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Press Release
RIFF AWARDS 2022 17 /25 November 2022 more than 85 films between European and world premieres First documentary in competition – Italian premiere- “The Wind Blows the Border” by the brazilian directors Laura Faerman and Marina Weis The film“Alice” by Krystin Ver Linden opens the Festival and the Black Films Matter Among the events On the Silver Globe, Andrzej Żuławski’s unfulfilled dream |
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The 21st RIFF – Rome Independent Film Festival – edition will take place in Rome from the 17th to the 25th November 2022 with more than 85 contemporary works in competition among European and world premieres.
For the second year in a row, Cinema Troisi will host the opening ceremony of RIFF. Thursday 17th November at 11,30am The Wind Blows the Border by Laura Faerman and Marina Weis, will be the title to open the documentary section in competition at the Festival. Shot in Brazil, it is presented on its Italian premiere. It is an investigative reporting film, with an international breath, directed by a couple of young authors, determined to cast a lucid and personal glance on the most important topic of their own contemporaneity. The Wind Blows the Border will give way to the documentary competition of the 21st edition and will offer a global, innovative and independent idea of the Cinema. Nine fiction films in competition. It starts with Alice, debut film by Krystin Ver Linden, that will open the Festival on Friday 18th November at Cinema Troisi at 09,30pm with the director’s attendance. Alice is part of RIFF special section- Black Films Matter, the first official section of an Italian film festival designed for the African-American cinema. The section has the purpose of getting the audience closer to films and directors that are revolutionizing the way of telling black people and the United States. They offer an alternative to the traditional WASP vision of Hollywood cinema. Among the titles in competition: Loving Memories, world-premiered, by the French director Guillaume Bureau, will be presented on Friday 18th November at 7,30 pm at the Institut Français Centre Saint Louis. At the end of the screening, a talk with the director will follow.
Also in competition and world-premiered Corsa abusiva by Andrea Bifulco, lined-up on Saturday 19th November at Nuovo Cinema Aquila at 8,00pm with the director’s attendance. At the same time, on Saturday 19th at Nuovo Cinema Aquila at 8,15pm will be the turn of The Uncle, David Kapac and Andrija Mardeši?”s debut work. It is a co-production between Croatia and Serbia that leads us to the 1980s Yugoslavia. Both directors will attend. Following, Eami by the Praguayan director Paz Encina at 10,15pm, relates the disquieting parabola of the indigenous groups removal in the Gran Chaco region in South America.
Also in competition, two Italians: Un mondo fantastico and Tra le onde. The first one is a docufilm, world-premiered, by Michele Rovini, lined-up on Sunday 20th November at Nuovo Cinema Aquila at 8,15pm, where the director will attend. The film is the story of two different men who try to make ends meet and fulfil a great dream they have in common about music. Tra le onde by Marco Amenta, lined-up on Wednsday 23rd November at 8,00, is a dark fairytale contaminated by both melodrama and thriller. It is about a former fisherman who starts a journey to bring the corpse of a drowned migrant back to his wife. The film’s main characters are Sveva Alviti and Vincenzo Amato. Marco Amenta and Sveva Alviti will introduce the film to the audience of RIFF.
Lined-up on Tuesday 22nd November at Nuovo Cinema Aquila the last two films in competition. At 8,30pm Boney Piles by the Ukrainian Taras Tomenko, a story about what it means to grow in present-day eastern Ukraine, in a land torn apart by war. One of the Festival’s highlights is the Focus on Ukraine, in collaboration with Molodist Festival of Kyev. With this section, RIFF brings to the Italian audience some Ukrainian productions, considering the present international situation, with the support of UNHCR (the UN Refugee Agency).
In the other sections, for the third year in a row, Love & Pride Day: the value of diversity is back, in collaboration with The Open Reel and Locarno Film Festival. Since 2019, RiFF has dedicated a whole day to the screening of LGBTQ+ works. A window on gender issues and the right of choice. Among the films, At Night All Cats Are Black by the Swiss Valentin Merz,, who will meet the audience at the screening scheduled at 10,00pm. Special mention at Locarno Film Festival 2022, the story depicts the set and shooting in the countryside of a “libertine” costume film. Suddenly, the director disappears and the police starts investigating, while the shooting continues.
Some of the special events include the Focus on Poland, in collaboration with the Polish Institute in Rome, LODZ School of Film and the Polish Film Institute. It will feature the European-premiered Escape to the Silver Globe by Kuba Mikurda, in competition for the documentary section, which is a declaration of love for film that evokes the shooting atmosphere of the 1970s Poland. The screening, on Thursday 24th November at Nuovo Cinema Aquila at 8,00pm, is a document on the greatest mystery and dream of the Polish Cinema: the epic ambition to shoot a science-fiction film with an international breath, capable of competing with American cinematography. The director, who will attend the Festival, will also meet the audience. On Monday 21st November at Cinema Troisi at 11,00am will be the turn of the out of competition film On the Silver Globe, Andrzej Zulawski’s unfulfilled dream. A unique, visionary and cursed film, that the Polish master shot in the 1970’s, but he completed a decade later because of endless fights with the government and the censorship. A monumental work, albeit fragmentary, made of impressive crowd scenes, completed only in 1988 with the addition of voice comments by the director, instead of the missing sequences. The film was presented at Cannes Film Festival in 1988 and was critically acclaimed as one of the best science-fiction films in the history of Cinema. In 2016, it was restored and digitized.
Out of Competition is also the closing film, lined-up on Friday 25th November at Nuovo Cinema Aquila at 9,30pm, Troppa Famiglia. Directed by Pierluigi Di Lallo, with Ricky Memphis, it is the story of an extended family of a small village in Abruzzo during Covid emergency. The director will meet the audience.
Eleven documentaries in competition. Starting on Thursday 17th November at Cinema Troisi with The Wind Blows the Border, following on Saturday 19th November at Nuovo Cinema Aquila at 6,15pm with Into the Lights by Moses Fiddian-Green.
On Sunday 20th November, at Nuovo Cinema Aquila the line-up is as follow: Blue Dots by Lorenzo Squarcia about an old man who spends his days sitting on a bench of the Washington Square Park in New York; Libere di vivere by Antonio Silvestre, on the sensitive issue of gender-based economic violence and Come una vera coppia by Christian Angeli, docufilm shot during a “holiday for couples” organized by Aipd Nazionale as part of a project on emotional and sexual education involving 180 people with Down syndrome.
And also: Il Teatro è adesso by Alessandro Gaeta, on the situation of the Theatre in the time of Covid and D’Annunzio: l’uomo che inventò se stesso by Francesca Pirani and Stefano Viali, a pop and contemporary restyling of the “Poet”. The three directors will attend.
Tuesday 22nd November will be the turn of Il paese delle persone integre by Christian Carmosino Mereu, documentary on the search for freedom of four Burkinabé citizens, shot in Burkina Faso over five years. And also, Moruroa Papa by Paul Manate Raoux, about the director’s visit to his father in Ruturu, a small island of the French Polynesia, where the man isolated himself. Finally, on Thursday 24th November, the reflection about light Love-Lights by the Portuguese Acacio de Almeida & Maria Carré.
This year the jury will thus be composed by the actors Domenico Centamore, Filippo Luna and Lorenzo Gioielli, the executive producer Ilaria Zazzaro, the Ukrainian film critic Nadia Zavarova, the cinematographer Federico Annicchiarico and Adriana Bruno by Noeltan Film.
Among the locations, the new Nuovo Cinema Aquila, is still the main venue of the Festival. But this year Cinema Troisi will host some evenings and, for the first time, the hall of the French Institute Centro San Luigi, will host the French short films. The programme will be enriched by some masterclasses, like the one by the cinematographer Federico Annicchiarico and the meeting with the director Christian Carmosino Mereu on Tuesday 22nd November at 11,00am. Also some workshops, like the focus on pitching, lined-up on Thursday 24th November at 5,00pm, which are an opportunity for discussion among producers, distributors and young talents, will take place at Biblioteca di Roma Mameli and at Biblioteca di Roma Collina della Pace.
As always, part of this 21st edition will be featured in the virtual room of MYmovies.it. RIFF – Rome Independent Film Festival, is organized with the contribution and patronage of the Directorate General Cinema – Ministry of Heritage and Cultural Activities, of the Department of Culture and Youth Policies of the Lazio Region. The project, promoted by Roma Capitale- Department for Cultural Growth, won the Public Notice Contemporaneamente Roma 2020 – 2021 -2022, curated by the Department of Cultural Activities and realized in collaboration with SIAE.
visit the new virtual press office to access the catalogue, the programme and the high definition photos of the selected films. Trailers available on the Riff youtube channel https://riff.it/media-room/sala-stampa/
Press office Storyfinders – Lionella Bianca Fiorillo – 06.36006880 – 340.7364203 press.agency@storyfinders.it via Tiepolo 13/a Rome Artistic director Fabrizio Ferrari – 06.45425050 – press@riff.it – www.riff.it |