A "cult" film of the 70s about the Black Panther movement, it was made in the United States following the work of the Black Panther Party from within. The title was inspired by the homonymous song by Elaine Brown who participated in the film. Antonello Branca constructs a narrative framework skillfully bringing together the canons of fiction cinema and documentary cinema. Only one professional actor, Norman Jacobs, who moves between pop-symbolic visions of imperialism to stars and stripes set against reality: area searches, student demonstrations, national guard drills, direct testimonies. An America where the black, and the "panthers" in particular, are assassinated in cold blood according to a precise repressive design.
In the book: original unpublished photographs and comments by Nobuko Miyamoto, Antonello Branca, Italo Moscati and Elaine Brown.
The Dvd also contains What's Happening?, an irreverent portrait of America of the 60s seen through the experiences of artists of the Beat Generation and Pop Art. The America of the Vietnam war, ploughed by contradictions and explosive social tensions but potentially saturated with expectations for the future. With: Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Gregory Corso, Fred Mogubgub, Marie Benois and Leon Kraushar.
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Flavia Mastrella - Antonio Rezza
OTTIMISMO DEMOCRATICO
(Democratic Optimism)
ita-eng dvd+book, 131',
64 pages (180x120mm), 19 € serie: aut out
“Ottimismo Democratico" is a video-itinerary of short films by Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza created and produced between 1990 and 1999. A constant feature is the presence of Antonio Rezza 's tragic-catastrophic figure and (hypnotic) voice. The events tell of a culture in decadence. The stories, the voice and the settings are all dense with atmosphere, the body seen to be trapped in an alienating space where, in the fragments pieced together, the protagonism of a pedantic humanity stands out in all its meanness yet is extremely comical.
Flavia Mastrella and Antonio Rezza have made an infinite number of short films, three full-length films, nine theatre performances, television programmes and various artistic and literary works. Their productions, all in black and white, have never been issued as home videos but have won numerous prizes in the main festivals of independent cinema and are now considered cult movies.
Ten years of original, visionary and surreal productions immortalised by the photographer Martina Villiger in the book edited by the authors themselves.
Special contents: photo gallery, graphic gallery and the unpublished documentary “Il passato è il mio bastone” (The Past is My Stick, Venice Days 2008) with amusing images filmed and unedited and with critical interventions by Cristina Piccino, Steve Della Casa, Giovanni Spagnoletti, Fabio Ferzetti, Marco Dotti, Paolo D'Agostini, Morando Morandini, enrico ghezzi and Roberto Silvestri.
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Paolo Gioli
UN CINEMA DELL'IMPRONTA IMPRINT CINEMA
This is the first book devoted to Paolo Gioli's cinema. It contains contributions by many experts in the field including David Bordwell, Dominique Païni, Jean-Michel Bouhours, Elena Volpato. The original texts of the authors' articles are provided along with Italian and English translations. The comprehensive collection of images from Gioli’s paintings, photographs and films establishes a vital nexus between the different media (worked in). The book contains the DVD "6 Films by Paolo Gioli" with unpublished works of the italian artist.
Paolo Gioli was born in 1942 in Sarzano (Rovigo). In 1960 he attended the Open School of the Nude at the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice where he lived and worked for a number of years. In 1967 he set off for New York, where he lived and worked for a year; there, he was granted a scholarship from the John Cabot Fund. In New York he discovered the New American Cinema, met gallerists Leo Castelli and Martha Jackson and became acquainted with the New York School of painting. Forced to interrupt his stay in America and to return to Italy, Gioli moved to Rome in 1970. In Rome, he got in touch with the Cooperativa Cinema Indipendente, which revolved around the Filmstudio 70, an important point of reference for all Italian experimental filmmakers. He produced his first films in Rovigo and Rome. During his stay in Rome he became deeply interested in photography. In 1976, he moved to Milan where, in addition to filmmaking, he devoted his time to photography. In the polaroid, that he calls humid incunabulum of modern history, he found a surprising means of further extending his research in instant photography. In the early eighties, he returned to Polesine, where he was born. He currently lives and works in Lendinara.
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Kiwido is a new Italian cross-media company mainly focused on cultural and social topics and issues.
A production and distribution company particularly addressed to an audience interested arts, cultures and cosmopolitan reality.
A video, multimedia and events production addressed to a curious target demanding for new stimulations and looking for different points of view.
Music, cinema, theatre, photography, documentaries, short films, animation, video-art, vjing, in search of new communication channels, new languages and modern fruitions.
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:.publishing.:
planning, production and distribution of video and multimedia contents through different channels: dvd, paper and web publications
:.production.:
video production mainly focused on social, artistic and musical issues and suitable for home video distribution and new technological platforms
:.distribution.:
sale and acquisition of film rights at the major international festivals and markets. original and innovative titles by both, famous and young emerging, authors and directors
:.services.:
audio/video production and post-production, creative and technical support, graphics, compositing, web publishing and web design, dvd authoring
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Series
AUT OUT
(art movies, theatre, feature short films)
Kiwido’s selection of movies and experimental videos offers the opportunity to discover authors whose works are usually less distributed. The products belong to a great variety of original movies, theatrical works, short films from all over the world and gathered in national and international festivals. Aut Aut is a collection of surrealist and visionary works focused on the personal expressions of the authors.
The most non-figurative and conceptual works, open and abstract visions made of emotions and sensations. Less famous animation movies from countries with a strong tradition, 20th century ‘s expressionism and avant-gardes , 21st century’s digital artists and last generations of videomakers and live performers.
SERIE K
(politics, economies and societies)
A “road map” through the most important topics of the international geo-politic scene. From the environemental issues to the sustainable development, from the new markets to the new economical theories, from the development of the third world to the migrations, from the new dynamics of the labour market to the no-profit realities and other economies.
Having learnt from experimental and vanguard cinema, as well as contemporary music, Roberto Nanni is constantly looking for a synthesis between a visual and audio language which can with rare non-chalance confuse documentation and abstractism. An emotional deconstruction that questions every type of language and refuses conventional narration.
The book brings together notes, photos, sketches, precious testimonies of his research and of his intimate knowledge of technical and expressive means, as well as Stefano Catucci and Bruno Di Marino's critical texts.
The collection of his films includes: "L’amore vincitore. Conversazione con Derek Jarman" and "Greenhouse Effect. Steven Brown reads John Keats", video and music from the performances of Tuxedomoon's Steve Brown, with whom the film maker has collaborated for a number of years.
Extras: "Autoscatto" with Cesare Romani, Roberto Silvestri, Cristina Piccino, Antonio Rezza, Flavia Mastrella and new images of Jarman, an interview with Steven Brown and "AutoSfratto" with Skiantos’ Roberto ‘Freak’ Antoni.
“One of the greatest Italian experimenters, explorer of formats, styles and devices, solitary navigator of the mysterious abyss of emulsion, of matter and memory.”
Bruno Di Marino
