INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION

The film selection consists in 21 documentaries that are Italian premieres and is aimed to showcase the wealth of themes and the variety in styles that characterize contemporary documentary. The films in competition stand out for the originality of subject matter and the authors’ personal imprint recognizable in the Storytelling.

ITALIAN COMPETITION

This section is made of six feature-length documentaries that are Italian premieres and reflect 2016 Italian film production. These films are in competition to win the “CG Entertainment - Cinemaitaliano.info” Award (home video distribution) and the “Gli Imperdibili” Award (distribution in the Art-house Cinema Circuit of Tuscany).

IN THE BATTLEFIELDS: THE CINEMA OF DANIELLE ARBID

Danielle Arbid, a Lebanese who moved to Paris in her teen years, has directed feature films and documentaries of short, medium, and full length. Her cinema is always a subjective, first-person narrative told on an emotional edge. The leading characters of her films are lone seekers of freedom, travellers, stateless persons, or migrants who look at the world (Lebanon, France) with foreign eyes, challenging its repressed past and forbidden topics. This section was realized thanks to the support of the French Embassy in Italy and the Institut Français of Florence.

THE TRADES OF CINEMA: HOMAGE TO SERGIO OKSMAN

The Trades of Cinema this year will focus on writing, with an homage to the Brazilian film- maker Sergio Oksman, the author of films awarded in several international festivals and renowned for important acknowledgements such as the Goya Award. The Trades of Cinema proposes a retrospective of his most important films, and a workshop led by him entitled “The Invention of Reality.” Here, playing between control and chance, risk and indeterminacy, the images of the real will be juxtaposed to experiment with new possibilities of re-writing the events. Oksman will also present, in a sort of jam session live, fragments of five never- completed films, and discuss how to write and develop an unfinished film with the audience. Section under the patronage of the Spanish Embassy.

LOOKING FOR NEVERLAND

A spirit is haunting Europe: its face is marked by fatigue, his eyes are dried out by the fury of war, the heat of the desert, and the fight with sea storms. It is the spirit of peoples, whose path won’t come to a halt until it reaches a safe haven, a place of peace, ultimately what we call “home.” We, Festival dei Popoli (the festival of peoples, precisely), went out in search of such spirit and we also found it. We talked to it, faced it, surveyed its rough journey to an uncertain destiny. Do you know how the largest refugee camp works? Can you look credible to the eyes of an executive who does not know you, but will decide your destiny? Can you rotate your gaze 360° without losing your bearings? Are you ready to be locked down dozens of metres deep? How much breath do you need to run, scream, and sing at the same time? This section was realized thanks to the support of Publiacqua and the collaboration with Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and Water Right Foundation

HIT ME WITH MUSIC!

Festival dei Popoli boasts its great tradition in screening music documentaries, with a new section. Five titles to get us closer to both new and legendary protagonists of the music scene worldwide, spanning across genres, countries, periods, and generations. The power of music and the force of images combined in an explosive mix that will enthral you into dancing and enjoying yourselves!

SPECIAL EVENTS