Franco Piavoli

Made for the Venice Film Festival's 70th anniversary, seventy filmmakers made a short film between 60 and 90 seconds long on their interpretation of the future of cinema.

At the end of the war, Odysseus, the wandering hero, with his companions begins his sail back home to the Mediterranean. The conclusion of his adventure is delayed by many natural obstacles and he takes an internal journey of fleeting memories of his childhood, his parents, love for a beautiful girl, nostalgia for the past, regret for what he did, and the deep silence that envelops everything. He confronts the most terrible loneliness following a shipwreck in which all the comrades perish.

Documentary by Franco Piavoli based on the correspondence between Italian poets Alessandro Parronchi and Umberto Bellintani.

The aging, conservative population of a small, sleepy village in the Italian Alps are surprised to see that a former French professor has settled there with his young wife and their three children to produce goat cheese, in order to escape the wrongs of civilization. At first they are suspicious of his unconventional ideas and lifestyle, then are conquered by the enthusiasm, kindness, helpfulness of the young family and start to see in them a possible rebirth of the place. But little by little misunderstandings, envy and conflicts take over.

The feast of St. Peter in a country village. The priest admonishes his parishioners to confess and be free of avarice, but after mass he invites them all to make merry. Outside the church the elderly villagers are the first to start dancing, while street artists entertain passers by and the kids fly around on brightly lit carousels. There is als an old man inside at home, an invalid in a wheelchair, a young man wandering lost in thought, while a lonely woman watches the cuddling couples. Every year in towns, villages and urban neighborhoods there are traditional feasts to celebrate the patron saint. They reflect a need for faith, conviviality and entertainment, but for some they also make the sense of solitude and apprehension even stronger. Share:

Set on an August afternoon in the Lombardy countryside, a family lingers around the table after a long summer meal. As the day stretches on, each member moves off to their own activities, quietly passing the hours.

Fragments of a collaboration between director Franco Piavoli (The Blue Planet, The First Breath of Wind) and students of the Laboratory Making Cinema founded by Marco Bellocchio.

Visual ode to contemplative journey through the stages of life and the essence of human existence, set in a timeless backdrop of an Italian village.