Thessaloniki Doc Fest turns 20 amid fake news onslaught

Nominated for this year's Academy Award for best documentary feature, "Faces Places" by 89-year-old French New Wave pioneer Agnes Varda and French guerrilla "photograffeur" JR will open the 20th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF), which starts on March 2.

The film (its original title is "Visages, Villages") follows the unlikely duo as they roam the French countryside in a van equipped with a photo booth and large-format printer, chatting with people and taking their pictures before plastering epic-size portraits on multiple surfaces including houses, barns, boulders and shipping containers. Their encounters with locals - factory workers, retired miners, waitresses and so on - generate charming musings about the ups and downs of the modern world.

The tribute to Varda's cinematic legacy is one of the treats prepared by organizers as the non-fiction event...