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PRESS RELEASE - 2009 PROGRAM
28/07/2009
18 world premieres, 5 debut films, 12 fictional stories, 6 documentaries, 12 nationalities: Albania, Algeria, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, UK, USA. Founded six years ago by ANAC and the filmmakers of API, presided over by Roberto Barzanti, Venice Days return on the Lido from September 3-12, once again directed by Giorgio Gosetti, who succeeds film critic Fabio Ferzetti, today head of the special project 100 + 1. One hundred films and one country, Italy.
In an objectively difficult year, during which local filmmakers and culture industry workers have mobilized in droves against the severe budget cuts to the FUS Culture Fund, Italian cinema is very much and very legitimately represented in our program by highly diverse stories, styles, sensibilities and production approaches: from Poesia che mi guardi by Marina Spada in the official selection, to Elisabetta Pandimiglio’s short film Un giorno di Vito, chosen for its original cinematic language and the strength of its subject (the difficulties of motherhood for incarcerated women), which imposes itself upon our conscience.
“This edition will be very much tied to women,” says Delegate General Giorgio Gosetti, “with filmmakers, protagonists and situations that profoundly moved us and the international selection committee that flanked me in the difficult task of making the final decisions. Yet it will also be a program that, while remaining coherent to the identity of Venice Days, will leave much room for provocation, to genre cinema that has been rediscovered by younger filmmakers, to the adaptability of languages and production models, and even to laughter and satire, elements often overlooked at top festivals.”
There are 12 feature films in the official selection, including those by illustrious auteurs who make up recent film history yet who this year bring distinctly independent and personal works to Venice. They are Claude Miller, who with his son Nathan surprisingly made the rough and powerful “debut film” Je suis content que ma mère soit vivante; Goran Paskaljevic, who in Honeymoons depicts all the contradictions of his land, at the center of a scandal in a Europe that tries in vain to forget its recent past; Algeria’s Merzak Allouache, who in Harragas accompanies his “boat people” (a microcosm of the thousands of faces of his torn country) across the Mediterranean towards an impossible dream of freedom; and Dutch filmmaker Alex van Warmerdam, who in The Last Days of Emma Blank continues his highly personal social satire down a fine line between realism and surrealism.
They will be flanked by debut filmmakers such as Léa Fehner and France’s Yannick Dahan and Benjamin Rocher, behind the politically incorrect horror film La Horde (a special event at Venice Days and already a cult film on the Internet and market, despite the fact that it will be premiering in Venice); numerous second films; and welcome returns, such as Spain’s Daniel Sánchez-Arévalo (DarkBlueAlmostBlack), who will certainly stir up controversy with his ruthless satire, Gordos.
There will be five Films on Reality proposed as a special program created to place special emphasis on a form of expression that is enjoying particular success in Italy today. They are Paola Sangiovanni’s passionate Ragazze, Marina Spada’s film on poet Antonia Pozzi, the scandalously “normal” love stories captured by Stefano Consiglio, the larger-than-life Vittorio De Sica in Vittorio D. (by Mario Canale and Annarosa Morri), and the disconcerting state of Italian cinema depicted with happy and erratic freedom by Valerio Jalongo in Di me cosa ne sai.
Last, but certainly not least, are this year’s tributes and parallel activities. Some will be announced in the coming weeks, and some in conjunction with evolving initiatives of Italian cinema, for which Venice Days are the most natural and directly involved presentation space. However, we are pleased to already announce the special tribute to animation artist Signe Baumane (a festival favorite, discovered in Venice and celebrated at Sundance and Berlin), who will bring the entire anthology Teat Beat of Sex, with eight brand new episodes (just 2’ each) that will screen before the films of the selection.
Also returning is the special project created and directed by Fabio Ferzetti, 100 + 1. One hundred films and one country, Italy, on the eve of its first event organized with the Province of Rome and with support from Cinecittà Luce. Venice will also be an occasion to present the restored print of Francesco Rosi’s The Magliari (1959), made possible through a collaboration with the Bologna Cinematheque.
The final films of the selection and the complete program of events and activities at the Filmmakers Villa will be announced shortly.
Wherever available, you will find in the film section of the website high-resolution photos,
pressbooks and TV-format trailers in the film packet.
Below, you may download our 2009 poster, logo and trailer (in both low and tv resolution) and the extended Italian release – “comunicato”.
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Comunicato_programma_2009.pdf |
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giornate_logo.pdf |
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giornate_poster.pdf |
giornate_trailer_low.mp4 |
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giornate_trailer.mp4 |
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