NEW WORLD | Freedom of Form Contest | Interference Festival 2017 - 4th Festival of Visual Communication | Gdańsk 20>21.10.2017

Interference Festival 2017 – 4th Festival of Visual Communication it’s a one-of-a-kind event in the Pomeranian District which the main target is to popularize visual arts. The festival is focused on international short visual forms’ overview and on the Contest „Freedom of Form” which the main aim is to emerge the best artists in categories Found Footage, Music Video, Creative Advertising Piece and Experimental Short Visual Form.

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FUORINORMA - The neo-experimental way of Italian cinema | Curated by Adriano Aprà | 26.10 - 22.12.2017

http://www.fuorinorma.it

CINEMA PERFORMANCE - Documentario e Arte Contemporanea | Curated by Marco Bertozzi | Università Iuav di Venezia | 28.04.2017

The neo-experimental way of Italian cinema

by Adriano Aprà

There was Roberto Rossellini. There was (overground) Michelangelo Antonioni. There was Federico Fellini (but not always to my taste). There were, in the '60s and later, Pier Paolo Pasolini (including documentaries), Marco Bellocchio (including documentaries), Ermanno Olmi (including documentaries), Bernardo Bertolucci, Marco Ferreri, Vittorio De Seta (including documentaries). And there was a very marginalized – but today re-evaluated – Italian underground (Piero Bargellini, Alberto Grifi, Tonino De Bernardi, Alfredo Leonardi, Massimo Bacigalupo, Adamo Vergine, Guido Lombardi-Anna Lajolo, Paolo Brunatto, Gianfranco Brebbia), even with a few stars who did not consider themselves underground: Carmelo Bene (from theater), and Mario Schifano (from visual arts).

Then came the crisis of the mid-70s. The older managed to keep going but the younger felt orphans, without fathers or culture medium. Meteors. The attempt to make new films, new forms, collides with production and distribution hostile conditions. However, something has emerged, although still marginal. And then there was the presence in Italy of Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub. In the 80s, the situation has not changed.

The 90s have seen revivals, but always localized at the margins. Compared to the dominant attempt to return to a traditional narrative cinema, some adventurers try to propose a new way of making films, uprooted from the past. The dominant trend in the 2000s, in fiction films, in documentaries, in the vanguard itself, from the innovative quality point of view – if you still believe as I do in the aesthetic value – is that of a neo-experimental way of Italian cinema. This phenomenon has nothing to do, if not historically, with the Italian avant-garde of the 60s and 70s, but was born from a creative crisis in traditional narrative cinema and in the so-called cinema of reality. It rises – not unexpectedly, for those like me who have always placed great importance on the "margins" – from the dissatisfaction of many authors against stabilized forms of expression. These are ill-adapted to the needs of new content creation. The traditional movie theater, whose access is filtered by producers and distributors aliens to innovation, it's now just one of many channels of visibility. Meanwhile came the DVDs and the web. And new open projection places not considered within the industrial system, including museums and art galleries. The digital media then allowed new filmmakers to produce works at a lower cost and also to put into practice its "pictorial" specificity.

We no longer need to praise the "margins"; we must now recognize that a large number of feature films – to which it would be fair to add short films – clearly indicates a movement (if not a "school", because each project continues to operate on its own, in isolation, and because we cannot find stylistic similarities between the various works) that emerged specifically in the last decade.

Between 2000 and 2005 some feature films have excelled (I just mention, here and elsewhere, one title per director and I do not keep account of the authors of the 60s): Il mnemonista (2000) by Paolo Rosa, L'amore probabilmente (2001) by Giuseppe Bertolucci, Un'ora sola ti vorrei (2002) by Alina Marazzi, Al primo soffio di vento (2003) by Franco Piavoli, Il ritorno di Cagliostro (2003) by Daniele Ciprì and Franco Maresco, Oh! Uomo (2004) by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi, Passato presente (2005) by Tonino De Bernardi. While, among the more traditional narrative film I would indicate Domani (2000) by Francesca Archibugi, Aprimi il cuore (2002) by Giada Colagrande and Non ti muovere (2004) by Sergio Castellitto. Among the documentaries Asuba de su serbatoiu (2001) by Daniele Segre and Echi di pietra (2003) by Sara Pozzoli. In the production of short films we see Paolo Gioli and the collective canecapovolto from Catania. In recent years, I do not deny it, we had very good films even in a traditional narrative context, also involving cinema of reality. I recognize the value of narrative filmmakers like Daniele Gaglianone with Pietro (2010), Alice Rohrwacher, Luigi Lo Cascio and Leonardo Di Costanzo with their first narrative films (Corpo celeste, 2011, La città ideale, 2012, L'intervallo, 2012), Uberto Pasolini (an Italian who lives and works in London) with Still Life (2013), Mirko Locatelli with I corpi estranei (2014), Claudio Caligari with Non essere cattivo (2015), Emanuela Piovano with L'età d'oro (2015- 2016) – especially in the director's cut version –, Paolo Virzi with La pazza gioia (2016). I also appreciate the value of documentary filmmakers like Daniele Segre and Gianfranco Pannone.

But between 2006 and 2016 we witness to an explosion of neo-experimentalism (only six movies are strictly fictional, the others are "unidentifiable objects"): Flòr da Baixa (2006) by Mauro Santini, Tramas (2007) by Augusto Contento, Valzer (2007) by Salvatore Maira, Puccini e la fanciulla (2008) by Paolo Benvenuti, Storia di una donna amata e di un assassino gentile (2007-2009) by Luigi Faccini, La bocca del lupo (2009) di Pietro Marcello, Le quattro volte (2010) by Michelangelo Frammartino, Terramatta (2012) by Costanza Quatriglio, Su Re (2012) by Giovanni Columbu, Bellas mariposas (2012) by Salvatore Mereu, Il viaggio della signorina Vila (2012) by Elisabetta Sgarbi, Sangue (2013) by Pippo Delbono, Abacuc (2014) by Luca Ferri, N-capace (2014) by Eleonora Danco, Terra (2015) by Marco De Angelis and Antonio Di Trapani, Montedoro (2015) by Antonello Faretta, Per amor vostro (2015) by Giuseppe Gaudino, Ofelia non annega (2016) by Francesca Fini, Spira mirabilis (2016) by Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Parenti, Lepanto – Último cangaçeiro (2016) by Enrico Masi.

Among the short films I remember those of the collective Flatform, Igor Imhoff animated films, Dalla testa ai piedi (2007) by Simone Cangelosi, No More Lonely Nights (2013) by Fabio Scacchioli and Vincenzo Core, Tomba del tuffatore (2015) by Yang Cheng and Federico Francioni, Iconostasi (2015) by Morgan Menegazzo and Mariachiara Pernisa.

All these authors are not alone. I have not included in my list other worthy titles (almost all are documentaries). I remember them: Tre donne morali (2006) by Marcello Garofalo (an essay film), Il peggio di noi (2006) by Corso Salani, Il sol dell'avvenire (2008) by Gianfranco Pannone, Morire di lavoro (2008) by Daniele Segre, Radio Singer (2009, short feature) by Pietro Balla, In amabile azzurro (2009) by Felice D'Agostino and Arturo Lavorato, La vita al tempo della morte (2009) by Andrea Caccia, Formato ridotto. Libere riscritture del cinema amatoriale (2012, short feature) by the collective Home Movies, El impenetrable (2012) by Daniele Incalcaterra and Fausta Quattrini, Il treno va a Mosca (2013) by Federico Ferrone and Michele Manzolini, Memorie – In viaggio verso Auschwitz (2014 ) by Danilo Monte, Senza di voi (2015, short feature) by Chiara Cremaschi, Habitat: note personali (2014, short feature) by Emiliano Dante, My Sister Is a Painter (2014, short feature) Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri (another essay film), I ricordi del fiume (2015) by Gianluca and Massimiliano De Serio, Love Is All. Piergiorgio Welby. Autoritratto (2015) by Francesco Andreotti and Livia Giunti, Filmstudio, mon amour (2015) by Toni D'Angelo, Il negozio (2016) by Pasquale Misuraca (documentary or fiction?), Sassi nello stagno (2016) by Luca Gorreri, La natura delle cose (2016) by Laura Viezzoli, Mancanza-Purgatorio (2016) by Stefano Odoardi (an UFO). (And it's up to others to judge my critofilms of these years).
Too many titles? I will take the responsibility and be generous – if I seem so – in these circumstances it's a virtue. I'm not making history but chronicle: a militant chronicle

CORPO SENSIBILE - Glimpses of the Documentary Curated by Marco Bertozzi | ARTEFIERA 2017 | MAMbo Bologna | 26>29.01.2017

Curated by Marco Bertozzi

Corpo Sensibile examines the confines between video art and documentary cinema - a porous boundary where the seemingly real becomes mingled with film cuts, tears and strip slips to produce original impressions and glimpses that cast into question the apparently realistic image. The works by young authors probe this mysterious relationship. Snippets of found footage, poems written in light, visual snatches that come close to an aesthetic experience push the boundaries to the edge of aesthetic experience where reality must be constantly re-invented and documentary cinema becomes the contrary of paradigmatic certainty. Corpo sensibile also aims to reconstruct a common generational arena. The artists involved all operate in an international dimension. Experience of residencies and collaborative periods has provided an impetus leading them to develop a hybrid poetic and contemporary art language. As a result, they are equally at home at film festivals or in the more classical exhibition and distribution channels of contemporary art.

There will be eight meetings – two a day – in which each artist will present some of his work in a conversation with Marco Bertozzi on the theme of the boundary - and if it exists - between the documentary film and contemporary art. Another discussion point will be around the film as performance, whose creative dimension involves the author’s physical person, diverse other media as well as his life experience – a range of poetic gestures with which the artist lays himself bare.

From January 26 to 29, the rooms of the MAMbo Permanent Collection will host the project Corpo sensibile. Barlumi del documentario, curated by Marco Bertozzi, features eight presentations made of screenings and talks in order to investigate new forms between of video art and documentary cinema. An intriguing issue explored by a group of young Italian authors who reflect on the notion of film as performance, a place where the appearance of reality made of autobiographical rifting and skidding leading to the production of original views, likely to question the realistic appearance of images. The artists invited are Milo Adami, Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri, Luca Ferri, Riccardo Giacconi, Chiara Malta, Caterina Erika Shanta, Cosimo Terlizzi, Danilo Torre.

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THE SUN BENEATH THE SEA | The Refugee! Film Collection | CologneOFF - International Festival Network

Curated by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne

There are currently more than 60 millions of refugees on the globe, people who left their home country in order to escape war, persecution and murder, but also poverty and the lack of any perspectives.

People in Europe speak currently of the “refugee crisis”, as if the streams of refugees would come by coincidence. In fact, Europe and the old European colonial superpowers , eg Great Britain and France, and on a smaller scale Spain and Portugal prepared the fertile soil for all current conflicts, wars and civil wars in Middle East, Asia and Africa. When the colonial powers left the stage, after World War II other imperial powers – like USA, Sovjetunion, but currently also China – were replacing them and continued again the powergames at the expenses of the local people anywhere. They were feeding the current local Islam dominated powers in Middle East, for instance, and their main tool to maintain and expand power, the terrorism.

But a big share of all the millions of refugees worldwide are forced to leave the home country due to the changing climate caused by the global warming. The effects on the living habitat is already dramatic in South America, Africa and Asia. More and more people will start migrating to regions on the globe promissing better conditions for a survival.

Even if the current refugee crisis can be considered to be the biggest since World War II, the transmigration of people does not represent a new phenomenon in the history of human civilization, but it was even an essential condition for the development of the human species. The phenomenon of transmigration was always initiating a new era, a renewal and an important step forward to a next level of human civilization. So, what will come next?

Once a year, The Refugee Film Collection is releasing an open call focussing on the human dimension, since the refugees are human individuals who are forced to leave their home countries in order to get shelter, protection and perspectives for survival elsewhere. Do or did they find the “promissed land” – temporarily or for sure?

Artists and video makers spotlight this human dimension and the diversity of reasons and motivations to become a refugee. The collection will be presented individually – in total and in parts – in the context of the major exhibition project.

http://refugee.engad.org/