GALA AND PRESENTATION OF HONORARY AWARD TO PIRJO HONKASALO
On Thursday evening, April 7, a gala was held in honor of the Finnish director Pirjo Honkasalo, in the crowded Pavlos Zannas theater. The gala took place within the framework of the 7th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival – Images of the 21st Century, which is presenting Honkasalo’s work to the public. On presenting Ms Honsakalo to the audience, Mr. Dimitri Eipides, Director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, stressed that she is one of the most important documentary directors in Europe, with a prolific and multi award winning body of work that began 25 years ago, and which includes both fiction films and documentaries. “I am truly proud that she is finally here with us”, he characteristically stressed.
Tue Steen Müller, the Director of the European Documentary Network presented the honorary award to Pirjo Honkasalo, emphasising that it is a great honour and pleasure for him to present it to this distinguished director, as she not only is a role model for the younger generation of documentary makers, but also a fighter: “ She is fighting for the independent documentary and she has proven that she can do this. We thank you very much for your tenacity and your struggle for the right of every director to determine his own work. We also thank you because you have given us something more than simply information, you have also given us a philosophy,” he characteristically said.
The director herself said that it was a great honor to receive this award, thus entering into the pantheon with other great directors who have received it in the past: “My receiving this award here is even more special, because the audience in Thessaloniki is particularly sensitive and intelligent, and because the entire program of the Festival organization is very ambitious”, she said, and added: “This is why I am sending a message to the Greek Ministry of Culture ‘let them do their job in peace’”.
Closing her short acceptance speech, she expressed a wish: “I hope that in the future we will stop calling fiction films ‘films’ and documentary films ‘documentaries’ and call both genres ‘films’. And I hope that this award being given to me today will give me the impetus to remain an anarchist against authority for the next 20 years, as I believe every artist must be”. The giving of the award was followed by the screening of the film 3 Rooms of Melancholia, a film which Tue Steen Müller, Director of the European Documentary network characterised as one of the most important films in Europe.
