10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival –
Images of the 21st Century
March 7-16, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
HONORARY CEREMONY
JOE BERLINGER – BRUCE SINOFSKI
The 10th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival honored Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofski, outstanding figures in the contemporary American independent documentary field, at a special event which took place on the evening of Wednesday, March 12 at the Olympion’s Pavlos Zannas theater.
The two directors were particularly happy to receive the award from the Artistic Director of the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival Dimitri Eipides, and they warmly thanked him for the honor. “Bruce Sinofsky and I have been working together for 20 years, something which isn’t at all easy. It’s a fact that to make a documentary you need a lot of time and effort, it’s a very difficult job. This award gives us the courage and the inspiration to continue to do it”, noted Joe Berlinger.
On his part, Bruce Sinofsky stated: “We feel very fortunate that we met each other and very happy about our collaboration. The fact is that after our documentary on Metallica, we were very busy, we had a great deal of work. We also worked a lot in television, but in spite of the limitations of the medium, we managed to have absolute freedom of expression, without any limitations. We are really very happy and feel honored to be here”.
Following the ceremony, the audience had the opportunity of watching Joe Berlinger’s film Gray Matter, in which the American director sheds light on one more side of Nazi brutality, the murder of over 700 children with mental or physical defects in a special “euthanasia” program.
