In a world where monkeys talk and live like humans, we meet an old prince who got stranded in an island. He is found by young Tom and welcomed by his parents, researchers excluded by the Academy of Sciences because they dared believe in the existence of other peoples. The professor hides the prince in his clandestine laboratory, at the bottom of an ancient museum of natural history. The prince thus discovers this civilization, a developed and industrial one, but so closed within itself.
The movie will be presented by the distributor Pier Francesco Aiello and the curator Giuletta Fara connecting by directors.
Jean-François Laguionie (France 1939) was attracted by drawing since his childhood. In 1999, he directed A monkey’s tale, followed by Black Mor’s Island from his novel in 2011, then Le Tableau in 2011, and Louise by the Shore in 2016. Xavier Picard wrote, directed, or produced films and series for Jean Chalopin, Hanna Barbera, Luc Besson, and Mamoru Ooshi. He directed the animated feature Moomins on the Riviera. He is currently working on Second Generation: My father’s secrets from Michel Kichka’s graphic novel.
“Cinema is a merry-go-round,” said Georges Méliès, and, speaking of the latter’s phantasmagorias, Antonio Costa wrote “Cinema is like a big toy.” Marco Ferreri, in his last film, Nitrate Base, staged a ‘primitive’ picture house, i.e. a circus tent accommodating a projection screen and, instead of the seats, as many rocking horses.
Merry-go-rounds, toys, and circus tents have always rightfully belonged to the world of the little ones.
Marco Ferreri was indeed a fantastic discovery for me at the Pesaro Film Festival in 1995. Dillinger Is Dead was a revelation: a reborn man who discovers ‘trivial’ objects as if they were treasures, a series of objets trouvés in a search reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking, the Thing-Finder.
An intersection of past and present to depict cinema as a game, a never-ending experiment, and a great passion: the name Pesaro Film Festival Circus is both a tribute to these masters and a declaration of intent. You can, and must play with cinema!
The new section of the Pesaro Film Festival intends to open a little window onto the cinema for kids that is also a gaze onto the future, focusing on those young viewers who will want to and be curious to get in a small dedicated screening room and in a big workshop space.
The films selected are those which most suffered from the lack of movie theatres for a suitable first-run presentation, but also films outside the mainstream circuits. This year, even the Pixar creatives were greatly disappointed with important titles that, because of the pandemic, were presented in digital platforms instead of movie theatres. So these are the titles: Rémi Chayé’s Calamity, A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary, Jean-François Laguionie and Xavier Picard’s The Prince’s Voyage, Gints Zilbalodis’ Away, Keiichi Hara’s The Wonderland, Anca Damian’s Marona’s Fantastic Tale, and a selection of shorts made by Italian film-makers.
Besides the screenings, Pesaro Film Festival Circus proposes three workshops to let the children ‘have a finger in the pie’, conducted by Saul Saguatti, Michele Bernardi, and Studio Croma. Quoting Mario Lodi, “Children also need to be behind the camera in order to understand how the magic of cinema is made but, above all, to make some of their own, even more awesome.”
Have fun everyone!
Curated by Giulietta Fara
ALL SCREENINGS ARE FREE WITH RESERVATION
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