52 Festival dei Popoli - Presentation
The new territories of documentary cinema, spanning research, cross-over, and experimentation, are those explored in the 52nd Edition of the Festival dei Popoli. Our programme pushes the boundaries of the documentary genre as it investigates encounters, dialogues, and the contamination with other film genres: fiction, animation, and experimental film.
The idea is to conceive the Festival like a permanent laboratory, with special attention to younger authors and the most innovative examples of the global documentary production. This approach is supported by our decision to devote a personal retrospective to Isaki Lacuesta, a young but already well-known Catalan film-maker whose 24 films among feature-length, medium-length and short documentaries were appreciated and awarded at major international film festivals. This is the first retrospective in Italy devoted to the filmmaker, who works in-between fiction and documentary creating an unusual fusion of genres and languages. His “El cuaderno de barro” and “Los pasos dobles” will have their Italian premiere. The former, that describes the work of painter Barceló in Africa, is a documentary derived from the shooting of the latter, a mysterious and enthralling film which has just won the prestigious Concha de Oro at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Another noteworthy title included in the retrospective is “La noche que no acaba”, an intriguing homage to Hollywood star Ava Gardner and her love for Spain.
The Official Selection presents two international competitions: feature-length documentaries and shorts.
Sections out of competition will include programmes focused on topical subjects and a number of special events. "Panorama", the section devoted to Italian documentary, is all the more significant due to its partnership with Italian Doc Screenings, the biggest Italian market of documentary film (Florence, November 16th through 19th).