(www.lorraine.ch/genua-Webworker back from Locarno, 12.8.2001)

Medienmitteilung
Das Filmfestival Locarno bzw. die Filmfestivalleiterin Irene Bignardi hat sich bekanntlich entschlossen kurzfristig den Film ´Summit of Violenceª, eine Dokumentation über die Geschehnisse in Genua (20-22.Juli), in's Programm zu nehmen. Die Webworker von www.lorraine.ch/genua waren vor Ort.

Grosser Andrang heute vor dem Kino Rex in Locarno. Schon um 10 Uhr morgens warteten ein paar Hundert Leute vor dem Eingang des Kino Rex, in dem der Film ´Summit of Violenceª um 11 Uhr und 14 Uhr gezeigt werden sollte. Die Kinoleitung musste sogar eine Sondervorstellung dazwischenschieben, um dem Andrang gerecht zu werden. Was die meisten im Publikum nicht wussten: Sie sahen eine zensurierte Version des Filmes.

Gemäss unseren und Recherchen von Indymedia Schweiz hat die Regierung Berlusconi in Person von Kulturuntersekretär Vittorio Sgarbi (sottosecretario beniculturali) Druck auf die Tessiner Regierung gemacht, damit diese der Filmfestivalleitung nahelegt den Film nicht zu zeigen. Nachdem die Leiterin des Filmfestivals, Irene Bignardi, mit ihrem Rücktritt gedroht hatte, einigte man sich darauf, nur die zensurierte Version zu zeigen - ca. 30-45 Minuten kürzer, ohne Kommentare und Interviews.

MitarbeiterInnen von Indymedia Schweiz forderten von Festivalleitung und RegisseurInnen erfolglos eine Stellungsnahme. Offenbar haben die Beteiligten noch nicht den Mut an die Öffentlichkeit zu treten.

In einem Bericht des Tessiner Radios Rete 2 (siehe Link unten) ist zu erfahren, dass Kulturuntersekretär Vittorio Sgarbi höchstpersönlich an der 11 Uhr-Vorstellung anwesend war. Offenbar um die Zensurmassnahmen zu überwachen und erfolglos zu versuchen das angeschlagene Ansehen der Regierung Berlusconi aufzubessern. In einem Interview äussert er sich gegenüber Rete 2 über den Film und verharmlost die Polizeibrutalität während der Anti-G8-Proteste in Genua.

Die neuesten Zensurversuche der Regierung Berlusconi sind ein weiterer Angriff auf das ganze Filmprojekt. Die VideomacherInnen wurden von PolizistInnen während der Dreharbeiten attackiert, Videomaterial wurde beschlagnahmt, Regierungsmitglieder und ParlamentarierInnen der faschistischen Parteien versuchten wiederholt das Filmprojekt zu Fall zu bringen und diskreditieren VideomacherInnen und RegisseurInnen.
Wir fordern alle Film- und VideomacherInnen, -RegisseurInnen und -KonsumentInnen auf, gegen die Behinderung dieses Filmprojektes zu protestieren.

Mit freundlichen Grüssen

Bern, 12.8.2001

www.lorraine.ch/genua - Webworker
bgfz@bluemail.ch
 
 

Webworker

Filmbeschrieb Filmfestival Locarno
Video diario: i giorni del g8
Summit of Violence
Pardo News, 12 agosto 2001
http://www.rtsi.ch/pardo/mostrascheda.cfm?scheda=1004

Locarno screens a video record of the chaos at the G8 protests in Genoa
Last July a group of Mediterranean filmmakers came together in Genoa to film the anti-globalisation protests at the G8 summit. What was intended to be a multi-cultural account of three days of creative popular dissent became a record of violence and bloodshed. "Video Diary: The Days at G8" is the first edit of the material and screens in Locarno on Sunday. Milan-based director Osvaldo Verri was one of 15 filmmakers from around the Mediterranean Rim who planned to produce a joint account of the protest demonstrations at the G8 summit in Genoa last July. But their multi-cultural documentary was never completed. Caught up in the spiral of violence at Genoa, they used their digital cameras to film what happened in the streets and squares of the city.

Despite police beatings and illegal seizure or breakage of equipment and material, they were able to save around 20 hours of video footage. Edited down to a two-hour documentary, their testimony has become a Video Diary: The Days at G8. It screens at the Locarno Festival in the Rex theatre on Sunday at 11 am and 2 pm.

The original idea for the project emerged two months before the summit. "A group of filmmakers came together from around the Mediterranean ó Italian, French, Spanish, Palestinian," Verri explains.

"We decided to make our contribution to the protests in the form of a multi-faceted documentary in which each director would have ten minutes to tell their particular story of the demo. The common denominator was to be the creative aspect of the no-global movement."
The first day of the protests passed off peacefully with a march by demonstrators from Italyís immigrant community, a colourful encounter between different people, singing, dancing and laughing. "But there was already an unreal atmosphere," Verri notes, "with the container camps and parts of the city walled off. The scene was set for the apocalyptic to happen."

On Friday, day two of the summit, the march by protestors from social centres degenerated into violence, as did the main demonstration on Saturday, when 200,000 or more protestors in Genoa arrived from all over Italy, Europe and the world. "Instead of telling creative stories from inside the march, we found ourselves filming moments of fear and high drama," says Verri

Were you able to avoid the police violence yourselves?
"No. Anyone with a camera was a prime target. Two Spanish crews were attacked and had all their material seized. Another crew from Rome was also attacked and lost everything, and a French crew had their stuff confiscated. So we lost a lot, including many cameras which were deliberately smashed."

What do you plan to do with the surviving material after this first edit?
"We havenít had much time to think about it yet. We were delighted that Irene Bignardi has decided to make space for the film at Locarno, but we had a real rush to get all the material together, watch it through and edit it down to the Video Diary for the festival. It tells the story from our various points of view, a compilation of fragments which has value as a true record of what happened."

Do you expect a hostile response from the Italian authorities?
"Thereís already been a motion from Forza Italia at the Regional Council of Liguria, asking for the Foreign Minister to interveneÖ But they have no idea what theyíre talking about, they describe us as ëamateur filmmakers from the Seattle movementí ó well, one of us is an Oscar-winning director, Gabriele Salvatores! Without having seen the film, they say itís an attempt to discredit the military and the police. Itís true we filmed episodes of police violence, firing tear-gas canisters directly into the crowd and so on, but what we did above all was film the many facets of the demo itself, from the White Overalls to the Black Bloc, the pacifists, everyone. When the baton charges came, we had to run away, too."
 

Filmfestival Locarno zeigt Genua-Film
SF DRS, 10vor10, 10.08.2001
http://real1.xobix.ch/ramgen/sfdrs/10vor10/2001/10vor10_10082001.rm?start=0:09:51.951&end=0:13:19.174

 
Intervista ad una delle realizzatrici e a Vittorio Sgarbi da "Speciale Festival"
Rete Due, 12 agosto ore 12.40
Ascolta il programma
http://www.rtsi.ch/pardo/real.cfm?scheda=1018