FILMCARAVAN – POSTCARDS FROM THE 4th EDITION

The fourth edition of Filmcaravan, the International Itinerant Shorts Festival, has just drawn to a close. It opened on 31st July and ended on 4th August. The event, organized by Filmcaravan, the Cultural Association, opened on the Parasio with a special evening dedicated to the documentary film and organized in collaboration with the social club of the same name. The event then moved, as in past years, to the Piazza dei Corallini in Cervo, for the actual competition. There were showings at Diano Castello and Cipressa, and the final evening took place against the splendid backdrop of Villa Grock. Over 1500 spectators came to see the 28 films of which 16 took part in the competition. During these five days there was also a series of afternoon showings at the Spazio Vuoto in Imperia.

The jury, made up of Giuseppe Selva, founder and artistic director of the Monfilmfest of Casalborgone, Cécile Cros, producer of documentaries for the web and Christophe Le Masne, the French film director, awarded the Gold Caravan (il Caravan d’Oro) to Apele Tac this year, the German-Rumenian film by Anca Mirun Lazarescu, while the Silver Caravan was won by Armadingen, the parody of Armageddon, by Philipp Kaessbhohrer (who also received the audience prize). Special mention was made of the Korean film Guest, by Ga Eun Yoon. The jury then decided to award a special Marble Caravan to Il capo, a film by Yuri Ancarani which depicts the work of a site foreman in the quarries of Mount Bettogli at Carrara. Besides their trophy, each of the directors received a Lomokino analogic cinecamera courtesy of Lomography Italia.

Seven directors were present at the event: the Frenchwoman Caroline Ceruas, for the film Les Enfants de la nuit, the American Ben Russell, the author of River Rites, the Algerian author Amir Bensaifi who presented his documentary Migrateurs at the Parasio and from Venice Matteo Stocco, co-author of the short film Peace of Mind. Adriano Valerio was also present  as part of the retrospective Monfilmfest. Last year he entered his film Curling in the competition, and this year he presented a previous work, Orbite. A special retrospective was dedicated to the comedies of Christophe Le Masne, followed by a meeting with the author. This year the works of two authors showed great promise: the American Mavi Philips, who presented her first film La petite mort at the Spazio Vuoto in a parallel section, and the very young Alessio di Zio with his Le favole di Casimiro.  An hour’s space will be dedicated to him during the prestigious Authors’ Days of the Venice Film Festival in September. The festival confirmed its multi-faceted attraction, both cultural and entertaining, which allows people from all over the world to get to know and appreciate the Province of Imperia and the surrounding area.

All showings will be held in the open air and we are grateful to the Lo Peolh cinema association in Nice for their technical support. Lo Peolh, which means “the flea” in the Occitanian language and is pronounced "Lu peuil", is an association which has been involved in cinema since 2000 mainly in the area of the Marittime Alps. This relationship is truly fundamental for the success of the festival, because thanks to Xavier Vaugien's interest, we have set up a co-operation with a course of studies at Nice University leading to a Master 2 PRO TSD in dubbing and subtitling, and which will support us in the complex and laborious work of subtitling. For further information: www.peolh.net 

The festival is supported by the Region of Imperia, the Province of Imperia, the Municipalities of Imperia, Cervo, Diano Castello, Cipressa and Dolcedo. For the second time it has received the high patronage of the Italian National Commission for UNESCO for the high value of this event, the aim of which is to promote the art of cinematography and to support small municipalities.