WORLD CINEMA CELEBRATION
Thursday, May 1 at 7:00pm
Syracuse Landmark Theater
Admission: $15 for Adults, $12/ students and seniors

The 2008 international cinema competition opens
with a special event and screening of the film:
Red Like The Sky
by Cristiano Bortone (Italy), 90 minutes, Fiction
Writing: Cristiano Bortone, Monica Zapelli & Paolo Sassanelli
Cast: Luca Capriotti (Mirco), Paolo Sassanelli (Don Giulio),
Marco Cocci (Ettore), Somone Colombari (Achille), Rosanna Gentili (Teresa)
Cinematography: Vladan Radovic
Music: Ezio Bosso

Writer/Actor Paolo Sassanelli and Luca Capriotti in his debut-starring role will be present as our special guests to discuss the film after it is screened.

A seasoned director who has been making films for almost twenty years, Bortone offers a tender, thoughtful homage to the fascination that cinema holds for lonely, imaginative children. The film has been compared to the magical Cinema Paradiso, but in this case the allure for the young protagonist is sound rather than image. Bortone tells the story of this film’s actual supervising sound editor, Mirco Mencacci (Capriotti), who was blinded as a child in a freak accident with a hunting rifle. He leaves his home in Pisa for Genoa, to attend a prestigious but confining school in Genoa, where the blind are expected—and even required by the laws of the time—to prepare for a “handicapped” and useless life. Francesca, daughter of the school’s groundskeeper, spirits him away to the movie theater for an outing and he’s newly entranced by the sounds. Step by step, he gathers a school tape-recorder, audio books from the school library, and some discarded celluloid reels, and teaches himself how to splice sound with these tools. He enlists the help of the other children and they produce a story in fantastical sound, despite adult resistance, especially when he tries to take the other children out to the movies. Advances in technology have made sound a particular focus of interest among cineastes, and the Festival is highlighting this phenomenon. This intimate film story of how the cinema freed a child to become a master practitioner is a special treat.
                                                                                    Review by Nancy Keefe Rhodes

Paolo Sassanelli’s artistic career begins with theatre. He works with many important Italian directors such as Nino Manfredi, Vito Signorile, Pierpaolo Sepe and Marcello Cotugno. In 1983 he appeared in the telefilm Don Chisciotte and few years later he achieves success with the popular telefilm Classe di ferro. Sassanelli’s cinema debut is in Nella Mischia (1994) by Gianni Zanasi. Some of his other films include: Moon Shadow (1993) by Alberto Simone, Matrimoni  (1998) by Cristina, A Domani(1998) by Gianni Zanasi. La capagira (1999) by Alessandro Piva, Comencini, Ora o Mai Più (2002) by Lucio Pellegrini, Last Minute Marocco (2007),regia di F. Falaschi.. and La casa sulle nuvole (2008). Regia di Claudio Giovannesi. He has a special role in Red Like The Sky, interpreting the character of Don Giulio, a provincial priest who is the first to understand and support little Mirco’s talent. Paolo is presently working on several theater, cinema and television productions.

Sponsors:
Corporate: Rums of Puerto Rico
Media: Time Warner Cable
Community: State Senator John A. DeFrancisco, Downtown Committee;
The City of Syracuse, Onondaga County, LeMoyne College, and Syracuse University
Foundations: Central New York Community Foundation
Screening:  SUNY Upstate Medical University, Office of Diversity & Affirmative Action

Tickets can be purchased at the following locations:
Emerald City Video, 3208 Erie Blvd East
Sound Garden, 124 Walton St.
SYRFILM FEST Box Office, 500 South Warren Street (Hotel Syracuse)
or by calling the festival headquarters: 315-443-8826