31/05/2019 - The 15th edition of the event will unfold in Bologna from 7-17 June, with Asif Kapadia’s Cannes-presented work Diego Maradona amongst the most eagerly anticipated docs

Running from 7-17 June in Bologna, the 15th edition of the Biografilm Festival – International Celebration of Lives will soon be underway, an event which has always placed a special focus on life stories and where the biographical genre is set to play an even more central role this year. Asif Kapadia’s hotly anticipated Diego Maradona [+see also:
film review
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interview: Asif Kapadia
film profile], for example, will have its Italian premiere here and will be introduced by the director himself, who will also be manning a masterclass for the pupils of Bio School. Antoine Fuqua’s What’s My Name - Muhammad Ali, the HBO documentary devoted to one of the greatest champions of the sport, similarly features among the line-up. The American couple known as Christo and Jeanne-Claude, meanwhile, two big names in the Land Art movement, are the focus of Andrey M Paounov’s Walking on Water [+see also:
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film profile], while Werner Herzog is due to present his latest film and exclusive interview with the ex-President of the Soviet Union, Meeting Gorbachev [+see also:
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The thread which links together a number of the films selected to participate in the Festival is the study and discovery of love in the digital age. Spanning documentary and fiction, Biografilm’s official selection will look to get a handle on the new dynamics of millennial dating and the shift of balance in relationships in the age of Web 2.0. Some such titles include Jonathan Agassi Saved My Life [+see also:
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film profile] by Tomer Heymann, Mating [+see also:
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interview: Lina Maria Mannheimer
film profile] by Lina Maria Mannheimer and Searching Eva [+see also:
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interview: Pia Hellenthal, Eva Collé
film profile] by Pia Hellenthal. Flying the flag for Italian documentaries is Edoardo Gabbriellini, with the world premiere of his latest work Kemp, an exclusive portrait of the film’s namesake Lindsey Kemp; Beniamino Barrese with the Italian premiere of The Disappearance of My Mother [+see also:
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film profile], which follows in the footsteps of the model and fashion lecturer Benedetta Barzini; and, last but not least, Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi’s Diktatorship: Macho Made in Italy, a documentary revealing the chauvinist and phallocentric mentalities which continue to prevail in the country.

French fiction films will also be placed centre stage by way of a Focus organised in association with UniFrance. Some of the most eagerly anticipated films include Our Happy Holiday [+see also:
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film profile] by Patrick Cassir; Sweetheart [+see also:
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film profile] by Lisa Azuelos; Festival opener Who You Think I Am [+see also:
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interview: Juliette Binoche
film profile] by Safy Nebbou; fresh from its very recent screening in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, All About Yves [+see also:
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interview: Benoît Forgeard
film profile] by Benoît Forgeard; and Father and Sons [+see also:
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film profile], the directorial debut of Félix Moati who also leads the cast of Some Like It Veiled [+see also:
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film profile]. Fiction films will likewise be the mainstay of titles hailing from further flung parts of the world, such as Divine Love [+see also:
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film profile] by Gabriel Mascaro, Monos [+see also:
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film profile] by Alejandro Landes and a second Herzog title, Family Romance, LLC, which was presented in a Special Screening at the Cannes Film Festival.

Meanwhile, to mark its thirtieth anniversary, Biografilm is set to pay special tribute to the production house established in 1989, Fandango, with the screening of 8 films which made Italian film history. Among these, we find Diaz - Don't Clean Up This Blood [+see also:
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interview: Daniele Vicari
film profile] by Daniele Vicari and I Can Quit Whenever I Want [+see also:
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interview: Sydney Sibilia
film profile] by Sydney Sibilia, who are each scheduled to deliver a masterclass for Bio School students. Other noteworthy tributes include that of the production house Participant Media.

Having previously paid homage to Ambulante, Telluride and DOK Leipzig, Biografilm is now planning on celebrating another of the big international festivals: the Sundance Film Festival, a hotbed of high-quality independent cinema since its very first edition. Among the various Sundance titles set to be presented in the Biografilm selection this year are Love, Antosha by Garret Price; Cold Case Hammarskjöld [+see also:
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interview: Mads Brügger
interview: Mads Brügger
film profile] by Mads Brügger; and One Child Nation by Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang. A further tribute will be paid to the Italian director Costanza Quatriglio, one of the most interesting voices in the world of Italian documentaries today. Seven of her films are set to be screened, including her most recent work, Just Like My Son [+see also:
film review
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interview: Costanza Quatriglio
film profile].

(Translated from Italian)