a project devised and curated by

Società Psicoanalitica Italiana, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia-Cineteca Nazionale, Azienda Speciale Palaexpo

encounters introduced and coordinated by Fabio Castriota 

A festival of psychoanalysis and the cinema unique in Italy, Cinemind has been turning the Palazzo delle Esposizioni's cinema theatre for the past six editions into an observatory of our collective community mood, an observatory steered by authoritative psychoanalysts and film directors who get together to hold a debate after each screening. This edition focuses on "other": starting with the mother's gaze in which the child begins to discover her identity, the whole of our existence is defined through contact with the world at large: we are the gazes that light on us. But while relationships may  function as a mirror, identification with others is not always crystal clear: negative feelings and clashes can transform that mirror (and thus our perception of our own identity) into a deforming, opaque and frightening object. Nor is that the end of it. Our brain then simulates on the inside what we see on the outside, as though the actions of others were also taking place within our own selves. The barriers between us and the world dissolve in a ceaseless circuit of emotional exchange, just like at the cinema with all of us sitting together and... in the dark. But never fear! The psychoanalysts and film
directors always turn the lights on in the end!