Published: 08/09/2018, 10:12
The main article by: Cinema Italiano
Source: https://www.cinemaitaliano.info/news/48161/religion-today-film-festival-xxi-in-concorso.html
Religion Today Film Festival Young people and faith, faces of women in religions, experiences of interreligious dialogue, peace and rights, stories of migration between identity, dialogue and conflict in plural societies. These are just some of the deep and complex reflections at the center of the 62 works – including feature films, documentaries and short films – admitted to the competition for the 21st edition of the Religion Today Film Festival , scheduled from 4 to 11 October 2018 in Trento, Bolzano, Italy. Rovereto, Merano, Arco, Pergine and Borgo. After the stops in Trentino Alto Adige – Südtirol, Religion Today’s journey will continue in Italy and around the world: Rome, Nomadelfia, Jerusalem, Bangladesh, Nepal just to name a few.
The three Selection Committees, gathered in three days of non-stop work at Villa Sant’Ignazio, examined the preselected films from among the 450 that had arrived in recent months at the headquarters of the BiancoNero association, organizer of the international film festival. Films from 28 countries on all continents are representative of a vast panorama of different religious faiths.
In particular, the consistency with the theme of the 2018 edition dedicated to the ” New Generations ” was rewarded, which in a mutual comparison intends to investigate and listen to the concrete experiences of young people, including dreams, expectations, disappointments, creativity, doubts and answers. “Young people will be active protagonists of the Festival, not only involved in training initiatives but also as “experts”, starting with their presence in this film selection phase, which saw them at work alongside leading film experts , people of different ages, nationalities and religions ”, comments the artistic director, Andrea Morghen .
The evaluation criteria of the films took into consideration the technical-artistic quality, the research and innovation of the contents, the right balance between first-time directors, religions and countries of origin.
“Putting the spotlight on young people becomes an important challenge to grasp the rapid changes induced by new technologies in general, which require a greater effort to open up to new narrative and audiovisual frontiers “- underlines Gilli Mendel , former director for special events at the Jerusalem Film Archive – ” Films now travel not only on the big and small screen, but also on multiple platforms, the web, smartphones, let’s think about the development of visual storytelling, webdoc … new ways of expressing content, paths of participation and comparison ” . At the heart of this evolutionary process are the young interpreters of social change. “Cinema that embraces the existentialist dimension of religion, the search for the deep self and the true meaning of life “- adds Gilli Mendel – allows us to make a spiritual journey into understanding ourselves and different cultures”.
Because as Ingmar Bergaman thought ” there is no form of art like cinema to strike the conscience .
“” One hundred years after his birth, the masterpieces of the great Swedish filmmaker are still striking for the depth of analysis with which he investigated the soul and probed some fundamental questions of man “- observes the film critic Armando Lostaglio -“they reflect the current strong demand for faith and spirituality, the need to find the right bar in this time of absence of ideals, of uncertainty, of bewilderment. In this direction, Religion Today offers the opportunity to dig into ourselves, in watching a good film we can make up for lost time, cinema is didactic knowledge and in-depth study, a middle way between leisure and acquisition of new elements through the ‘cinematic aesthetics, which other means of communication cannot pretend to transmit “”.
” The selected films cross worlds that the viewer has only touched upon ” – says Davide Torri, head of the “Gente di Montagna” association and artistic director of the Brescia Winter Film Festival – “they tell with grace and lightness stories and themes linked to conditions of degradation, suffering, injustice, but united by the desire for change and of hope, with an open gaze not only to interreligious dialogue, but also to the religious inspiration that dwells in each of us “.
Countries of origin of the admitted films include Algeria, Armenia, Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bosnia, Canada, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Palestine, Poland, Korea, Russia , Spain, Switzerland, Holland, Turkey, Great Britain, USA, Ukraine.
These are the selected works:
Fiction Film
– Beneath the Silence, Erez Mizrahi & Sahar Shavit Israel, Israel
– Detainee X, Manee Osman, Canada
– Where Shadows Fall, Valentina Pedicini, Italy
– Haldaa, Tauquir Ahmed, Bangladesh
– Halima, Iuliia Zakharova, Russia
– My name is Thomas , Terence Hill, Italy
– The Cross and the Star, Salvatore Lo Piano, Italy
. My Short Words, Bekir Bulbul, Turkey
– Prodigy, Nathan Leon, United States
– Resurrection, Kristof Hoornaert, Belgium
– Sermon on the Mount, Yoo YoungUee, Korea
– The Holy Fish, Sandeep Mishra, India
– Until the End of Time, Chouikh Yasmine, Algeria
Documentaries
– An Extraordinay Mother, Patar Simatupang, Indonesia
– Child Mother, Ronen Zaretzky, Yael Kipper, Israel
– The Compensation Archbishop Romero, his people and Pope Francis, Gianni Beretta and Patrik Soergel, Switzerland
– Land of the Homeless, Marcin Janos Krawczyk, Poland
– Last Days. Last Shot, Sumira Roy, India
– Liborio: An Artist of the Solomon Islands, Elliot Spencer, Australia
– Reception, Lilla Zentai, Hungary
– Remember Baghdad, Fiona Murphy, United Kingdom
– Saving the Hermans, Gilard Goldschmidt, Israel
– Seaman and 207 , Sophia Tewa, USA
– See you tomorrow, God Willing! , Ainara Vera, Spain, Norway
– Singers of animas, David Delgado San Ginés, Spain
– The Feast of St. John in Uzdol, Davor Borić, Croatia
– The Field, Mordechai Vardi, Israel
– The Great Beginning – 500 Years Reformation- Part 1: The Spark, Cross Media Medienproduktion GmbH, Andreas Sawall, Germany
– The Human of Nature, Nver Hovhannisyan, Armenia
– The Pillars of Heaven, Nicholas Rooney , Ukraine
– The Poetess, SA, Germany
– Time to Die, Anne Christine Girardot, Holland
– Two Schools, Srdjan Sarenac, Bosnia and Herzegovina
– Wajd: Songs of Separation, Amar Chebib, Canada
– Walking for Genna, Furnelle Frédéric, Belgium
– When Rumi meets Francis, Mohamed Kenawi, Italy
– Women of Freedom, Abeer Zeibak Haddad, Palestine, Israel
Short
films – 6 times human, Pourya Dailar, Iran
– A Few Knots Away, Mansour Forouzesh, Iran
– A Letter to God, Hemanta Sadeeq, Bangladesh
– Across the Line, Nadav Shlomo Giladi, Israel
– Clash of Morality, Vinay Pujara, United States
– Ereignis, Pierfrancesco Gatto, Italy
– Italian Miracle , Francesco Gabrile, Italy, England (out of competition)
– Far From Home, Mayra Veliz, Mexico
– Forouzan, Mirabbas Khosravinezhad, Iran
– From On High, Dawn Westlake, United States, Spain
– Genesis, Abtin Mozafari, Iran
– I’m From the Jews, Aharon Shem Tov and Niv Hachlili, Israel
– It rains slowly, Saeid Nejati, Iran
– Keren Or (a ray of light), Lihi Sabag, Israel
– La Deriva Dei Continenti, Pietro Novello, United Kingdom
– Les vaillants, Martin Gunn, Canada
– Open your eyes, Llay Mevorach, Israel
– Prison Prayer, Miljan Gogic, Serbia
– Return, Shahriar Pourseyedian, Iran
– The Beekeeper, Mohammad Talebi, Iran
– The End Of The Good Old Days, Mehmet Basak, Turkey
– The Legend of Maiden Rock, Nataliia Lakhmitska, Poland
– The youngest, Rachel Elitzur, Israel
– The Violet, Baqer Al-Rubaie, Iraq
– The World We Live in, Hanna Fischer, Sofiia Melnyk, Nina Prange, Germany
– ZORN dem Volke, Lorenz Piehl, Germany