The jurors Coline Serreau, Francesco Montagner and Marina Mottin talk about themselves to the audience
The last short films in Competition, ranging from discrimination in Another White Girl to superstitions in August Sky
Venezia. 7th May 2022. Before the fourth and last day of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival kicked off, yesterday the anticipated special program was held. It was dedicated to the jury, consisting of Coline Serreau, Francesco Montagner and Marina Mottin, who will decree the winner of the International Competition of this twelfth edition.
The first protagonist of the meeting with the jurors was the French director, screen-writer, actress and musician Coline Serreau. When interviewed by Gabriella Gamberini, she retraced her own career thanks to some extracts from some of her most famous movies, without ever omitting to call into question the classic codes of modern behavior and making existential inquires on contemporary topics, such as women’s condition, the human-nature relationship and the management of food resources. Afterwards, the meeting went on with an interview to Francesco Montagner, a young director who came back to Venice as a juror after leaving as a student. It was Eugenio De Angelis to introduce him on the stage. Together with him, Montagner analyzed his last work, Brotherhood (2021), which talks about a patriarchal and archaic society where the fate of three brothers is linked to the resolution of paternal mistakes. The last juror to set foot on stage was Marina Mottin, interviewed by Roberta Novielli. In her long career, she has been a curator and programmer for some of the major festivals and international cultural facilities. With extreme liveliness, Mottin has told us about the way she came into contact with an experimental movie by Glauber Rocha, O Patio (1959), shown before her speech, which led her to discover, during her career, a lot of film productions from the past.
The fourth and final day of the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival instead, was opened with the screening of the last six short films that compete in the International Contest of this edition. This final slot was opened by Freedom Come, four-handed directed by the Nigerian film directors Tochi Onwubiko e Precious Okpala. With this first short film the topic of tragedy of war returned through the realistic and dramatic insight into the life of Anan and Amena, two orphan brothers who are forced to separate after twenty years. The second film presented was Another White Girl, with which the Beninese film director Medessè Agohoundjè wanted to celebrate the topic of diversity telling the story of Sètchemè, a young albino looking for her identity. Afterwards, it was Jasmin Tenucci’s turn, who investigated the irrational fears in the daily life in her August Sky, already awarded with the Special Mention of the Jury at the Official Selection in Cannes in 2021. In a dark and bleak atmosphere, Lucia, a pregnant Brazilian woman, works as a nurse and lives every day with an inexplicable sensation of constant danger. In the following short film the focus was the delicate and precarious family balance: Lullaby, by the Finnish Ville Niemi, that tells the story of Klaara, an Estonian mother who loses the custody of the daughter due to her mental illness. The short film plays with the viewer’s expectations by first letting them empathize with the protagonist, and then reversing the perspective to represent a different course of events to what the viewer first imagined. The fifth film screened was An Impossible Love Story by the emerging Chilean film director Javier Alonso. Alonso’s project is set in his native land and explores the impossible love between Miguel and Esteban, who can’t fit in a close-minded, judgmental society of the small city of Santiago. The boys’ love represents fragility and misunderstandings and demonstrates the need for self-expression in order to avoid imploding. The last of the 30 short films projected at Auditorium Santa Margherita was The Midwife, which dealt with the theme of superstition and sorcery during the Middle Ages. The French actress and film director Anne-Sophie Bailly represented on the big screen the story of Else, a young herbalist and midwife who has been wrongly accused of murder and has become the scapegoat for common myths and mystifications.
The festival concludes today with one of the most awaited moments, the special masterclass of Luca Bigazzi, followed by the usual closing ceremony, during which all the competition winners will be awarded. It will be also possible to see Chasing, the closing performance which merges dance and technology created by Simone Arganini.
