Category Archives: Cinema Cardiff

8½ Fellini @ Penarth Pier Pavilion 11 October

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In association with  Snowcat Cinema  official partner of Italian Film Festival Cardiff 2018

Thursday, October 11, 8:00 PM 10:30 PM  @ Penarth Pier Pavilion

Fellini’s 8 1/2 tells the story of a film director trapped in a creative cul-de-sac. It’s surreal style, icy-cool atmosphere and crisp monochrome cinematography have led to wide regard as one of the finest works of avant-garde film-making and a true masterpiece of world cinema.

Advance tickets £7.50 / £6 (conc) – door sales +50p

7pm doors for 8pm start.

Snowcat Cinema does not screen adverts before the feature.  There are usually one or two trailers for films that will be shown soon but we encourage people to arrive promptly for the advertised start time.

Refunds will only be provided if the screening does not go ahead.

Rome Open City & Dome Bulfaro

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The Italian Cultural Centre Wales has organised a screening of Roberto Rossellini’s  Rome, Open City, a classic tale of life in Nazi-occupied Rome, in collaboration with Snowcat cinema and supported by Wales PEN Cymru. 

 

The screening is preceded by a performance by Dome Bulfaro, a renowned Italian poet and artist.

We are putting this event on since we think that Italy is crossing a very critical phase and its fragile democracy is in real danger.

Since Matteo Salvini was sworn in as Italy’s Interior Minister, his controversial stance on immigration, Roma people and the European Union has made the headlines.

The press have dubbed him the European Donald Trump and commentators say he could pose a threat to the existence of the European Union as we know it.

This week he was in the news again, for refusing to allow another migrant rescue ship to dock in Italy and for his radical proposals to crack down on migration.

Here is the facebook link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/168546373857473/

 

Remix the Cinema Workshop and Screening

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Remix the Cinema
Penarth Pier Pavilion

Sunday 20 May 2018 8:30pm

The brainchild of two Italian artists who set original soundtracks to a montage of black and white films, Remix the Cinema is an immersive experience combing live music performance and cinema screening. Italian Cultural Centre Wales and Snowcat Cinema are delighted to host this unique event at Penarth Pier Pavilion promoting international artistic engagement and innovation in Cardiff and the Vale.

Before the screening there is an open workshop with the artists, offering hands-on experience of creative sound and image editing. Penarth-based artists Parry & Glynn will facilitate conversations and live drawing in and around the event.

Alberto Casati and Luca Acito are part of Action 30, a collective of artists, musicians, thinkers and activists who draw inspiration from the cultural ferment of 1930s Europe.

Screening: 8.00pm. Admission £8 | £4 concs available on the door and ticketsource
Workshop: 6.00pm. Admission free on the door.

Italian Film Festival Cardiff 2017 Raffle!

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RaffleDear friends and fans,

We are happy to announce that following last year’s tremendous success, we are once again launching a raffle in occasion of our upcoming Italian Film Festival here in Cardiff!

This year’s raffle prizes are:

  1. Two tickets for a dress rehearsal at the Welsh National Opera
  2. Two-Course Dinner for two at Calabrisella’s
  3. A bottle of Italian wine from Vinitalia

There will be three separate draws, each with a first, second and third prize:

– Friday 24 November before Emma (First prize: Mozart – Don Giovanni dress rehearsal at WNO)

– Saturday 25 November before The Stuff of Dreams (First prize: Verdi – La Forza del Destino dress rehearsal at WNO)

– ay 26 November before At War for Love (First prize: Puccini – La Tosca dress rehearsal at WNO)

Prices are £2 for 1 ticket and £5 for 5 tickets. All tickets can be purchased directly at Chapter Arts Centre at our film festival stall. After each draw we will be announcing the winners on all our social media platforms as well as the ICCW website.

ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL CARDIFF 2016

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comingsoonslideweb

Films in partnership with Iris Prize Festival

(FULL PROGRAMME IFFC2016)

Bullied to Death by Giovanni Coda

Saturday 15 October 3pm

Venue: CHAPTER ARTS CENTRE, CINEMA 1

Director Giovanni Coda from Italy will introduce the screening.

The film is inspired by the true story of a fourteen-year old American boy who committed suicide in the wake of school bullying and cyberbullying. This experimental film could be described as a documentary and is a marriage between performance art and film. It is the second episode of the trilogy on gender based violence by the director, following the film Il Rosa Nudo.

For further information and tickets click here.

Just Say Yes (Lei disse sì) by Maria Pecchioli

Saturday 15 October 8:30pm

Venue: CINEWORLD SCREEN 15

Director Maria Pecchioli will introduce the screening.

Just Say Yes is a documentary about two women who love each other. ‘Just say yes’ is a fragment of Italy, a collection of Swedish woods and lakes; it’s a wedding party where the main ingredients on the menu are civil rights.

For further information and tickets click here.

Italian Film Festival Cardiff Taster

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Fire at sea (Fuocoammare) by Gianfranco Rosi

Friday 24 June, Chapter Cinema 8:45 (book tickets here)

FuocoammareDCP

On 24 June, during Refugee Week, we have organised another special event around the premiere of Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare) by Gianfranco Rosi, winner of this year’s Golden Bear in Berlin. This intense and beautiful docufilm, part of our Mediterranean Re-Mapped project, will be introduced by migration adviser and co-founder of S.O.S. Mediterranée Prof. Udo Enwereuzor. Prof. Enwereuzor will also be present at the Q&A with film editor Jacopo Quadri after the screening of the film.

Tale of Tales (Il racconto dei racconti) by Matteo Garrone

Saturday 18 June, Chapter Cinema 7:45 (book tickets here)

TofTDCP

We have organised a special event around the Welsh premiere of Tale of Tales (Il racconto dei racconti) by Matteo Garrone. The gaudy and dazzling adaptation of the seventeenth century folk-tales by Giambattista Basile will be introduced by Domenico Basile (descendant of the writer and curator of the latest edition of Lo cunto de li cunti) and followed by a Q&A with actor Guillaume Delaunay.

In My Mother’s House by Ákos Östör & Lina Fruzzetti

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On 2 June in partnership with Cardiff University and Transnationalizing Modern Languages we will screen In My Mother’s House by Ákos Östör and Lina Fruzzetti a new documentary in Italian, Tigrinya and English (with English subtitles) on the many sides of multiple identities, familial bonds, and ambiguities of colonialism, stretching from the Horn of Africa to Italy and the USA. Book free ticket here

IMMH Picture 2015

 

Ákos Östör and Lina Fruzzetti are university-based filmmaker-ethnographers (Brown and Wesleyan in the USA). They authored numerous distinguished films and publications. They collaborate closely with participants in their films and often with other filmmakers. Their films are visually interpretive, respecting the integrity of the culture and the locality. They use narration or not, subtitles, voice over, and inter-titles, or no words at all, just as a particular film demands it. This is their first, deeply personal film.

Their previous films in India and Tanzania concern individual lives in small communities, in contexts ranging from sacred rituals and festivals in a town, to women scroll painters and singers in village West Bengal; from fish markets in Dar es Salaam, to a cooperative of disabled people in Zanzibar.

All were shown at festival around the world and won numerous awards.

Their written work is independent yet related to the films. They also participated in creating museum exhibitions and catalogues (Helsinki, Lisbon, Geneva) as well as websites around their work.

Più buio di Mezzanotte

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a Sebastiano, Mick, Mariamreview by Mariam Kamish of the film that had its UK premiere in Cardiff  at a joint screening by the Italian Cultural Centre Wales and the Iris Festival Prize

In other hands, Più buio di Mezzanotte (Darker than Midnight) might have been hard to watch. But director Sebastiano Riso makes the story of Davide, a transsexual fourteen year old fleeing home for life on the streets, a film of luminous beauty.

A desaturated palette – one step from black and white – defends his young cast from any taint of the garish or tawdry: even their bruises take on a sombre dignity. So sensitive is Sebastiano Riso’s direction that, though Davide’s friends are turning cheap tricks, we never feel repulsed – or distanced by pity. With a great and understated art, Riso makes it possible for us to meet the characters only on a plane of shared humanity and solidarity. He leaves no room for “us and them”.

Davide runs eagerly towards life and there are many moments in the film of untrammelled pleasure. The cheerful intelligence of his friend Ettore, the warmth of his mother and the humour and banter of the streets all lift the film into the light.

There is poetry in Sebastiano Riso’s vision, but he is far too honest to romanticise his subject. A lesser director might have painted Davide as an innocent beseiged, but Davide has something better than innocence. He has strength.

Early in the film, he follows a group of gay teenagers to a porn theatre. When a man tries to touch him, he knees him in the balls. Later on, a pimp – moved by Davide’s beauty – sings “Every man kills the thing he loves” and we think that Davide, now hungry and alone, is about to fall into a life of prostitution. He walks away. Whatever the cost, he always chooses freedom.

Riso’s story telling is lean and muscular, often driving the plot forward through the facial expressions of his gifted cast. He spurns the temptation to hint that his protagonist’s beautiful singing voice will be his salvation, but in the final seconds of the film Davide stakes his claim to life in a manner that will long echo in the viewer’s mind.

Sebastiano Riso is a fearless talent of the rarest sensibility. He is a very fine artist.

Italian Film Festival Cardiff (IFFC)

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LogoIFFC

The first ever Italian Film Festival Cardiff (IFFC) will take place on 16 and 17 of October 2015 in Cardiff and Penarth. The aim of the festival is to give a dynamic and diverse portrait of Italy, its contemporary society and its contradictions. The list of films reflects this choice.

The celebrated LGBT Iris Prize Film Festival (7 – 11 October) will kick-start the IFFC with the film Darker than Midnight by Sebastiano Riso, a story dealing with  the controversial issue of  gender  in contemporary Italy.

How to explain Italy to a child is the theme of the award winning It Will Be a Country. We move through the beauty of poetry (Leopardi) and the crude reality of disillusion (Le cose belle), to the heartrending account of migration (On the Bride’s Side).  There is also space for comedy on the most loved national sport in Italy (The Referee).

Chapter Arts Cardiff and Penarth Pavilion will host the core of the festival.