23/01/2018 - Celebrating its 20th edition, Greece’s largest documentary gathering focuses on Agnès Varda, offers a carte blanche to Sara Driver and launches its new visual identity

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF) will be celebrating its 20^th anniversary edition. Running from 2 to 11 March, the most important documentary gathering is due to expand and offer a new dimension to the audience that is not only limited to screenings, but also includes sidebar events, special tributes and important guests, in order to emphasise its dedication to the documentary genre.

The 20^th TDF is due to open its doors on 2 March at the Olympion theatre in Thessaloniki with the screening of Agnès Varda’s latest film co-directed with French photographer and artist JR, Faces Places [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], now nominated for Best Documentary at the Oscars. The festival won’t be limiting its interest in Varda’s work to the opening film, as a special tribute to the pioneering director has also been organised. Ten of the most emblematic documentaries of her career, spanning six decades, will be screened, including Daguerréotypes (1975), Mural Murals (1980), The Gleaners and I (2000), The Beaches of Agnès [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (2008), and The World of Jacques Demy (1995) a tribute to her late husband, director Jacques Demy.

Furthermore, a carte blanche has been given to American independent filmmaker and artist Sara Driver, who will also be attending the festival. Driver will present ten films that reflect her look on cinema, while her latest documentary Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat, dedicated to the celebrated American artist, will be screened at the festival.

Some of the highlights of TDF’s announced line-up include Of Fathers and Sons [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the latest documentary by Talal Derki, Ex Libris: New York Public Library by veteran documentarist Frederick Wiseman, and Marianne Faithfull’s biographic documentary, Faithfull [+see also:
trailer
film profile], directed by French actress Sandrine Bonnaire. 

Finally, in an initial step towards publicly communicating the link between the different sections of the Thessaloniki Film Festival organisation, general director Élise Jalladeau (read the interview) has announced that TDF will be the first to share some new branding. Launching a new logo, which still draws inspiration from the Vergina Sun, Thessaloniki Film Festival’s new visual identity aims to integrate all activities – the two editions of the festival and the Thessaloniki Cinema Museum – under a unified umbrella (click here to see more).