Antenna Documentary Film Festival
The 9th edition of the Antenna Documentary Film Festival, with whom the Institute has been actively collaborating for a number of years, will take place in Sydney between the 17th and the 27th of October. During eleven days the Festival will present the very best in non-fiction films and a series of shorts from Australia and around, and will host important international guests.
This year Italy will be represented with two documentaries: Selfie by Agostino Ferrente and The Disappearance of My Mother di Beniamino Barrese. Thanks to the collaboration with the Istituto Italiano di Cultura, the two directors will attend the Festival and will take part in Q&A sessions at the end of the screenings of their movies.
Selfie by Agostino Ferrente, 2018, 77’
- Friday, 18 October, 2.00 pm @ Parramatta Theatre
- Saturday, 19 October, 6.00 pm @ Chauvel
- Sunday, 26 October, 8.00 pm @ Dendy Newtown
Selfie is a unique record of the case of 16-year-old Davide Bifolco, who was shot dead by a carabiniere in the Neapolitan district of Traiano. To understand a neighbourhood often portrayed as a ghetto and ‘Camorra’ stronghold, as well as the circumstances of Davide’s death, director Agostino Ferrente seeks out Davide’s friends and meets Pietro and Alessandro. Equipping the boys with a mobile phone and a microphone, he asks them to document their everyday lives as a ‘selfie’ film. The movie premièred at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival, and has subsequently won the Prize for Best Documentary at the Luxembourg City Film Festival.
Agostino Ferrente is a film director, screewriter, producer, artistic director and music producer. Originally from the Apulia region, he studied at DAMS in Bologna and is currently living in Rome. Before Selfie he has directed Intervista a mia madre (2000), L’orchestra di Piazza Vittorio (2006) and Le cose belle (2013).
The Disappearance of My Mother di Beniamino Barrese, 2019, 94’
- Sunday, 20 October, 4.00 pm @ Chauvel
- Thursday, 24 October, 7.00 pm @ Verona
Benedetta wants to disappear. An iconic fashion model in the 1960s, she became a muse to Warhol, Dali, Penn and Avedon. As a radical feminist in the 1970s, she fought for the rights and emancipation of women. But at the age of 75, she becomes fed up with all the roles that life has imposed upon her and decides to leave everything and everybody behind, to disappear to a place as far as possible from the world she knows. Hiding behind the camera, her son Beniamino witnesses her journey. Having filmed her since he was a child in spite of all her resistance, he now wants to make a film about her, to keep her close for as long as possible – or, at least, as long as his camera keeps running. The making of the film turns into a battle between mother and son, a stubborn fight to capture the ultimate image of Benedetta – the image of her liberation.
Beniamino Barrese was born in Milan in 1986. He graduated in Philosophy at the Università degli Studi in Milano, International Political Economy at King’s College London and Cinematography at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield. Since 2011 he has been working as photographer, director of photography, filmmaker and director, shooting and directing shorts, music promos and commercials.
For information and bookings visit the Festival’s website: