Mingong ‘is the union of two chinese ideogram, meaning farmer-worker. It is the name with which China was baptized a social class born in the early 1990. 250 million workers that every year from inland campaigns are trying to reach the megalopolis on the coast to look for work. Mingong tells a story in time into the old China which is disappearing nowadays. A faces’ mosaic which reveals a common story: the village, the departure, money, sons, work, the efforts and the absence.
Upon learning of their mother’s death, Samuel and Émilie, two siblings with different abilites, run away from their group home in Northern Quebec. They leave on a skidoo to find the paradise everyone says their mother has gone to.
In the midst of a dazzling and prolific career at the forefront of modern jazz innovation, Miles Davis virtually disappears from public view for a period of five years in the late 1970s. Alone and holed up in his home, he is beset by chronic pain from a deteriorating hip, his musical voice stifled and numbed by drugs and pain medications, his mind haunted by unsettling ghosts from the past. “MILES AHEAD is not just about the music. It’s about what we all face at one time or another in our lives; questions about who we really are, what we have to say and how will we say it. How will we ultimately be defined and who gets to say so?”
Through Alejandro Jodorowsky’s autobiographical lens, Endless Poetry narrates the years of the Chilean artist’s youth during which he liberated himself from all of his former limitations, from his family, and was introduced into the foremost bohemian artistic circle of 1940s Chile where he met Enrique Lihn, Stella Díaz Varín, Nicanor Parra… at the time promising young but unknown artists who would later become the titans of twentieth-century Hispanic literature. He grew inspired by the beauty of existence alongside these beings, exploring life together, authentically and freely. A tribute to Chile’s artistic heritage, Endless Poetry is also an ode to the quest for beauty and inner truth, as a universal force capable of changing one’s life forever, written by a man who has dedicated his life and career to creating spiritual and artistic awareness across the globe.
Omar was born in the suburbs of Milan and was destined to be a coachbuilder, but, instead, he became a successful ballroom singer. He got inspired by listening to ballroom singers from Studio Zeta, the biggest dance club in Italy at that time and, this way, he later started his own career. After a few years he knows Adele, his great love and manager, who transforms him into a true icon. The film tells the story of Omar and shows him, in his 20th year of career with his band, as we travelled together with him in their long tour around many Northern regions of Italy.
The personal and physical journey of three Syrian refugees from the shores of Lesvos to the heart of Europe (Bruxelles, Belgium) and their process of integration in the new world.
Sperone district, one of Palermo’s biggest squares. Like every summer, there are square concerts, karaoke, neighbourhood festivals featuring neo-melodic singers. Vincenzo, a six-year-old boy, climbs the stage imitating the motions of his idol Mimmo Fini. The film tells the desire for redemption of an entire family is substantiated in the voice of a clumsy child and his only song: “I fell in love”.
Five editions of the arthouse festival and 20 years of our historic Rome film club. These are the main ingredients of a cultural offering which goes outside the box and definitely beyond any well-trodden tracks. 11 full length films and 12 shorts in the competition, special events and apart from the competition, national premieres: entirely dedicated to journeys and related themes, this selection by Cinema Detour, offered to the Rome audience on the occasion of our birthday, is unforgettable. We open on 5th November with an evening event, celebrating 100 years since the Russian Revolution and the first 20 years of Detour, with the film October directed by Sergej Ėjzenštejn (1928) with a live musical accompaniment. The silent film Alice in Wonderland directed by W. W. Young in 1915 and accompanied by a soundtrack will be the closing film on the 26th November, before the final prize giving.
Imagine a band from Alabama thrown into a music tour in southern Italy, playing “tarantella” and singing in the local dialect. Now, try to completely overthrow the elements of the history, and you will have “Flat Tyre,” the incredible musical journey through the USA of a group of young neapolitan musicians “La terza classe”, in search of the deep roots of American popular music. Winking at Martin Scorsese’s masterpiece, from Mali to Mississippi, the film mixes the human adventure on the road of the protagonists, street performances to cover the expenses of the tour and their encounters with the great sacred monsters of the bluegrass scene, dixieland and blues. Q&A with La terza classe.
1914. While Jean Mordant is in the United States and is winning the world title of free struggle, his daughter Mimi, who stayed home in Belgium, is raped by German soldiers. Jean swears to avenge her, and enrolls in the famous ACM, the first armored division of history, embarking on an odyssey to return to her.