curated by CineAgenzia

in conjunction with Médecins Sans Frontières

Internazionale has chosen the Palazzo delle Esposizioni again this year to present a fascinating new selection of current affairs documentaries selected throughout the world for the journalism fest in Ferrara and which will subsequently be visiting numerous other cities in Italy besides Rome.  Of all the characters in the documentaries in this year's programme, perhaps only the Evangelical missionaries in Africa in God Loves Uganda make it through the whole film without once being assailed by doubt, in their case that their fundamentalist and homphobic propaganda in such a fragile country may be doing more harm than good.  Apart from that, all the other films in the programme address, in different ways and different contexts, a typical experience of our age which is when people stop believing (too much) in something or in someone.  For instance, in the leaders of a regime such as that of North Korea, from whom the illegal immigrants in The Defector are fleeing; or in the financial advisers whom the population of the charming town of Vik in Norway have entrusted with their taxes and their savings, trying in When Bubbles Burst to figure out what has happened to them.  The Haitians who survived the devastating earthquake in 2010 are sick and tired of the unkept promises on the part of international agencies and NGOs given that, as Fatal Assistance reveals, the entire system of humanitarian aid needs to be overhauled; and we would be well advised, as Edward Snowden's disclosures have confirmed, to wonder whether all of those on-line services, apps and websites really are free after all... or whether they cost us our privacy, as we should read in the small print at which Terms and Conditions May Apply finally takes an in-depth look.  The lead character in Marta's Suitcase has had to stop believing in the person she loved because it was precisely her husband that brought her to within an inch of her life and who still terrorises her in this dramatic, exemplary and extremely topical case of gender violence.  But just as it is for Marta, who is struggling to start living again and to be able to feel safe when she steps outside her home, the important thing is that there should come a time to take stock of what certain experiences teach us.  And just as we can react to natural and economic disasters, to the dogmas of a faith or a technology, to the tragedies of history or in our private lives, so we can also react to social injustice:  in Fire in the Blood we see a random group of brave activists reacting to the global control of patents over life-saving drugs, an iron grip that is causing millions to die of AIDS in the Third World.  In Powerless, on the other hand, it is a group of reckless Indian electricity pirates who side in their own way against inequality, armed only with a pair of pliars, fighting for a world in which there can be a little light, justice and hope for all.  The entire programme of documentaries will be screened in the presence of Internazionale editors who will be introducing the films and the themes they address to the audience.

Info

Palazzo delle Esposizioni - Sala Cinema

Admission via steps in via Milano 9a, Rome

ADMISSION FREE WHILE PLACES LAST

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