For Greek Documentary Filmmakers, Opportunities Emerge After Years of Crisis
Christopher Vourlias For an event that functions as the premier showcase for the Greek documentary industry, the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival again offered a prime platform for local docmakers at its 24th edition, with 77 feature-length and short Greek documentaries screening across the festival’s various competition and non-competitive sections.Marco Gastine, a co-founder of the Hellas Doc Association, a trade group representing the interests of Greek documentary filmmakers, has witnessed the industry’s steady evolution since the association was founded in 2013.“There was nothing specific about documentaries [in Greece’s film policy at the time],” Gastine told Variety in Thessaloniki. “It was underrepresented in the public programs at the Greek Film Center and [public broadcaster] ERT.” The pubcaster was in fact shuttered from 2013 to 2015, as part of cost-cutting measures by an austerity-minded government, plunging the documentary industry into crisis.