A large contingent of Italian doc professionals are visiting Amsterdam again this year, with IDFA welcoming a total of 26 companies, one Forum project and eight Docs for Sale from the Belpaese. Business Doc Europe spoke to Zenit producer Massimo Arvat, the delegate in charge of internationalization for Doc/It, Italy’s association of doc filmmakers and producers made up of 170 members and active since 1999. During our chat, Arvat touched on this year’s slate of projects, the main industry activities and the current state of the country’s non-fiction landscape.
The one Italian Forum project taking part in the industry gathering is Yolanda Markopoulou’s interactive VR work Paradise Lost, a co-production between Greece’s Polyplanity Productions and Claudio Esposito of Bari- and Rome-based The Piranesi Experience. The project is based on the true story of the Great Fire of Smyrna (today known as Izmir), described as “one of the darkest moments in the tumultuous history of Greek-Turkish relations. The city of Smyrna was a shining example of a multicultural society paired with a cosmopolitan lifestyle, where these two ethnicities (and many more) lived peacefully for centuries until September 1922 when Smyrna burnt to ashes. As a consequence of the complex global and local geopolitical powerplay, two million refugees of Greek descent survive the Great Fire, and cross the Aegean Sea to the islands and mainland Greece.”
Meanwhile, the eight Italian Docs for Sale projects are Leone Balduzzi’s Sting Like a Bee (about the life of teens in small villages in Central and Southern Italy, co-produced with France), Erica Loffredo and Kristina Burane’s Tango of Life (in which Raffaele Brunetti’s B&B Film and Latvia’s VFS Films join forces again after The Rossellinis), Egidio Eronico’s Beloved Shores (described as “a reconnaissance survey of Italy and its underlying framework,” and produced by Schicchera Production, Eie Film, Luce Cinecittà and Sky), Kasia Smutniak’s Walls (the on-the-road Fandango doc by popular actress and activist), Sophie Chiarello’s The Circle (zooming in on the pupils of a primary class in a school immersed in a multi-ethnic neighbourhood), Rossella De Venuto’s Skates and Steel (presented as “the extraordinary story of a roller hockey team from a remote fishing town in southern Italy”), Martina Moor’s Touché (in which “Italo-Brazilian fencing champion Nathalie Moellhausen is filmed intimately over the course of ten years”) and Gianfranco Cabiddu, Michele Mellara and Alessandro Rossi’s Berchidda Live (“a journey through the Time in Jazz archive”).
“In addition to the usual Guests Meet Guests event held on 11 November at Boom Chicago, Doc/It set up some roundtables aiming to favour networking between the Italian participants and international experts, which are taking place during the IDFA Forum days,” Arvat explains. The participation of the Italian delegation at IDFA was also supported by ITA, the Italian Trade Agency.
Commenting on the current landscape for Italian docs, Arvat tells us that industry is buzzing, owing to the growth of resources and backing opportunities implemented over the last few years, including the Ministry of Culture grants, the favourable tax credit and the regional funding systems. These opportunities “allowed, after some tough years, Italian filmmakers and producers to present themselves within the national and international markets from a stronger position, equaling that of their foreign counterparts.”
Arvat also highlights the growth of international co-productions and the rising production value of numerous projects. “However, our [documentary] production doesn’t always manage to be ahead of times, and the market is now losing much of its ‘biodiversity.’ For this reason, Arvat points out that Doc/it is committed – now more than ever – to enhancing the Italian projects’ production value through different initiatives such as the Italian Doc Screenings and its Academy. “And, of course, the presence of our delegations at festivals and international markets such as IDFA remains one of our main tools to build awareness,” he adds.
“The rise of platforms, accelerated by the pandemic, has put a spotlight on documentary, which has been a genre not particularly attractive for the Italian audience [in the past], differently from other countries,” continues Arvat, warning that despite this positive outcome, docmakers should be still aware that factors such as “algorithms” may also reduce the diversity of content and cultural viewpoints.
“That’s why cinema plays a fundamental role when it comes to pursuing artistic research and intercepting a more informed, curious audience. Also, we need to find new distribution solutions able to break the ‘rusty’ strategies that only work well for blockbusters. Recently, we’ve seen art and music docs achieving good results through event screenings, which were able to attract a large audience. That being said, it happens too often that beautiful auteur films – which have the potential to intercept a certain type of audience – don’t play out of the festivals,” he sums up, suggesting the circuit should coordinate its efforts with theatres and new forms of distribution.
At IDFA, Italy is present with four titles in the official selection. The only majority co-production is Virginia Eleuteri Serpieri’s debut feature Amor, led by Stefilm and co-produced by Lithuania’s Era Film and showcased in the Luminous section. The other three are minority co-productions Elvis Ngaibino Sabin’s international competition title The Burden(co-produced with Central African Republic, France and DR Congo) and Luminous picks The Zola Experience (helmed by Gianluca Matarrese and co-produced with France) and The Trial (directed by Ulises de la Orden and co-produced with Argentina, Norway and France).
