Archive for category: Diary 2020

Stan Lee, unforgotten deity of Marvel Comics, whose not inconsiderable merit was to bring us characters such as Spiderman and The Fantastic Four, said that the real reader of comics is a distillation of child and adult.

We mention comics as they are important in people’s lives, and the International ShorTS Festival also takes this into account with its events aimed at the younger generation.

Belonging to the world of healthier fantasy, that which makes us stay with our eyes open, is also Simone Massi, old school yet young cartoonist who we’ve got to know better thanks to an unmissable streamed event.

As the city is drenched by repeated rainfall, here we have the Maremetraggio section, to be explored voraciously.

Who knows whether the pair of filmmakers Chin and Zacharevic have met the Italian band Nuova Dissonanza; the soundtrack to their film REWILD appears as an open tribute to that dodecaphonic ensemble who also worked with Ennio Morricone. A film with a social idiom, a strong warning against deforestation, it takes us to Sumatra and its green paradise wounded by humans.

A social environment with degradation at its margins, prostitution and characters from court records, everything seems to converge into an unattractive side of life in LA BELLEZZA IMPERFETTA by Davide Vigore.

Yet the protagonist, no longer young and with his incredibly interesting face, regains his innocence thanks to a meeting that is to change his life, with a splendid girl at the centre of the intrigue.

PORTRAITIST by Cyrus Neshvad is from Luxembourg and is above all a sad pictorial fairy tale where the flowers and trees drawn become a bridge between a man and his family.

A truly bizarre story is told by LAY THEM STRAIGHT by Robert Deleskie.

A teenage girl has a decidedly ritualistic relationship with numbers which makes it difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality. Effective dramatic tension carries the film towards an enigmatic finale.

SATURDAY’S APARTMENTS by Jeon Seungbae is structured as an ode to working together, in a strange apartment block inhabited by irritated animation puppets. Everything seems to go wrong but fairy tales, as we know, must inevitably end well…

THE STRANGE HOUSE IN THE MIST by Guilherme Daniel brings us to a strange house on the cliffs with a sinister atmosphere. The meeting between a penitent and his mysterious host are to provide the subject matter for psychological analysis.

This evening, summer is taking a break and we can expect a cool night after so much humidity.

Your collective attention is drawn to the exciting awards ceremony.

Martian Chronicles is a great novel by Ray Bradbury which puts forward the possibility of aliens and humans living together in peace, in a sugar-sweet context where hugs and mutual understanding are deep-rooted values.

This year we’re all a bit extra-terrestrial, like the human occupants of an electronic wood which we’re learning to cultivate.

An afternoon masterclass dedicated to a very ambitious young man with already several successes under his belt – Saverio Costanzo, always a pleasure to listen to.

The Maremetraggio section is always full of surprises and reveals various parallel universes to us once we’re connected.

Starting with WHY SLUGS HAVE NO LEGS directed by Aline Hochli, an enjoyable animation short centred on the adventures of a group of slugs. On the one hand the professional trials of those not known for their fast pace, and on the other a tale intended for a young audience, a double and highly convincing narrative outcome.

The next work, by Rosario Capozzolo, is Italian – IL PRIMO GIORNO DI SCUOLA DI MATILDE. A father who appears to be suffering from mysterious remorse and anxiety assails his daughter with disproportionate advice in front of the school gates. The finale is dramatic and emotional.

Instead from Singapore we have a rough outline of childhood in ADAM directed by Shoki Lin. Once again a story of alienation, abandon and in this case with a tin of powdered milk guiding the narrative.

MONOLOGUE by the duo Landi, Mellony takes a stand on the issue of hearing impairment and illustrates to us how hearing imbalances can upset the lives of any individual.

Director Luca Zuberbühler presents us his EXIST, structured as a sophisticated theatrical metaphor of life and death. The death of a young workman may be a misadventure involving ghosts and among the ruins of a crumbling stage a story filled with pathos unfurls.

A COLLOQUIO CON ROSSELLA by a dear old friend of our festival, Andrea Andolina, features the voice of Ariella Reggio and well-known actors such as Sara Cechet Woodcock and Raffaele Sincovich.

A woman’s life told from an unusual perspective – her answering machine messages.

The latest news churned out by news reports is always marked by a now chronic pessimism, so that when images appear on the screen of some wonderful films scored by Ennio Morricone such as Mission or Once Upon A Time in the West we realise even to a greater extent how brighter emotional moments and positive thinking can only come from an enlightened artistic partnership.

A wonderful song by Bruce Spingsteen goes by the name of Girls in Their Summer Clothes. This too in our opinion is a major indication of renewal, given all the beauties from Trieste and elsewhere who bring colour to the streets and squares.

The date is for Friday evening.

There was a time when Italian discos and nightclubs had exotic, alluring names – CAPRICCIO ROSA, NUOVO AMNESIA, BANDIERA GIALLA, just to mention the most celebrated.

These were places lit up by splendid strobe lights, where people in brightly coloured clothes enjoyed the pleasure of being together. It’s like talking about a prehistoric age now that we’re confined to the four walls of home and the few opportunities for meeting up are referred to as “gatherings”.

CASTLES by Stefano Bertelli is a compelling animation short on the actual meaning our lives. Hand in hand, a couple in shadow form pass through houses in trees. With glimpses of the sky, delicate installations of a lyrical, idealised world where we’d all like to live.

Breath-taking suspense in RED WINE by Santiago Menghini. At a charity event someone takes revenge by adding poison to a glass of wine, the film revealing the various movements of this glass.

SUCH A BEAUTIFUL TOWN by Marta Koch shows the surreal night-time route taken by an anguished young woman. Animated short which explores sexual and existential impulses. Note the producers, the same film school in Lodz, Poland, where Roman Polanski studied.

DEAF LOVE – VOLER ESSERE FELICI AD OGNI COSTO by Michele Bertini Malgarini has the tone of a comedy road film with touches of humour brought by the primitive southern Italian language, yet it also contains a universal message of love that goes beyond the barriers of deafness and disability in general.

THE VAN by Erenik Begiri carries us into a callous world, impervious to human feelings, where people are beaten senseless for money and where human contact crumbles under the weight of oppression.

Played rather than declaimed, DIALOGUE by Souvik Chakraborty is a psychedelic journey in India, highly reminiscent of videoclips from the 80s.

PAOLA MAKES A WISH by Zhannat Alshanova is a film recommended for men, the intriguing dialogue right up there with “Sex and the City”.

One of the things that enforced isolation hasn’t taken away from us is the amazing ability to move through the maelstrom of film images, assimilating them through our own personal vision.

Carry on with this. It’s the cheapest protection out there.

The date is for Wednesday evening.

The scent of summer, of the sun and the sea, of dried salt on skin.

Public life bursts forth anew, after a spring sacrificed on the grim altar of fear, eyes desperately seeking emotion, that which pours out powerfully like a life force, goes against the flow and conquers all.

A hot evening, the TV screens at home showing pictures of everyone’s friend, a great man who’s fighting a great battle, Alex Zanardi.

Our Festival continues its narrative through the Science & Society section, in collaboration with ESOF 2020, an invaluable opportunity for discussing our relationship with technology and its demands that rise and fall each day.

Almost all the shorts are animated, starting with AVARYA by Gokalp Gölen. An elderly, fragile human being faces up to a robot. The stakes are very high – a planet for living on.

Continuing with CLACK, by the duo Martinoni/Peretti, a fun yet knowingly dystopian satire on the risks of technology, on which we all depend.

Ever onwards with the women’s film project directed by Beatrice Aliné, ABSENCE OF LIGHT, an aesthetic and meditative reflection on the nature of light energy, the dark and its opposite.

This is followed by DEJEUNER SUR L’HERBE, by the Bourges/Charles/Harbonn ViaudpRougemont collective, picturing a comical scientist grappling with work and life problems.

Right from the first sequences HOME AWAY 3000, by the duo Pétel/Baranzini, makes us supportive of the likable lead cosmonaut character. Bald, moustachioed and agé and with a problem to solve.

FRAMES by Farhad Pakdel reminded us of a masterpiece of Italian science fiction from the 70s, Le Orme by Luigi Bazzoni (1975): the same atmosphere of a compressed capsule, a motionless temperature-controlled environment…

Like it or not, we are increasingly victims of a voyeuristic syndrome, as witnessed by STORY by Jola Bańkowska.

More than a resource, the element of water is a necessity, but what would happen if the public were not to notice that it’s missing? A small gem of eco science fiction entitled THE WATER, by Andrea Dargenio, tackles this problem.

From shorts to feature films with the Nuove Impronte section, to which we will return in greater detail later.

LOS FANTASMAS by Sebastián Lojo depicts life at the margins of society, male prostitution and a corrupt milieu, narrating all this in a grey, godforsaken setting.

Despite everything, we have managed to stay together even at a distance, laying down a metaphorical bridge from one bank to the other. Stay tuned for Monday evening.