"MaTerre- Mai Terra"'s frame (2019)Matera European Capital of Culture 2019
"When you see Basilicata you see fields, vineyards, beautiful landscapes. You see the land as it should be. We have a region of Italy still preserved, still authentic, still pure."
Francis Ford Coppola
Matera and Basilicata have a long cinematographic tradition behind them: since the 1950s, this region has attracted the attention of Italian and foreign directors thanks to the variety of the territory and the emotions it knew how to evoke. The Matera-Basilicata 2019 Foundation has collected this legacy, interpreting cinema as an art form and collective participation, within a European cultural programme.
'I'm going where I come from' is a documentary, an anthropological research into the world of migration: through the testimonies collected in Basilicata and abroad, the project sought to create a bridge between those who left and those who remained.
Franco Arminio in "I'm Going Where I Came From" (2019)Matera European Capital of Culture 2019
The depopulation of Basilicata's cities is a wound that bleeds mercilessly: investigating past and present migrations, pondering how to start a process of urban regeneration, telling the stories of those who have returned, is a good starting point to discover how cultural production can become a driving force to reverse this phenomenon.
"I come from a country where politics has destroyed everything, we can be poets, to live we need love, bread and poetry." The words spoken by Mohsen Makhmalbaf, an internationally renowned Iranian director, as he gave his thoughts on life during the presentation of the participatory film 'Marghe and her mother'. The 'Formula Cinema' project involved the community in drafting the script and making the film, bringing the story of a young mother who pursues her dream of a better life to the attention of the general public.
"Marghe and her mother" (2019)Matera European Capital of Culture 2019
"Marghe and her mother" (2019)Matera European Capital of Culture 2019
For the director it is a universal theme: all over the world we live in the shadow of capitalism and we are losing love, this film represents all of us. The only way we can save ourselves is to take the innocence of children as an example to follow.
"I am a blade of grass/a blade of grass that trembles./ And my country is where the grass trembles./ A breeze can carry my seed far away.", the journey of 'MaTerre' began with these verses from the Basilicata poet Rocco Scotellaro. Five pairs of artists from the Euro Mediterranean area have made an immersive film divided into five episodes: 'MaTerre VR Experience' showed a previously unseen version of Matera and its hinterland, thanks to the synergy of cinema with poetry and traditional storytelling and virtual reality technology. The work was presented during the Open Culture Festival.
"MaTerre- Ate ca tu"'s frame (2019)Matera European Capital of Culture 2019
'Tòpoi. Theatre and New Myths' seeks new narratives within stories that belong to the cultural and emotional heritage of each of us. With 'The New Gospel', inspired by Pier Paolo Pasolini's eponymous work, director Milo Rau hits the mark with his first shot: it tells the story of a contemporary Jesus, played by Cameroonian activist Yvan Sagnet, and documents the misery of migrants who work as labourers in Southern Italy, setting the film in the ghettos in which they live, but also paying homage to the places that served as a backdrop to the works of Gibson and Pasolini.
"The new Gospel" (2019) by Armin SmailovicMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
"The new Gospel" (2019) by Armin SmailovicMatera European Capital of Culture 2019
A unique work in which the universal plot of the Passion of Christ intersects with the current news, giving life to a documentary film that borders on human, rather than political, commitment.
