19^th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

3-12 March, 2017

"One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well"

Virginia Woolf

The 19^th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival celebrates the irresistible combination of film and food by introducing a new section titled “Food vs. Food” in this year’s edition.

The new segment presents 9 compelling food-related documentaries from all over the world.

In addition, during the 19^th TDF, the Cinema Museum of Thessaloniki will host a special exhibition titled “Without Knife and Fork”, dedicated to the role of food in the Greek cinema, as highlighted in films like A Touch of Spice by Tassos Boulmetis (2003), Htypokardia sto Thranio by Alekos Sakellarios (1963) and The Fear by Kostas Manousakis (1966), inter alia.

Moreover, a gastronomy contest with inspiration from the great culinary tradition of Thessaloniki will take place on the occasion of the new section. For one month,
20 restaurants in the city will create and propose one course dedicated to the TDF. This course will be included in the restaurants’ menus; the public, as well as a jury committee, will vote for the best course and bestow their awards.

The documentaries of “Food vs. Food” focus on the various aspects of food; Food as pure delight but also as means of oppression and exploitation, food as a valuable good in abundance or shortage, but they also concern food production and distribution,  gastronomy and food culture.

The new section’s films challenge us to discover:

• The injustice that lies behind a tempting glass of wine in Tom Heinemann’s Bitter Grapes - Slavery in the Vineyards; a film that exposes the modern day slavery working conditions in the South African wine industry.

• The adventure of Noma, one of the best restaurants in the world. Two years ago it moved from Denmark to Japan, posing a unique challenge for its charismatic chef René Redzepi and his staff. Maurice Dekkers’ Ants on a Shrimp chronicles this venture.

• The incredible success story of a group of idealists who transformed one of the poorest regions in Catalonia, Spain, into an internationally famed wine destination in Priorat by David Fernández de Castro.

• The guilty side of chocolate, as the product of child slavery in African cocoa plantations, is highlighted in Benthe Forrer’s revealing documentary The Chocolate Case.

• Entomophagy, a controversial food trend. Andreas Johnsen’s Bugs follows three young chefs in a journey around the world in search of edible insects and answers to the debate on whether entomophagy is the future of food. 

• The famous Italian chef Massimo Bottura, who took the initiative together with his team, to cook meals for refugees and homeless in Milan, Italy, in Peter Svatek’s Theater of Life.

• The generous story of Kostas, the man who founded the Athens-based social kitchen "The Other Man", providing free meals to the people in need, in Lukas Agelastos’ My Human Self.

• An exciting journey in time through the flavours, recipes and folk traditions of Mount Athos, Greece, the centre of Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Monasticism, portrayed in Culinary Heritage of Mount Athos by Christos Matzonas.

• The timeline of the evolution of food in Greece and the Mediterranean, as a sneak preview of the television documentary series The Journey of Food – Eating in Greece from Prehistory to Modern Times that traces the origins of the Mediterranean diet since 500,000 years ago.

With the support of the Municipality of Thessaloniki

The 19^th TDF is financed by the European Union - European Regional Development Fund under the ROP of Central Macedonia 2014-2020.

Co-financed by Greece and the European Union