Views on contemporary society, permanent wars, rebellions, forgotten personalities: these are the main themes ofthis section, that includes the best italian and international documentaries and narrative productionsof the last years. Some of these works mix fiction and reality, others use new video technologies, others theclassical cinema instruments like 35 mm film.
Using different languages, they mantain the contact with reality, by showing a sensibilitythat is typical of documentary, that cinema always tries to reach. We will invite you to go through the poetic images of Colombia, land of global contraddictions, in Paraiso; the modern war in Shadow Company with its private soldiers; an apparently finished war in Beirut Diares: Truth, Lies and Videos by the multi awarded Lebanese director Mai Masri. We also propose the film as a tribute to Stefano Chiarini, a journalist of Il Manifesto who recently died, and whose work on the MiddleEast will never be replaced.
To the peculiar personality of Roska is dedicated the homonymous documentary. Surrealistic painter, political activist, photographer, director,she lived in Roma during the ‘60s, and is now acclaimed in Island for her eclecticism andunforeseeability. Other two works will introduce personalities who used photography as a capturing-realityart. In La Ciudad de los Fotografos by Sebastian Moreno (1st prize at the 17th edition of the African, Asian and South American FilmFestival in Milan) we find ourselves under Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, while with Pédra: un reporter sans frontières by Vili Hermann (guest of our festival) we discover Jean-Pierre Pedrazzini’s work, that immortalized the great events of the post 2nd World War period. In these last years we have looked at all thedifferent far “souths” of contemporary world, and now we want to focus our attention on a“south” that is closer to us. This is why we propose La morte di Girasole, the story of a farmhand living in Basilicata, in the south of Italy,in the ‘50s, involved in the fight against unemployement, and Rita Borsellino: ‘na stranizza d’amuri, with interviews to the protagonists ofthe fight against mafia. Vhs-Kahloucha, the first documentary by the Tunisian director Nejib Belkadhi, wants to be instead a hilarious tribute to cinema.
To conclude we announce two Tekfestival coproductions. Ma l’amore mio non muore, by the collective Todo Modo, with its interviews tosome of the protagonists of the Italian Resistance movement, and Amore alla fermata, the resulting documentary of the video workshop “La voce della Luna”, a project realized incollaboration with Tekfestival.