curated by Claudia Praolini | reviews by Sofia Brugali
Through the thematic focuses, the Concorto Film Festival aims to examine the phenomena and the aspects of our reality which represent a mirror of desires and contradictions that together form the complexity of human nature. In this year’s framework, something that simply could not miss is a research on the intricate relationship existing between man and nature through a series of short films that analyse it, also bearing in mind that nowadays the foundation of this relationship is the excessive use of resources and the fracture of a global balance, whose heavy consequences have already been registered for a long time now.
Our planet is at great risk due to the changes led by man, who has already modified 77% of landmass, often by dismembering nature in order to make space for residential, industrial or commercial areas, but also for livestock farming and agricultural activities. Only 23% of landmass remains intact and what the experts are worried about is the exponentially growing trend: from 1990 man has devastated 3.3 millions square km of land. That part of land which is referred to as “wilderness” (by definition “wild nature”), meaning those areas where currently no human invasive activity has been registered, agriculture included, is constantly decreasing and represents only 23% of the whole planet.
The selected films
curated by Claudia Praolini
Aux Confins du Monde (Até Onde o Mundo Alcança), Daniel Frota de Abreu, 2023, Brasil, Netherlands and Belgium
Puffling, Jessica Bishopp, 2023, United Kingdom, USA and Iceland
Even Tide, Francesco Clerici, 2023, Italy and Switzerland
The Documentary Journey of Madame Anita Conti (Voyage de documentation de Madame Anita Conti), Louise Hemon, 2024, France
Reviews by Sofia Brugali
Aux Confins du Monde (Até Onde o Mundo Alcança), Daniel Frota de Abreu, 2023, Brasil, Netherlands and Belgium
A team of ethnobotanists researches the content of a book about Brasilian plant and animal life, published in Amsterdam in the XVII century. An ornithologist follows the many bird songs and calls of the Brasilian wildlife. In his intersectional shortfilm, Daniel Frota di Abreu explores the connection between knowledge and control, colonialism and environmental issues.
Puffling, Jessica Bishopp, 2023, United Kingdom, USA and Iceland
In the small Icelandic town of Vestmannaeyjar, a unique tradition has been handed down for generations: teenagers commit to save pufflings (young puffins) that got stuck in the city on their way to the ocean. By paralleling human beings and animals, Jessica Bishopp creates a touching metaphor, also giving voice to those expectations and fears that come with the transition to adulthood.
Even Tide, Francesco Clerici, 2023, Italy and Switzerland
Even Tide creates a future world in which humanity is on the brink of extinction, through a simple narrative expedient: the last words of a survivor who is about to die. However, the images flowing before the eyes of the spectators, filmed by wildlife cameras hidden in the woods, couldn’t be more real: they are a collection of frame taken and discarded by wildlife film-makers Paolo Rossi and Nicola Rebora, and artistically recycled by Francesco Clerici.
The Documentary Journey of Madame Anita Conti (Voyage de documentation de Madame Anita Conti), Louise Hemon, 2024, France
In 1952 Anita Conti embarked on a fishing boat headed towards the open Atlantic, in order to document the life of fishermen during the cod-fishing season. But let’s take a step back: Anita Conti is not a random woman, but the first French oceanographer, who already halfway through the last century denounced the effects of overfishing. The film edit, made of the original photos and short videos taken by Conti, together with excerpts of her travel account, renders the magnificence of the ocean and the passion of the woman who observed it.
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