Italian Get-togethers The movies
"When will we get to know you, Italian filmmaking?" Starting from this question, this year we decided to change the Italian Get-togethers section's formula and give it a new direction. Between 2002 and 2008, only two afternoons were dedicated to Italian Get-togethers, the filmmakers had to attend the screenings. In this way the authors of short films that had not been selected for the international competition but we considered interesting for different (narrative, stylistic, or productive) reasons had a chance to get together. Though the reasons that led us to screen a film remain the same, from this year this sectionÕs relation with the competition changes. Italian Get-togethers is an out-of-competition festival section that was created as a workshop to delve into Italian films. The idea of a "get-together" turns into an invitation addressed to the audience to discover more or less independent Italian filmmaking. A major change is that, besides the films watched during the selection phase, some productions have been invited: on one side to provide an insight, on the other to offer as much space as possible to this kind of films in Milan. One of independent filmmaking's problems is that it is not enough to just make films, these films also need to be distributed, to receive visibility, to be screened and to get to the audience. And we strongly wish Italian Get-togethers will be an occasion to do that.
The section includes more than 20 short films and, for the first time, 3 feature films. We have tried to organize them according to thematic and/or geographic criteria: it may be a rather weak attempt, yet it helps provide a direction. The three feature films, which eclectically interpret the documentary medium, investigating the relation between places and memory - from Milan's Bovisa quarter in Elvio Annese's Dalle terre di nessuno, passing through the fragments of homosexual history traced back by Debora Inguglia in Isola nuda, to the Apulian Murgia 3 episodi by Cosimo Terlizzi. The documentary offers the possibility to report stories completely differently than official narratives - that is precisely why it seems to us the most fertile medium to explore.
As for short films, two groups are dedicated to two cities. "In and About Rome" gathers some films from the capital which are exemplary for their interpretation of fiction, as well as for their high quality. Also thanks to the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Cinematography Centre Foundation), we will screen productions like L'ultimo spettacolo by Andrea De Sica. "In and About Milan" illustrates the constant attempt of our city to tell its stories, which, among young filmmakers, often remains very abstract: from Niente più di questo by Lorenzo Gorini, to Olympus by Giovanni Fantoni Modena. Three other groups, instead, gather more films with similar themes. "Other Stories" is dedicated to fictions, from Le Troixième Charge, a beautiful first-hand film, to the one on actors in Lo Zio by Duccio Charini, featuring Marco Messeri, and Emanuele Muscolino's parable of Cain and Abel in Caino e Abele. The rendezvous dedicated to "Fantastic Films" will unexpectedly delve into a genre absent from official feature filmmaking, though present in short film production: Pathos by Dennis Cabella, Marcello Ercole and Fabio Prati is a perfect example - even due to its production efforts - that even in Italy it is possible to create a different, not-so-reassuring world. Finally, "Different Stories - A Remix" will include some unusual films: I love Star Wars by Federico Floridi is a comedy about a generation of spectators, while Cartagine 1932 recovers some old private footage that provides a different point of view, and Marianna Schivardi's 69 Bites - screened for the first time in its uncensored version - shows an actress lost in her thoughts and the actual set of a porn film. It will reproduce the impact of Godard's uninhibited and at times smile-provoking docu-fiction.
We believe this programme well represents the two souls of Italian filmmaking: the one connected to production, and the one that is born in the streets, which share passion. If both can be featured at a film festival, it is a shame that these films cannot be screened in cinemas all year long. Of course, this is a post-festival issue, and we will only mention it; yet it is essential to understand this section. We present it to you as a prototype, hoping it will work well and end up on the screen: take a few hours to get to know Italian filmmaking and look at it differently.
Alessandro Beretta
in collaboration with
