoint founder Arto Halonen constitute the main tributes of the 10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival. The three filmmakers will attend the Festival and a representative selection of their work will be screened.


JOE BERLINGER – BRUCE SINOFSKY

Americans Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky have become staple names of the international documentary scene by jointly producing and directing their films through their own company, Creative Thinking, an appropriate moniker for their ventures. Their approach to the genre and their methodology of straightforward and detailed observation have secured them a place in the American documentary tradition alongside such filmmakers as Frederick Wiseman, Errol Morris and Richard Leacock.

Berlinger and Sinofsky first became a household name with the documentary Brother’s Keeper, shot in 1992. The film revolves around the story of Delbert Ward, a naïve dairy-farmer relentlessly pursued by the media when accused of murdering his ill older brother. Brother’s Keeper received rave reviews, as it functions not only as a successful whodunit, but also as a study of a small, tightly knit and conservative community. With Paradise Lost, Paradise Lost 2 and Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, one of the most successful documentaries of the past years, the two directors proved that they are consistently able to enter their subjects’ lives unobtrusively and respectfully, but always with great insight.

Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky will attend the 10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival to present their work and discuss it with the audience. They will also stage a Masterclass, open to the public and all Festival guests.

THE FILMS OF THE TRIBUTE

Brother’s Keeper, 1992
Paradise Lost: The Children Murders at Robin Hood Hill, 1996
Revelations: Paradise Lost 2, 2000
Gray Matter, 2004
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, 2004
Iconoclasts: Quentin Tarantino – Fiona Apple, 2006 (episode from TV series)
Iconoclasts: Sean Penn – John Krakauer, 2007 (episode from TV series)


ARTO HALONEN

Arto Halonen, one of the most important directors of a new generation of Finnish filmmakers, will attend the 10th TDF to present and discuss some of his seminal works. Halonen, who has built his career by listening to and recording the voices of those not easily heard, is considered an ever-inquiring, bold documentarian, for whom filmmaking and humanitarian action are inextricably linked. He is the founder of the DocPoint - Helsinki Documentary Film Festival, the most significant event of its kind in the Scandinavian region and of the production company Art Films Production AFP Ltd, which funds and supports independent and incisive projects. For his work in both fields he has been honored with the EU Humanitarian Award (1998) and the
Finland Prize (2005), the highest prize in the arts given by the Finnish Ministry of Culture.


THE FILMS OF THE TRIBUTE

Something in the Blood, 1994
A Dreamer and the Dreamtribe, 1998
Karmapa – Two Ways of Divinity, 1998
The Star’s Caravan, 2000
The Tank Man, 2004
Conquistadors of Cuba, 2005
Pavlov’s Dogs, 2005
Shadow of the Holy Book, 2007