The long journey of the Festival dei Popoli, the international documentary film festival, arrives at the 61° edition from 15 al 22 November in Florence “In the ways and in the dimensions - said Alessandro Stellino and Claudia Maci, co-directors of the festival - which we will evaluate in the coming months based on the health emergency. In any case, we will not give up on pursuing what is most important to us: the possibility of making the best cinema a place for comparison and exchange between cultures and people ".

The edition officially starts 2020 with the opening of registrations for competitions that will lead to the composition of the official program, including short films, medium-length films and feature films, all unpublished in Italy (you can submit your film until 3 August), and with the renewed selection committee presented by the new co-direction of the festival which replaces that of Alberto Lastrucci: Alessandro Stellino, artistic director, e Claudia Maci, organizational director.

The new selection committee is composed of Sandra binazzi, from 2008 in the organization of the Festival dei Popoli; Alberto Diana, filmmaker and selector; Daniele Dottorini, associate professor of cinema at the University of Calabria and selector for the Festival dei Popoli since 2008; Ludovica Fales, director and researcher; Roberto Manassero, film selector and critic; Daniela Persico, film critic and selector; Margot Mecca freelance producer and collaborator since 2011 to the Peoples for the professional area; Emanuele Sacchi, journalist and film and music critic.

“I am thrilled with the team we have made up - explained Alessandro Stellino, artistic director of the festival - they are extraordinary professionals, many of which are capable of moving on different fronts, from teaching and film criticism to directing and production, obviously passing through a long-standing work in the Festivals. They are profound connoisseurs of all-round cinema, with a strong predilection for the documentary but also eclectic, capable of placing a work in the broader context of contemporary production, out of any gender boundaries or coding. I believe that the Festival dei Popoli can enhance the great work done so far by those who preceded us, to further open one's gaze - and that of the large public that attends it - and account for an international production that has never been so varied and diversified as in recent years. I am convinced that together with the other members of the selection committee we will be able to propose an exciting journey to discover the current documentary landscape and its multifaceted geographies. In this sense particular attention will be given to the works of beginners, a research section like Doc Explorer will be strengthened, open to the most reckless forays into the hybridization of languages, and transversal paths will be proposed that can dramatically cross the history of documentary cinema under the guidance of established directors and recognized masters who will wear curatorial robes for the occasion ".

Among the novelties of the edition 2020 also cash prizes and the international jury for the Italian documentaries in competition. “We want the Italian competition - explained Claudia Maci - to all intents and purposes is the place of choice for our filmmakers to aspire to. That is why from this year the competition will offer cash prizes and will count on a jury of international stature, further strengthening the number of guests and recalling the best of national documentary production”.

A tribute to the early cinema of Pietro Marcello one of the events scheduled on More Company, the virtual room of the La Compagnia di Firenze cinema, for an initiative of Festival dei Popoli, Thursday 18 is Sunday 21 June, with the projections of "The shack” e “The passage of the line”.

The gift is part of the project "The Festival dei Popoli Archive presents", the cycle of meetings and screenings that offers films by directors, successful or established today, who made their debut as documentary filmmakers at the Florentine festival, from the Festival dei Popoli archive which consists of over 25 thousand titles.

The shack (Italy, 2005, 26′), the short film (documentary) tells about Maurizio, homeless man who lives in Naples on the steps leading to Corso Vittorio Emanuele. There, one piece at a time he set up his hut. The homeless collects all the objects that consumer society throws away, all that is eliminated to make way for more technological and comfortable innovations. The passage of the line (Italy, 2007, 57′) is set on the Italian express trains that cross the peninsula day and night. The travel time coincides with that of waiting: an existential suspension between what he left behind and what awaits us upon arrival. Pietro Marcello transforms an action that is trivial in itself, like taking a train, in a multisensory and dreamlike experience. Documentaries preceded by a presentation by Alberto Lastrucci (Archive of the Festival dei Popoli).