VENICE. La Biennale di Venezia announces at the 79th Venice International Film Festival two solidarity initiatives for directors, filmmakers, artists arrested or imprisoned around the world in the last year, with the aim of raising awareness in the media, governments and world humanitarian organizations on the their situation. The two initiatives, organized in collaboration with Icfr-International Coalition Filmmakers at Risk, consist of an international panel (Saturday 3 September at 3.30 pm at the Palazzo del Casinò) and a flash-mob on the red carpet (at the Palazzo del Cinema on Friday 9 September at 16.30).
The international panel, entitled “Filmmakers Under Attack: Taking Stock, Acting / Filmmakers Under Attack: Taking stock, Taking Action” will see the participation of the director of the Festival, Alberto Barbera, of Vanja Kalurdjercic (Croatia, director of the International Film Festival of Rotterdam), Nadir Öperli (Turkey, producer), Orwa Nyrabia (director of the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam), Mike Downey (president of the European Film Academy) and an Iranian filmmaker. Topics and objectives of the panel will be: to inform about the situation of filmmakers currently persecuted, arrested or held prisoner in the world; express solidarity and concern for their future; point out the need for the world of cinema to mobilize; discuss possible actions that the international community can concretely take to help them. Furthermore – on the occasion of the panel – filmmakers and artists present at the Show will be invited to participate in the flash-mob on the red carpet of the Palazzo del Cinema on Friday 9 September.
In particular, among the topics addressed: the ICFR fund project for Ukrainian directors (Vanja Kalurdjercic will talk about it), the numerous cases of persecuted filmmakers that the ICFR is dealing with in the rest of the world (Orwa Nyrabia), the situation in Turkey, with reference to the case of producer Cidgem Mater and her colleagues convicted with her (Nadir Öperli), the Iranian situation, with reference to the recent cases of filmmakers Jafar Panahi, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad (Iranian director).
All filmmakers, artists and other personalities from the cinema community present on Friday will be invited to participate in the flash-mob on the red carpet Cinema to attract the particular attention of director Jafar Panahi and other persecuted Iranian directors. The flash-mob will take place before the screening in the Great Hall of the film in competition «Kehrs nist» (No Bears, Iran, 107 ‘), directed by Jafar Panahi, (4:45 pm). The dissident Iranian filmmaker, already arrested and convicted in the past, will of course not be able to be present at the Festival as he was again deprived of personal freedom last July, for having demonstrated together with numerous colleagues for the arrest of two other directors, Mohammad Rasoulof and Mostafa Aleahmad, which occurred following protests against violence against civilians in Iran. The flash-mob organized immediately before the screening of Jafar Panahi’s film intends to represent, explains the Biennale in a press release, “the strongest demonstration of the greatest solidarity of the world of cinema towards the director and all the colleagues who are in his situation”.