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

WALKING ALONG THE EUROPEAN LONG- DISTANCE PATH

Together with Lorenzo Carra, environmental and hiking guide, we will travel by minibus towards Conca dei Parpari from where we will travel together along a stretch of the E5, the European path that crosses France, Switzerland and Italy. We will pass the Vajo di Squaranto and Val Marisa to return, along the ridge, to Bosco Chiesanuova. Meeting point: Festival Piazza and bus transfer to Conca dei Pàrpari. Length: 13 km. Difference in altitude: 300 metres. Duration: 4 hours. Difficulty: medium.

IMPRESSIONS OF FLOWERS

Participants in the workshop will experiment with the technique of pressing flowers and leaves by creating a small travel press with recycled paper and cardboard, under the guidance of Sonia Padovanello of Carta Muriel. The press can be used during walks to collect small natural elements with which to create botanical diaries or embellish greeting cards. With some already-pressed flowers, one can also decorate recycled paper cards to make them even more special.

NOMAD: IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF BRUCE CHATWIN

Werner Herzog / 89 min / 2019 / United Kingdom

Werner Herzog reveals his personal and intimate portrait of his friend Bruce Chatwin, probably one of the greatest travel writers of all time. And he does it, precisely, by travelling, and mixing memories, shared passions and archive material. A journey that, in the name of friendship, touches the four corners of the globe.

VALLEY PRIDE

Lukas Marxt / 15 min / 2023 / Austria, Germany

In the valleys of California, industrial agriculture flourishes thanks to irrigation fed by the Colorado River. Here, tractors advance in slow motion as workers, with anonymous faces, mechanically harvest lettuce. Between the plastic of the greenhouses and the smoke-spewing chimneys, the enchanting landscape is made inhospitable by exploitation. The question arises spontaneously: what is it that we eat?

REJEITO

Pedro de Filippis / 75 min / 2023 / Brazil, United States

In the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, the fight against the multinational mining company Vale sees local inhabitants defying political indifference. The tragedy of 2019, with an avalanche of red mud that swept away entire villages, did not stop expansion plans. Maria Teresa Corujo, activist and parliamentarian, fights tirelessly, while the displaced return to protest.

Marco Albino Ferrari
Mauro Varotto
THE OLYMPIC SLIDE

The Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics are causing a stir, not so much for athletes and disciplines, but rather for infrastructure and costs. The bobsleigh track, more than any other, has raised great controversy, due to radically different visions of the mountains. Marco Albino Ferrari and Mauro Varotto, mountain experts and co-authors of Scivolone olimpico (Edizioni People, 2024), analyze from multiple points of view this emblematic case, which seems to once again bring to the fore the clash between traditional approaches to tourism and new environmental needs. Giacomo Repele converses with the authors.

OPENING CEREMONY AND EVENT
1,200,000 STEPS. TRAVELING WITH PAOLO RUMIZ

WORLD PREMIERE

Paolo Rumiz collects stories to write about and Alessandro Scillitani brings them to the screen: ten years walking together, an anthological documentary, a diary of stories at a slow pace, starting from the abandonment of the mountains of Aspromonte, retracing the legendary journey in a Fiat 500 in the Monti Naviganti, and navigating the great Po River. It then veers off towards the East, in a direction opposite that of the routes of migrants, to speak of the fragility of our times, told with a look at the seas, the Balkans, and the tensions of the world. It moves further across Europe, on a sailboat on the Aegean, on narrow gauge trains to the places of wars of yesterday and today, on foot through the streets of Rome, and along the Appia Antica and the Postumia in search of lost dialogues to ask the question: where is Europe today? Perhaps in the songs and in the music of which Paolo Rumiz has often been the narrator, in orchestras of young Europeans, and among violins made from the wood of migrants’ boats. The images, many seen here for the first time, are accompanied by the narrative voice and soundtrack of Alessandro Scillitani, performed live with Marco Macchi on piano, Tommi Prodi on guitar, Stefano Ferrari on violin, and Mimmo Fontana on percussion.

ADE (ON A SUNDAY)

Theja Rio / 17 min / 2024 / Italian premiere / India

Ade, an eight-year-old boy from Nagaland, India, decides to skip Sunday school with his friend Abu for a day of fun. Between a run and a swim in forbidden places, the two, curious to imitate their fathers' vices, drink a rice beer and smoke a cigarette in secret. However, it will be the adults who must deal with the consequences of their actions.

WHERE WE USED TO SLEEP

Matthäus Wörle / 82 min / 2024 / Italian premiere / Germany

Once upon a time, a thousand people lived in the village of Geamăna, in the Apuseni Mountains, Romania. Now only the spire of the church bell tower rises above the waters of an artificial reservoir, contaminated by the toxic mud of a copper mine. Almost all the inhabitants have fled. Only Valeria Praţa fights to defend her home and avoid being removed from her land and her roots. 

ERNESTO DA SILVA, DJAMBADON & FRIENDS

How could we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Festival if not with Ernesto Da Silva and Djambadon? The band, created in 2006 with the aim of promoting intercultural communication and spreading the traditional music and dances of Guinea-Bissau and Africa in general, returns to Lessinia with its repertoire of traditional music, sung and played with percussion (djembé, tina, dunun), bass, guitar, drums and other instruments. On this occasion, some singers from Guinea-Bissau will be guests of the group, for an evening of dazzling enthusiasm, to remind us that life is also made up of celebration and joy.