Fond. Cinema Roma - Extra

The presence of a great Master of American cinema such as Micheal Mann along with Oscar® prize winning films and directors (Alex Gibney, James Marsh, Davis Guggenheim), a squad that in recent years has transformed the documentary into something much closer to narrative, detective, exploratory and comedy films, is the pinnacle of this years' Extra section - whether it's about Bono of U2 (From the Sky Down) or a poor devil who is insulted and threatened by an entire stadium (Catching Hell), or a baby chimpanzee that would have brought tears to the eyes of Dickens (ProjectNim) or the crazy world of comic enthusiasts (Comic-Con). These documentary makers are all very complete, modern authors whose stories are even more gripping and surprising than much of today's fictional works. But alongside them there's another, equally sensitive presence: that of an increasing number of women who are proving they are equally capable of developing a penetrating and forceful perspective when they take their place behind the video or film camera. Women who provide a portrait of very exemplary female characters (as does Sabina Guzzanti in her documentary on Franca Valeri, Franca the first) and young début artists such as Heidi Rizzo, produced by Edoardo Winspear (Grazia e furore) who describes a completely different form of globalization by telling the story of two young athletes from Salento who now compete in boxing matches in Thailand. There's also an Argentinian artist of Italian origins whose impressive début work has a strong Hitchcock flavour to it (Laura Citarella, with Ostende), a Norwegian who reveals the eroticism of an adolescent with a very dry and original sense of humour (Jannicke Systad Jacobsen, with Turn Me On) or an American such as Liz Garbuz who provides a very particular and dramatic description of Bobby Fischer's life.  We will also get to see young hope-to-be Siberian models who end up in Japan like parcel post (Girl Model), the lovable and rambunctiously “indignant” African women (in African Women: the journey to a Nobel Peace prize), a Chinese journalist who in her country is as popular as a rock star interviewing people on death row before their execution (in Dead Men Talking) and a German prostitute in one of the “trendiest” Berlin brothels who talks about her job as if she were handling public relations for a major company (in Whorehouse/Case di tolleranza) and, in the Special Events section, in close collaboration with the artistic direction, we have Ilaria Cucchi, whose battle to shed light on her brother's death is no less adventurous and dramatic than a thriller (148 Stefano. I mostri dell’inerzia) – but also the life of a woman with an unbeatable personality such as Laura Betti (who features in the documentary La passione diLaura). This years’ Extra spectators will also be treated to a wide range of meetings and lessons on cinema (Michael Mann, Stewart Stern – the screenwriter of Rebel without a cause -  Sergio Rubini and Riccardo Scamarcio, Valeria Solarino and Vinicio Marchioni – to which one must add the pre-festival duet between Sergio Castellito and Penelope Cruz), powerful genre films (a surprising noir such as Nuit blanche, directed by an-ex assistant of Godard's and scripted by an ex-critic writing for Cahiers du Cinéma), the crowded Italian documentary training ground represented by Off Doc, the most independent spirit of American cinema (Dragonslayer) and the passionate search for the new Italian film talent (Carlo Hinterman, who has collaborated with Terrence Malick, is the director of The Dark Side of The Sun), but most importantly the belief that a festival must dig up free and innovative films worldwide: from Colombia (Locos) to Finland (People in White), from Russia (Patria o muerte) to China (Dead Men Talking).

Mario Sesti

Curator of “Extra”