Charity Lunch at Casanova’s Sun 30 Sept 1 PM

This year the Italian Film Festival Cardiff is taking place on 16-18 November and our friends and sponsors at Casanova’s have generously agreed to host a Charity Lunch on 30th September to help us raise some money for the Festival.
All proceedings from the lunch will go to the ICCW to cover costs of the Festival.

If you would like have a fab meal at a very fair price in one of the top restaurants in Cardiff and at the same time help us with funding our rich festival programme, please call Casanova’s Restaurant on 029 20344044 and book before it’s too late!

Rome Open City & Dome Bulfaro

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/

 

Bookclub #7

DeaImage result for la paura federico de robertor friends,

Our bookclub continues with the short story La paura by Federico De Roberto.

Iconic director Ermanno Olmi  based his latest masterpiece, Greenery Will Bloom Again, on De Roberto’s short story which will be screened in the Italian Film Festival Cardiff. After the film there will be a Backstage documentary followed by a Q&A with producer Elisabetta Olmi.

We will meet  Wed 16 November at Sunflower&I , 1 Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff Bay, CF10 5EE at 8.30. Mixed language abilities welcome.

This event is free but seats are limited so book in advance via email to avoid disappointment.

 

ITALIAN FILM FESTIVAL CARDIFF 2016

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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.

Mediterranea by Jonas Carpignano

CHAPTER ARTS CENTRE

Saturday 8 October 6:30pm

Ayiva and Abas have fled Burkina Faso, dreaming of a better life on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea. After a death-defying crossing they arrive in southern Italy and must quickly readjust to life in Europe which is more violent and hostile than they imagined. An unsentimental and creative look at the refugee crisis.  Watch the official trailer here
Join us after the film for Skype Q&A with actor Koudous Sehionan and  an interview  with Domenico Lucano, Major of the Town of Riace in Calabria. Our members get 10% discount on tickets.

For more information and tickets click here.

This event is organised in partnership with Watch-Africa

 

Italian Film Festival Cardiff Taster

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.

Più buio di Mezzanotte

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)

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.