THE 150th ANNIVERSARY OF CA’ FOSCARI UNIVERSITY CELEBRATED BY THE YOUNG FILMMAKERS
THE SPECIAL PROGRAMMES BETWEEN CINEMA AND TEATHER ABOUT THE JAPANESE DIRECTOR SHUTARO OKU
AND THE WEIRDEST AND MOST EXPERIMENTAL WORKS FROM THE FAR EAST CONFLICTS AND TENSIONS IN THE SHORT MOVIES OF THE CONTEST BETWEEN LATIN AMERICA AND EAST EUROPE.
Venice, March 23rd. The third day of the eighth edition of Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival starts with the second edition of the Music Video Competition displaying the ten finalists on screen on the screen of the Auditorium Santa Margherita. The superintendent was Giovanni Bedeschi, who selected a jury of experts for the occasion, and the contest was open to students of Cinema Universities and Schools from all over the world and celebrates those directors who concentrate their production on music videos, letting the public share a collective experience.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Ca’ Foscari University, the Festival has organized the contest Young Filmmakers at Ca’ Foscari which gather together works by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice students or are otherwise linked to the Athenaeum. During this occasion the contest “Tell 150 years of Ca’ Foscari in 150 seconds” was presented, dedicated to all today and past Ca’ Foscari students who see the creation of a one hundred seconds video which show the actual, the past and the future university life. During the event the winner was announced: Ca’ Foscari student Nicolò Grasso, for The Past is Present. Then, it is time to screen the mockumentary especially created in occasion of the anniversary, Angelo’s Folly, directed by Tommaso Giacomin, together with another short-movie by Ca’ Foscari’s student Jacopo Renzi, Come se non fosse mai successo (As If It Never Happened). Finally, the preview of Nel cuore muto del divino (In The Heart of Divine) by Riccardo de Cal was presented, documentary retracing the reconstruction of the main building of Ca’ Foscari University by Roberto Scarpa.
The day goes on with the recurrent programme Short Meeting Point, during which the young filmmakers of the International Contest who were present today discussed about their works and how important the cinema schools they are attending prove to be for their filmmaker career, with our festival director Roberta Novielli as a moderator. Then, Stefano Locati curates East Asia Now: Weird & Experimental, a program proposing a sequence of East Asian short films with the aim of showing the current situation in countries such as the Philippines, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan through odd and unusual points of view. Among the presented projects, stands out the Japanese short film Kyonetsu, shown in the presence of its director, Yuji Mitsuhashi, and the actress in a leading role, Kyoko Takahashi. It is an intense story about a middle-aged writer’s crisis, his passionate moments and violent bursts, shot in black and white. Within the special program, a window on another young festival about independent Chinese cinema is opened: the Dong Film Festival, established by young Italian students and experts in 2016 under Zelia Zbogar’s artistic supervision.
Today’s International Competition’s screening program opens with the short film Dopdi, directed by Shivani Sharma, from India: this story of a woman fighting the abuse of power and oppression perpetrated in her society offers an accusation against the strict patriarchal system of Hindu society. Then, Wiem, by Polish director Piotr Nalazek, talks about two brothers, Tomek and Magda, who got separated when they were children and are finally reunited after many years. This film is inspired by William Faulkner’s novel The Sound and the Fury. Moving on, the Belgian director Diëgo Nurse presented Hugs and Hurricanes, a personal portray of the director himself, combining animation and live shooting to narrate the anxiety and the fears affecting him as the father of an autistic child. Ya ostayus’ is directed by Grigory Kolomytsev, from Russia, and it was shot in the place where its director was born, Crimea. Filatov, the protagonist, comes back home to bury his brother, and the entire short film is immersed in an atmosphere between life and death. The last short of this afternoon screening is The Blacksmith, created thanks to the collaboration between the Ukrainian director Ivan Andrianov and the German director Nina Gudme. A journey through Ukraine, to tell the story of a blacksmith from a little village near Kiev, and to show Ukrainian culture and its reality still affected by many conflicts. Then: the Venezuelan short film Nueve nudos by Lorena Maria Colmeneres Molina is the story of two orphans, who address a prayer to their mother in an ancient ritual: nine woven knots, and for each of them a wish, to the soul of their dead mother. In El escarbajo al final de la calle, by Spanish director Joan Vives Lozano, a clairvoyant reveal that the protagonist will die in a week, setting in motion a series of circumstances that will change his existence forever. Follows Eric, by Turkish director Hakan Sağiroğlu: a mother has to face the disappearance of her twelve-year-old son, while at the same time confronting her mistakes of the past and the present problems. From East Europe comes the short film Lijana, by Serbian director Ivan Đurović: the severe repudiation of the adult world by a group of young people is put to the test when they meet a mysterious man. Taasta Side is by Estonian director Tõnis Pill: a young detective goes undercover to capture the region’s greatest drug lord. But the operation takes an unexpected turn when the drug dealer realizes the boy is someone he hasn’t seen for more than twenty years.
Among the most awaited guests of the day there is Japanese movie and theatre director Shutaro Oku. During the program dedicated to him, Oku presented Lalaladon, about the well-known singer of the band HKT48, Nako Yakubi, while Footages from ‘3D No Advanced presents the Noh theatre 3D performance by Takanobu Sakaguchi. A series of animated backgrounds realized by the director for traditional Japanese theatre performances is also presented. The most awaited moment is the screening of Nigorie, shot between Tokyo and Venice and presented in world premiere. The work, based on the homonym novel by Ichiyo Higuchi, represents the hallucinatory reality linked to the expectations of a woman on an unscrupulous man.
The members of the Contest Jury, the directors Roberta Torre, Hiroki Nayashi, and Marcin Bortkiewic, have been the main characters of the usual Jury Special Program, during which they meet the audience and present some of their selected works. Torre introduced some clips from the musical Riccardo va all’inferno, recent winner of the David di Donatello prize for the Best Costume Designer. The musical is a contemporary remake of the renowned Shakespearean drama. Hiroki Hayashi then presents Soul Journey – To the future of Nanto, ode to the magnificence of the city of Nanto, to its amazing natural landscapes and to its close local community. At the end, Marcin Bortkiewic presents Early Learning, documentary in which an oceanography student teaches to a seal born in captivity how to live in its natural habitat.
