Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Director Orestis Andreadakis on Cinema in a Time of Global Crisis

variety.com:

Christopher Vourlias Under different circumstances, the 24th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival might have been a more celebratory affair, with coronavirus restrictions gradually loosening across Greece and the country’s second city hosting an in-person edition of a festival that was among the world’s first to go virtual at the start of the pandemic in 2020.But with the humanitarian toll rising in Ukraine, as Russia continues its relentless assault of its Eastern European neighbor, festival director Orestis Andreadakis offered a sobering reflection on the eve of opening night on war, cinema and the need for solidarity.“It’s shocking what is happening,” Andreadakis told Variety, likening the threat to the one faced by Europe during World War II. “After the war, we had this slogan: Never again.

Never again to war. Never again to Holocaust. Never again to horror. Every time we repeated this phrase, every time we wrote it on the walls, we thought that it was the end of the horror.

And suddenly, the horror is back.” While the recent events in Ukraine have cast a pall over Europe and the rest of the world, they’ve also strengthened the resolve of the European film community.

Festivals, industry trade groups, national film bodies and individual filmmakers across the continent have raised funds, welcomed refugees and rallied behind the untold numbers of Ukrainians whose lives have been upended by a war that has sent more than two million fleeing westward into Europe and displaced countless millions more.For Andreadakis, the outpouring of support has sharpened the focus of this year’s Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, which runs March 10-20.