STONY BROOK, N.Y. - Round Table Discussion: “Independent Filmmaking and Film Distribution in Italy and USA. ” Young Italian Film Directors and Long Island and NYC film producers.
All films will be shown in Italian with English Subtitles.
For the first time, N.I.C.E. (New Italian Cinema Events) of Florence, Italy - a cultural organization whose honorary members include Isabella Rossellini and Bernardo Bertolucci - will bring to Long Island a number of new Italian films to be presented and discussed by the filmmakers. Each full length feature film will be paired with a short film. The films were selected by a committee of international film critics such as Mario Sesti (who last January presented his award winning documentary film The Lost Sequence at Stony Brook’s Tribute to Federico Fellini) and noted film directors such as Lina Wertmuller (Swept Away). The N.I.C.E. films, which form part of the 14th annual N.I.C.E festival at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan, will be shown on Saturday November 13th and Sunday November 14th. All events will take place at the Charles B. Wang Center on Stony Brook’s Main Campus.
“We are proud to present the work of young directors,” says Viviana del Bianco, director of the N.I.C.E. festival since 1991- “we share with them the hopes anxieties of success, and we are encouraged in continuing our difficult task by the acknowledgement received from the American audience and cultural institutions.
Professor Gioacchino Balducci, director of the New Italian Cinema Festival at Stony Brook, points out the advantages of bringing cultural events to Long Island where there is an affluent and sophisticated audience. “We have the rare opportunity to see new foreign films not yet distributed in USA. If one of them is released and makes it big, it’s fun to be able to say, ”I saw it here first and I met the director.”
Round Table Discussion on Independent filmmaking and film distribution in Italy and USA by Young Italian Film Directors and Long Island and New York film producers will take place on Sunday November 14 at 3:00 PM at the Charles Wang theater.
Panelists include:
Gioacchino Balducci , moderator
• Viviana del Bianco, Co-Founder & Director of N.I.C.E. Film Festival, Florence Italy.
• Fisher Stevens, producer, GreenStreet Films, NYC,
• Michelle Isabelle-Stark, Suffolk County Film Commission …
• Jackeline Reich, associate Professor of Cinema Studies
• Marco Ponti, director of Round Trip and Santa Maradona
• Francesco Apolloni, director of Just Do It and The Truth About Love
• Anna Ritta Ciccone, director of Marja’s Love and The Witch Doctors
• Paolo Vari & Antonio Boccola, directors of Fame Chimica
• Other participants TBA
OPENING NIGHT :
The NEW ITALIAN CINEMA FESTIVAL will be presented on Sunday, November 13 at 6:00 P.M. by:
John Jay Lavalle, Supervisor, Town of Brookhaven
Viviana del Bianco, Director of N.I.C.E.
Mario Mignone, Director of the Center for Italian Studies
Michelle Isabelle Stark, Director of Cultural Affairs and Film Office, Suffolk County Department of Economic Development
.
SCHEDULE OF FILMS AND EVENTS
Screening of feature films will be followed by Q. & A. with the film director
6:00 PM
CALMA PIATTA ( Dead Calm ) 2003, 9 min. Directed by Marco Pontecorvo
While swimming at his health club, Andea hallucinates that people are telling him to confront the “beast” that lurks somewhere in the pool.
ANDATA E RITORNO ( ROUND TRIP) -2002. 115 min. Dir. Marco Ponti.
After a disastrous love affair, Dante decides to leave town for good. He gives the keys to his apartment, his bicycle and his goldfish to his best friend, Tolstoj, then heads for Barcelona. When all his money is stolen, he is forced to head home. Meanwhile, back in Dante’s city, a strike prevents Nina, a flight attendant, from leaving. With only a few days left before Christmas and all hotel rooms taken, Tolstoj lets Nina stay in Dante’s empty apartment. When Dante arrives, exhausted, all he wants to do is to go to sleep in his own bed. But that does not seem possible.
Marco Ponti, director of Andata e Ritorno (Round Trip) is a graduate of the University of Turin. He teaches screenwriting at the Holden School in Turin. In 1997, he published a book about Quentin Tarantino’s films. His screenwriting credits include scripts for radio and theater as well as screenplays. He has directed or written a number of prize-winning short films, including Benvenuto a San Salvatio (Best Short Film, European Film Prize, 1999) and Kissing Paul Newman. His first feature film, Santa Maradona won the Donatello 2002 award for Best Director.
8:00 P.M.
MARIA JESUS ( 2002, 10 min.). Directors: Massimiliano and Gianluca De Serio
The true story of a Peruvian woman in the hands of people doing business wih immigrants
FATE COME NOI (JUST DO IT)- 2003. 90 min. Dir. Francesco Apolloni.
Pechino is shy and awkward around girls, but he’s pretty clever about most other things When his best friend, Bove goes on vacation, Pechino is too broke to go along. Stuck alone in the hot city, and Pechino breaks into a house intending to steal some money. But he finds, instead, a despondant old woman who mistakes him for her estranged grandson and gives him him enough money for his trip. Months later, on Christmas Eve, while Bove tries to keep Giordana from committing suicide, Pechino finds her nine year old daughter, Livia, wandering in the street. When Pechino arrives with Livia, Christmas Eve turns out better than anyone could have imagined.
Francesco Apolloni, director of Fate Come Noi (Just Do It) is an actor as well as a playwright and screen writer. He was Assistant Director to Gianni Amelio (Ladro di Bambini). Apolloni acated and directed a short film, Leonard Street for which he won the Sacher d’Oro for Best Actor. His first feature film, The Truth about Love was voted best film by the public at NICE 2002.
Sunday November 14
3:00 P.M. ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION
5:00 PM REFRESHMENTS (courtesy of Fratelli Market, Stony Brook, Pugliese Winery, Cutchogue and Lavazza Coffee Co., USA, NYC)
6:00 PM
L’UOMO PIU BUONO DEL MONDO (THE KINDEST MAN IN THE WORLD) - 2003. 10 min. Dir. Edo Tagliavini.
Danilo Conti, the kindest man in the world, has a bomb strapped to his wrist. He has only eight minutes to run across town and deactivate it, but it’s rush hour and the streets are crowded.
L’AMORE DI MARJA (MARJA’S LOVE) – (2002. 102 min) Dir. Annette Riitta Ciccone.
While living on a commune in Finland in the 1970’s, Marja believes in love, peace and creating a better world with her lover Fortunato and their two children. Though she and Fortunato speak different languages, they share the same dreams. Marja teaches her daughters Alice and Sonia about the power of dreams. When hope for a cultural revolution fades, Marja follows Fortunato to Sicily, but she cannot let go of her ideals.
Anna Ritta Ciccone, director of L’Amore di Marja, is a native of Finland who became an Italian citizen. In 1995 she worked as an assistant director of several TV films. In 1999, she made a short film, Banana Splatte,r which was one of the top winners in the RAI-TV short film competition that year. In 2000, she made her first feature film, The Witch Doctors which was one of the the NICE 2001films.
8:00 P.M.
NOONTHEPROGRAMME (2002, 11’20’’) Dir. Vinicio Basile
In “Television Time”, the fast succession of images and meanings determines the very existence of its human content, creating a feeling and evanescent impression, as it leads us to reflect.
FAME CHIMICA (CHEMICAL HUNGER) -2004. 97 min. Directors: Paolo Vari e Antonio Bocola.
Young burn-outs, known as ‘zarri’ hang out in the piazza getting stoned. Two former “zarri” continue to meet in the piazza where they grew up. One deals in drugs, the other has a low paying job. Against a backdrop of friction that has built up over the years, when both men both fall for the same girl, their friendship falls apart.
Paolo Vari & Antonio Boccola, co-directors of Fame Chimica, have collaborated on short films fame Chimica (1997), Liberti Tutti (1998) and Pompeo (1999) which were broadcast by Mediaset. They wrote and directed a popular 8 part TV series, I Love Italy and several documentaries including Lavoro in Corso and Le Mani sulla Vita. In 2002 they were writers-directors for the TV program, Le Iene (the Hyenas).
Institutional Sponsors:
Center for Italian Studies, Stony Brook University
Department of European Languages, Literature & Culture
Town of Brookhaven
Suffolk County Office of Film and Cultural Affairs
N.I.CE. Film Festival, Florence Italy
Italian Cultural Institute , New York
Gregory Pell, Hofstra University
Corporate sponsors:
Fratelli Market Place, Stony Brook and Astoria
Pugliese Vineyards Cutchogue NY
Lavazza Coffee Co., USA, NYC
Free and open to the public. Limited Seating. Reservations: 631 632 7444.
