Venerdì 26 maggio alle 20:30 al Cinema Astra alla presenza del regista e di Matteo Lorito, Rettore dell’Università Federico II.
A special event closes the 2023 edition of “AstraDoc – Viaggio nel cinema del reale”, a documentary film festival curated by Arci Movie with Università Federico II, Parallelo 41 and Coinor, which has animated, with many guests and a wide range of national and international films, the historic cinema in via Mezzocannone in Naples. After having registered over 2.500 audience members, AstraDoc concludes with an unmissable event on Friday 26 May at 20:30 pm, bringing Oscar-nominated director Gianfranco Rosi back to the Cinema Academy Astra, thirteen years after his first appearance in the festival.
Rosi returns to Naples to present “In viaggio”, an emotional story that outlines the extraordinary figure of Pope Francis through his numerous trips around the world. In addition to the director, Matteo Lorito, Rector of the University of Naples Federico, will also speak at the evening. Antonella Di Nocera, producer and president of Parallelo 41, and Antonio Borrelli, curator of the festival, will talk with the director.
“In Viaggio” (Italy, 2022, 80'), presented at the 79th Venice Film Festival, received a nomination for Best Documentary at the 2023 David di Donatello Awards and was then presented at over twenty international festivals around the world. Produced by 21Uno Film – Stemal Entertainment and Rai Cinema, Gianfranco Rosi's work retraces Francis' travels. In 2013, as soon as he was elected, the Pope went to Lampedusa. In 2021 he made an important trip to the Middle East, Iraq and Kurdistan. The same places that Gianfranco Rosi recounted in Fuocoammare and Notturno. In nine years of pontificate, Pope Francis has made 37 trips, visiting 59 countries. Italy, Brazil, Cuba, the United States, the African continent and Southeast Asia.
His itineraries follow the red thread of the central themes of our time: poverty, nature, migration, the condemnation of all war, solidarity. In a sort of Via Crucis, Francis witnesses the suffering of the world and experiences the difficulty of doing more, beyond the comfort of his words and his presence. Gianfranco Rosi follows the Pope, looks at what he sees, listens to what he says. In observing the Pope who looks at the world, Rosi sets up a long-distance dialogue between the flow of the archive of the Pontiff's travels, the images of his cinema, current events and recent history so as to create a balance between the flow of linear time and the memory of cinema.
“The film is the portrait of a man who makes us look beyond and reflect on universal themes. The first challenge of In Viaggio was to transform into cinematic language footage made for television needs. As the editing progressed, however, the need arose to have the story of the Pope’s travels dialogue with materials from historical archives and with fragments of some of my films. And finally, to work on new scenes shot by me. Another challenge was to build an ending for a film in progress, destined to remain open. A film that, in following the next travels of Pope Francis, will address new themes, new reflections”, from the director's notes.
Gianfranco Rosi, who graduated from New York University Film School, in 1993, following a trip to India, produced and directed “Boatman”, about a boatman on the banks of the Ganges, successfully presented at various international festivals. After the short film “Afterwords”, which participated in the 57th Venice International Film Festival, in 2008 in California, in Slab City, he shot the documentary film “Below Sea Level”, about a homeless community that lives on the desert plain 40 meters below sea level: the film won Best Film at Orizzonti at the Venice Film Festival and at Doc/It; It also won the Grand Prix, the Prix des Jeunes at Cinéma du Réel, the Best Film Award at the One World Film Festival in Prague, the Vittorio De Seta Award at the Bif&st 2009 and was nominated for Best Documentary at the European Film Awards 2009. In 2010 he shot “El Sicario – Room 164”, a film-interview based on a story by Charles Bowden about a repentant killer for the Mexican drug cartels.
The film won the Fipresci Award at the Venice Film Festival, the Doc/It Award for Best Documentary of the Year, Best Film at DocLisboa in 2010 and at Doc Aviv in 2011. In 2013 he won the Golden Lion in Venice with “Sacro Gra”, the film with which he tells of an unusual humanity that lives around the Grande Raccordo Anulare of the Capital. It is the first time that a documentary has won the Golden Lion. In 2016 Gianfranco Rosi won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival with “Fuocoammare”, stories from the island of Lampedusa, its inhabitants, fishermen and migrants.
If in Italy it wins the Golden Globe, gets the double nomination for the David di Donatello and the victory of a Nastro d'Argento, “Fire at Sea” (this is the international title) will take Lampedusa, an island symbol of migration, all over the world between Festivals and theatrical releases, earning further recognition such as the victory at the EFA, up to the Oscar Nomination for Best Documentary. In 2020 Gianfranco Rosi makes “Notturno”, filmed over the course of three years in the Middle East on the borders between Iraq, Kurdistan, Syria and Lebanon. It is presented in Competition at the Venice Film Festival and then goes around the world in the most important international festivals.
“The festival dedicated to documentary cinema, created in collaboration with our University, closes with the visit and presence of the great director Gianfranco Rosi. The Maestro presents the documentary 'In Viaggio' welcomed in many international festivals and awarded on several occasions. A work that tells the dozens of trips of Pope Francis, committed to addressing the great themes of our time. We are happy and grateful to director Rosi for his availability to meet the spectators and the University”, said Matteo Lorito, Rector of the University of Naples Federico II.
"The thirteenth edition of AstraDoc closes with the return to Naples of Gianfranco Rosi after more than 13 years, a further sign of the important level that the festival has recovered after the years of stoppage due to the pandemic. The value of the proposal put in place is demonstrated by a large participation of the public, the involvement of young people and the numerous presence of guests during the four months of events, such as, among others, Mario Martone, Antonio Rezza, Flavia Mastrella, Francesco Patierno, Fuani Marino, Gianfranco Pannone, Daniele Gaglianone, Myriam Charles, Franco Grillini, Giovanni Piperno, Anna Villari and now Gianfranco Rosi. Astradoc places itself, in the Neapolitan and national panorama, as a unicum in the research and valorization of an increasingly dynamic cinema of reality and a terrain of fruitful experimentation, thanks to the synergy between Arci Movie, Federico II University, Parallelo 41 and Coinor", according to Antonio Borrelli, curator of the AstraDoc exhibition.
Article published on May 24, 2023 - 17:05 pm
