The characters of the film, based on the novel of popular children’s literature writer Sachiko Kashiwaba Chikashitsu kara no Fushigina Tabi, were designed by Russian artist Illya Kuvshinov. The heroine Akane, an insecure girl, is sent by her mother to the shop of aunt Chii. During the visit, an elegantly-dressed mysterious alchemist catapults her into an alternative dimension. The basement of Chii’s home, in fact, is connected to a fantastic world: Wonderland.
The movie will be presented bu the curator, Giuletta Fara.
Film-maker and animator Keiichi Hara was acclaimed for his Summer Days with Coo (Japan Academy Prize) and especially Colourful (Special Mention of the Jury and Audience Award at Annecy 2011). He also directed the live-action Hajimari no Michi and Miss Hokusai.
“Cinema is a merry-go-round,” said Georges Méliès, and, speaking of the latter’s phantasmagorias, Antonio Costa wrote “Cinema is like a big toy.” Marco Ferreri, in his last film, Nitrate Base, staged a ‘primitive’ picture house, i.e. a circus tent accommodating a projection screen and, instead of the seats, as many rocking horses.
Merry-go-rounds, toys, and circus tents have always rightfully belonged to the world of the little ones.
Marco Ferreri was indeed a fantastic discovery for me at the Pesaro Film Festival in 1995. Dillinger Is Dead was a revelation: a reborn man who discovers ‘trivial’ objects as if they were treasures, a series of objets trouvés in a search reminiscent of Pippi Longstocking, the Thing-Finder.
An intersection of past and present to depict cinema as a game, a never-ending experiment, and a great passion: the name Pesaro Film Festival Circus is both a tribute to these masters and a declaration of intent. You can, and must play with cinema!
The new section of the Pesaro Film Festival intends to open a little window onto the cinema for kids that is also a gaze onto the future, focusing on those young viewers who will want to and be curious to get in a small dedicated screening room and in a big workshop space.
The films selected are those which most suffered from the lack of movie theatres for a suitable first-run presentation, but also films outside the mainstream circuits. This year, even the Pixar creatives were greatly disappointed with important titles that, because of the pandemic, were presented in digital platforms instead of movie theatres. So these are the titles: Rémi Chayé’s Calamity, A Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary, Jean-François Laguionie and Xavier Picard’s The Prince’s Voyage, Gints Zilbalodis’ Away, Keiichi Hara’s The Wonderland, Anca Damian’s Marona’s Fantastic Tale, and a selection of shorts made by Italian film-makers.
Besides the screenings, Pesaro Film Festival Circus proposes three workshops to let the children ‘have a finger in the pie’, conducted by Saul Saguatti, Michele Bernardi, and Studio Croma. Quoting Mario Lodi, “Children also need to be behind the camera in order to understand how the magic of cinema is made but, above all, to make some of their own, even more awesome.”
Have fun everyone!
Curated by Giulietta Fara
ALL SCREENINGS ARE FREE WITH RESERVATION
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