A VIDEO MESSAGE FROM ROGER CORMAN TO “TOMORROW’S LIONS” INTRODUCES THE 8TH EDITION OF THE CA’ FOSCARI SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
FIRST DAY SPECIAL GUEST: ROBB PRATT
THE VETERAN ANIMATOR OF DISNEY HOLDS A MASTERCLASS
FOUR WORKS DEDICATED TO THE BOND BETWEEN MOTHER AND CHILD AMONG THE FIRST SHORT FILMS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
VENICE, MARCH 20, 2018. A beautiful gift and a wonderful surprise opens the eight edition of Ca’ Foscari Film Festival, from 21 to the 24 March in Auditorium of Santa Margherita, Venice. The great American director Roger Corman dedicates a video message to the audience and especially to the young directors from all over the world participating in the International Competition of the Short Film Festival. Roger Corman will also receive the title of Ca’ Foscari Honorary Fellow by Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, in the same year in which the University celebrates its 150 years from its foundation.
Roger Corman, absolute master of cinema able to revolutionize the productive and distribution logics of cinema with his innovative work, refers to himself as a “young” ninety one-year-old. Since he was unable to join the Opening Ceremony, he sent a video message to the audience in which he opens up with extreme humility to the young directors, defining himself “ a student who’s till learning, who’s always trying to improve his work”. Recognizing the importance of cinema schools, essential to provide the basis which will make the students masters in the use of the cinema-machine, he advises, as the nonconformist he has always been, “rules are meant to be broken. Sometimes, you need to trow away and follow your instinct”. Corman then suggests to make full sense of the experiences we make throughout our lifetime and combine them with what we have learned in school. In the end he offers the young film students a very important message, often underestimated: cinema should not be considered an individualistic or solipsistic experience, because everyone in the workforce is important: “ cinema is a collective instrument. Every single person is important on set, but also the one who worked before […] and so after the shot […] We’re all in this together”. The video message by Roger Corman thus opens the Opening Ceremony of the eighth edition of the Festival, March 21 at 17.30, followed by the official greetings by he Deputy Dean of the University for Communication and Promotion, Marco Sgarbi, and the Festival’s Artistic Director, Roberta Novielli.
The eight edition of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival goes on from 2 PM with the students of the first master in Fine Arts in Filmmaking – Ca’ Foscari who will present some of their works, together with their graduation projects, short films shot during the last academic year. At 3 PM a selection of last year’s International Competition winners are shown, then at 4.30 PM creator and actor Andrea Muzzi and director Claudio Piccolotto present their comical web series Lobagge, satiric pills on Italian cinema, accompanied by the screening of other two projects meant for the web by the same authors: for example, Pupazzo criminale, web series created by Lillo & Greg. The Opening Ceremony of the Festival takes place at 5.30 PM with the institutional greetings and the video message by Roger Corman, while at 6 PM , Robb Pratt, one of the most awaited guests of this edition, holds an exclusive masterclass for the audience of the Short, during which he presents some of his more recent works.
The first day closes at 8PM with the first five shorts of the International Competition, which is composed by a total of thirty films by cinema students of Cinema Schools and University from all over the world. Of the five films screened on the first day, four focus on the relationship between mother and child, fil rouge linking a lot of works selected for this year’s contest. In the Mexican dramatic film No pases por San Bernardino a mother searches for the truth about her son’s death, while the protagonist of the South African Bophelo ba Ana has to deal with the ghosts of her past in order to protect her kids. The French Le jour òu maman est devenue un monstre plays with visual suggestions which transform the mother-son relationship in a psychological horror, while Tash Kømyr documents the hard life of two children who work at a Kyrgyz mine and the relationship between them and their families. The last film is the English animation In Our Skin, a celebration of the freedom of the female body.