The 2nd International Documentary Congress, the fruit of the collaboration between the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival - Images of the 21st Century and the European Documentary Network (EDN) took place on Tuesday, March 16 at the IEK ACME auditorium, with the support of the Municipality Of Thessaloniki – Mayoralty Of Culture And Youth.
The Congress was opened by the Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, Dimitri Eipides. He welcomed the participants to Thessaloniki and wished success to this important event. “This International Congress was founded last year, and we are certain that it will continue on a regular annual basis. We must also mention that it was only made possible through the valuable help of the Municipality of Thessaloniki and specifically the Deputy Ministry of Culture and Youth, as well as that of the Deputy Mayor”.
Then Vassilis Gakis, Deputy Minister of Culture and Youth for the Municipality of Thessaloniki spoke. He said how important the Documentary Festival is to the city: “The Municipality, in spite of hard financial times, supports the Festival, because we believe in culture as a part of life and we try to support the people who produce it”.
The 2nd International Documentary Congress aims to be a field of research and dialogue for the international documentary genre. This was stressed by the Congress’ coordinator, Ove Rishoj Jensen, from EDN. “We are here to exchange experiences, to see how the documentary has developed in each country separately, and to share successful practices and also problems that people have encountered in the journey from production to distribution”, he said.
On the occasion of the 2nd International Documentary Congress, important executives from the international industry came to Thessaloniki. The producers Martichka Bozhilova (Bulgaria), Martina Durac (Ireland), Raffaele Brunetti (Italy), Valerie Kontakos (Greece), Kees Ryninks (Netherlands) and Cay Wesnigk (Germany) shared their views.
