At the Astra cinema, tributes to Lucio Amelio, Massimo Troisi, Pope Francis, the works of the duo RezzaMastrella, and the films of Giovanni Meola and Nazareno M. Nicoletti
Final sprint for AstraDoc – Viaggio nel cinema del reale, a documentary festival curated by Arci Movie at the Astra cinema in Naples. The film festival continues with five events starting from April 27th until May 26th, bringing to the hall in via Mezzocannone important films and guests such as, among others, Mario Martone, Gianfranco Rosi, Antonio Rezza and Flavia Mastrella.
The first event is Thursday 27 April with the Mario Martone Special Event, an evening dedicated to the great Neapolitan director, created in collaboration with the project “Il Cinema del pensiero” by Parallelo 41. It opens at 19 pm with the screening, on the thirtieth anniversary of its creation, of the documentary “Lucio Amelio – Terrae Motus” (Italy, 1993 – 52'), presented at the Turin Film Festival. The film tells the story of the gallery owner who brought artists of the calibre of Warhol to Naples and who worked to support the international success of southern artists such as Tatafiore. Amelio is the one who, in the aftermath of the 1980 earthquake, launched an appeal to painters and sculptors from all over the world to create a work that evoked the tragedy of the earthquake: this is how Terrae Motus was born, an impressive collection of canvases and sculptures on which more than one hundred authors worked. The screening will be introduced by speeches from the director, Anna Amelio, Lucio's sister, who has inherited his professional legacy, and Antonio Parlati, Director of the RAI Production Center in Naples.
At 20 pm there will be a special meeting with Mario Martone, with the participation of Anna Masecchia, professor at the Federico II University of Naples, and Antonella Di Nocera, Producer and President of Parallelo 41.
Following, at 21 pm, the acclaimed “Someone Loves Me Down There” (Italy, 2023 – 128'), presented at the Berlinale and made on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Massimo Troisi's birth. By editing the scenes of his films, Martone highlights Troisi as a great director of our cinema even before being a great comic actor, and to do so he outlines his artistic career from beginning to end, framing him in the climate of the years in which he trained and in the city that the two directors share, Naples. The editing of the films intersects with some conversations with artists who loved Troisi and were influenced by him such as Francesco Piccolo, Paolo Sorrentino, Ficarra and Picone, critics who studied him, such as Goffredo Fofi, and two of the creators of his posthumous work, “Il postino”, Michael Radford and Roberto Perpignani. The exception is Anna Pavignano, who wrote his films with Troisi and whom Martone meets to investigate the creative processes from which they arose and who provides precious unpublished materials. Massimo's notes come to life again in the voices of Pierfrancesco Favino, Massimiliano Gallo, Valerio Mastandrea, Lino Musella, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, Teresa Saponangelo and Toni Servillo.
The last phase of this edition of AstraDoc continues with other exclusive events. This will be the case for the evening of Friday 5 May with a special event dedicated to RezzaMastrella, in synergy with the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples. In the hall in the heart of Naples, at 19 pm, Flavia Mastrella arrives with “La legge” (Italy, 2022 – 78'), a multi-voiced video reading of the Italian Constitution: one hundred and ninety people have created and interpreted the reading of an article with their cell phones. This is how the cell phone, a weapon of extermination of emotional tension in person, has transformed into a creative means at a distance. At 21 pm the Astra cinema opens to another meeting, with Antonio Rezza who introduces “Il Cristo in gola” (Italy, 2022 – 78') presented at the last Turin Film Festival. In the film, the son of God does not say a word, he does not relate to the man who is inferior to him, he communicates only through devastating screams, perdition of the human ear, which lead the ears of man to eternal damnation. During the evening, speakers will include Rosita Marchese, President of the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples, Bruno Roberti, theater and film critic, Gina Annunziata, Coordinator of the School of Cinema, Photography and Audiovisual of the Academy of Fine Arts of Naples, Francesca Saturnino, journalist, and Roberto D'Avascio, President of Arci Movie and Member of the Board of Directors of the Teatro Stabile of Naples.
Then there will be space for two Neapolitan directors. Friday 12 May at 20.30:2020 pm it will be the turn of “La conversione” by Giovanni Meola (Italy, 91 – 19'), in the presence of the director and the protagonists of the work, which received the audience award at the RIFF Rome Independent Film Festival. Friday 2019 May, same time, the festival will host the young author Nazareno M. Nicoletti who presents “Giù dal vivo” (Italy, 74 – 41'), a documentary produced by Arci Movie with Parallelo XNUMX, with the narration of Massimiliano Gallo, selected in competition at the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival, the most important film festival in Eastern Europe.
The last stop is scheduled for Friday 26 May, again at 20.30:2009 pm, with a special event featuring Gianfranco Rosi together with producer Donatella Palermo, who will be introduced by Antonella Di Nocera. It will be a great return: Rosi, in fact, inaugurated the first edition of AstraDoc in 2022 with the beautiful “Below Sea Level”, and then won, over the years, the Golden Lion in Venice with “Sacro Gra” and then the Golden Bear in Berlin with “Fuocoammare”. For the occasion, there will be his latest film “In viaggio” (Italy, 80 – XNUMX'), a work presented at the Venice Film Festival last year, which tells of the journey, physical and apostolic, of Pope Francis in nine years of pontificate, with itineraries that follow the red thread of the central themes of our time: poverty, nature, migration, the condemnation of every war, solidarity.
"The thirteenth edition of AstraDoc, now a benchmark for real-life cinema in Naples and Italy, concludes with a final special month of programming. The presence, in this final phase, of extraordinary guests such as Mario Martone, Gianfranco Rosi, Antonio Rezza, and Flavia Mastrella, underscores the significance of the great effort made this year by Arci Movie, with Parallelo 41, the Federico II University of Naples, and Coinor, to bring a unique cultural offering to Naples. To date, the evenings at the Astra Cinema have welcomed twenty-five guests, three thousand spectators, and twelve premieres in the city. These figures completely contrast with the challenging situation facing theaters and demonstrate how in-depth work can reach a broad, cross-section of audiences ," stated Antonio Borrelli, curator of AstraDoc, and Roberto D'Avascio, president of Arci Movie.
“AstraDoc – Viaggio nel cinema del reale” is the festival dedicated to documentary cinema curated by Arci Movie Napoli with Parallelo 41 Produzioni, University of Naples Federico II and COINOR with the patronage of the Municipality of Naples. Ticket 4 euros, reduced Arci members 3,5 euros. For info Arci Movie: 0815967493, info@arcimovie.it, www.arcimovie.it, WhatsApp 3346895990.
