In a short space of years, Andrea Segre's expressive path has undergone a very rapid maturation. Standing out as one of the most rigorous and stimulating representatives of Italian documentary cinema (among his most important works are Come un uomo sulla terra, Il sangue verde, Magari le cose cambiano, A sud di Lampedusa), he has now moved on to fiction cinema with the successful Io sono Li, received with great warmth at the latest edition of the Venice festival. To tell the truth, this is not a radical conversion. In fact, Segre's remains a cinema in which reflection on reality, although dressed in the guise of a fairy tale, continues to be the main objective. Knowing how to mix fairy tales, poetry and documentation with perfect balance is not for everyone. Segre succeeds very well, thanks to a trained gaze, a sincere expressive urgency and great attention to the evolution of our complex society. “Because the future – recalls the director from Padua – is in the present”.
“Exploring realities is what I love. Seemingly minor realities, to which the great media narrative does not give space to speak, but which often represent the most important, deepest, most human point of view. It is their dignity that I put at the center of my stories. And it is with them, not for them or about them that I try to tell. First of all because this allows me to understand and enrich my perspective on the world and on life. And I hope that this also happens to those who then listen and see my, or rather our, stories. Doing it with documentary or fiction doesn't matter. They are two languages that I love and that I will continue to intertwine as much as possible by playing along their unstable border." (Andrea Segre)
Enrico Magrelli: Journalist and film critic, Enrico Magrelli has been, since the first episode, one of the authors and hosts of the Rai 3 daily program Hollywood Party. He was director of cinema news at Tele+. From 1979 to 1982 he was part of Carlo Lizzani's creative and organizational staff at the Venice Film Festival. From 1988 to 1990 he was Director of the Critics' Week of the Venetian festival. In 1991 he was Guglielmo Biraghi's right-hand man at the Venice Film Festival. His monographs dedicated to Robert Altman, Roman Polanski, Nanni Moretti. He has edited a dozen volumes including: Pier Paolo Pasolini, Marilyn Monroe, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Nagisa Oshima, Satyajt Ray. Since 2004, he has been part of the Selection Commission of the Venice International Film Festival, an event in which he works side by side with director Marco Müller. Since 2009 he has been Curator of the National Film Library. He is the author and host of Ciakpoint, a Rai Movie program dedicated to cinema.
Andrea Segre: Having a PhD in communication sociology at the University of Bologna behind him, Andrea Segre has established himself as one of the most sensitive and rigorous documentarians on the Italian cinema scene. He has been studying and reporting on migrations towards Europe and the contradictions of the developed world for several years: he wrote and directed Marghera Canale Nord (2003) selected at the Venice Film Festival, Che cosa manca (2006), La mal’ombra (2007) awarded at the Turin Film Festival, A sud di Lampedusa (2007) on the expulsions of African migrants in the Ténéré desert. It is dedicated to the same theme Come un uomo sulla Terra (2008), a work awarded in numerous Italian festivals and nominated for the David as best documentary. In 2009 he filmed Magari le cose cambiano, a journey into the heart of modern Roman villages, where thousands of Italian and foreign citizens are daily denied the right to dignity; 2010 was Il sangue verde, a story of great intensity about the foreign community of Rosarno. Io sono Li, produced by Marco Paolini's Jole film and presented with great success at the latest Venice Film Festival, represents his debut in fiction cinema.