20° ShorTSIFF – Diary of 3 july 2019

“Eccentric visions” was the name of a remarkable series of films on Rai3 many years ago. Yesterday evening was eccentric and unpredictable as the shorts screenings shifted to the Teatro Miela on Thursday afternoon, an area protected by thunder, lightning and assorted devils generously provided by someone up above.

Don’t worry: good cinema is still here thanks to the SPECIAL EVENT section, which contemplates an Italian work directed with two sets of hands by the young Sara Pigozzo and Enrico Meneghelli.

We are referring to TOXIKONDOM, presented by Chiara Valenti Omero and Maurizio Di Rienzo during a fruitful interview with the two authors present in the room. It is not only the story of a sanguine, unleashed complex of ‘hard rock’ full of subversive force and transgression, but also a slice of work and social life.

Sea water, fishing for clams and cork oaks, young fishermen and the world of lakes that the late Venetian director Salvatore Samperi admirably described in the 1973 film UN’ANGUILLA DA TRECENTO MILIONI.

A few free lines of available text are a precious resource for the writer so let’s not waste it, and here compose an ideal human map that shows the network of our entire Festival.

Difficult not to notice, first and foremost, is the commitment and the engaging pro positivity of our president and artistic director Chiara Valenti Omero: a sensitive artistic soul accustomed to never giving up. A witty, thoughtful, knowledgeable connoisseur of the affairs of cinema, Maurizio Di Rienzo is also endowed with a soft sense of humour, never harmful to others. Talk to him, and you will benefit from it.

An important artistic manifestation like this one is not only composed of artistic creativity, it requires technical means and strong arms to set it up. Pietro Crosilla, Daniele Marzone and Francesco Sacchi are the men behind the screen, our quality technical personnel.

A new young friend, Francesco Bonerba, is responsible for social media and multimedia, so he also has to put up with the ramblings of yours truly.

Next we have the great friends of the SHORTS KIDS N ‘TEEN section, most importantly Raffaella Canci, a discreet and careful coordinator who we always see again with pleasure.

Daniela Pick Tamaro is another new friend, she is in charge of managing the hospitality office and does it with that smiling grace that is a pre-eminent trait of her character.

Beatrice Fiorentino takes care of the NEW IMPRESSIONS section, she loves the cinema and grasps all the instances, inexorably good.

Francesco Ruzzier is in turn the inexhaustible eye behind the MAREMETRAGGIO section (also the VIRTUAL REALITY is his own speciality).

There are other important friends waiting to be discussed , and we will do so in the next few entries, meanwhile the journey continues…