ESCAPING THE TEMPLE > LUCI DALLA CINA Chinese Independent Documentary Festival

Escaping the Temple tells the intensely personal intertwined stories of three sensitive, individualistic and rebellious modern dancers each reaching a crossroads in their lives. They must all resolve their issues to move forward. Escaping the Temple shows a China not well known to the West, a new vision where ancient beliefs and culture collide with the moral and spiritual vacuum of modern-day capitalism. We show a generation who have turned their back on politics and social change and search for new directions.

A WAY OUT by Cherelle Zheng > LUCI DALLA CINA Chinese Independent Documentary Festival

The film concerns poets in Southern China who, while enduring arduous, sometimes hazardous conditions in working-class occupations, preserve their spirits with verse. Its inspiration is Xu Lizhi, the 24-year-old poet and laborer at a Foxconn electronics factory in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, who leapt to his death in 2014. Mr. Xu was one of the countless workers from the countryside who travel to China’s growing cities seeking employment, only to be eaten alive by the tedious, pitiless demands of industry.
The film examines four living poets, some writing pseudonymously. The young Blackbird (whose real name is Wu Niaoniao) attends a job fair and performs at a reading with other worker-poets. Lucky Chen (Chen Nianxi), a demolitions expert, risks his life daily underground while tending a paralyzed father and aging mother living in rural squalor. Old Coalmine (Lao Jing), a coal miner for 25 years, writes of “ghosts between coal seams and rock crevices.” In her poem “Sundress,” Dawn (Wu Xia), 33, a seamstress since she was 14, considers the affluent woman who will enjoy the fruits of her labor amid wealth Ms. Wu will never know.
With arresting images, The Qin Xiaoyu and Wu Feiyue documentary powerfully addresses China’s moral crisis in the wake of economic prosperity. Today, “if you don’t have money or power, it’s really hard,” says Xu Lizhi’s father. Especially if you’re working the line.

Boom For Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Never-before-seen works, writings and photographs offer insight into the life of Jean-Michel Basquiat as a teenager in New York in the late 1970s. The times, the people and the movements of the city help Basquiat form his artistic vision. With: Jim Jarmusch, Alexis Adler, Al Diaz, Fred Brathwaite aka Fab 5 Freddy, Lee Quiñones, Felice Rosser, Jennifer Jazz, Luc Sante, Carlo McCormick, Glenn O’Brien, Michael Holman, James Nares, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Kenny Scharf, Sur Rodney (Sur), Patricia Field, Mary-Ann Monforton, Diego Cortez, Bud Kliment.

À VOIX HAUTE – LA FORCE DE LA PAROLE. Nommé aux César 2018

Nommé aux César 2018 dans la catégorie du Meilleur film documentaire. Chaque année à l’Université de Saint-Denis se déroule le concours “Eloquentia”, qui vise à élire « le meilleur orateur du 93 ». Des étudiants de cette université issus de tout cursus, décident d’y participer et s’y préparent grâce à des professionnels (avocats, slameurs, metteurs en scène…) qui leur enseignent le difficile exercice de la prise de parole en public. Au fil des semaines, ils vont apprendre les ressorts subtils de la rhétorique, et vont s’affirmer, se révéler aux autres, et surtout à eux-mêmes. Munis de ces armes, Leïla, Elhadj, Eddy et les autres, s’affrontent et tentent de remporter ce concours pour devenir « le meilleur orateur du 93 ».

LUCKY. A bittersweet meditation on mortality

LUCKY follows the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist and the quirky characters that inhabit his off the map desert town. Having out lived and out smoked all of his contemporaries, the fiercely independent Lucky finds himself at the precipice of life, thrust into a journey of self exploration, leading towards that which is so often unattainable: enlightenment. Acclaimed character actor John Carroll Lynch’s directorial debut “Lucky”, is at once a love letter to the life and career of Harry Dean Stanton as well as a meditation on morality, loneliness, spirituality, and human connection.

BILL VIOLA: THE ROAD TO ST. PAUL

This film follows American video artist Bill Viola and his wife and collaborator Kira Perov over a twelve-year period as they undertake and complete the installation of two video works, Mary and Martyrs, in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. In documenting Viola’s approach, director Gerald Fox captures the essence of his creative process, along with the significant changes that occur over the lengthy time period. He also looks back at the career of this artist, who since the early 1970s has taken video art to a new level of acceptance in contemporary art.

SYNESTHESIA CAIRO 13 by Maged El Mahedy | in collaboration with AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

此次活动是我们在Detour电影院的一次积极尝试,即在第一轮的放映中,以电影为载体,力图促进在罗马生活的中国留学生群体与热爱中国文化和语言的意大利民众之间的交流。
罗马独家首映!感谢Mescalito Film的合作,我们将放映由赵汉唐执导并主演的《七十七天》——在西藏(羌塘)高原无人区挑战人类极限的旅行日记。
本片由天才摄影师李屏宾掌镜,在真实事迹发生地高海拔取景,坚持运用自然光,历尽艰辛拍摄完成。(代表作《花样年华》、《千禧曼波》、《刺客聂隐娘》)
《七十七天》讲述杨柳松(赵汉唐饰)的真实事迹,他决心成为从东向西独自骑行穿越西藏北部平均海拔4600米的羌塘无人区的第一人。
在深陷绝境,一度迷失之际,杨柳松遇见了蓝天(江一燕饰),蓝天是一位倔强勇敢的女摄影师,曾经在冈仁波齐为了拍摄而发生事故,以致与轮椅相伴。杨柳松受到蓝天生活态度的激励,重新找到了勇气与力量,完成了他在广袤西藏高原上的雪山、盐湖和荒漠之旅。

IGGY POP & MICHEL HOUELLEBECQ: “TO STAY ALIVE: A METHOD”. Again!

Hundreds of thousands of Turkish cats roam the metropolis of Istanbul freely. For thousands of years they’ve wandered in and out of people’s lives, becoming an essential part of the communities that make the city so rich. Claiming no owners, the cats of Istanbul live between two worlds, neither wild nor tame –and they bring joy and purpose to those people they choose to adopt. In Istanbul, cats are the mirrors to the people, allowing them to reflect on their lives in ways nothing else could.

SYNESTHESIA CAIRO 13 by Maged El Mahedy | in collaboration with AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Detour Cinema Roma, Via Urbana 107 Roma March 16, Friday 2018 h8.30pm ON THE ROAD Film Festival PREVIEW 2018 Screening and Q&A with director, Maged El Mahedy, known for winning the Best Documentary Award at the Torino Film Festival, Amnesty International take part in the screening event, with the introduction of Laura Renzi, person responsible on […]