Florence October 10th – 17th, 2017

International documentary film festival

  • 7 PARDEH
    7 Veils

    Afghanistan, France 2017 80'
    Directed by: Sepideh Farsi
    Afghanistan is very little known: a few commonplaces, the word Taliban, a war that has never stopped since the Soviet era, but seems to have taken a new course from 2001. We know that the country is devastated by a permanent state of war and its population is in great distress. With her camera, Sepideh Farsi aims at the heart of this country, piecing together a sensitive, subjective, and non-judgmental mosaic.

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    2017 Sunday, October 15th, La Compagnia, 6:30pm

  • ADVENTURES ON THE NEW FRONTIER

    USA 1961 51'
    Directed by: Robert Drew & Associates
    In the second film of the JFK series, the Drew Associates team casts a rare, sincere gaze onto the interiors of the Oval Office over the first days of John F. Kennedy in the White House as President. The film was a sort of litmus test for John Kennedy in front of a movie camera. For the first time, he allowed viewers to see the workings inside the official residence of the US President.

    2017 Wednesday, October 11st, Spazio Alfieri, 10:30pm

  • CHAQUE MUR EST UNE PORTE
    Every Wall is a Door

    France 2017 58'
    Directed by: Elitza Gueorguieva
    We are in 1989 and the Berlin Wall has just been dismantled. In the surrealist set of a program of the Bulgarian State Television dedicated to youth, a female journalist poses philosophical and “existentialist” questions to workers, students, hippies, and political scientists: “At the end of the life, what expectations are the most important, those that were fulfilled or those that were failed?”. That young journalist was the mother of the filmmaker of this films made of political archives, in addition to personal texts.

    2017 Saturday, October 14th, Institut Français, 6:30pm

  • Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment

    USA 1963 52'
    Directed by: Robert Drew &Associates
    In the spring of 1963, the newspapers began to talk of a new crisis underway. A federal court had ordered the University of Alabama to let two black students enrol. The governor, George Wallace, threatened to physically block their admittance, and John F. Kennedy was obliged to decide whether to resort to the presidency’s power to support racial equality. Crisis captures the dramatic unfolding of events until an extraordinary climax, in which important decision-making processes inside the Oval Office are filmed by a camera.

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    2017 Sunday, October 15th, La Compagnia, 10:15pm

  • DEATH IN THE TERMINAL

    Israel 2016 52'
    Directed by: Tali Shemesh, Asaf Sudri
    On October 18, 2015, a terrorist armed with a gun and a knife entered Beersheba’s bus terminal. Within 18 minutes, a soldier was killed and an Eritrean asylum seeker was lynched after being mistaken for the terrorist. This film presents a tense, minute-by-minute, Rashomon-style account of that tragic day. It tells the story of people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their testimonies are incorporated into security camera footage to present a surprising and complex picture that challenges on people’s ability to judge what is happening in times of collective panic.

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    2017 Thursday, October 12th, Spazio Alfieri, 10:00pm

  • EL PACTO DE ADRIANA
    Adriana's Pact

    Chile 2017 96'
    Directed by: Lissette Orozco
    The film-maker’s favourite aunt, who migrated from Chile to Australia long ago, was accused of being one of the torturers of political prisoners during the Pinochet dictatorship; in other words, of being a member of DINA, the regime political police. She denies all charges; her niece decides to film her, begin to talk to her, investigate to find the truth.

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    2017 Sunday, October 15th, La Compagnia, 3:00pm

  • Favela Olímpica

    Switzerland 2017 93'
    Directed by: Samuel Chalard
    In Rio de Janeiro, a wall separates the Olympic Park under construction from the favela of Vila Autódromo. There is no impediment to the coexistence of these two worlds, but some say they are “incompatible.” Among these, Eduardo Paes, Rio’s Mayor, who is carrying out a reclamation plan of this area, traditionally inhabited by the poor. At first sight, the mobilized resources seem disproportioned, but the inhabitants, very determined, manage to push back expulsion after a fierce fight. With the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games looming, the Vila Autódromo favela and the Rio Mayor are both fighting against time.

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    2017 Saturday, October 14th, Spazio Alfieri, 10:15pm

  • FIND FIX FINISH

    Germany 2017 19'
    Directed by: Sylvain Cruiziat, Mila Zhluktenko
    Someone is watching us from above. Constantly. This has gone on for weeks, months, sometimes years. If you live in countries like Yemen or Iraq, your movements may well have been considered suspicious, and your name included in a list along with other equally suspicious individuals. This is the first phase of a military programme that foresees the use of drones to find, fix, and finish specific human targets.

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    2017 Wednesday, October 11th, La Compagnia, 9:00pm

  • L’ULTIMA POPSTAR
    The Last Popstar

    Italy 2017 45'
    Directed by: Claudio Casazza, Stefano Zoja, Carlo Prevosti
    Monza, Italy, March 25th, 2017 – a day among the believers waiting for the Pope. A crowd of over one million people gathers to attend mass. The film describes the preparation for this great event step by step: setting up a stage ten times bigger than those made for rock stars at San Siro stadium, and the work of hundreds of volunteers who control the enormous inflow of people. It looks somewhat like a playground: music, often out of context, inundates the faithful, while the scarves flapping are reminiscent of those of soccer team supporters. A film about religion in our times, in which silence is not contemplated.

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    2017 Sunday, October 15th, Spazio Alfieri, ore 21:00

  • LE VÉNÉRABLE W.
    The Venerable W.

    France, Switzerland 2017 95'
    Directed by: Barbet Schroeder
    In Burma, the “Venerable Wirathu” is a highly respected and influential Buddhist monk. Meeting him amounts to traveling to the heart of everyday racism and observing how Islamophobia and hate speech lead to violence and destruction. Yet this is a country in which 90% of the population has adopted Buddhism as a faith: a religion based on a peaceful, tolerant and non-violent way of life.

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    2017 Thursday, October 12th, La Compagnia, 9:30pm

  • MEUTHEN'S PARTY

    Germany 2017 93'
    Directed by: Marc Eberhardt
    The film is a portrait of a provincial politician who doesn’t shy away from spreading racist sentiments with a smile on his face. Jörg Meuthen, a professor in Economics, runs for parliament of Baden-Württemberg. We follow the prime candidate of the populist rightwing party `Alternative for Germany‘ (AfD) during his election campaign. The film accompanies him on his journey from nocturnal placarding, speeches in local pubs and street campaigning to an audacious address to thousands of party members until he holds his first speech in the Parliament. The portrait of Jörg Meuthen illustrates the mechanisms of simple rhetoric to capture the masses.

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    2017 Friday, October 13rd, Spazio Alfieri, 9:45pm

  • NO INTENSO AGORA
    In the Intense Now

    Brazil 2017 127'
    Directed by: João Salles
    Made following the discovery of amateur footage shot in China in 1966 during the first and most radical stage of the Cultural Revolution, No intenso agora speaks to the fleeting nature of historical moments of great intensity. Scenes of China are set alongside archival images of the events of 1968 in France, Czechoslovakia, and, to a lesser extent, Brazil. In keeping with the tradition of the film-essay, they serve to investigate how the people who took part in those events continued onward in their life after the political passions had cooled.

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    2017 Sunday, October 15th, Spazio Alfieri, 6:30pm

  • PRIMARY

    USA 1960 60'
    Directed by: Robert Drew&Associates
    1960: American senators Hubert Humphrey and John F. Kennedy are running for the Primaries of the Democratic Party. In those years, politics are still done in the streets, shaking hands, signing autographs, smiling. The first of the four acclaimed films of Robert Drew on JFK captures his charismatic presence, the crowds’ frenzy, Jackie Kennedy’s composure, and Humphrey’s populist appeal. Primary reveals for the first time personalities and politics during an electoral campaign and offers a compelling glimpse into the making of the US President as an icon.

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    2017 Tuesday, October 10th, La Compagnia, 5:30pm

  • Senkyo
    Campaign

    USA, Japan 2007 120'
    Directed by: Kazuhiro Soda
    Observational Film #1 - Can a candidate with no political experience and no charisma win an election if he is backed by the political giant Prime Minister Koizumi and his Liberal Democratic Party? This observational documentary closely follows a heated election campaign in Kawasaki, Japan, revealing the true nature of "Democracy."

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    2017 Tuesday, October 10th, La Compagnia, 6:30 pm

  • Senkyo 2
    Campaign 2

    USA, Japan 2013 149'
    Directed by: Kazuhiro Soda
    Observational Film #5 - In response to the Fukushima disaster, Yama-san is running an election campaign with an anti-nuclear message. But unlike last time (shown in Campaign), he has no support by the Party, no money, no machine, no nothing. Does he even stand a chance?

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    2017 Saturday, October 14th, Spazio Alfieri, 4:30 pm

  • THE BEATLES, HIPPIES AND HELLS ANGELS

    UK 2017 90'
    Directed by: Ben Lewis
    It’s 1967 and the Beatles face a major problem: they are the most famous, commercially successful band ever, but their tax bills could bankrupt them. Their answer is to invest their money in a new company, Apple Corps. Today Apple Corps mostly just runs the Beatles back catalogue, but in the late Sixties it was one of the most colourful, outlandish and chaotic companies that ever existed. The Beatles set up a fashion shop, hair dressing salon, tech start-up, poetry division, film production department and of course their own record label. The idea was to spread the values of the new Hippie movement around the world. In this unauthorised film, the true story behind Apple, an unrepeatable experiment in “Hippie Capitalism” is told for the first time.

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    2017 Sunday, October 15th, La Compagnia, 8:30 pm

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