Slow Food on Film at Slow Fish
20/04/2009
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To document, recount, denounce and inform: This is why Slow Food has long promoted Slow Food on Film, the festival organized together with the Cineteca di Bologna and held this year from May 6 to 10 in Bologna. An exploration of the world of cinema was a natural move for Slow Food, given that the organization works to preserve historical memory and affirm the cultural identity of societies in the face of a strong trend towards the standardization of flavors, customs and habits.
Slow Fish provided an excellent opportunity to present the public with a foretaste of the film festival, with a series of screenings of films based on the themes of the sea, fishing and water.
Recent films, such as Cry Sea, by Mahamoud Cafi and Luca Cusani, Honorable Mention at Slow Food on Film 2008, and Silent Snow, which won the short documentary category last year, were shown to Slow Fish visitors alongside a selection of documentaries on fishing in Italy in the post-war period. These films, from the Cineteca di Bologna’s archive, included Tonnara by Francesco Alliata, Pietro Moncada and Quintino Di Napoli from 1947; Tra Scilla e Cariddi (1948) by Alliata and Il campo e il mare (1962) by Maurizio Lucci. This preview also served as a link between one of Slow Food on Film’s most important sections, The Lost World, which focuses on short documentaries recording a rustic world that no longer exists, a rural Italy with a culture of survival in harsh conditions, rich in artisanal wisdom, its unique practices recorded by the directors of the past. This year the focus will be on Giuseppe Taffarel, photographer, actor (in Lizzani’s Achtung! Banditi) and director of around 300 documentaries, and Luigi Di Gianni.
Among the festival’s other sections are Film on a Plate, with screenings at the Cinema Arlecchino followed by the serving of a dish linked to the film, organized by Slow Food Emilia-Romagna; the international Docs Competition for documentary films; the Shorts Competition for fictional and animated short films; and the Best TV Series, which recognizes the fictional and documentary television series from around the world that has the most aware, intelligent and culturally significant approach to food. This year’s prize will go to Report, from the Italian channel RAI3.
Finally, this year’s Slow Food on Film will include two brand-new sections: Food Nightmares, late-night screenings exploring food fears, and Gustorama, special daily screenings that bring taste – as well as sight and sound – into play, adding a new sensory dimension to the cinematic experience.
See you in Bologna, May 6-10, for an exploration of the intersection where food meets film.
Find out more at www.slowfoodonfilm.it
