Giffoni Albania 2017, born in 2005, will gather in Tirana - from November 20th to November 25th - 4000 boys, aged between 13 and 18, to evaluate their selection of the best films from the past editions of the Giffoni Film Festival. After four days in the capital, the event will move to the cities of Durrazzo and Scutari, involving another 5000 young people. The festival, presented a few days ago during a press conference in the Albanian capital by the director of Giffoni Experience Claudio Gubitosi and the coordinator of the festival Niko Ajazi, will also offer collateral initiatives as workshops promoted by the University of Arts of Tirana and panels at the " Association of Filmmakers.
During Giffoni Albania 2017 the director of Giffoni Experience Claudio Gubitosi, president Piero Rinaldi, Marco Cesaro, assistant director and project manager, Jacopo Gubitosi and Antonino Muro, will illustrate the young people's new initiatives of the Giffoni Innovation Department.
"Since 2005 - explains Niko Ajazi, director of Giffoni Albania - we have involved over 100,000 children in various cities in the country. For this edition, we are preparing a special program so that more and more young people will have the opportunity to live, understand and enjoy - at least in part - the extraordinary Giffoni experience, which is unique in the world".
"Giffoni was the first cultural reality in the world to visit Albania in 1984, still under dictatorship, presenting and promoting the films of this beautiful country, so close but completely unknown - says the director of Giffoni Experience, Claudio Gubitosi - from that year on we never stopped working and cooperating. For 11 years we have been energizing, with passion and dedication to create the Giffoni Albania festival. I've found young people eager to learn, and I'm happy with the great quality of these guys who have shown amazing to have great skills and motivation".
Giffoni Albania was born with the goal of promoting a social and cultural exchange policy between the two countries by raising awareness among different subjects in the school world - from students, teachers and parents - encouraging respect and enhancing cultural diversity, through education and solidarity. Among the various goals there is also the wish to increase the development of the Italian audiovisual production abroad, by promoting co-productions and strengthening international relations.
Mayor of Tirana Erion Veliaj, guest of the 47th edition of the Giffoni Film Festival, expressed words of encouragement and support for the initiative: "Around cinema gravitates a universe made of beauty and truth, the best way to strengthen civilization and democracy itself, which is based on these universal principles. In these years - the first citizen continues - we have been able to strengthen a communication from which both sides, Giffoni and Albania, have gained momentum for growth and improvement. Now we are already considering the possibilities that Gubitosi has suggested to us: a new Giffoni that will last three years, a trilogy open to innovation, start-ups and future - very important - work in the digital world“.
"Director Claudio Gubitosi has been several times in Tirana - explains Veliaj - and has always talked about the great work done on the entire town. We are investing heavily in art and we are trying to prove how this is no longer an ancillary component. Incubation sites are growing. More people will start to think in these terms, more possibilities developed even within my country thanks to a little treasures such as the Giffoni Experience".
Giffoni Albania is a project supported by Italian Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini, from the Directorate General for Cinema of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Tourism of the Italian Government, Albanian Culture Minister Mirela Kumbaro and Director of the National Center for Cinematography of Albania Ilir Butka.
For all the jurors who will be part of the jury of Giffoni Albania, four innovative short films selected on the Internet during the 2017 edition of the national contest My Giffoni and made by young students and video-makers will be made available online. Three categories, directed at productions entirely realized by schools and associations: from 6 to 10 years old, for Primary Schools; from 11 to 13 years old, for 1st grade Secondary Schools; from 14 to 20 years, or from grade II secondary schools.
The selected shorts that will be shared online are: “L’appello”, conducted by the Anzio III Conductor Institute of Lavinio di Anzio (Rome), directed by Valerio Cicco, where a class of children are faced with the theme of collective pain and memory; "Editing" by Giffoni Valle Piana "F.lli Linguiti", helmed by Luca Moltisanti and focused on the drama of bullying and cyberbullying; "#AVE", directed by Clemente Pernarella, for the Liceo Classico "Dante Alighieri" in Latina and in collaboration with the Cultural Association Lestra, where a group of your have to confront a very chaotic statue depicting the Emperor Augustus; Finally, "THE LAST FIGHT", realized by the high school "GianBattista Vico" in Naples and by STEP ONE Productions, directed by Raffaele Rossi, where the young protagonists are students who divide into factions to elect the best music genre ever.
