Date:
Event location: Bologna
Type: 2020
The Confucius Institute of Bologna is pleased to announce the 34th edition or ... Il Cinema Ritrovato year zero, to be held in Bologna from 25 to 31 August 2020.
Against all odds the festival reopens its doors in an unusual period for the public accustomed to following it at the end of June, but no less inviting and surprising!
The experience of the pandemic has left the organizers with a strong desire to reunite with life and art.
It was the longest period of time since 1895, since the birth of the seventh art, in which the cinematic experience we know - films projected on a screen, enjoyed collectively - was suspended. We realized, with bewilderment, that cinema can really disappear. In keeping the spirit of Cinema Ritrovato unchanged, this edition also wants to celebrate a new encounter with cinema. Cinema year zero.
It will be a more unique edition than ever: having everyone's safety at heart first, the festival had to be rethought and new solutions to new problems had to be found. Paradoxically, to compensate for the reduced capacity of the halls, the festival has been expanded and not reduced: the programming will be developed in ten halls, including three outdoor arenas. The result is the largest Cinema Ritrovato ever.
In particular, the Confucius Institute points out some unmissable events dedicated to Chinese cinema. In particular, the Cinemalibero section presents an important number of films restored in tortuous ways, after long searches, overcoming the enigmas of censorship and the scarcity of available elements: among these, Xiao Wu (China, 1997), also known as The pickpocket , by director Jia Zhang-ke. It is undoubtedly one of the most evocative and accomplished works that saw the light in China in the nineties: made on a low budget and animated by a cast composed entirely of non-professional actors, Xiao Wu conveys a significant claim to independent Chinese cinema. it's underground. For Jia Zhang-ke this stage constitutes a triumphal debut in the directorial career, where the Jia finds himself capable of moving away from the dimension of social observation, in favor of the psychological one, therefore capable of grasping the spiritual truths under the surfaces of everyday life. We continue with the Documents and Documentaries section which welcomes a singular portrait of the director of The Pickpocket signed by Walter Salles and which is called Jia Zhang-ke. A guy from Fenyang (Brazil, 2005). Salles interviewed Jia in 2007 at the Mostra de São Paulo, already with the idea of making a book and a documentary about the director. In A guy from Fenyang, Salles reflects deeply on the work of Jia Zhang-ke, underlining his extraordinary ability to give us back the complexity of the culture he reveals, as well as the importance of the cinema tool to fix in memory what otherwise would risk being erased: the protagonists are, not surprisingly, ordinary people, that is, 'not holders of power'. And in this complex painting, the theme of precariousness with the man who faces something that seems bigger than him is a rather recurring leitmotif, perhaps the trait that more than any other unites Xiao Wu with all the other characters of Jia Zhang-ke .
As regards the access to the Festival, we point out that this year, in light of the current anti-contagion rules, access to the screenings will be allowed only to holders of the accreditation (with the exception of the screenings in Piazza Maggiore which remain free and open to all). Furthermore, to ensure compliance with anti-contagion rules, reservations will be required for the individual screenings. For all the info you can consult the festival's official page or you can contact us by email.
