ATTENTION:
As a result of developments in reported cases of COVID-19 infection, in line with precautions adopted by the Cantonal and Federal Authorities and following recent and still current guidelines from the City of Locarno, the Executive Board of the Locarno Film Festival has taken the difficult decision to cancel L’immagine e la parola, the Festival’s springtime literary event, originally scheduled to run from 28 to 29 March.
Italian director Alice Rohrwacher will be guest of honor at the eighth edition of L’immagine e la parola (28–29 March 2020) in Locarno, which will also host her workshop dedicated to young filmmakers.
The Locarno Film Festival’s spring-time event continues to investigate the rapport between moving image and written word with an invitation to one of the most original and important women directors on the international scene, Alice Rohrwacher. The presence of the Italian filmmaker will be the pivotal focus for the program of the forthcoming L’immagine e la parola: a weekend of screenings, panel discussions and readings exploring Rohrwacher’s creative universe.
Following on from the successful workshop held by Béla Tarr as part of L’immagine e la parola 2019, which culminated in the presentation of the anthology film Under the God at the 72nd edition of the Festival, Locarno renews its commitment to nurturing fresh talent with a ten-day workshop led by Alice Rohrwacher. Under the title I fiori – the workshop will get under way during L’immagine e la parola itself, providing the framework for sessions involving eight filmmakers from around the world. The settings and atmospheres of Canton Ticino’s various landscapes will be the perfect backdrop for the outstanding guidance of Alice Rohrwacher, who has consistently made the balance between humans and nature into a pivotal focus of her work. In a year in which ecology has finally topped the political agenda at international level, the selected filmmakers will each conceive and develop a short film: aided by the inspiring variety of storied places in Locarno and the surrounding region, from the historic community of Monte Verità to more recent experiments in sustainable practices and organic farming, they will create a collective portrait of a context in which old and new co-exist, together with a very special bond with the land. The resulting eight short films will be shown at the 73rd edition of the Locarno Film Festival (5–15 August 2020). Applications to take part in the workshop can be made by following the link from this page.
The green-themed workshop attests to the increasingly solid and proactive partnership between the various actors housed at the PalaCinema in Locarno: the film school CISA – Conservatorio Internazionale di Scienze Audiovisive and the Locarno Film Festival, together with the Ticino Film Commission and broadcaster Radiotelevisione Svizzera (RSI).
Lili Hinstin, Artistic Director of the Locarno Film Festival: “We’re absolutely delighted to welcome to Locarno the director Alice Rohrwacher, who has addressed with her unique sensibility the transformation of agricultural society, in a trilogy of films that blend the poetry of childhood with the incisiveness of history. In a year in which there is at last a growing awareness of the urgency of climate issues, we felt that the workshop of L’immagine e la parola was a perfect opportunity to bring the international scope of the Locarno Festival into contact with local practices, shedding light on people who have consciously set out to save and preserve the environment: their experiences will be the basis for eight short films directed by young international filmmakers. We are convinced of the need to imagine sustainable cinema as part of a new way of living and being in the world.”
Domenico Lucchini, Head of CISA – Conservatorio Internazionale di Scienze Audiovisive: “The immediacy of the art of film makes it capable of portraying environmental issues and the wonders of nature in concise and concrete form. Pictures are worth thousands of words, they go straight to the heart and capture the individual viewer by the power of emotion, imagination and iconic imagery. One director who is well aware of that power is Alice Rohrwacher, who will be mentoring eight young filmmakers as they focus their gaze on the cultural identities of our region, counting on storylines that will turn the landscape into an element of fiction. This research and education will affirm the very special characteristics of certain places and ecological initiatives, in a project founded on closely coordinated planning and continuing the synergetic, system-building approach of all the various actors based in the PalaCinema “workshop”.
L’immagine e la parola and the workshop I fiori are made possible by the support of the DECS – Dipartimento dell’educazione, della cultura e dello sport, the ERS LVM – Ente Regionale per lo Sviluppo del Locarnese e Vallemaggia and Hertz.
The full program of the 8th edition of L’immagine e la parola (28 – 29 March 2020), drawn up jointly by Artistic Director Lili Hinstin with the event’s curator Daniela Persico, will be announced in February next year. L’immagine e la parola is part of the spring-time literary festival Primavera Locarnese, together with FestivaLLibro Muralto (6 – 9.2.2020) and the Eventi letterari Monte Verità (2 – 5.4.2020).
Alice Rohrwacher (Fiesole, 1981), screenwriter and director, is acclaimed as one of the leading names in international cinema today. Since her debut full-length feature Corpo celeste, presented in the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2011, she has focused in particular on childhood and a state of innocence mirrored in a countryside remote from the lure of consumer society. In 2014 she won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival for The Wonders (Le meraviglie), while her next film Happy as Lazzaro (Lazzaro felice) won the award for best screenplay at Cannes in 2018. The latter two titles were produced by Tempesta and Amka Films with support from Swiss broadcaster RSI.
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