Trieste Science+Fiction Festival

TRIESTE SCIENCE+FICTION FESTIVAL 16° INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE FICTION FESTIVAL TRIESTE, NOVEMBER 1-6, 2016

TRIESTE, CITY OF SCIENCE AND SCIENCE-FICTION

The 16th edition of Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, organized by La Cappella Underground, will take place on November 1-6, 2016. Trieste will become once again the city of science and science fiction, thanks to the longstanding international event centered on the exploration of fantastic universes.

Founded in Trieste in 2000, Trieste Science+Fiction Festival is the most important Italian event celebrating science fiction and fantasy filmmaking in cinema, television and the new media, literature, comics, music, visual and performing arts. The festival official selection includes international, national and world premières, with three competitive sections featuring filmmakers from all over the world: Asteroide Award, international competition for the best science fiction film by emerging directors, and the two Méliès d’argent Awards, in collaboration with the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation, for the best European fantastic feature and short films. The programme also includes Spazio Italia, a focus on Italian productions, the Meetings on Futurology, vintage videogames exhibitions and Play It Again tournaments, an exhibition celebrating Nathan Never’s 25th anniversary, the concert of the band Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, and the event Notte degli Ultracorpi, on Saturday, November 5th, featuring “Dj Yoda goes to the Sci-Fi Movies”, with the well-known hip hop dj mixing music and images from the best-known science-fiction movies of all times selected together with a team from the British Film Institute. A brand new section, the Fantastic Film Forum, will be added to the programme this year: a full day packed with meetings and masterclasses for distributors, producers, directors, screenwriters and new filmmaking talents.

The most awaited guest this year will be Dutch actor Rutger Hauer, who will be receiving the Urania d’Argento Award 2016 (in collaboration with the famous science fiction book series Mondadori Urania). «I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.» It’s the famous speech by the replicant Roy Batty a.k.a Rutger Hauer in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. In BBC’s documentary Dangerous Days: On the Edge of Blade Runner, Hauer, the director Ridley Scott and the screenwriter David Peoples stated that it was the Dutch actor himself who wrote the speech of one of the most memorable and touching sequences in the history of film. That role made Rutger Hauer an icon of modern science fiction in movies. Amongst the more than eighty movies in Rutger Hauer’s career: Turkish Delight and Katie Tippel by Paul Verhoeven, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, Eureka by Nicholas Roeg, The Osterman Weekend by Sam Peckinpah, Ladyhawke by Richard Donner, The Hitcher by Robert Harmon, Ermanno Olmi’s La leggenda del santo bevitore, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind by George Clooney, Robert Rodriguez’s and Frank Miller’s Sin City, Batman Begins by Christopher Nolan.

The Italian première of Morgan, produced by Sir Ridley Scott and directed by his son, Luke Scott, will open Trieste Science+Fiction Festival’s 16th edition. Distributed by 20th Century Fox, the movie will be released in Italian theatres on November 9th. Morgan is the next step in human evolution. But evolution can be dangerous: what happens when the creature surpasses the creator? And whose side would you be on: this genetically engineered wonder or the corporation that is overseeing its development? Morgan is a star-studded première in Trieste, with Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Paul Giamatti, Toby Jones, Michelle Yeoh and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and a score by Max Richter.

The festival will also celebrate the 50-year anniversary of Star Trek with the Italian première of For the Love of Spock, directed by Adam Nimoy, son of Leonard Nimoy, the iconic Mr. Spock from the cult Star Trek series. A one-of- a-kind documentary, telling the story of Spock and of Leonard Nimoy, the actor that played him for fifty years. To the delight of all the Star Trek fans, Adam Nimoy will be among the festival guests on Tuesday, November 1st, together with Terry Farrell, the beloved Jadzia Dax from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The closing film will be Zero Days, the new geo-political thriller by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, “the most important documentarian of our time”. The documentary is a shocking report on “Stuxnet”, a computer virus created for the first time by a sovereign State explicitly to be used as a weapon against a hostile nation. It will be presented in Trieste before being distributed in theatres by I Wonder Pictures.

The official selection (NEON) of Trieste Science+Fiction Festival 2016 includes the following films in Competition: the world première of Almost Dead by Giorgio Bruno, six hours to find an antidote to a virus transforming human beings into zombies; Approaching the Unknown, written and directed by Mark Elijah Rosenberg, at his first feature film, with Mark Strong as Captain William Stanaforth on a mission to Mars; the Austrian film Attack of the Lederhosenzombies by Dominik Hartl, a zombie movie set in a mountain hut; the Greek film Blind Sun by Joyce A. Nashawati, a sketch of a near future where water is in short supply, social violence is increasing and a scorching sun shines mercilessly; Creative Control by Benjamin Dickinson, exploring augmented reality and interpersonal relationships in the Brooklyn of tomorrow; Embers by Claire Carré, already described as one of the most memorable independent science fiction movies of the last ten years, in which the survivors of a global epidemics try to make sense of their lives in a world without memory; the British film Kill Command by Steven Gomez, who revives the Terminator and Robocop themes by showing an élite army unit being sent to an island to test the most recent prototypes of killing machines; Mon Ange by Harry Cleven, a poetic sci-fi fairytale between a girl that cannot see and a boy who cannot be seen; The Open by Marc Lahore, set against the backdrop of a global war, where three misfits do not accept to be doomed and will not give up playing tennis; Realive by Mateo Gil, screenwriter of Vanilla Sky and Mar Adentro, a story of hibernation and hi-tech resurrection; the first Serbian science fiction movie, The Rift by Dejan Zecevic, in which a satellite falls on Earth bringing something from another world; Sum of Histories by Lukas Bossuyt, about the effects of a mind-blowing discovery: that emails can be sent to the past; the British movie Under the Shadow by Babak Anvari, showing the situation of women in post-revolution Teheran through the haunted house trope and the djinn mythology; Virtual Revolution by Guy-Roger Duvert, set in 2047 Paris, torn between the great majority of the “connected” and the “living”, an élite of the few still holding on to reality; Vulcania by José Skaf, a mysterious place, lost in space and time; and, last but not least, Monolith by Ivan Silvestrini, an Italian-American sci-fi thriller based on a graphic novel by Roberto Recchioni, curator of Dylan Dog for Bonelli Publishing, Mauro Uzzeo and LRNZ: the Monolith of the title is the safest SUV in the world, made to protect the closest and dearest from every possible threat.

Special events Out of competition: the Argentinian film Daemonium: Soldier of the Underworld by Pablo Parés, a real sci-fi tourbillon in which magic and technology co-exist among humans and demons; I’m not a Serial Killer by Billy O’Brien, the story of a boy incapable of love fighting a monster who kills in the name of love; the Indian gore movie Ludo by Q and Nikon, four teenagers falling victim to a simple but deadly game; the French film Moonwalkers by Antoine Bardou-Jacquet, a cult comedy about the legendary studio recordings of the Apollo 11 moon landing; La rage du démon by Fabien Delage, an amazing report on the founding of a rare, fascinating and dangerous film allegedly made by George Méliès; the Korean double-feature by YEON Sang-Ho: the adult animation Seoul Station, a story of devourers and devoured against the backdrop of a Seoul where no shelter can be found, a prequel to the survival horror Train to Busan, in which the passengers on a train are fighting a terrible epidemic transforming everyone into zombies; the American exploitation movie Southbound, a five-tale puzzle set against nightmares and secrets during a long night on a desert road; the Japanese movie Terraformars by Takashi Miike, a true sci-fi gem set in 2599 on Mars amongst giant mutant insects and super mercenaries by the ultimate cult director.

Once again this year Spazio Italia, the special showcase Trieste Science+Fiction Festival sets aside for fantastic and science fiction projects “made in Italy”: we will see Alieween by Federico Sfascia, East End by Skanf & Puccio and Blatta, the new web series project by Daniele Ciprì.

Spazio Italia’s programmed special events: the screening of Ballad in Blood by Ruggero Deodato, cult director of Cannibal Holocaust, who will present his latest work inspired by the Meredith Kercher case; and the final version of Blood on Méliès Moon (La porta sui mondi) by Luigi Cozzi. Ruggero Deodato comes back to the big screen with Ballad in Blood. Inspired by real events such as Meredith Kercher’s murder and recovering found footage, a typical feature of his filmmaking (his Cannibal Holocaust - a true archetype of the genre - will stay with us forever), Deodato puts together a violent and morbid story, full of sex, drugs and violence, set against a perturbing and disturbing University microcosm. The film’s score is by Claudio Simonetti, founder of Goblin and composer of unforgettable soundtracks, and already a guest of last year’s Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. And back in Trieste again is also Luigi Cozzi with the final version of his Blood on Méliès Moon, which work in progress was shown for the first time during last year’s Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. The story is set in France, in 1890, when inventor Louis Le Prince, after registering the patent for a machine that films moving images and projects them onto a screen, disappeared in strange circumstances: since then, nobody has ever heard again about him or his machine. What happened to Louis Le Prince? His mysterious disappearance – which is a historical truth – has remained unsolved to this day.

Trieste Science+Fiction Festival celebrates the 40th anniversary of the pioneering section Fant'Italia, curated by Lorenzo Codelli and Giuseppe Lippi, with a selection of five titles which, just as many others before them, have made the Italian fantastic genre famous all over the world. Hence, in collaboration with CSC-Cineteca Nazionale, Pupi Avati’s La casa dalle finestre che ridono (one more splendid 40th anniversary!) and Dario Argento’s Il gatto a nove code, will be shown in “vintage” 35mm, counterpointed by the brand newly 4k restored copy of Terrore nello spazio. And, last but not least, a tribute to a director who passed away recently, and whose films have always been screened in Trieste, Corrado Farina, with his young-age brilliant divertissement Il figlio di Dracula and the still underestimated Baba Yaga.

Sci-Fi Classix is the section of the great restored and remastered genre classics back on the theatre screens at Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. The special events of the Sci-Fi Classix is scheduled on Saturday, November 5th: Dario Argento will present the 4k restored copy of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead in the version edited and curated by the master of the Italian horror himself for the European market, with a soundtrack by the Goblin. Then, three great classic films by filmmakers from beyond what was formerly known as the Iron Curtain: the pioneering movie by Jindrich Polak, Ikarie XB 1, and two masterpieces of the Soviet science-fiction, Per aspera ad astra by Ricard Viktorov, and the world-famous Solaris by Andrej Tarkovskij.

The 16th edition of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival is enriched by a brand new section called Fantastic Film Forum, especially dedicated to film professionals with an eye to the future as a promotional platform for the fantastic and sci-fi genre, and a meeting place for the creation of projects, where to exchange ideas, experiences and contacts in view of a future European and international cooperation. The Fantastic Film Forum’s objective is to offer producers, directors, screenwriters, technical professionals and distributors coming to the Festival a whole day of professional meetings and masterclasses by master filmmakers and the participation of young, talented newcomers.

Science fiction is a "continuous exercise of imagination" about what we will become and which planet we will live on. Once again this year the collaboration between ARPA FVG - Regional Lab for Environmental Education and Trieste Science+Fiction Festival is renewed. The programme of the 16th edition lists a number of titles of films marked by a symbol reminding the audience that films and science-fiction with an environmental outlook can be thought-provoking in the spirit of a responsible future for all human kind.

Unmissable, the Meetings on Futurology are a bridge between science and literature, reality and fiction, astrophysicists and writers, particle accelerators and Alfa agents: Carlo Fonda from the SciFabLab of ICTP, Paolo Gallina (winner of the Galileo award for science communication with his L’anima delle macchine), Information theorist Giuseppe O. Longo, Paolo Molaro from the Trieste Astronomic Observatory, Michele Rebesco from the National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics, Claudio Tuniz from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), and Marina Cobal, leading the ATLAS experiment Italian team of the LHC accelerator at CERN in Geneva; the winner of the Urania award Luca Cremonesi Baroncini, Giuseppe Lippi, curator of Mondadori’s Urania, and Bepi Vigna, one of the long-running writers of Nathan Never.

Play It Again: (R)evolution, exhibiting the videogames whole generations have been dreaming about, is back as a mutant, providing a privileged space and an overview of the progress of pixels: a journey amongst nearly forgotten ruins and virtual realities still to be explored. Layers of silicon and plastic have deposited and stratified, forming the terrain where the whole current videogame culture lies upon. A terrain full of finds of inestimable sentimental value.

In 1991 the first number of Nathan Never, the science fiction comic book series published by Bonelli and by Michele Medda, Antonio Serra and Bepi Vigna arrived to the newsstands. The Special Agent Alfa celebrates his 25- year anniversary with an exhibition of especially selected rare pages and original materials for a never-before-seen historical itinerary amongst comic books and collections of the Nathan Never universe.

Pulp Magazines Story is an exhibition of a part of the rich collection belonging to Riccardo Valla (1942-2013), among the more expert researchers and editorial professionals in Italian science-fiction, a friend and close collaborator of Muƒant. The term “pulp” was used at the beginning of the XX century to define cheap publications of popular narrative. These are the basis for the development of the main genres of the imagination of the1900s’: detective stories, romantic novels, horror and, of course, science fiction.

Blatta, Daniele Ciprì’s miniseries presented within the Spazio Italia section, is inspired by the pages of the graphic novel created by Alberto Ponticelli, a fascinating dystopian painting with a rarefied neo-noir atmosphere, half way between Mad Max and High-Rise. The original exhibits are the gift of a dirty and suffocating science fiction concept to the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival, witnessing a possible future everyone would rather avoid. The exhibition is an integral part of a crossmedia project where visual arts interact with live performances and film series, created and staged by Parsec Theatre and Grey Ladder, with the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation.

Never Say Toys is an exhibition of Federico Scargiali’s original photos. Toy Photography expresses the love for the toys of childhood, breathing life into inanimate objects, telling a story or conveying emotions with a single shot. A photography exhibition to take us back to childhood with an adult awareness.

Trieste Science+Fiction paints its nights with music and parties: the Notte degli Ultracorpi (Night of the Body Snatchers) featuring an exclusive audiovisual sci-fi movies and hip hop cut-and-paste, live-mixed performance, DJ Yoda Goes to the Sci-Fi Movie: from Robocop to Back to the Future, from Star Wars to E.T., from Tron to Alien. Halloween night will be the occasion to see Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti back on a Trieste stage after the release of their eighth studio album Inumani, marking the end of the trilogy started with Primitivi del futuro. Together since 1994, TARM, at the top end of the Italian independent music scene, have done more than a thousand concerts and always wear masks on stage.

The main locations of Trieste Science+Fiction Festival will be Sala Tripcovich, thanks to the collaboration of the Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi Foundation, Miela Theatre and Magazzino delle Idee. The neighbouring Casa del Cinema building, where most of the city’s film culture associations are located, will be the festival’s headquarters.

Trieste Science+Fiction Festival’s official poster has been created by Davide Toffolo, one of the best-known authors of Italian comic books. Among his many graphic novels: Carnera, Pasolini, Il Re Bianco, Très! and Graphic Novel Is Dead. He is co-founder and lead vocalist of the band Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti, a project of multimedia short-circuit between music and comics.

Trieste Science+Fiction Festival is organized by the Film and Audiovisual Research and Experimentation Centre La Cappella Underground in collaboration with and supported by MiBACT – Direzione Generale Cinema, Regione Autonoma Friuli Venezia Giulia, Provincia di Trieste, Comune di Trieste, Università di Trieste, Fondazione Teatro Lirico Giuseppe Verdi, Fondazione CRTrieste, Fondazione benefica Kathleen Foreman Casali, ARPA FVG – LaREA.

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CONTACT Trieste Science+Fiction Festival_16 Press Office: Cristina Borsatti tel. +39 347 9340720 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Gianfranco Terzoli tel. +39 338 8313036 [email protected]