“Youth” is the theme of the 14th edition of SalinaDocFest. A hope for the future in defense of culture.
We publish the Competition Announcement of the XIVth edition of SalinaDocFest, the International Festival of narrative documentary, which will take place in Salina (Aeolian Islands) from 23rd to 26th of September 2020, during the harvest season, and will be involved in the programming of the wineries of the island, starting from our Special Partner Tasca d’Almerita (European winery of the Year 2019), which each year awards the prestigious Premio Tasca d’Oro to the best documentary of the competition, and the young excellences of the island, as Martina Caruso – Hotel Signum – Audience Award, best woman chef under 30 of the year for the Michelin guide.
The rules and the form of participation are visible in the dedicated space of our homepage. The Selection Committee, directed by Enrico Magrelli, will work until the end of June to identify the best films to propose to the international jury.
«Doing a competitive competition with an international jury and a selection committee that works all year round– explains Giovanna Taviani– has allowed us to identify ourselves as Festival and not as a simple ‘review’ and to set up a real “workshop documentary” to relaunch a genre that in the early years of our millennium seemed to have fallen into twilight. Since the first year we have decided to set precise criteria for the Call of Competition: the year of release, the non broadcast in the cinema or television circuits– to give visibility to films that otherwise would not be known by the general public -the duration of the film– we choose feature films and not short films –, and especially the theme».
From “Mio Paese” to “Confini e Orizzonti”, from “Conflitti e Periferie” to “Ma(d)re Mediterraneo”, “Padri e Figli”, “Comunità”, to end with “(R)-esistenze” – the theme of last editino won by Beniamino Barrese with “La scomparsa di mia madre” (in the pic) -in these 13 years SDF has recounted our present and has done so, even in the variety of styles and languages, with a common look. «A look – explains Giovanna Taviani – which today has become part of the archive of the SDF, as a common heritage to be disseminated and handed down to posterity. After all, as Zavattini said, the cinema of the real is a pawn on reality and transfigures it by delivering it to new horizons».
The choice to identify each year a theme that, together with the quality of the works, led the selection allowed to meet the directors selected for the competition with writers, directors of photography, editors, producers, directors of festivals, critics and journalists, actors and screenwriters, to reflect together on a common horizon.
This year the theme chosen by the Festival is“Youthi”. Our country is witnessing a strong social and cultural awakening of under 30 young people , until yesterday considered“just kidsi”, clinging to a protracted adolescence , that, after years of silence, They are bringing the defence of the culture, language and values of our constitution back to the centre of political debate. With them Italy – and not only – could return to live a new young age, in memory of what was and what might come back to being.
Hence the theme chosen for the new edition, which takes from a part to the title of the last film (presented at the Rome Festival) of two filmmakers that for the Festival represent an essential starting point, The Young Age of Jean Pierre and Luc Dardenne (2019). On the other hand, to the new spontaneous movement of sardines that for some months have been occupying the Italian squares, from north to south, to oppose the language of violence and fake news the return to a normal country, based on culture, on respect for rights and on the word“future”.
The young people of 2020 will be awarded the 14th edition of SalinaDocFest, which this year, in collaboration with Palumbo Editore, CIDI-Palermo and for the first time the Liceo classico Maria Adelaide of Palermo, will bring to the Festival students of high school in a summer campus, at the magnificent Rapanui seaside facility in Santa Marina Salina, together with students from the schools of Lipari and the University of Messina, Catania and Palermo to attend the meetings of our guests of honour and the sections of the Festival open to the public in one of the most beautiful islands of the Mediterranean.
