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Selfie

Panorama Dokumente 2019
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. In the film’s introduction he is heard asking off-camera, ‘tell me about your friendship’, which reveals his approach to this consistently collaborative documentary-fiction project. Equipping the boys with a mobile phone and a microphone, he asks them to document their everyday lives as a ‘selfie’ film, whether they are riding a scooter, at the beach, hanging out with friends or on the toilet. This turns out to be the perfect format in an age where self-dramatisation often becomes a product. The result is an impressive collage, both visually and in the film’s audio track, about adolescence; about lives where your background determines your future; about state despotism; about anger and grief, but above all about a tender boyhood friendship in a male world in which toughness reigns.
by Agostino Ferrente
with Alessandro Antonelli, Pietro Orlando France / Italy 2019 Italian 77’ Colour World premiere | Documentary form

With

  • Alessandro Antonelli
  • Pietro Orlando

Crew

Written and Directed by Agostino Ferrente
Editing Letizia Caudullo, Chiara Russo
Music Andrea Pesce, Cristiano "Defa" Defabritiis
Sound Design Benedetto Atria
Assistant Director Edgardo Pistone
Producers Marc Berdugo, Barbara Conforti
Co-Producer Gianfilippo Pedote
Co-Production CDV - Casa delle Visioni Mailand
Rai Cinema Rom

World Sales

Deckert Distribution

http://deckert-distribution.com/ http://deckert-distribution.com/

Produced by

Magneto

http://www.magnetotv.com/ http://www.magnetotv.com/

Arte France

Photos

Agostino Ferrente

Born in Cerignola, Italy in 1971, he founded the Pirata Produzioni Cinematografiche production company and belongs to the Apollo 11 collective which transformed a historic cinema in Rome into a cultural centre. The Orchestra di Piazza Vittoria, which was founded there, became the subject of one of his documentaries. He also created the Doc/it Award for documentaries at the Venice International Film Festival where the film Le cose belle, which he co-directed, and which narrates ten years in the life of four young Neopolitans, premiered in 2013.

Filmography

1993 Poco più della metà di zero; short film 1994 Opinioni di un pirla; short film 1999 Il film di Mario; short film 2000 Intervista a mia madre; short film 2004 Scusi dov'è il documentario?; collective documentary 2006 L'orchestra di piazza Vittorio; documentary 2013 Le cose belle; documentary, co-director: Giovanni Piperno

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2019