PRE-OPENING DEDICATED TO LORENZO MATTOTTI AND HIS FIRST MOVIE: THE BEARS’ FAMOUS INVASION OF SICILY
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LECTURE BY JACOPO CHESSA TO YOUNG DIRECTORS OF CA’ FOSCARI’S MASTER’S DEGREE
FIRST DAY SCHEDULE: THE WINNER OF THE FIRST EDITION, MARIE ELISA SCHEIDT, RETURNS TO VENICE
SCREENING OF THE FIRST SHORT FILMS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
FOCUS ON CINEMA FROM SOUTHEAST ASIA AND FRENCH ANIMATION SCHOOL SUPINFOCOM RUBIKA
CHARLIE TANGO PRESENTS A NEW EPISODE OF THE AMAZING SERIES THE MUNCHIES
WORKS MADE BY STUDENTS OF THE “FILMS IN VENICE & FILMING VENICE” SUMMER SCHOOL
ACCESS PROCEDURES TO ALL VENUES
The tenth edition of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival 2020 is set to start tomorrow, 7th October. However, a big pre-opening event is planned for today: the screening of the first full-length film directed by Lorenzo Mattotti. Dr. Mattotti is an internationally renowned cartoonist and illustrator, who designed this Festival’s tenth edition poster.
His piece of work is titled The Bears’ Famous Invasion of Sicily (La famosa invasione degli orsi in Sicilia) was inspired by the well-known novel written by Dino Buzzati and has already been shown in Cannes and Locarno. The director is going to be present at the event and the Querini Stampalia Foundation Museum is going to be hosting him. It is one of the nine Venetian institutions that will contribute to this “widespread” edition of the Festival, alongside the historical Auditorium Santa Margherita.
Lorenzo Mattotti has always had a strong connection to the cinematic universe, and has never lost his personal bond with Venice, which blossomed during his university years. He poured his passion for this city not only in his recent volume Venezia. Scavando nell’acqua (2011), but also in the “international spirit” of this year’s poster.
The presentation of short films produced by students of the Master in Fine Arts in Filmmaking of Ca’ Foscari University is also scheduled for today. The graduation ceremony will be introduced by Jacopo Chessa, Director of the Veneto Film Commission; on this occasion he will hold a special lectio magistralis titled “Noi siamo ciò che facciamo finta di essere – Romanzo (molto breve) di formazione” which translates to ”We are what we fake to be – (tremendously short) Coming of age novel” . All throughout their academic career, the aspiring film directors have experimented with different genres and cinematographic languages, each developed accordingly to the individual’s methods and dynamics: fiction, commercials, documentaries, music videos and much more. The main topics revolve around the distinguishing symbols of “Venetianity”: Handcraft and Beauty, which can also be found on the set of commercials produced for the NH Rio Novo Hotel, accredited partner of the Short Film Festival.
The first day of the Festival will be inaugurated tomorrow at the National Archaeological Museum, where the presentation of the special program’s short films produced within the Summer School Films in Venice & Filming Venice will take place. These short films were created thanks to the collaboration between Ca’ Foscari, Iuav, Tel Aviv University, Waseda University and Ludwig-Maximilians Universitiy, and held in conjunction with the Venice Film Festival. The program has involved 13 students from all over the world, who will present three short films: Photo Trip, Incontro and The Bite, made collectively as part of the course.
Afterwards, the special program East Asia Now curated once again by Stefano Locati will debut both in presence and online. This year the festival is open to South-East Asian countries such as Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand and Cambodia. Four emerging directors, two women and two men, made low budget short films, focused on inedited everyday life aspects and on human relationships built in the most various contemporary realities. The protagonists of the increrasingly lively asiatic cinematographic panorama presented in this special program will be the Vietnamese Pham Thien An with Stay awake — Be ready, the Singaporean Kris One with Sunday, the Thai Sora-yos Prapapan with Dossier of The Dossier and the Cambodian Sreylin Meas with California Dreaming.
After the opening ceremony, the Ca’ Foscari neo-rector Tiziana Lippiello and the Festival director Roberta Novielli will be on stage for the institutional greetings. In the afternoon Charlie Tango (stage name/alias for Sebastian Cristofaro) will talk about the Munchies, irreverent puppets and main characters of the TV series produced I the arly 2000s for the national channels Italia 1 and MTV Italia, of which he is co-author and producer alongside his brother Miki (Michele) and Giampietro Cutrino. Charlie will present a new show dedicated to these eccentric and exaggerated characters that will come back on stage in new ways waiting to be discovered.
The winner of the first memorable 2011 edition, Marie Elisa Scheidt, a successful German documentary film director by now, will be attending the first day of the Festival to introduce three of her Short Films where human relations stand as the main subject. THROUGH THE LENS OF INKEDKENNY; SOBOTA e HOLY F%&#, already highly rewarded and celebrated at other International Festivals, are three of the works produced by the director in these past ten years and that will be shown/revealed in Venice. Symbolic/Figurative of her personal survey on humanity made of outsiders, outcasts, and repulsive characters, these are works that inquire about the role of human beings placed into contemporary society.
The programme dedicated to Supinfocom Rubika will follow: this is one of the most important and prestigious animation schools of Europe. Founded in France in 1988, Rubika is a professional training school for industrial design, animation and videogames, whose philosophy is, essentially, to turn the passion for cinema into a job for the future. Mine de Plomb, O28, The Stained Club, Trois Francs six sous, Overrun, Tant que nos coeurs batten, Sans gravité and Gunpowder are the titles of the short films that will be screened during the Festival, which are amongst the most representative produced in the last thre years. Each and every one of these short movies is the result of a collective work brought ahead by the students of the institute; this guarantees them a faster professionalization, recognized every year by National and International festivals.
The daily schedule will have its conclusion with the first works of the International Contest, which is focused on short films produced by students from the best film schools of the world. The first one to be screened will be Locomotor,an animated short film created by Isaku Kaneko using the japanese ink technique (sumi).
The main charachter is a steam train, subject which intiated the history of the cinema; this train, however, has human legs. Following Locomotor, Terre Ferme , a short movie set in rural France in the 50s; in this setting, a young man tries to escape the fate planned by his family, and fly away,both literally and simbolically, by airplane. Ivän James Hayward wanted to describe the feeling of indequacy and detachment from one’s own land, which is a timeless feeling to which young people can often relate.
The theme of inadequacy comes back in the short film Värvid must-valgel, through which German Golub depicts the journalist Paula and her fear of getting old. The 70s television, with its passage from white and black to colour catalyzes a change, which triggers the protagonist’s fear. Then, Hüsnegül Çelik’s short film will be presented. She is a young turkish filmmaker who created an interesting short film called Ukde, depicting a midwife who has to take care of an abandoned baby. Following, the work of Wang Cheng En, a taiwanese artist. His movie is called The Antidote and it is based on Wang’s life experiences. The short film presents Xiuzhen’s story, who is a nurse and whose daughter is severely hospitalised. The little girl can be saved only with a medication,but only a single dose remains. In conclusion, there will be SONREÍR by Francisco Fernández Andrew, who is a mexican artist who has just began studying at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica. The short film focuses on Fabián Aguirre’s figure and on the choice he will be forced to make, after the death of “Cuquis”, the last major mexican comedian.
The tenth edition of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival is “widespread” around Venice and is hosted by prestigious institutions on the Venetian territory. Those who are interested in taking part in the screening of the short films will be able to access the sights in different modalities: in order to enter the Auditorium Santa Margherita, historical site of the Festival, the booking reservation via Eventbrite website is required, whereas there is no need to book at Centro Culturale Candiani, Concilio Europeo dell’Arte and Fondazione Ugo e Olga Levi, since there is free entrance until all the available seats are taken. In order to enter Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Galleria Giorgio Franchetti at Ca’ D’Oro and NH Venezia Rio Novo it will be necessary to book via e-mail. The Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Venezia is free for all the residents of the municipality of Venice while the rest of the audience is required to purchase a ticket. Finally, the Museo di Palazzo Grimani offers a reduction in the price of the ticket that also allows the visit to the Museum and the expositions, and booking is required via phone call. For further, more detailed information please check on the following festival website.
