Arts and music are our daily nourishment, they fill us with energy and inspiration. Celebrating those who bring the light of creativity into our lives is just a glimpse to thank these keepers of the secrets of the soul. And when creatives meet, like when filmmakers choose to talk about other artists, then it is there that further sparks are born, on the big screen and among the audience, and life stories become inspiration for our everyday creativity. An increasingly necessary section for Biografilm, in the times and ways we are experiencing in this complex contemporaneity.
World Premiere
(Doc / Italy / 2024 / 93’)
1980s, Milan. Under the surface of plastic music a turbulent movement is stirring, a creative magma ready to burst into phenomena that evade the conventions of popular “Sanremo” music. In this climate Carnival of Fools appear, a punk rock band born on the initiative of Mauro Ermanno Giovanardi, already well-known in the international underground scene. Documents, live footage, playbills, and interviews with Manuel Agnelli, Violante Placido, Hugo Race, and Paolo Mauri form the testimony of a musical adventure that lasted little more than a five-year period and recreate the flavor of the era, without falling into the trap of nostalgia.
(Doc / UK, USA, France / 2023 / 116’)
Widely recognized as one of the most influential and successful fashion designers of our time, John Galliano dressed the most beautiful men and women in the world at Givenchy and Dior. He reinvented the fashion industry by transforming his runway shows into immersive fantasies. In 2011, Galliano’s career abruptly ended after being caught on video using shocking antisemitic and racist insults. Academy Award-winner® Kevin Macdonald's film investigates the multiple facets and contradictions of Galliano’s character and the context, including decades of industry pressure and drug and alcohol addiction, that surrounded his downfall and ongoing recovery. Through interviews with his closest friends and family, as well as some of the most well-known celebrities of the fashion and pop world, and with John Galliano himself, Macdonald portrays the man behind the fashion genius and his search for redemption.
International Premiere
(Doc / Netherlands / 2023 / 52’)
Judith de Leeuw (aka JDL) is among the most famous Dutch street artists, internationally recognized for her works addressing social issues. The film recounts a year in her life and the creation of the 30-meter high mural Love Is Stronger than Death in Taranto's Paolo VI neighborhood, where many have lost families from illnesses related to the nearby ILVA plant. JDL's works have as their common denominator the urgency of giving voice to the oppressed. But the Taranto mural also becomes an opportunity to express a private feeling, because it was made by the artist at a time of serious mourning.
World Premiere
(Doc / Italy / 2024 / 70’)
In the early 1960s, between Modena and Reggio Emilia, Beppe Carletti and Augusto Daolio decide to form a band. Their debut takes place in 1963, and the chosen name is "Nomadi" (Nomads). The documentary tells the story of Nomadi, through the testimony of Beppe Carletti and many others, until the special concert in June 2023 in Novellara, where the band celebrated the anniversary of sixty years of music history. Two actors, Andrea Avanzi and Marco Santachiara, play Beppe and Augusto, taking us to the places of Nomadi: Novellara, the valleys, and the lowlands. The narrative is enriched by the testimonies of Francesco Guccini, Luciano Ligabue, Caterina Caselli, and Rosario Fiorello.
World Premiere
(Doc / Italy / 2024 / 82’)
At the end of the last century, Michele Perriera - a heretical author and lone voice of Italian theater - predicted the current environmental and socio-economic imbalance opening the eyes of his contemporaries. His apocalyptic imagery reverberates in our present full of doubts about the future. The Genovese Beltramo company and director Emma Dante are working on staging some of his texts, his children Giuditta and Gianfranco are trying to organize an event to remember him together with photographer Letizia Battaglia. Perriera was a master too soon forgotten and the film lends itself to a work of restitution that shows the magic and rawness of his cultural legacy.
World Premiere, Second Film
(Doc / Italy / 2024 / 60’)
Fifteen years in the history of South Tyrol and the music scene that flourished between the 1980s and 1990s. Telluric rhythms rattle garages and streets as fear snakes through the population and terrorism inflames the province. The rise of hardcore punk and heavy metal bands intertwines with the complex history of the area as local bands veer toward increasingly harsh sounds. The documentary brings together interviews with historians, linguists, journalists, punks and rockers, and extreme music acts as a sounding board for a little-known chapter of our History, but one destined to anticipate much broader social and geo-political tensions.
Italian Premiere
(Doc / Germany / 2024 / 102’)
Peaches' transformative journey on 'The Teaches of Peaches Anniversary Tour' in 2022, blending exclusive archival gems with dynamic tour footage. From stage show inception to riveting performances, the documentary offers a look at the inner workings of feminist icon Peaches, a fearless force challenging gender norms for over two decades. Her biting wit advocates for LGBTQIA+ rights and confronts societal stereotypes, leaving an indelible mark on popular culture.
Italian Premiere, First Film
(Doc / UK, Denmark, USA / 2024 / 100’)
Thirty years after a chance encounter, Maggie and Joel, aged 75 and 84, are still very much in love. But their relationship is not without complications. Born in the hard-boiled Bronx, Joel Meyerowitz is a world-renowned photographer with major exhibitions and 40 books to his name. British-born Maggie Barrett is a talented but less recognised artist and writer. There is a knot of unease in their relationship, which is further strained when Maggie falls and breaks her leg and Joel becomes her caregiver. In the shadow of mortality, each with a long and dramatic life behind them, the hard truths of life together provoke in Maggie and Joel an attempt to find a shared inner-peace while there is still time. With unique access to the couple's lives, directors Jacob Perlmutter and Manon Ouimet have created a profoundly moving film about living, creating and loving.
World Premiere
(Doc / Italy / 2024 / 102’)
In 1991, the indie band Uzeda sent a demo to Steve Albini. The recently deceased Chicago record producer, a legend of the American alternative scene and former leader of some of the most radical bands in rock history, answers the call and flies to Catania to record the album Waters with Uzeda. It is the beginning of the turning point for Uzeda, who record for the BBC and are called to play all over the world. But, at the end of each tour, they always return to their home, in Catania. The story of a rise that, at its core, delves into the everyday of a musical phenomenon and the specific geographical context that generated it.
World Premiere
(Doc / Italy / 2024 / 109’)
Born in 1990, Assalti Frontali published the first rap song ever sung in Italian, "Batti il tuo tempo", which became the anthem of a generational movement that saw underground culture as a spirit of revolt to bring to the squares. In 1992 the band released the first Italian rap album "Terra di nessuno," which was followed by another ten albums. More than 30 years later Luca Mascini - this is the real name of Militant A, leader of Assalti Frontali - is still the same, and in this film he tells his story as he had never done before. We discover a human and artistic parable which has its roots in the history of Italy, in the world of antagonistic autonomy, of student movements, faithful to its ideals, to dreams, to the irrepressible desire to make music and change the world. Also today.
