ASTRADOC 14 – On February 23rd in Naples Stonebreakers” and “West of Babylonia”

After the success of the first two appointments, the XIV edition of “AstraDoc – Journey into the cinema of reality”, a review of Arci Movie documentaries at the Cinema Academy Astra in Naples, continues. With the two screenings scheduled for Friday 23 February 2024 we will discover American society, between the dream of democracy and great contradictions, in the year of the presidential elections and in the midst of the primaries which will have their highlight on Super Tuesday at the first of March. We start at 7 pm with “Stonebreakers” (USA/Italy, 2022, 70) by Valerio Ciriaci, a documentary that tells what happened in the midst of the Black Lives Matter revolt and the presidential election, i.e. the battle over historical monuments. A cultural conflict that overwhelms statues of Columbus, Confederates and Founding Fathers, and calls into question the American mythical narrative. Exploring a changing memorial landscape, “Stonebreakers” questions the relationship between history and political struggle in an America that, today more than ever, is called upon to come to terms with its past. The film – presented as a world premiere at the Festival dei Popoli 2022 where it won the Special Mention for Best Italian Documentary, the Audience Award and the “Unmissable” award – will be introduced by Vincenzo Bavaro, associate professor of American literature at the University of Naples L’Orientale. At 9 pm the director Emanuele Mengotti arrives in the theater to present to the Neapolitan public his “West of Babylonia” (Italy, 2020, 82) which catapults us into the Californian desert where there is a place called Slab City, a collection of campers, caravans , tents and buildings without foundations, without running water and without electricity, on the border with a military base where explosive devices are tested. Slabbers are young and old, hippies and neo-Nazis, outlaws and artists. All united by the desire to be free and not have to respond to the rules of American society. Everything outside of Slab City is “Babylonia” for them. The doc, which sees Marco Tomaselli as director of photography, is the first of a trilogy still in progress. Presented as a world premiere at the Biografilm Festival in Bologna, the work toured several international festivals