WEDNESDAY DECEMBRE 3rd - SPAZIO ALFIERI
THE LAST BLACK SEA PIRATES
A film by Svetoslav Stoyanov (Bulgaria, 2013, 72'')
Spazio Alfieri - 3.00 pm
This documentary chose to describe the daily life of the last true pirates left who are still chasing hidden treasures. It is the insightful chronicle of long, tiring days reminiscent of captivity because these are spent telling legends, excavating, placing dynamite, and waiting for fish to rise to the bait or for a pig to fall in a trap and become food. Never mind that, instead of Tortuga, the location is the less exotic Black Sea, and the menace is not the looming fleet of an enemy admiral but the scheduled building of a luxury resort: adventure is a way of living!
NAGASAKI STORIES
A film by Jos de Putter (The Netherlands, 1996, 55')
Spazio Alfieri - 4.15 pm - With the director in-person
Kyushiro has lost all his loved ones. The elderly kamikaze lost his glory. The tailor lost his business. The civil servant lost his bet. The photographer lost peace of mind. These are some of the lives crushed by the atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Nagasaki Stories is a moving journey in search of specks of bright memories, ruins burning and still shining after 50 years, hanging in the fine dust of emotions.
SOLO - THE LAW OF THE FAVELA
A film by Jos de Putter (The Netherlands, 1994, 54')
Spazio Alfieri - 5.15 pm - With the director in-person
The Law of the Favela implies to be with the others. But think and judge for yourself. This applies to the Laws of the Game too. You can pass the ball, only to have it back and run to the goal post. To score a goal is to create a way out. Anselmo and Leonardo know the law of the slum and the laws of the game very well. Someone notices them and gives them a chance. Apparently their dream has come true. But success does not necessarily mean happiness.
THE SHOT
A film by Jos de Putter (The Netherlands, 2014, 10')
Spazio Alfieri - 5.15 pm - With the director in-person
My daughter, 8 years old, is watching Bambi for the first time in her life". (J. de Putter)
GESÙ È MORTO PER I PECCATI DEGLI ALTRI
A film by Maria Arena (Italy, 2014, 84')
Spazio Alfieri - 8.30 pm - With the director in-person
“Prostitutes lost the sense of their bodies, they don’t give them any value, they only give them death… That’s why we are close to ascend to the Kingdom of Heaven.” One of the protagonists of this film quotes the words of Jesus in order to explain how does it feel to be a buttana [vernacular for bitch] in San Berillo, an historic district of Catania which has been the universe of transvestites for fifty years.
CEREMONIN
A film by Lina Mannheimer (Sweden, 2014, 75')
Spazio Alfieri - 10.30 pm
Catherine Robbe-Grillet, a writer, photographer, and actress nearing her 85th birthday is the most wanted and famous dominatrix of France. The domain over which she exerts her power has very-well defined boundaries. They are erotic rituals, ceremonies, and performances, including S&M. The ambiguous, uncertain balance of the film leans on the alternation of a structure that refers to the canon of documentary (made of interviews and archive footage from Robbe-Grillet’s past) with sections about erotic encounters. The latter are formulated according to a considerably different style, more in line with fiction film. Here the camera is not tied to a static point of view but sinuously adapts to the stage-like bodies and liturgical gestures.