30th AFRICAN, ASIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL
MiWorld from A to Zebra
The 30th African, Asian and Latin American Film Festival – FESCAAAL – will be held in Milan (dates to be announced). It is a special anniversary and an important goal which will also be the occasion for a reflection on the Festival’s initial mission: to promote knowledge of the cinemas of the three continents to contribute to increasing the cultural diversity of the cinematographic offer in Italy, as a factor of development and source of intercultural exchange, innovation and creativity.
The prismatic Zebra, which has now become a symbol of our festival, puts on its Sunday best to celebrate the 30 years of the festival and is reconfirmed as a symbol of a society that is continuously changing. This year’s claim, MiWorld From A to Zebra, sums up FESCAAAL’s vocation for research, which since its origin, in 1991, has brought to Milan and Italy the lively artistic and cultural scenes of the 3 continents with special attention to the new generations.
THE SECTIONS
From about 600 films that were received this year for the selection, we have selected about 60, the best of the recent production from and on Africa, Asia and Latin America.
This year again the Festival is structured in 3 competitive sections:
- the Windows on the World Competition for the Best Feature Film, with national premieres of fiction and documentary from the 3 continents;
- the Competition for African Short Films, the space for young directors from Africa;
- the Extr’A Competition for Italian directors – or foreigners living in Italy, with films shot in Africa, Asia or Latin America and with a gaze on the present of our country.
The films in competition compete for the award of a total of prizes of about euro 20,000. Some parallel prizes are for the acquisition of the rights for distribution in Italy.
Alongside the three competitive sections:
- Flash, the special films of the Festival and important premieres by famous directors;
- Non-Competitive Section, all the special screenings presented in collaboration with partners within various projects;
- Everybody’s Laughing…, the funniest comedies from the three continents.
SPECIAL SCREENING: THE CITY OF WOMEN
One important new feature this year is the participation of the FESCAAAL in the Milano Città Mondo 05 – La città delle donne (Milan World City 05 – The city of women) programme of Milan Council – Office of Cultural Networks and Collaboration, and the wider annual programme of I talenti delle donne (Women’s talents), supported by the Department of Culture of Milan City Council. The special section Women on the verge of changing the world will be presented during the Festival, with a programme of recent films by female directors from Africa, Asia and Latin America, and a round table to reflect on women’s cinema and its social role, from a contemporary point of view and to promote gender equality and the value of diversity.
It is an original journey of self-representation of women on the screen to identify the elements of innovation and rift that independent non-European, and in general non-Western, cinema is introducing. If the film industry still too often relegates women to conventional and stereotyped roles, in independent cinema, which is more explicitly social and political, it is often women, whether rebels, oppressed or fighters, who are the real leaders who tells stories and denounce terrible situations.
In addition to the films offered, there will be a round table with the directors present, entitled Private spaces, global issues, contemporary visions. How women directors from the three continents are changing the vision of the world.
The round table will be the occasion, for representatives of Italian cinema, journalists, researchers and the directors who are guests at FESCAAAL to dialogue on their personal experiences in the different geopolitical contexts, concentrating above all on feminine auteur-ship, the aesthetic choices and narratives and the production of a new feminine imagery in a contemporary, post-colonial and globalized perspective.
AFRICA TALKS: THE ROUND TABLE ON AFRICAN CITIES
The 30th Festival will also be the occasion for the third appointment of AfricaTalks, the special event with a round table and a film, in collaboration with Fondazione EDU, dedicated to Africa and its most technological and innovative aspects. This year’s event entitled Cityscapes: the transformations of urban Africa aims to study the topic of African cities looking to the future.
Four speakers, from different disciplinary perspectives, will discuss bringing experiences, reflections and case-studies on the processes of urbanization, on the innovations in architecture and town-planning and on the different models of growth of the cities, without forgetting aspects of urban marginalization, environmental sustainability and foreign financial support for new infrastructures.
2nd MIWORLD YOUNG FILM FESTIVAL
The wonderful journey that started in 2019 with MiWorld Young Film Festival – MiWY, the first and only film festival for schools in Italy wholly dedicated to knowledge of the cinemas and cultures of Africa, Asia and Latin America and to intercultural education, in collaboration with Fondazione ISMU.
MiWY continues to make the reality and stories from the three continents known from original gazes and angles, adopting an approach that emphasises education on film language and the experience of community viewing and after-screening discussion in the cinema.
This year again there are the Students’ Jury, the Teachers’ Jury and the Popular Jury made up of the students who will be talking part in the screenings.
The films selected include the film from Bhutan, Lunana: a Yak in the classroom by Pawo Choyning Dorji, a story which talks about friendship, respect for the environment and the importance of education, linked to the cult of the yak, the great Asian mammal and the subject of many traditions in Bhutan.
For further information:
COE – Centro Orientamento Educativo
tel. 02 6696258; email: festival@coeweb.org
www.festivalcinemaafricano.org; www.coeweb.org
Press Office:
Studio Sottocorno – Lorena Borghi
lorenab@sottocorno.it, lorenaborghi@gmail.com
