Lucia Grillo Talks with Filmmaker and Artistic Director Irene Dionisio about the Lovers Film Festival

Lucia Grillo Talks with Filmmaker and Artistic Director Irene Dionisio about the Lovers Film Festival – Torino LGBTQI Visions

Irene Dionisio is the artistic director of the Lovers Film Festival – Torino LGBTQI Visions, the oldest themed film festival in Europe. She is also a filmmaker in her own right. Her first narrative feature, Le ultime cose, made its North American premiere last year at Open Roads: New Italian Cinema, an annual showcase of contemporary Italian Cinema hosted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center. That’s where we caught up with Dionisio and asked her about the film festival and why the timing is so important. Our contributor Lucia Grillo was guest reporting for us during the series and conducted the interview.

You just became the Artistic Director of an LGBTQ film festival. Tell us what inspires you and how it’s going so far.

This is sort of a revolution because it is the oldest film festival in Italy. They asked me to be the artistic director of the festival. So, it’s a great change and for me, it’s very important because this is a female artistic director. It’s important because before, it was the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival and now, we changed the name. The name is “Lovers Torino” and then “LGBTQ Visions.” So, for me, that is very important because it shows this point-of-view, this kind of community and this kind of research because it’s an identity research, which is very important and very contemporary.

Right now, we need this with everything that’s happening in the world.

Yes, I think there is a new struggle in contemporary life. You can find the true important point of research that we have to approach. The first is the role of gender. This struggle sometimes is the most important subject of the festival. We have to create new debates.

It’s really important to normalize because gender is something that’s invented to make the system work the way it does.

This is a really strong point-of-view and in Italy, this point-of-view is really dangerous. For me, it’s like you said but it’s not easy to say this. You have to be strong in your point-of-view. I think girls, women are searching for their identity. There is a very quick development of these girls. We know that it’s a role built by a culture. So for a woman, it’s a new way to find an identity and the same goes for a man.

That’s important because women and LGBTQ people are grossly under-represented in the established film festivals.

Yes because it’s very difficult for a woman to make a film and then to have the possibility for it to be shown at festivals. So we did some research in Italy to see who makes up the work force in the audio-visual industry and found that the percentage of women in cinema is very small. I believe this is the case for two reasons- because the work in cinema is very male-oriented and also at the same time because there is a sort of censorship that women are doing on themselves. So it’s not easy for a woman to be powerful, to be in a position of power. When I did some interviews to promote my film, they asked me ‘Are you an actress in the film? And I said, no, I am the director.’ Because I am young, I am a woman and so they didn’t think that I could be the director. So we have to move beyond this way of thinking, and I think this is the time to do it.

The Lovers Film Festival – Torino LGBTQI Visions runs through April 24. Click here to visit the festival's website. Click here to follow Irene Dionisio on Instagram.

Comments

The Timeless Talent of Stefania Sandrelli

On screen since the tender age of 14, she has captivated audiences for more than 50 years with a compelling combination of strength and vulnerability. She achieved stardom at just 14 years old playing the angelic cousin of a love-struck Marcello Mastroianni in Pietro Germi’s “Divorce Italian Style.” More than half a century later, she is still going strong and remains one of Italy’s most esteemed actors. Stefania Sandrelli was born on June 5, 1946, in Viareggio in the province of Lucca in northern Italy. As a child, she studied music and dance. Then in 1960, she won a beauty pageant and was featured on the cover of Le Ore magazine. Her purity captivated the country and shortly thereafter, movie offers began pouring in. Just one year later, she made her cinema debut in three feature films: Mario Sequi’s Gioventù di notte , Luciano Salce’s The Fascist, and Pietro Germi’s Divorce Italian Style . She instantly became a star and before long was a key figure in Italy’s legend...

'Salvatore Giuliano' blends documentary realism with dramatic storytelling

"Salvatore Giuliano" is a 1962 Italian crime drama directed by Francesco Rosi that dramatizes the real-life events surrounding the life and death of the legendary Sicilian bandit and folk hero. Giuliano rose to notoriety after the liberation of Sicily from fascist control in 1943, when he formed a gang that joined a separatist army. When the army dissolved, he and his gang intensified their outlaw activities. One of their most significant crimes was the Portella della Ginestra incident, during which dozens of men, women, and children were killed or wounded. This act prompted the authorities to launch an all-out war against Giuliano. His defenses slowly crumbled, and on July 5, 1959, his body was discovered in the courtyard of a house in Castelvetrano. That moment serves as the starting point for Rosi's film. Giuliano's fame is tied to his involvement in the Sicilian independence movement and his battles against both the Italian government and the Mafia in the 1940s a...

Federico Fellini: A Look into the Life and Career of an Icon

A Fellini family portrait “The term became a common word to describe something on the surface you can say is bizarre or strange, but actually is really like a painter working on a film,” said Martin Scorsese when asked to define “Felliniesque,” an adjective inspired by one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. The oldest of three children, Federico Fellini was born in the seaside town of Rimini in 1920. His father was a traveling salesman, so his mother was left to do the bulk of raising the children. One can argue that Fellini was born for his destiny. “You could tell that even as a child, he was different and unique. He was very intelligent, well above average. He was always the one to organize things, direct the others, make up games. He could control the other kids with just a look, said Fellini’s sister, Maddalena, in an interview with journalist Gideon Bachmann. Not only was Fellini directing the children, but he was also putting on shows and charging ...

Gianfranco Rosi to premiere 'Sotto le nuvole' at Venice Film Fest, exploring Naples' history

Documentary filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi will premiere his much-anticipated latest film at the upcoming 82nd Venice International Film Festival , which runs August 27 - Sept. 6. "Sotto le nuvole" (Below the Clouds) takes a deep dive into the rich history and culture of Naples and the area surrounding Mount Vesuvius. There has not been much information revealed but so far, we know that the film will focus on themes similar to those explored by Rosi in his previous works, such as the examination of Roman culture in "Sacro GRA" (2013) and Lampedusa's refugee crisis in "Fuocoammare" (2016). The film's synopsis reads, “The land around Vesuvius is a vast palimpsest. On the surface, underground and even beneath the sea of the modern city of Naples and its surroundings, the memory of history is etched into tunnels, walls and fissures, the remains of women, children and men — statues, buried cities. Only thin layers separate contemporary and ancient life, an...

"Roma 11:00" – The Tragic True Story of Desperation in a World of Poverty

There couldn’t have been a more perfect couple than Lucia Bosè and Raf Vallone in Giuseppe De Santis’ 1952 “Roma 11:00.” A tragic story based on true events, the film follows several young women in post-WWII Rome as they answer a job listing for a typist. When 200 women are in line on one staircase over several floors, a crack leads to the collapse of the entire staircase. Dozens were injured and one was killed. The tragedy spoke to the poverty and desperation that existed for so many Italians in the early 1950s before the ‘58 industrial boom began. Cesare Zavattini was one of the screenwriters. Elio Petri was the assistant director who interviewed many of the victims and cast a few in supporting roles. In addition to Bosè and Vallone, the film stars Carla Del Poggio, Massimo Girotti, Maria Grazia Francia, Lea Padovani and Delia Scala. The film is set in Largo Circense 37, while in reality the collapse took place in via Savoia 31, in the Salario district, on J...

Italian Cinema Today

Search This Blog