Another year of courageous documentary filmmaking is about to reveal itself: the 17th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival – Images of the 21st Century has officially started and it promises to offer some of the most striking samples of the genre.

From 13-22 March, the 17th TDF will present approximately 185 films (shorts and features) by directors from all over the world, as well as a full parallel events program.
Here is a selection of highlights from this year’s edition:

The Salt of the Earth

Their Oscar nomination for Best Documentary is a small testament to these films’ achievements: Brazilian photojournalist extraordinaire Sebastião Salgado fills the screen with his images and life story in The Salt of the Earth directed by Wim Wenders and Salgado’s son, Juliano Ribeiro. A close-up of Salgado’s face against a black background and a generous selection of his stunning photographs lead a narrative full of surprising twists and turns, of emotional and moral depth that ultimately becomes a kaleidoscope of our planet with all its wonders and contradictions.

Blending the genres of ecological documentary and political thriller Orlando von Einsiedel’s Virunga (with Leonardo DiCaprio executive producing) chronicles the suspenseful story of a group of park rangers and their struggle to protect the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The gorillas might be the endangered species threatened by poachers in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, but Von Einsiedel’s documentary widens the scope to include the area’s pressing social issues, the personal dedication of the protagonists and, ultimately, the fight between good and evil.
The Look of Silence

TDF regulars – Heddy Honigmann, Kim Longinotto, Joshua Oppenheimer and Barbara Kopple – return with their latest work: Music transcends borders – whether they be geographical, ethnic or cultural – in Heddy Honigmann’s Around the World in 50 Concerts, a surprising road-movie with one of the world’s best orchestras, the Dutch Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, setting the tone.

After his ground-breaking Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer delves once again into Indonesia’s tragic recent history. The Look of Silence, a “poem about a silence borne of terror”, follows a family of survivors that discovers the identity of their son’s murderers – and decides to confront them.

A former prostitute is now a guardian angel for neglected and exploited women and young girls in Kim Longinotto’s Dreamcatcher. Shot in verité style, the portrait of an inspiring woman becomes a multi-faceted narrative of various experiences as seen through the point of view of the women who share them on camera.

Oscar winner Barbara Kopple returns with Running From Crazy, an intimate portrait of Mariel Hemingway, the granddaughter of writer Ernest Hemingway. As she has to deal with a legacy of greatness but also of suicide and mental illness, Hemingway looks to the past to find a way to change her and her children’s future.

An incredible, unknown story comes to the surface with André Singer’s Night Will Fall. A British film about the Holocaust, overseen by Alfred Hitchcock and shot by a group of British filmmakers during the days of World War II liberation, was shelved for 70 years for political reasons. Singer juxtaposes the yet unseen and horrifying images of the film with the unique story of its origins and fate.

Michael Matheson Miller’s Poverty Inc. is not just another documentary about poverty and the developing countries. Matheson Miller masterfully chooses his talking heads, who expertly and roundly present the workings of global poverty, focusing on the West’s responsibility in the reinforcement of a vicious circle of paternalism, charity and colonialism.

Two journalists/directors record their own, personal and shocking stories. Having himself experienced detainment, torture and humiliation, Ahmad Jalali Farahani exposes in We Are Journalists the harsh reality Iranian journalists face in their country – and their constant struggle for freedom of expression. Another incredible true story is that of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas who reveals with Documented a different kind of coming-out: that of an undocumented immigrant in the US. Sharing the hardships of an immigrant’s “illegal life in limbo”, Vargas’s film becomes the story of his own transformation into an activist.

FILM PREMIERES

The 17th TDF presents 5 world, 9 international, 3 European and 125 Greek premieres:

World Premieres:
A Nuclear Story, Matteo GAGLIARDI, Italy, 2014, 84’ – Habitat
Transfixed, Alon KOL, Canada, 2014, 75’ – Portraits
The Limb of Morocco, Bruno ROCCHI, Italy, 2015, 62’ – Society
Ikaria, Arnaud GAILLARD, France, 2014, 52’ – Society
Nowhere to be Found, Alex MORATTO, USA, 2015, 8’ – Stories to Tell

International Premieres:
Limbo, Matteo CALORE, Gustav HOFER, Italy, 2014, 54’ – Human Rights
To Russia with Love, Noam GONICK, USA, Canada, 2014, 80’ – Human Rights
I Am a Visitor in Your World, Miguel SILVEIRA, USA, 2014, 82’ – Portraits
Following Shira’s Journey: A Greek Jewish Odyssey, Natalie CUNNINGHAM, Carol GORDON, Australia, 2014, 50’ – Recordings of Memory
Plaza Man, Kasper VERKAIK, Netherlands, 2014, 60’ – Recordings of Memory
Every Face Has a Name, Magnus GERTTEN, Sweden, 2015, 76’ – Recordings of Memory
Crisis Document. A Survival Guide, Elisabeth MARJANOVIC CRONVALL, Marta DAULIUTE, Sweden, 2015, 15’ – Society
Made in Kasama (Kasamayaki), Yuki KOKUBO, USA, Japan, 2014, 78’ – Stories to Tell
The Age of Love, Steven LORING, USA, 2014, 79’ – Stories to Tell

European Premieres:
The Pawn, Jean-Cosme DELALOYE, Switzerland, 2014, 78’ – Society
Spirit Berlin, Kordula HILDEBRANDT, Germany, 2014, 89’ – Stories to Tell
The Empire of Scents, Kim NGUYEN, Canada, 2014, 84’ – Stories to Tell
FIPRESCI JURY