The Circuit

Thessaloniki has announced the first harvest of seven titles for its 49th event.  The runs November 14-23 in Greece.


"Cell" (Selda, Philippines, 2008)
Ellen Ramos and Paolo Villaluna
An emotional story of friendship and romantic love between two men that meet while incarcerated in the same prison cell.

"A Broom Becomes A Goldfish" (Bitjaru, Geumbungeo Doeda, Korea, 2008)
Dong-joo Kim
A middle-aged man living in a dormitory complex of a poor neighbourhood in the Seoul outskirts, works to make a living with odd jobs.

"Winds of September" (Jiu Jiang Feng, Taiwan/Hong Kong, 2008)
Tom Shu-Yu Lin
A group of high-school boys are confronted with a terrible accident that speedily moves them towards adulthood.

"One Week Alone" (Una Semana Solos, Argentina, 2007)
Celina Murga
A study of teenage life and behaviour, Una Semana Solos follows a group of affluent suburban kids who, in the absence of their parents, break into neighbouring homes and “explore” other people’s lives by invading their living spaces.  The director’s first feature, "Ana y Los Otros" (Ana and the others), won the Best Director Award in the 44th Thessaloniki fest.

"The Hourglass" (Pescanik, Serbia/Hungary/Montenegro, 2008)
Szabolcs Tolnai
The director has adapted Danilo Kis' homonymous autobiographical trilogy about a train inspector traveling in the war-torn Central Europe of the 1970s.

"Three Blind Mice" (Australia, 2008)
Matthew Newton
In Newton’s sophomore film, three Sydney sailors are about to embark on a military vessel headed to Iraq, fraught by the events of their last stint there. The three protagonists, one of whom is the director himself, impress with an acting tour-de-force, while the emotional consequences of taking part in a war resonate throughout the film.

"Ordinary Boys" (Chicos Ordinarios, Spain, 2008)
Daniel Hernandez
In an impoverished Muslim neighbourhood, the camera observes a lively mosaic of life and three characters -two men, one woman- who are presented with meagre opportunities and few choices.

Thessaloniki fest will dedicate the fest to Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, who twice won the Palm d'Or for "Rosetta" (1999) and "L'Enfant" (2005).  A tribute will include a Masterclass and an honorary Golden Alexander.

The showcase will screen all of the Dardenne brothers' fiction work including their latest film, "Lorna's Silence."

"Le Silence de Lorna" (The Silence of Lorna, 2008)
"L'Enfant" (2005)
"Le Fils" (The Child, 2002)
"Rosetta" (1999)
"La Promesse" (The Promise, 1996)
"Je Pense à Vous" (1992)
"Falsch" (1987)
"Dans L’Obscurité," (2007, 3 min, created for the anthology film Chacun son cinema and the Cannes 60th FF)
"Il Court... il Court le Monde" (1987, 10 min)

Photo by Nick Wall/WireImage.com.

by Ray Pride


Last minute preparations.


While Greece has "regularly scheduled spontaneous demonstrations" throughout the year, the November 17 marches, noting a key date in 1973 toward the overthrow of the military junta, is particularly active.


The packs of abandoned dogs in the central city are very territorial, even with thousands of marchers bearing down on them.


A solitary fishing shack sells rods and lures to the local fishermen on a stormy afternoon.


Ray Pride is film critic of the Chicago weekly Newcity and a contributing editor of Movie City News and Filmmaker Magazine, as well as a photographer. He observes independent film at moviecityindie.com; links to his work are at http://raypride.blogspot.com.

by Ray Pride


If you don't know about Greek driving and Greek parking habits, you won't find this gashed door on a festival car as funny as I do.


Theatrical lighting is spotted around the festival venues, lending a sense of a film set, especially in cascading rain.


The festival's brand identity is cleaner and more profuse than ever: this is the greeting at Makedonia International Airport.


Markets and street kiosks are everywhere: the smallest of small merchants.


Ray Pride is film critic of the Chicago weekly Newcity and a contributing editor of Movie City News and Filmmaker Magazine, as well as a photographer. He observes independent film at moviecityindie.com; links to his work are at http://raypride.blogspot.com.

Photos and text by Ray Pride.

Joe Swanberg's just gotten out of a car off of a plane from the Stockholm Film Festival and he's racing to the first showing of "Hannah Takes The Stairs."


Along the waterfront of the deep sea port on Thermaikos Bay, flowing into the Aegean, sometimes you can see Olympus, or at least, the neon "Film Festival" sign lining the Provlita, or pier, where many of the festival activities take place.


The great photographer and filmmaker, William Klein, fields questions.


For 10 years a photographer named Rassias has been taking the festival's official portraits. Over the 10 days of the festival, the brick walls of Warehouse C on the Provlita (pier) are slowly but surely covered with his images of directors, actors and others.


John Sayles is telling another anecdote.


Ray Pride is film critic of the Chicago weekly Newcity and a contributing editor of Movie City News and Filmmaker Magazine, as well as a photographer. He observes independent film at moviecityindie.com; links to his work are at http://raypride.blogspot.com.

More views from the Thessaloniki Film Festival via Ray Pride's camera.


A large part of the already-congested central city is turned into a maze by excavation for the new Metro.


A Thessaloniki festival patrons consulting a wall schedule near the John Cassavetes Theater.


Scattered around the central city, graven Dziga-Vertov images that look like huge cookies.


After a movie at the John Cassavetes, spectators escape into the sun and 65 degree weather to have a smoke by the sea.


Kindly crowds linger after an acting masterclass with David Straitharn and Chris Cooper.


Ray Pride is film critic of the Chicago weekly Newcity and a contributing editor of Movie City News and Filmmaker Magazine, as well as a photographer. He observes independent film at moviecityindie.com; links to his work are at http://raypride.blogspot.com.

by Ray Pride
The eleven-day Thessaloniki International Film Festival plays across the central business district of a city in northern Greece of almost a million, with over 100,000 students in its midst from nearby Aristotelous University.

Once inexpensive, Thessaloniki became a pricey city even without the Euro tickling the $1.50 mark. It's a complex metropolis with an intricate history, youthful and vibrant, built along a deep-sea port first dug by Alexander the Great; modernity and antiquity jostle on every street corner. When a festival, even one with over 100 programs and impressive taste in all manner of serious-minded cinema, is not a world premiere festival, it's at its best when it groups schools and national cinemas.

This year, among sidebars that included an extensive Miko Naruse look-back that had viewers in the aisles, Thessaloniki offered the first complete John Sayles retrospective, with all 16 features, also inviting his collaborators, Maggie Renzi, David Straitharn, Chris Cooper and Danny Glover for their own sessions within the festival's many forms of endearingly democratic public conversation. John Malkovich, Alfonso Cuaron and Diego Luna are among the other independent-minded filmmakers on show.

Here are a few sideways glimpses of how city and festival enrich each other.


John Malkovich listens to his producing partner Russ Smith during his acting masterclass.


Each afternoon there's an intimate gathering for conversation with  food and beer with the younger or neophyte filmmakers and actors called "just talking."


Eventually, the style of line-up becomes amusing.


The drink is flowing.


The genial president of the festival, George Corraface, ready with expressive hands.


Ray Pride is film critic of the Chicago weekly Newcity and a contributing editor of Movie City News and Filmmaker Magazine, as well as a photographer. He observes independent film at moviecityindie.com; links to his work are at http://raypride.blogspot.com.