In the heart of Sicily, where the Mafia still rules, one man and his family-run TV station, has become the lone voice against corruption and organized crime.
Mali - Algeria - Libya - Italy. Issa’s escape from West Africa to the European mainland lasted ten years. Everything was supposed to be better here. But when he arrived in Rome, the only thing waiting for the young man was a life of homelessness and unemployment – which meant no money to send home. Drissa and Sekou share a similar fate, waiting in Italian asylum centres for a residence permit. Then there’s Bubu, who, forced to move from job to job, is unable to settle down. And lastly comes Alassane, who lives without identity papers in a state of constant uncertainty in a refugee camp near Rome. They all have one thing in common: after a gruelling odyssey, none of them has found the Italy they were hoping for when they arrived. Disillusioned, they find themselves in a vacuum of waiting, reflecting on the time they live in and the time that lies ahead.
What does blood have to do with identity? Kendra Mylnechuk, an adult Native adoptee, born in 1980 at the cusp of the enactment of the Indian Child Welfare Act, is on a journey to reconnect with her birth family and discover her Lummi heritage.
Award winning feature documentary about an art program for homeless people.
In the late-80s and early-90s, two prosecutors went after the mob in Sicily. Archival footage, gruesome photographs and new interviews are shown.
This gripping, atmospheric documentary recounts the infamous trial, conviction and eventual acquittal of Seattle native Amanda Knox for the 2007 murder of a British exchange student in Italy.
Set against the backdrop of 'the beautiful game', Black and White Stripes tells the epic story of Italy's legendary Agnelli family and their team, Juventus F.C., as they set out to capture an elusive gold star in order to avoid annihilation. As the inspirational journey unfolds, the film weaves in game-changing moments from their heart-wrenching legacy - revealing the profound passion between family and team. On and off the field it's love, war and breathtaking cinema.
Eighteen year old Irma Testa is Italy’s first female boxer to make it to the Olympics. It’s a remarkable outcome for a girl raised in one of the poorest, most crime-ridden neighborhoods of Naples.. The more Irma succeeds though, the more fragile she becomes. After a crushing defeat at the Games in Rio, she questions whether boxing is her future. She wants to chart her own path, but must first take a hard look at her personal life which she has avoided for so long.
"The palm trees on the reverse are a delusion; so is the pink sand". This line, taken from a poem by Margaret Atwood, lights the path traced in "Postcard". As the years go by, landscapes transform, take on new meanings, and hold onto joys that will never be regained. The sea and the beach, once stages of happy summers, romances, and encounters, will turn into concentration camps or centers of detention and torture. This occurs across different times and places. In this piece, I embark on a journey through some of my works that explore the relationship between testimony, spaces, and time, engaging in dialogue with the beautiful film directed by Alejandro Segovia in 1972.
La baia dei lupi
Examining the brutal murder of 21-year-old student Meredith Kercher in 2007.
House of the Wickedest Man in the World is the story of a ruined building near the city of Cefalú in Sicily. In the early 1920s, Aleister Crowley, the most famous occultist of his time, lived in the building, practicing magical rituals. In the summer of 1955, Kenneth Anger, considered one of the pioneers of experimental cinema, traveled with sexologist Alfred Kinsey to Sicily to find Aleister Crowley’s temple to shoot a film about the occultist’s time in Cefalú. The Thelema Abbey film was never released.
The four brothers Peter, Uwe, Manni and Günter live together in the German town of Dernbach and run what is probably the most chaotic car recycling business in Germany. Nothing is the same here as in other junkyards. Over four million spare parts lie in huge piles in the brothers' warehouse. Nevertheless, they manage to find just the right spare part time and time again and get a car back into shape.
After the World War I, Mussolini's perspective on life is severely altered; once a willful socialist reformer, now obsessed with the idea of power, he founds the National Fascist Party in 1921 and assumes political power in 1922, becoming the Duce, dictator of Italy. His success encourages Hitler to take power in Germany in 1933, opening the dark road to World War II. (Originally released as a two-part miniseries. Includes colorized archival footage.)
Napolitaners
In the absence of any physical connection, this short explores alternative forms of contact among neighbors by making use of an old 16mm camera, a zoom lens, and a few meters of expired film.
A documentary in which Luca Ragazzi and Gustav Hofer research the origins of sexism in the west and in Italy, the land of Berlusconi, Mussolini and Casanova, a nation with 887 words to say "penis".
Come il Bianco
Vivere
Johan van der Keuken went against the grain in 1980: from Amsterdam (on April 30 with the coronation riots and squatting actions) via Paris, southern France and Italy to Egypt. He made his personal travelogue in three parts for VPRO television. Later, he fused the three parts into one long movie.