Less paillettes, more culture, sobriety wins at Baff

The anniversaries to commemorate were a lot, but a special care was dedicated to the twenty years since Fellini died.

This is the eleventh edition for the Busto Arsizio Film Festival. Leaving apart the polemics of any sort, this morning, Wednesday, they have presented the main contents of this year programme of the festival which will take place in the city from 13^th to 30^th April.

After revealing the topic some weeks ago, titled “The other face of the medal” B.A. Film factory and the town hall council have revealed the contents starting from the anniversary which will be commemorate this year.

The most cinematographic one is of course the twenty year anniversary of Federico Fellini’s death, who will be commemorated in every way during the event, in particular the Spazio Festival will remember the fellinian forms, thanks to the work of a group of architects and professionals. Another cinematographic anniversary is the one dedicated to Piero Chiara ( writer who gave various works to the cinema) whose birth-centenary anniversary is this year; they are 150 years the years which separate us from Gabriele D’annunzio’s birth who will be cinematographically remembered through the 
showing of the restored version of “Cabiria” of 1914, the second colossal of the history of cinema, for which the “Vate” wrote its captions.

The last one anniversary to commemorate is not linked to the cinema: the 17^th century that is elapsed from the edict of Constantine with whom it was sanctioned the religious freedom in 313 a.C. In particular, the guests of Baff for this latter issue will be two big names in Italian journalism, Vittorio Feltri, director of "Il giornale" and Gianluigi Nuzzi, author of "Vaticano spa" and "Sua Santità", two books that have helped to open a new course in the history of the Roman Curia (Tuesday, April 16^th  at 6 p.m. in the auditorium of the Mills Marzoli). Still on this topic will be will projected (at 9 p.m.), out of competition, the director and actress Nadine Labaki’s Lebanese’s film titled "Now where are we going?" concerning the coexistence between Christians and Muslims in a small town of the Lebanese inland. The choice of films in the main competition "made in Italy – Previews", all played on the theme of "the other side of the coin", while the fluid society is the underlying theme of the films in the competition "Made in Italy – Schools".

Further guests and the detailed programme will be presented in the coming days. From 7 April, however, the space-festival in Piazza San Giovanni will be already opened to film buffs and to curious people. The mayor Gigi Farioli, together with the President of ICMA Alessandro Munari, the director Andrea Castellanza and the President of the Festival Alberto Armiraglio wanted to thank all those who are involved in the network of organization created to make sure that this experience would not have died between cuts to culture that are so fashionable lately. This year – as everybody has reaffirmed – the festival left the limelight of the great guests and high-sounding names to make room for those behind the star system (directors, designers, writers, cinematographers), a feature that this festival has always had but that this year will find even more space.