An exhibition becomes a movie. It happens at Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome that this year, for the first time ever, opens up its exhibitions' borders summoning up the new cinematographic creativity. Fatti un film (Shoot it out) is a short film contest open to all young filmmakers eager to share their point of view on the exhibition's main themes. Works sent can be either appositively created for the project, or if previously produced, strongly linked to the proposed subjects.
The exhibition chosen for the project, titled Homo sapiens. The great history of human diversity, opens up suggestive perspectives related both to the origin of man, that's our own, and to the long journey of human kind.
200.000 years ago, starting form a small African valley, Homo sapiens begun his journey that brought him colonize the entire World, cohabiting with other human species and creating the great variety of populations and cultures still existing. For the first time ever, an international pool of great scientists reconstructed the roots and paths of human population, creating a marvelous portrait of the history of human evolution that will be presented exclusively at Palazzo delle Esposizioni.
Fatti un film represents an occasion to use the imagination of cinematographic narration, to explore, interpret, but also expand, the exhibition's wide themes. The hope is that from the project could also come out new ideas to reflect upon and uncommon perspectives to consider, that might surprise the scientists involved in the exhibition.
The exhibition
Through Homo sapiens. The great history of human diversity, we will discover our ancestors' history, their adventures and extraordinary migrations. We will discover the origin of man, his great voyage that, step by step, created the mosaic of human diversity. The passionate story of our evolution starts with the word "journey" since the ancient hominids who were great walkers, hunting for food, moved through and explored unknown environments.
When we started becoming and thinking as humans, driven by the desire to know what would have been beyond the limits, open spaces, valleys and isthmus became horizons and borders to cross.
It is also through migrations that man starts defining himself as an intrusive species. Human population increases rapidly producing often irreversible impacts on the newly populated environments. Through violent displacements, the colonization rush of new territories and the discovery of modern technique to domesticate nature, man dominates and this is not necessarily a good news.
History and science have taught us that there's no different races, but instead a unity within diversity. We are all born from a unique and recent African origin (we are all Africans) and therefore, the division of humans in different "races" is a man's invention to fight man and to explain, simplistically and perfunctorily, an extraordinary cultural diversity, consequent to the promiscuous and wandering nature of our species. Italy represents an emblematic example of biological and cultural difference, since it is the outcome of ceaseless migration processes that however, did not prevent the development of a cultural unity.
Even though man, from his origin on, never stopped travelling reaching the planet's limits, his biological evolution did not show the same dynamism. For this reason, biologically we are not so different from our ancestors from whom, however, we are incredibly distant talking about scientific and technological progress. We experience two different speeds: a slow biological evolution and an incredibly accelerated technological process: will "a primitive in Space" be able to survive?
Short films
Fatti un film invites young directors to share their suggestive interpretations of the exhibition's central themes, and their uncommon point of view on man's history and his evolution in the contemporary era: today's stories, adventure travels and often painful migrations, conflicts and alliances, experiences of cultural differences studded by friendly ties and abrupt breaks. All stories linked to our prehistoric "brothers" who left from a tiny place in Africa and arrived so far off (as far as the Moon!) that they do not recognize themselves anymore.
Draw inspiration from the following topics' hints:
"a tale of walkers": travel stories, migration, exploration, adventure and frontier;
"man as an intrusive species": consequences of the planet exploitation;
"unity within diversity": what links and what divides us, the mosaic of cultural differences through conflicts, exchanges, crossbreeding and adaptation;
"mal d'Afrique": we are all Africans and, maybe, we are also joined by the same homesickness;
"a primitive in Space": man and his scientific evolution, is a distance destined to grow?
The Event
The best short films will be selected for a retrospective to be presented at Palazzo delle Esposizioni on January 2012. The winners will be awarded by important representatives of Italian Cinema and critics.
Fiction, documentary and animation short films, of the maximum length of 20 minutes, are admitted to participate. The contest will be divided in two sections: Anteprime (Premières) will host short films appositively created for the project, while Secondo tempo (Rerun) will present short films previously produced, but strictly linked to the above cited exhibition's main topics.
The deadline to present the works has been extended to January 16th 2012.
A body Canon Eos 5D Mark II and a body Canon Eos 7D are the prizes that will be offered by Canon to the winners of the two sections.
The best short films will be selected for a retrospective to be presented at Palazzo delle Esposizioni and they will also have the possibility to be screened at Casa del Cinema in Rome.
Let's shoot!
Contacts: fattiunfilm@palaexpo.it
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