«What does that mean – tame?», «It means to establish ties». The famous line from The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, is one of the mottos of the festival and makes it a place of gatherings and connections.
Like every year, this upcoming edition will include meetings, presentations and projections for the entire week. Since its first edition, Sole Luna Doc Film Festival has always been committed to bring a portion of the world in Palermo, exploring stories and perspectives that are geographically and culturally “others”, in comparison with the local context. Establish ties section was forged with the intent to use the space and time of such an international event to give voice to our territory and its realities where the global sphere intersects the local one, reducing distances.
We therefore welcome those projects which use cinematic language to promote inclusion, such as the short movies of the FUNKINO – Cinema per l’inclusione project, by the Zabbara association, or to tell what it means to live in a town in the Southern Apennines, such as the feature film made by the La Bandita association; and, last but not least, this year Sole Luna Doc Film Festival will also stage “Menti in corto”, a short films exhibition whose authors are either mental health consumers or workers.
Cinema and community
On its 19th edition, Sole Luna Doc Film Festival will project some of the latest works of the Palermo associations of Zabbara and La Bandita, consolidating a long partnership. This event will include three projects with different purposes on migration and the relationship with one’s motherland, which will be projected to express the power of cinema as an instrument of participation, dialogue and collective education.
Boza or die
Regia/Directors Alessio Genovese
Fotografia/Photography Andrea Tedesco
Montaggio/Editing Pietro Vaglica
Produzione/Production Zabbara
Italia 2023, 15’ fulah, tigrino, francese con sottotitoli in inglese e italiano / Italy 2023, 15’ Fulah, Tigrinya, French with English and Italian subtitles
Libia, costa occidentale. Binta e Abdul sono ostaggio di un trafficante che impedisce loro di proseguire il viaggio verso l’Europa. Sono stati venduti, passati di mano in mano e ridotti a corpi senza identità. Per un scherzo del destino, i loro carnefici vengono inghiottiti da una notte senza luna.
Sciatu meo
Regia/Directors Alessio Genovese
Fotografia/Photography Alexander Fontana
Montaggio/Editing Gabriele Borghi
Produzione/Production Zabbara e Full Moon Films
Italia-Francia 2023, 15’ siciliano con sottotitoli in inglese e italiano / Italy-France 2023, 15’ Sicilian language with English and Italian subtitles
Peppe retraces the memories that connect him to the last strip of land where Europe ends, to the house overlooking the cliffs where he grew up, and to the Sicily of his birth. The fainted image of his family and the last moments of his carefree childhood, resurface in his mind: the friends he had to abandon too soon; his grandfather who tirelessly recounted stories of the sea; an unfulfilled father; and a mother descending into the spiral of depression. During Peppe’s journey coming home, years unravel over the miles that he put between himself and home. Years of absence echo in the dull sound of the wind breaking against the rocks. Peppe goes back home to retrieve, from the seabed, the breath of life (sciatu meo) that sustains his vitality, as well as his memory of an eternal love.
Fare paese
Regia/Directors Danny Biancardi, Silvia Miola, Marta Violante
Fotografia/Photography Danny Biancardi, Silvia Miola, Marta Violante
Montaggio/Editing Danny Biancardi, Silvia Miola, Marta Violante
Produzione/Production Frange Mobili & La Bandita
Italia 2024, 45’ italiano / Italy 2024, 45’ Italian
August 2023. A choral tale set in six small towns of the Southern Apennines, where the aspirations and fears of those who have returned dialogue with those who have never left.
Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo
Filippo Pierpaolo Marino – Docente di Digital Video / Professor of Digital Video
Studenti del corso di Digital Video / Students of the Digital Video course:
Indirizzo Design grafico – Comunicazione visiva / Graphic Design – Digital Communication
Giovanni Avveduto, Daniela Barbagallo, Giulia Bella, Simone Raimondo Caramazza, Angelica Catalanotto, Francesca Cinquemani, Miriam Ciulla, Biagio Lombardo, Corinne Milazzo, Ivan Minutoli, Paolo Peloso, Giorgia Ranieri, Simona Rita Scarpaci, Maria Giovanna Sicilia, Maria Chiara Siragusa, Rosalia Sparacello, Ginevra Vaccaro.
Indirizzo: Nuove tecnologie dell’arte – Cinema e video / New Art Technologies – Cinema e video
Salvatore Alaimo, Roberto Basile, Augustin Briand-Fardel, Giuseppe Casella, Joséphine Cathelineau, Pierre Givert, Maïran Ma-Laügt, Salvatore Mastropaolo, Giancarlo Rini, Giovanni Salvato, Gioele Sanzeri, Gloria Scollo.
An animated opening sequence for the 19th Sole Luna Doc Film Festival focusing on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and environmental protection, amid the urgencies of the contemporary world and the challenges of the future.
The project results from a partnership between Sole Luna Doc Film Festival and the Digital Video course held by professor Filippo Pierpaolo Marino, from the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo, involving the students of the two-year course in Graphic Design – Visual Communication and New Art Technologies – Cinema and Video, from the Design and Applied Arts Department, for the ideation and production.
From an initial analysis of the video archive of the Festival, and the creative exchange with the Artistic Direction, students selected the images and film frames which best represent the main themes the film festival celebrates: civil and political rights, solidarity and the dialogue among peoples, as well as biodiversity conservation.
By working on video sequences, frame by frame, it was possible to make almost 2000 panel paintings and drawings which were animated on a set, specifically built for it, at the Academy of Fine Arts of Palermo, near Cantieri Culturali della Zisa.
The postproduction was edited by Veronica Randazzo for a workshop on compositing video and digital animation.
Menti in corto
“Menti in corto” returns this year to the festival and commemorates the centenary of the birth of Franco Basaglia (1924-1980), the Italian psychiatrist and neurologist who led to the closure of asylums. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic, with the dual purpose of rehabilitation and research, the short film competition was conceived and promoted by the Therapeutic Community “Sentiero per la Vita” in Calatafimi (Tp) of the Xenia Salus s.r.l. business group – in collaboration with Intents s.r.l. and the Sicilian section of the Italian Society of Psychosocial Rehabilitation (S.I.R.P.).
The making of the short film, which in the communities and therapeutic facilities in Italy involves young directors and/or visual artists working in teams with psychologists, operators, and patients, the online meetings between operators and users of the various facilities, and the opportunity for the users themselves to express an opinion on the competing shorts, are an opportunity and a testing ground at each edition of “Menti in corto” to stimulate the creativity and artistic and social skills of each participant and to promote network work by activating processes of change that favour psychiatric rehabilitation through the tool of cinema.
The theme of this second edition of the competition is: “From the Old to the New… At Least I Try! Postcards from My Territory Between Origins and Changes”. The jury, composed of experts in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation, cinema, and entertainment, which will give its verdict on June 27 while this catalogue goes to print, will present the top three films at the Sole Luna Doc Film Festival. The screening will be preceded by a talk where the contest organizers and some of the participating directors will speak.