The Italian Cultural Institute, on occasion of its support to the Antenna Doc Film Festival in Sydney, is pleased to invite you to the screening of the docufilm CARTAPESTA by Andrea Lodovichetti, to discover the heart of Italy’s oldest Carnival: memories, footage, and a powerful imagery rooted for centuries in a city: Fano. A tradition, that of papier-mâché, and master float builders who, generation after generation, have been able to create traveling stages called floats through creativity, engineering, and craftsmanship. A mask, the Vulón, and his encounter with a child. The child knows nothing of Fano’s Carnival. Who better than a mask to guide him through parades, costumes, and sweets, and to tell him that Carnival is not just a festival but something more: a feeling, a state of mind that warms the heart of a city and its territory. And as Carnival week comes to an end, someone is already ready for a new beginning…
CARTAPESTA is a sort of narrative about the transformation of collective memory, a journey that explores the subtle boundaries between real experience and mythical imagination. At its core is an investigation of the Carnival of Fano, the city where I was born, not only as a long-standing festive tradition (documents attest to its origin in 1347) but as a living organism of cultural consciousness that flows through stories passed down across generations.
The allegorical floats become more than mere artistic constructions; they are living archives, three-dimensional narratives that give voice to the silenced stories of a community. Each mask is a weave of identities, layers of meaning carefully constructed, where the boundaries between individual and community merge in a fascinating dance of cultural expression. We have sought to create a delicate balance, where the lines between reality and fiction dissolve like fragile papier-mâché sculptures. Present moments intertwine with echoes of the past, and imagination becomes the luminous thread connecting different times in a “transcendent” cinematic fabric.
This project does not aim to be exhaustive, because the essence of the narrative does not lie in analytical or complete documentation, but in the ongoing act of dreaming. We surrender to the inexhaustible source of creative imagination, aware that true artistic expression is a continuous dialogue between memory and possibility. Constantly fascinated by the ineffable beauty that arises when tradition, creativity, and the human spirit meet in their purest, most spontaneous, and natural manifestation: that of Carnival.
Andrea Lodovichetti was born in Fano in 1976. He graduated in directing from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – National Film School of Rome and worked as an assistant director for Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino. A director, screenwriter, and producer, his career has earned him a Globo d’Oro and numerous accolades worldwide.
In Italian with English subtitles
Free entry booking HERE