Never more so than this year, the cinema is back in the limelight of DIG Festival.
The three theatres of the Astra cinema will screen the best documentaries of reportage and investigative films from the last year, selected from over 400 submissions, in original version with Italian subtitles.
In competition are films made by major international media such as ARTE, Le Monde, BBC, Al Jazeera, TRT and VICE Newsbut also independent productions. We talk about war and conflict, recycling, climate change, activism and migration. A unique opportunity to get up close to stories and human voices often forgotten by the mainstream media, and to speak directly with the authors of these masterpieces.
Here you can browse the list of finalists for the DIG Awards 2023 and the projection calendar in the online programme.
Tickets for individual screenings can be purchased directly at the Astra cinema, at a cost of €5. For the first time this year, the "Pass Cinema DIG 2023" will also be available, which, at a cost of €30, will allow access to all scheduled screenings.
Extra films: on Ukraine, Iran, France and Julian Assange
In addition to the films in competition, #DIG2023 includes a rich selection of film extras.
It begins Thursday 21 September at 21.30 with Between Two Worlds, directed by Emmanuel Carrère and taken from the book-investigation Le Quai de Ouistreham of the jury president of DIG 2023 Florence Aubenaswho will be present in the theatre to introduce the film. In the film, a stunning Juliette Binoche She plays Marianne Winckler, a well-known journalist who, in order to investigate precariousness and unregulated work, infiltrates for months among the women who tirelessly clean the Channel ferries.
Friday 22 September at 5 p.m. We will screen Ithaka - A Fight to Free Julian Assangean intimate and moving portrait of a father's struggle to save his son, which exposes and recounts the brutal reality of the campaign to free WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Introducing the film will be Philip Di Salvo (DIG), academic and journalist, one of the leading experts on the Assange affair.
The same evening, at 21.30, space to Seven Winters in Tehran (Sala Smeraldo, 9.30 p.m.) by German director Steffi Niederzoll. The documentary, one of the most poignant and award-winning of the year, tells the story of a young Iranian woman sentenced to death in 2007 for killing the man who tried to rape her. The best and now unexpected tribute to the truth of Reyhaneh Jabbariuniversal symbol of resistance against violence against women.
Saturday 23 September at 21.30in the Turquoise Room, the evening Ukraine Special. Three looks at the war. will feature three documentaries that tell different perspectives on the war in Ukraine. A unique event, organised in collaboration with Coop Alliance 3.0to reflect on the conflict from different points of view and to explore intertwining events that will allow us to gain greater awareness and new insights into one of the most crucial events of our time.
In the late afternoon, at 18.00, the Sala Smeraldo will host Koudelka. Crossing the same river, a film by Turkish director Coşkun Aşar: a close look at the past of legendary Magnum photographer Josef Koudelka, his memories, his thoughts on photography, his attitude towards life and his emotional journey through 'Ruins', his latest project,
Sunday 24 September at 19.00on the highly topical subject of work, one of the central focuses of DIG Festival 2023: Don't give upwe highlight the screening of After Work, a documentary by Swedish-Italian director Erik Gandini, which attempts to answer a question: what will we do when we no longer have to work? In the film, the director traverses the world, imagining our frighteningly near and very possible future. Gandini will be present in the auditorium to introduce the film and answer questions from the audience.
The exhibition: 'The great independent cinema of Quebec
Finally, this year DIG is also hosting an exhibition dedicated to the great Quebec independent cinemaincluding no less than five national premieres.
Starring the Canadian filmmaker Robert Morinwho has been experimenting and blurring the boundaries between reality and fiction for almost fifty years, and André-Line Beauparlantaward-winning documentary filmmaker and art director, both of whom will be present at the Cinema Astra.
Three appointments will make up the rich review. Friday starts with Papa à la chasse aux lagopèdes (Emerald Hall, 7.30 p.m.) by Robert Morin: a fictional work by the Montréal filmmaker who, with a multidimensional narrative, stages the escape and redemption attempt of an expert in financial fraud.
Sunday afternoon is the turn of two extraordinary works by André-Line Beauparlant, who will bring his Elvis the Italian and Le Petit Jésus (Sala Rubino, 2 p.m.). The first title is a melancholic and poetic reincarnation of the king of rock and roll "that took place" in the pulsating community of Montréal's Petite Italie; in the second, however, the filmmaker confronts his family with an engaging and terrifying documentary, which won Best Director at HotDocs.
On Sunday evening, the festival closes again with Robert Morin, and a double screening of his 7 Paysages and Le voleur vit en enfer (Sala Smeraldo, 9.30 pm). The latter, one of the director's first cult films (2004), narrates the delirium of an unemployed man who films reality in his neighbourhood to convince himself that he is not going mad. 7 Paysages, Morin's latest work (2022), is a dialogue-free, minimal and contemplative film that is a surprising reflection on the power of nature and the fiction of borders. Introducing the evening, together with the director, will be film critic and essayist Alberto Morsiani.
As mentioned above, tickets for individual screenings can be purchased individually at the cinema box office; or you can access all screenings (subject to availability) by purchasing the 'Pass Cinema DIG 2023' at the advantageous cost of €30. The pass is available exclusively at the cinema box office
