#MyEscape_Film screening Goethe Institut London 14 Nov 2016

 For many refugees a mobile phone is indispensable, if not a lifesaver. They use it to organise their travel, communicate with other refugees and their relatives back home, or to store memories of their lives before they started their journey. The documentary #MyEscape brings together a number of accounts of refugees who have made their way to Germany from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Eritrea via different routes, using their mobile phones to record their journeys. The documentary joins the footage they filmed with their reports given retrospectively during extended interviews after their arrival in Germany. We learn about their reasons for leaving, the dangers and difficulties they encountered during their travels as well as about their first impressions when arriving in Germany. The film ends with a short overview of how the protagonists settled in and what kind of activities they were engaged in at the time, leaving open how their lives would develop thereafter.

Germany 2016, colour, 90 mins. With English subtitles.
Director: Elke Sasse.

The screening will be followed by a Q & A with der director Elke Sasse
hosted by Marta Welander, Founder, Refugee Rights Data Project (RRDP)

Buy tickets here

Location: Goethe-Institut London
50 Princes Gate
Exhibition Road
London
SW7 2PH

Screening of documentaries "If Only I Were That Warrior" and "Negotiating Amnesia"_Genesis Cinema London 15 May 2016

Cinema Italia UK presents If Only I Were That Warrior (72 minutes) and Negotiating Amnesia (29 minutes), followed by Q&A with directors Valerio Ciriaci and Alessandra Ferrini.

If Only I Were That Warrior is a feature documentary film focusing on the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in 1935. Following the recent construction of a monument dedicated to Fascist general Rodolfo Graziani, the film addresses the unpunished war crimes he and others committed in the name of Mussolini’s imperial ambitions.
The stories of three characters, filmed in present day Ethiopia, Italy and the United States, take the audience on a journey through the living memories and the tangible remains of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia — a journey that crosses generations and continents to today, where this often overlooked legacy still ties the fates of two nations and their people.

Negotiating Amnesia is an essay film posing a meditation on a semi-forgotten chapter of twentieth century Italian history: its colonial past and, in particular, the Ethiopian War of 1935-36. This period is chosen because of its connections with fascism and its imperial project. Through interviews, archival images and the analysis of high-school textbooks, the film shifts through an array of different historical and personal narratives. In so doing it aims at revealing the amnesic politics that accompany this historical period, while exposing public and personal strategies of remembering and forgetting.

All details here. Book your ticket here.

Don't miss this event I have organized: a double screening by director Luca Vullo on Italian emigration (before and after) at University of Westminster on the 25th of May, 6pm.

The Department of Languages and Cultures of the University of Westminster is pleased to present the screening of two documentaries by Italian filmmaker Luca Vullo, followed by a discussion with the director.

From Sulphur to Coal (52’, 2008) A documentary on the historical emigration of thousands of miners and their families from Italy to Belgium at the end of World War II following the 1946 Italo-Belgian Agreement. Labourers sold for coal's sacks between economic interests, human rights crushed and occupational safety non existent.

AND

Influx - Europe is moving* (15’, 2015) London has never attracted so many Italians as in the last few years. In a period when European immigration is continuously debated in politics, INFLUX, through the perspective of well-established Italian immigrants offers an emotional self-analysis that reveals the strengths and weaknesses of Italians, showing the uniqueness of their mentality as well as their contradictions.

*This is a preview of the full version that will  be released in London cinemas in June 2016. 

The screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the director Luca Vullo and prof. Nicola Mai (University of Kingston). Some of he people interviewed for the documentary Influx will also be present.

The event will be chaired by Dr Federica Mazzara (University of Westminster). For further information please contact: f.mazzara@westminster.ac.uk

All details here. Please note registration is required!

Io sto con la sposa | On the Bride's Side

Io sto con la sposa (On The Bride's Side), a documentary by Gabriele del Grande,  Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry and Antonio Augugliaro, telling how a group of Syrian refugees staged a fake wedding to cross Europe safely and reach Sweden, is out in Italian cinema from the 9th of October, after an amazing success at the Biennale in Venice!
Find out more about the film and the crowdfunding project behind it here. 
Read also:
Facebook page
Digicult 
France24
 

Love in the Time of the Frontier - Film Screenings UCL 16 May 2012

It's with great pleasure that I announce this coming event. The Italian journalist Gabriele del Grande, known especially for his contribution to the study of immigration into Italy and for the incredibly informative blog he has created called Fortress Europe (an indespensable source of information on migratory catastrophes) will be at UCL on Wednesday 16th of May 2012. He will present the three short movies he produced, by director Alexandra D'Onofrio who will also be present. The event is organized by Alice Elliot (UCL Social Anthropology) Hope to see you there! [Wednesday 16th of May 2012, 5-7pm. UCL Anthropology Department, 14 Taviton St, London WC1H 0BW. Daryll Forde Seminar Room] Download the flyer of the event below!

London World Film Festival - 8-10 November 2011

Dear all,
this year I have been involved in the organization of the exhiting London World Film Festival (8-10 November 2011). The theme of this 5th edition is 'Glocal Communities', and for the occasion we have invited two Italian directors Sergio Basso (director of 'Giallo a Milano'), e Agostino Ferrente (director of 'L'Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio').

The 8th of November, the screenings fo the two films will be followed by a round table, with the directors, that I will chair.
I am looking forward to this!

Please find details of the whole programme here.

ALL WELCOME - FREE EVENT

Book_Visions of Struggle in Women’s Filmmaking in the Mediterranean

Another interesting book on migration and cinema will be published by Palgrave next February 2010. The editor is Flavia Laviosa. The preface is by Laura Mulvey.
Looking forward to getting a copy!

"Focusing on countries in the Mediterranean rim, as the unifying geo-cultural location for a contemporary discussion on women’s human, civil and social rights, this book elaborates a trans-cultural definition of being a woman in struggle. This provocative collection situates feminist arguments on questions of women’s identity, roles, psychology and sexuality. Such issues are examined through the films of women directors from Mediterranean countries, whose cinema is relevant to the discourse of women’s studies. Although their methodologies are diverse, these artists are united in their use of cinema as a means of
intervention, taking on the role as outspoken and leading advocates for women’s problems. Their cinematic art reproduces and structures the discourses of realism, recreating prototypical characters and figurations and magnifying the complex and unambiguous truths about women’s political, class, war and gender struggles. Contributors examine
representations of women’s unresolved issues and violated rights in films that are expressions of cultural challenges and socio-political commitment for Mediterranean women’s collective experience of struggle".

This book is the result of a symposium that took place at the Davis Museum
and Cultural Center November 2-3 2007.

Corazones de Mujer

Despite the Spanish title, "Corazones de Mujer" is a recent film that apparently inaugurates a new season of Italian cinema, by looking at other cultures with interested eyes. The movie is directed by two young Italians, Davide Sordella and Pablo Benedetti who preferred to be called with an arabic collective name, "K. Koosof", that in Arabic language means "eclipse". The film, which has been presented at the last Berlin Cinema festival, tells the story of a Moroccan tailor, who is transvestite, and a promised bride, who is not longer a virgin, an unforgivable sin for the Arabic culture. The two characters, played by the amateur Moroccan actors Aziz Ahmeri and Ghizlane Waldi, live in Turin (Italy) and to sort out the problem, they decide to undertake a trip by car from Turin to Morocco.
The film, a road movie, is the story of the reconciliation of the two characters with their own country of origin, but also an analysis of the concept of individual freedom.
The film will be screened in the Italian cinemas from the 20th of June. I'm really looking forward to seeing it. I like the hybridisation contained in it. The title is Spanish, the Italian directors use an Arabic name, the charcters are Moroccan, live in Italy and speak half Italian and half Arabic, even their gender identity is ambiguous and misleading...
This film promises to be an attempt to "move the borders" of traditional cinematic schemes. To watch it will be my first priority next time I go to Italy.

ROCCO E I SUOI FRATELLI. Saturday 31 May 2008, 2pm

Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers: in Italian with English subtitles) closes the first part of the film series Migrations, Emigrations, Immigrations: Italy Between Past Memories and Contemporary Realitiesand. The film stars Alain Delon in this powerful portrayal of an Italian mother and her five sons that migrate from the South of Italy to the North in search of a better life.

Tickets (£3) available to purchase on-line (guarantees a seat) and at the door on the day. Reservations recommended!
For contact and info: Dr Lanfranco Aceti (L.Aceti@bbk.ac.uk) Even Curator: John Francescutti.
Venue: The Birkbeck Cinema, Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD.

PANE E CIOCCOLATA. Saturday 17 May 2008, 2pm

Pane e Cioccolata (Bread and Chocolate: in Italian with English subtitles) is the tragicomic story of an Italian emigrant in Switzerland that lives in a chicken coop. This is the second screening of the new Film Series on Migration, titled Migrations, Emigrations, Immigrations: Italy Between Past Memories and Contemporary Realities organized by Dr Landranco Aceti with the participation of Dr Federica Mazzara (UCL Mellon Programme).

Tickets (£3) available to purchase on-line (guarantees a seat) and at the door on the day. Reservations recommended!
For contact and info: Dr Lanfranco Aceti (L.Aceti@bbk.ac.uk) Even Curator: John Francescutti.
Venue: The Birkbeck Cinema, Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD.

NUOVOMONDO. Saturday 10 May 2008, 2pm

Nuovomondo, the story of an Italian family emigrating to the United States of America begins the new Italian film screenings on Italian migration titled Migrations, Emigrations, Immigrations: Italy Between Past Memories and Contemporary Realities.
Tickets (£3) available to purchase on-line (guarantees a seat) and at the door on the day.
Further information: L.Aceti@bbk.ac.uk. Event curator John Francescutti.
Venue: The Birkbeck Cinema, Birkbeck College, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD.

FILM CLUB ON ITALIAN MIGRATION

Hi everybody,
I have been recently involved in a new Italian Film Screening Series organized by Dr Lanfranco Aceti (Birckbek College) and entitled Migration, Emigration, Immigration. Italy Between Past memories and Contemporary Realities.
My partecipation in that is related to my interest on the topic of Italian migration. The film series revolves in fact on the issues of Italian Migration, Emigration, Immigration.
The first three screenings have been planned: "Nuovomondo" (Saturday 10 May), "Pane e Cioccolata" (Saturday 17 May) and "Rocco e i suoi fratelli" (Saturday 31 May). English subtitles are provided. The screenings start at 2pm. and they take place at the beautiful Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD.
Tickets (£3) available to purchase on-line (guarantees a seat) and at the door on the day.
For contact and info: Dr Lanfranco Aceti (L.Aceti@bbk.ac.uk). Event curator: John Francescutti.

This programme is in collaboration with and supported by the ICI - Italian Cultural Institute and the London Centre for Arts and Cultural Enterprise.