CIS DOC

A special week dedicated to Italian documentaries
November 13th – 18th at Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles

Friday November 13th – 5:00 pm

ALFREDO BINI, THE UNEXPECTED GUEST (ALFREDO BINI, L’OSPITE INATTESO) – 2015

Directed by: Simone Isola
Runtime: 83 min.
Production: Kimerafilm, Axelotilfilm, Istituto Luce-Cinecittà
Synopsis: Montalto di Castro, 2001. An elderly man appears in front of the Motel Magic run by Giuseppe Simonelli. His name is Alfredo Bini, a famous movie producer, best known for his long and intense collaboration with Pier Paolo Pasolini, overseeing his directorial debut in 1960 with Accattone and all his movies up to Edipo re in 1967. The man is going through a period of economic difficulty and finds himself temporarily homeless. Giuseppe decides to put Bini up, and before long a very special relationship is born, like that of a father and a son. Testimony and archive material are thus used to tell the story of a life lived for the cinema, from the successes of the 70s to the crisis of recent years.
Admission: BY INVITATION ONLY

Monday November 16th – 5:30 pm

OTELLO’S SECRET (IL SEGRETO DI OTELLO) – 2015

Directed by: Francesco Ranieri Martinotti
Runtime: 62 min.
Production: Andrea Sisti Productions
Synopsis: Right In the courtyard of a roman palace, just next to the Spanish Steps, lies an old and unique restaurant. Immediately after WWII, a group of young filmmakers took on the habit of meeting there: their names were Ettore (Scola), Mario (Monicelli), Gillo (Pontecorvo), Furio (Scarpelli) and many others. The kitchen of Nora and Otello, the owners of the restaurant, soon became their own home kitchen, and in the years to come among those very tables they would conceive and write down some of the most beautiful pages of that cinema genre better known as “Commedia all’italiana”.
“Otello’s secret” remembers and celebrates that particular season of cinema through the personal recollections of actors, directors, producers, screenwriters and musicians who have contributed to “Otello’s” international fame with their own special craft.
Admission: FREE ADMISSION WITH MANDATORY ADVANCED RSVP WITH FULL NAME
(PLEASE CLICK HERE).

Tuesday November 17th – 5:30 pm

WITHOUT LUCIO (SENZA LUCIO) – 2014

Directed by: Mario Sesti
Runtime: 86 min.
Production: I Wonder Pictures
Synopsis: The singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla seen through the eyes of the person closest to him in the last twenty years: Marco Alemanno. The tale of how they met and how he grew on a human, professional, and artistic level standing by Dalla’s side. And much more: daily and deeper aspects of his life, his love for Southern Italy, his passion for cinema, his relationship with music, his bulimic curiosity of launching himself into new artistic adventures, his mercurial energy and his boundless sense of humor. “It’s especially the inner story (what did Dalla thought of himself, of his talent, of his success?) and the more secluded moments (contemplating the world, his endless curiosity for other people, the distant pain from his childhood) that shed light on Lucio Dalla in a way that very few people had the chance to see before. Marco Alemanno’s tale brings back feelings we all know better than we think: we’ve all […] felt it, that feeling of loss when he passed away.” (Source: TFF).
Admission: FREE ADMISSION WITH MANDATORY ADVANCED RSVP WITH FULL NAME
(PLEASE CLICK HERE).

Wednesday November 18th – 6:30 pm

MILAN 2015 (MILANO 2015) – 2015

Directed by: Elio, Roberto Bolle, Silvio Soldini, Walter Veltroni, Cristiana Capotondi, Giorgio Diritti
Runtime: 103 min.
Production: Lumière & Co.
Synopsis: Milan 2015 is a “collective fresco” which listens to and investigates the soul of this city in a year in which the gaze of the whole world rests upon Italy. From the subsoil all the way up to the heavens, a heartfelt account – with echoes of the past and the urgency of modern everyday reality – via apparently far‐off worlds: from the suburbs to the country’s highest skyscraper, from closed theatres to the excellence of La Scala, from second‐generation children to perceptions of the city from a closed order of nuns. A tale in which six directors, with their different sensibilities, have pounded the streets, lingering on faces and drawing out words to offer an interpretation of the varied citizenry.
Admission: FREE ADMISSION WITH MANDATORY ADVANCED RSVP WITH FULL NAME
(PLEASE CLICK HERE).