On Saturday the San Diego Italian Film Festival (SDIFF) will have a launch party to kick off its 20th anniversary. But the film festival starts in earnest on Wednesday with its Ristretto short film program.
Every year, the festival selects a theme, and this year it is "Legacy." That theme is reflected not just in the features and shorts but also in how the festival remembers its late founder Victor Laruccia.
SDIFF artistic director Antonio Iannotta recalled that "Victor was a film lover, but more than that, he was a people person. He wanted to have people around him. He wanted to share a movie as much as he wanted to share a meal together."
Laruccia imagined the festival as a piazza, a place where people can gather around films with an Italian perspective.
"The metaphor of the piazza is really something to get together in person, to have a glass of wine and some food before watching a movie, and he always wanted to have a conversation about the film, open the floor to questions, trying to contextualize the movie. That was something that Victor really enjoyed and thought it was really important for us."
And it is one of the things I love about the festival. Every film is followed by a conversation moderated or led by Iannotta.
This year, the festival provides a very manageable schedule for anyone who attends. While bigger festivals run in multiple theaters with films overlapping, SDIFF has a very reasonable schedule of one film a day, so you can see everything and not have FOMO.
The films kick off with a night of shorts at Digital Gym Cinema on Wednesday. As one of the jurors overseeing the Ristretto competition, I can assure you that the slate of films is amazing. And what is even more impressive is that the student films in the competition this year were truly exceptional. The evening's program is well worth checking out.
The feature films kick off on Thursday with "Naples to New York" at the festival's home base at the Museum of Photographic Art in Balboa Park.
"That's a very special movie because it's based on a rediscovered screenplay by Federico Fellini," Iannotta explained. "It's a movie about migration. It's dramatic, but it's also a fantastic comedy with young kids as protagonists. So it's a beautiful movie that was the perfect choice to open our 20th Festival."
For the film "Per Te (For You)," the festival is partnering with the San Diego Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association since the film deals with a man struck with an aggressive form of Alzheimer's while still in his 40s.
"It's a possibility for us to have also a conversation about what's going on today with the research, but also the care that people can have here in San Diego," Iannotta said. "So we invited the Alzheimer's Association, the San Diego chapter. We're going to have a representative from their organization on stage with me to talk after the movie about their work and also about the movie."
The festival always highlights women, either behind the camera or at the center of stories. "Fuori" is inspired by the life of Italian author Goliarda Sapienza, who wrote "The Art of Joy." Sapienza ends up in prison, and her experience with the young inmates changes her life. The film will have a special introduction and post-screening Q&A with Professor Clarissa Clò.
And I will be on hand for the closing night film on Oct. 9 for a post-film discussion about "La Grazia." The film reunites director Paolo Sorrentino and actor Toni Servillo for another film about an Italian politician, this time the Italian president Mariano De Santis.
"'La Grazia' literally means 'the grace,' but also, at the same time, it means 'the pardon.' Because the movie is about a president of the republic played by Toni Servillo," Iannotta explained. "Finally, we can see a good, moral, ethical politician at work. So this politician is in his last six months of his term, and he's considering to sign a couple of very difficult laws. In particular, he's considering to sign a law about euthanasia. That is something that Italy doesn't have. Italy is not a very conservative country, but it is the homeland of the Pope and the Catholic Church. So this is a super intricate, difficult topic. But this president, that is also a jurist is also a scholar, also something that has been attacked recently, not just in the United States, but all over Italy. He's an ethical man that is thinking of doing something that can change and improve thousands of lives."
And one other noteworthy partnership the festival has this year is with Little Fish Comic Book Studio.
"This is going to be for our matinee, Sunday morning, Oct. 4. The movie is called 'Gioia Mia (Sweetheart).' It's a beautiful story between a grandmother and her grandson, and the students of Little Fish Comic Book Studio are gonna imagine an illustration, a poster, or a comic book of one page about this movie," Iannotta said. "And after the movie, we're gonna have a panel with them, and we're gonna give them the mic and the possibility for them to tell us about their passion about comics and illustration and art."
SDIFF closes on Oct. 10 with its Festa, a party plus awards ceremony for the Ristretto shorts. There will be food, wine and a screening of the winning films. As always, SDIFF is a festival you want to seek out and savor.
