30. Film Festival della Lessinia
Bosco Chiesanuova (Italia)
23 August - 1 September 2024

SPECIAL PREVIEW EVENT
PEDALING FOR PLANET EARTH

“If you want to watch the film you have to pedal,” is the slogan of CicloCinema, an association founded in 2018 from an idea by Andrea and Federico Bertoldi, creators of the first traveling cinema powered by pedals. A group of cycle-travelers moves from one town to another, bringing with them everything needed to set up the “screening room.” Paraphrasing this slogan, Pedaling for Planet Earth is the provocation that the Film Festival della Lessinia launches on its preview evening, inviting spectators, as well as the organizers and supporters of the Festival, to take turns and pedal to produce the necessary energy to power the evening’s projection system. The message is manifested physically: it is more necessary than ever to produce clean energy, with “zero emissions” other than the heat and sweat of our bodies. Thanks to pedal-produced energy, you will be able to view six very unique and provocative short films that question us about the impact caused by human presence on the planet.

TSUTSUƐ

TSUTSUÉ

Amartei Armar / 16 min / 2022 / France, Ghana

In a town in Ghana, near a large landfill bordered by the ocean live Sowah and Okai, sons of a fisherman. The two cannot find peace over the loss of their older brother, who drowned during a fishing trip. Haunted by his disappearance, Okai is convinced that his brother is still out there.

SILENT PANORAMA

Nicolas Piret / 5 min / 2024 / Belgium

In the midst of nature, at the base of a cliff, two campers intrigued by outside noises cross the deserted landscape, lamp in hand. Creaks, drips and other sounds animate these places, home to a silent fauna, almost invisible but very much present. The result of an original artistic choice, this short film was drawn and animated on a single sheet of paper.

BEEN THERE

Corina  Schwingruber Ilić / 10 min / 2023 / Switzerland

A weekend getaway, a city break of a few days, a detour into nature: we only need a little free time and we are immediately ready to leave and take photographs everywhere. At the top of the cable car, by the sea, in the city with street artists. But in the end, what are we really left with? Will the photos we took serve as a reminder of having "been there"?

INGRESSO ANIMALI VIVI

Igor Grubić / 15 min / 2023 / Italian premiere / Croatia (Hrvatska)

A dog wanders around an abandoned slaughterhouse, sniffing for traces of what happened there. A sign reading "Live animals entrance" indicates the rooms where the animals were killed. The negative images and disturbing sound evoke the dichotomy between life and death, inviting us to reflect on the ethical implications of the food industry.

ABOUT A COW

Pavla Baštanová / 13 min / 2023 / Italian premiere / Czech Republic, Switzerland

An imaginative, colourful and playful collage of images about the life of the cow, placed side by side as if in poetry. Short stories from all over the world in which the cow experiences good and bad moments, fully recounting the life of this animal and its relationship with human beings, which for better or for worse seems to leave room for the hope of a better world.

THE CURRENCY - SENSING 1 AGBOGBLOSHIE

Elom 20ce , Musquiqui Chihying, Gregor Kasper / 17 min / 2023 / Italian premiere / Germany, Taiwan, Togo

Set among the remains of electronic equipment, clouds of smoke and scorched earth, Agbogbloshie is located in the heart of Accra and is one of the largest e-waste recycling sites in the world. An observer is there to investigate this place from a spiritual perspective, as a contact zone between complex global economic, social, political and technological processes.