A screenshot from the Italian film Mr. Volare. | Photo courtesy of the Vancouver International Film Festival
Vancouver has hosted a number of film festivals, but never before has Italian cinema been showcased at an event all its own. This year, the inaugural Italian Film Festival will be added to Vancouver’s list of cultural events. The idea of an Italian Film Festival was conceived by Mauro Vescera, executive director of the Italian Cultural Centre, who collaborated with the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), the Insituto Italiano di Cultura, and the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada West to bring the festival to Vancouver.
“One of the things I’ve always wanted to do was to start a film festival,” says Vescera.
Many other communities in Vancouver have their own film festivals such as the Latin film festival, the Taiwanese film festival and of course VIFF itself. The Italian film festival will feature five new films from the last two to three years as well as five classic films. Vescera hopes that this film festival will become an annual event.
“I’m hoping the [Italian] community will come out and support it, [Italian film] has a great history and it’s another cultural event [for Vancouver],” says Vescera.
The Vancity Theatre will host the week-long event.
“What I really liked about the idea that [the Italian Cultural Centre] came up with was to mix new and old films,” says Tom Charity, program coordinator for the Vancity Theatre.
In an effort to achieve a balanced repertoire of films, the festival will include genres ranging from comedies to psychological thrillers to musicals, all representing different filmmakers. Although putting together films for a festival may sound easy, Charity explains that many films were excluded from their list due to difficulty acquiring the rights or securing a copy in an appropriate format with subtitles. With this in mind, he thinks that this is a great opportunity to remind people of the rich cinematic culture of Italy and to give people a chance to see these great films. Furthermore, Charity says that many Italian films struggle to get released in cinemas internationally, so there are quite a few films that Vancouver audiences don’t get to see.
An evening of film, visual art and music
The Italian film festival will also feature an exhibit of director Federico Fellini’s drawings and a performance by duo Roy and Rosemary. | Photo courtesy of Roy and Rosemary
The opening night of the film festival will include two highly anticipated events: an exhibit of the influential Italian film director Federico Fellini’s drawings of food as well as the Canadian premiere of the documentary Federico of the Spirits.
The event will also feature live music before and after the movie screening, played by instrumental pop fusion duo Roy and Rosemary. Rosemary Siemens, one half of the duo, describes their style as a combination of pop and classical music played on the violin and piano. Since both Roy and Rosemary have perfect pitch, they frequently take requests from the audience and create a song on the spot to bring them into the creative process.
“[The audience] can tell us to incorporate elements such as the sun or wind into the song and then we create it for them,” says Siemens, “Improvising and versatility is one of our big gifts.”
Roy and Rosemary will also be playing music inspired by Italian cinema, such as songs from The Godfather.
What is special about Italian cinema?
The films showcased at the festival will address themes that are uniquely Italian as well as those that anyone can relate to.
“Italian cinema is much more true to Italian roots, I think you see political and social issues coming through [in Italy] and also universal issues such as problems with immigration,” says Charity.
The Italian film festival will run from Jan. 10–16 at the Vancity Theatre. Membership with the VIFF is mandatory for viewing all films. For tickets and more information, please visit: www.italianculturalcentre.ca/event-registration/?ee=161 and www.viff.org/theatre/series/italian-film-festival
