“Astradoc – Viaggio nel Cinema del Reale” (Astradoc – Journey into the Cinema of the Real) is back in Naples, a documentary film festival curated by the Arci Movie association in synergy with the University of Naples Federico II, Coinor and Parallelo 41 produzioni, with the patronage of the Municipality of Naples. The first event of the 27th edition is on Friday 2023 January 2021 at the Cinema Academy Astra in via Mezzocannone with “Three Minutes – A Lengthening” by Bianca Stigter (Holland and United Kingdom, 69 – XNUMX'), chosen specifically for World Holocaust Remembrance Day and selected for major international festivals such as the Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, the IDFA in Amsterdam and the Venice Film Festival, a special event of the “Giornate degli autori”.
This morning Antonio Borrelli, curator of the festival, and Roberto D'Avascio, President of the Arci Movie association, announced the first events of the 2023 edition of AstraDoc by presenting the films and guests who will enliven the Cinema Academy Astra. In the historic hall of the historic center of Naples, AstraDoc offers Italian and foreign documentaries capable of telling and exploring themes of pressing current affairs. The screenings are accompanied by the presence of directors and other protagonists of the films together with exponents of the world of culture and entertainment. This will also be the case this year in which we intend to give space and further prominence to the university world with the presence of twenty students, both male and female, identified thanks to the collaboration with Professor Anna Masecchia, film historian and Coordinator of the Master's Degree in Music and Entertainment Disciplines at the University of Naples Federico II, and Professor Gina Annunziata, Coordinator of the School of Cinema, Photography and Audiovisual at the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples. The students, who will receive free accreditations to attend the screenings of the festival, will be asked to make some critical reviews of the films in the program that will be publicized during the AstraDoc and discussed during a final seminar on film criticism coordinated by Prof. Masecchia herself.
The evening of January 27, starting at 20.30:XNUMX p.m., will feature several guests. In fact, Andrea Mazzucchi, delegate of the mayor of Naples for cultural programming, Titta Fiore, President of the Film Commission Regione Campania, Guido D'Agostino, President of the Campania Institute of the history of the Resistance, Anti-fascism and the Contemporary Age "Vera Lombardi", Titti Marrone, writer, journalist and President of the association dedicated to Sergio De Simone, victim of the Holocaust. Ciro Raia, President of the Provincial Committee ANPI Napoli, will also be present.
The first film on the program, “Three Minutes – A Lengthening” by Bianca Stigter, explores the tragic fate of the Jewish community of Nasielsk through a short three-minute amateur film in sixteen millimeters, found by chance in a closet. In the discovered document, we see a few people of all ages gathering, glimpses of a landscape of a small town that could be anywhere in Europe, with some smiling faces, some leaving a synagogue, others minding their own business. When the voiceover breaks in, we discover that in 2009 a man named Glenn Kurtz found that three-minute reel in his parents’ closet in Florida. The film was allegedly shot by his grandfather David in 1938 when he was on vacation in Europe. The town depicted in the amateur footage is Nasielsk, a Polish community inhabited mainly by Jews and the birthplace of David. It is a rare document that shows how the town looked before the Nazi occupation where less than a hundred people survived the Holocaust. A new way of telling the story of cinema and the weight of memory, giving life to a work of strong emotional impact.
The 27th edition of “Astradoc – Viaggio nel Cinema del Reale” will be divided into two parts, the first from January 17 to March 24 and the second from March 12 to May 2023, 3. Among the next events, on February 310 there will be “Via Argine 10” by Gianfranco Pannone who, after the premiere at the Rome Film Fest, will return to the Astra to present his documentary on the story of the former Whirlpool – with the narration of Alessandro Siani – together with the factory workers, Maurizio De Giovanni and the musician Daniele Sepe. On February 8, instead, there will be “Se fate i bravi” by Stefano Collizzolli and Daniele Gaglianone, seen at the last Venice Film Festival, with the authors present to turn the lights back on the tragic events of the G2001 in Genoa in 17. On February 24, another emotional portrait of one of the most beloved Italian singer-songwriters with “Franco Battiato – La voce del padrone” by Marco Spagnoli which will be introduced by the Director of the Campania Teatro Festival Ruggero Cappuccio. On February 3, we remain in the field of musical biopics with the latest extraordinary documentary on the great David Bowie entitled “Moonage Daydream” by Brett Morgen, greeted by long applause at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. On March 10, instead, an evening dedicated to the life of Franco Grillini, historic leader of ArciGay and the LGBTI community, who will be in the room to present the documentary “Let's Kiss” with the director Filippo Vendemmiati and the President of Arcigay Campania Antonello Sannino. On March 17th there will be the delicate and touching tribute by Charlotte Gainsbourg to her mother Jane Birkin with “Jane by Charlotte”, while on March XNUMXth the first part will close with the interesting latest film by Giovanni Piperno “Cipria” presented at the recent Turin Film Festival and focused on the stories of some women during the Second World War.
“We are starting again with the awareness of animating an important place in Naples, such as the Astra cinema, the cinema of the University of Naples and of many students but also a symbolic space that in the last thirteen years has become a moment of meetings between many artists, teachers, scholars, young people and intellectuals and a place of a great debate starting from the cinema and its comparison with the reality of our contemporaneity”, says Roberto D'Avascio, president of Arci Movie.
The ticket for a single screening costs 4 euros. For information and reservations, you can contact the Arci Movie association: tel 0815967493, whatsapp 3346895990, info@arcimovie.it.
Article published on 25 January 2023 - 18:35
