Florence 13rd - 20th November 2010

International documentary film festival

  • A FALTA QUE ME FAZ
    Like Water Through Stone

    Brazil 2010 85'
    Directed by: Marilia Rocha
    A group of girls from Northeastern Brazil reckon with the end of adolescence. Impossible love stories have left their mark, both physically and on the world around them. Now, amid anxiety, friendship, and common conflicts about growing into adulthood, each finds her own way to resist change and relive the uncertainties of discovering the world.

    2010 Tuesday 16th November, Odeon, 7:30 pm - Wednesday 17th November, Spazio Uno, 3:00 pm

  • CONTENT

    United Kingdom 2010 76'
    Directed by: Chris Petit
    Based on the writings of Ian Penman and narrated by Hanns Zischler, inspired by the electronic music of Antye Greie, "Content" is a thrilling trip without a destination, a hypnotic, meditative ramble about things past, the meaning of childhood, the impact of technology, the expansion of impersonal warehouses. The car passes by a landscape of containers and shopping malls that has driven out any sign of humans.

    2010 Tuesday 16th November, Odeon, 5:00 pm - Wednesday 17th November, Spazio Uno, 10:30 am

  • CUCHILLO DE PALO
    108 - Cuchillo de palo

    Spain 2010 91'
    Directed by: Renate Costa
    Renate Coste affectionately recalls his uncle, his arrest, torture, release, and later death from «sadness», as those who knew him said. His journey is personal and political, in a country - Paraguay - which has yet to come to terms with its past. Personal remembrances, archival footage and testimonials of fellow resistance members and relatives combine to make "Cuchillo de palo" a politically courageous film built around an elaborate and winning narrative.

    2010 Monday 15th November, Odeon, 9:30 pm - Tuesday 16th November, Spazio Uno, 10:30 am

  • ET SI

    France 2010 107'
    Directed by: Serge Lalou
    An elderly man leaves home in search of a new life. This fictional cue triggers the action of a film that documents actors at work as they engage in the seesaw of being human and playing a role. The study morphs into a journey to find the protagonist’s origins: an Algerian village where his familial diaspora began. An autobiographical film of astonishing sincerity.

    2010 Wednesday 17th November, Odeon, 5:00 pm - Thursday 18th November, Spazio Uno, 7:00 pm

  • FOREIGN PARTS

    USA 2010 82'
    Directed by: Verena Paravel, J.P. Sniadecki
    Just next door to JFK airport, Willets Point is a Queens neighbourhood chock full of garages, mechanic shops and car-wreckers. Here, one can find spare parts for any car in the world. The graveyard of car culture, Willets Point employs people on society’s fringe. Now this place, once left to its own devices for years, is threatened to disappear by a plan for urban remodelling.

    2010 Monday 15th November, Odeon, 7:00 pm - Tuesday 16th November, Spazio Uno, 3:30 pm

  • GENPIN

    Japan 2010 92'
    Directed by: Naomi Kawase
    In a clinic in the middle of the woods in central Japan, an elderly doctor teaches his patients the philosophy and practice of natural childbirth. “One of the biggest during pregnancy is anxiety,” he says. In this tranquil setting, women do physical exercises, calmly preparing for their child to be born. A chronicle of simple life. A film that celebrates the joys of giving birth.

    2010 Sunday 14th November, Odeon, 5:00 pm - Monday 15th November, Spazio Uno, 3:30 pm

  • IL NOUS FAUT DU BONHEUR
    We need Happiness

    France 2010 52'
    Directed by: Alexandre Sokurov, Alexei Jankowski
    The story of a Russian woman who, years ago, moved to Kurdistan for love. Far from her country, in a faraway place, the woman has withstood physical pain, wartime violence, the death of loved ones. Now she’s grown old. Her movements are calm, measured, full of wisdom and determination. Her life story offers up to the camera a not standard figure, simple and poetic at the same time, transparent, yet full of profound mystery.

    2010 Sunday 14th November, Odeon, 7:00 pm - Friday 19th November, Spazio Uno, 10:30 am

  • INTERIEURS DU DELTA
    Into the Delta

    Canada 2010 76'
    Directed by: Sylvain L’Esperance
    The life of a community of fishermen going through some delicate times, with the rising up of the oil price and the difficulty to preserve traditions. Nearby the Niger flows placidly and magnificently. It reflects the grandeur of a nature that stands out with all its impetuousness in one of the most memorable night scenes. In-between narration and poetry this film follows the rhythm of a dialogue. A dialogue between two persons, between a place and its people, between a filmmaker and its audience.

    2010 Friday 19th November, Odeon, 5:15 pm - Saturday 20th November, Spazio Uno, 10:30 am

  • JU TARRAMUTU
    The Earthquake

    Italy 2010 93'
    Directed by: Paolo Pisanelli
    On April 6, 2009, L’Aquila and its inhabitants’ lives have been strongly ravaged. After that night, "Ju Tarramutu" tells the story of the most media-exposed and mysterious cities in Italy, which went from resignation to revolt, undergoing a thousand transformations, linking stories of people, places, rummage yards, the voices and laughter of «jackal» businessmen inciting protests even after the earthquake stopped making headlines.

    2010 Sunday 14th November, Odeon, 9:30 pm - Monday 15th November, Spazio Uno, 10:30 am

  • LEFT BY THE SHIP

    Italy/USA/Finland 2010 80'
    Directed by: Emma Rossi Landi, Alberto Vendemmiati
    Subic Bay, in the Philippines, was the largest US naval base outside the United States until 1992. Many women had no alternative but to become prostitutes in the nightclubs frequented by off-duty soldiers. The result is a generation of 50,000 Asian-Americans, the fruit of brief encounters cut short when the fleet returned home. The film follows the lives of four of them, caught between self-affirmation and conflicting feelings about their far-off fathers who remain indifferent to their existence.

    2010 Thursday 18th November, Odeon, 7:00 pm - Friday 19th November, Spazio Uno, 3:00 pm

  • MY REINCARNATION

    USA/Germany/Switzerland/Italy/Netherlands 2010 110'
    Directed by: Jennifer Fox
    Shot over twenty years, the film tells the story of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, one of the leading masters of Tibetan Buddhism today, whose Dzogchen training center is located in Tuscany, and his Italian son Yeshi, who stubbornly refuses to follow in his father’s footsteps. Like a perfect Buddhist parable, within one story lie many other stories.

    2010 Saturday 13rd November, Odeon, 6:30 pm - Sunday 14th November, Spazio Uno, 10:30 am

  • NOSTALGIA DE LA LUZ
    Nostalgia for the Light

    Chile/Germany/France 2010 90'
    Directed by: Patricío Guzmán
    On the Chilean desert mountains of Atacama the most powerful telescopes of the world have been installed. While scientists look into the cosmos for the origins of life, archeologists explore the soil to trace back signs of pre-Colombian populations. Amidst them a group of parents wanders around, looking for traces of their children disappeared during the regime of Pinochet. Pain and poetry fuse in a film that touches on the founding values of humanity.

    2010 Tuesday 16th November, Odeon, 9:30 pm - Wednesday 17th November, Spazio Uno, 7:00 pm

  • RETOUR AUX ELEMENTS
    Back to the Elements

    France 2010 90'
    Directed by: Velu Viswanadhan
    Poet and traveler Velu Viswanadhan closely examines India with a richly mystic eye. Guiding him is a passion for nature and the Indian landscape. A film about traveling and observing, silent yet with deliberate progress, "Retour aux éléments" is an exceptional film within a contemporary framework, its gaze invested with a spirit in motion, which has succeeded in eschewing an identifiable incarnation.

    2010 Thursday 18th November, Odeon, 5:00 pm - Friday 19th November, Spazio Uno, 5:00 pm

  • SOY LIBRE
    I Am Free

    Germany/Cuba 2010 83'
    Directed by: Andrea Roggon
    A look at Cuba and its people, at work and at leisure. Moreover, a portrait of an island teeming with the desire to gain the freedom it has never tasted. The off-screen narration of dissidents (like Yoani Sanchez) adds a fragmented soundtrack to the carefully designed frames, like a deep restiveness that marks the elegant succession of images.

    2010 Friday 19th November, Odeon, 7:00 pm - Saturday 20th November, Spazio Uno, 3:00 pm

  • THIS IS MY LAND… HEBRON

    Italy 2010 72'
    Directed by: Giulia Amati, Stephen Natanson
    The film tells the story most people prefer to ignore, probing the contradictions of a battle fought with sticks and stones, spits and insults, children versus children, women versus women, families versus families. "This is my land…Hebron" is a relentless exploration of the most noble, monstrous and contradictory aspects of human nature. A dazzling portrayal of a land both blessed and cursed, promised and contested.

    2010 Wednesday 17th November, Odeon, 9:30 pm - Thursday 18th November, Spazio Uno, 10:30 am

  • WIEGENLIEDER
    Lullaby

    Germany 2010 98'
    Directed by: Johann Feindt, Tamara Trampe
    A fascinating, assorted trip through the hidden paths of memory. The filmmakers walk the streets of Berlin asking people what songs their parents used to sing, and their childhood memories become the catalyst for a various, unexpected and intense journey through the stories and lives of one city’s inhabitants. This lucid depiction of an historical period and its problematic relationship to the past casts a sharp look at contemporary times.

    2010 Monday 15th November, Odeon, 5:00 pm - Tuesday 16th November, Spazio Uno, 9:30 pm

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