Thursday, 16 July 2020 16:40

"Giffoni50 marks the restart of culture in Italy": today the opening ceremony of the fiftieth anniversary with Undersecretary Anna Laura Orrico

The creator and director Claudio Gubitosi: "Here we generate the energy that improves the world” . Matera Region Councilor: "It is the symbol of Campania's strength"

 #Giffoni50 has started. The opening of the celebrations for the fifty years of the festival unquestionably represents the resumption of cultural activities in Italy after the lockdown in recent months. An important milestone that saw institutional representatives, civil and military authorities gathered at the Citadel of Cinema with the aim of paying tribute to the Giffoni concept which actually conquered the world.

In full compliance with all the regulations in force regarding Health safety and anti-contagion prevention, three hundred jurors took part in the ceremony, which took place in the Sala Truffaut, representing the thousands of young people who participate each year in the Festival.

Palpable emotion during the morning which, through the video contributions made for the occasion by the Production Department of Giffoni Opportunity, offered a rundown of the seasons that have followed from 1971 to today, highlighting the growth and international importance that the Festival has gained from a cultural, but also social point of view, to become one of the most important cultural and creative events in Italy.

The ceremony was enriched by the message of Sergio Mattarella, President of the Republic: «The choice to rely on children and young people - his message reads - as both spectators and jurors, the role of absolute protagonists of the event, means that Giffoni's experience goes far beyond the simple festival dimension, offering young people an extraordinary opportunity for cultural growth and enrichment, which is also given by the large presence of works from all over the world. With the hope that the fiftieth edition of the festival will inaugurate a new and fruitful season of further successes, I send my warm greetings to all the participants in today's ceremony, and especially to the little ones».

The President of the Campania Region, Vincenzo De Luca, also sent his contribution: «Half a century of Giffoni represents an extraordinary milestone - he declared - The children's film festival today tells its story, a unique experience and always without borders, which makes young people its great strength and its future. We are with them, with the kids, with the organizers, with Claudio Gubitosi who is surely experiencing the most exciting season this year. We come from a few difficult months, which inevitably could only change the approach for this edition. But the essence and significance of one of the most important international initiatives, which will continue to grow and which makes the whole of Campania, the South, and the whole of Italy extremely proud remains unchanged».

«Giffoni must be experienced personally  - said the founder and director of Giffoni, Claudio Gubitosi - We all know it, because here the heart beats with emotion, amazement, wonder. Here we generate the energy that improves the world. Here we discover the values ​​of the common places, of the suburbs that become a full part of the great Italian beauty. Here you are immensely happy and this is the dominant theme of a great symphony that, although generated in the most absolute anomaly, has been able to conquer, with its strangeness, time, space, positions, and is now recognized for its values worldwide.​​».

«The time has not flown for me and for the Festival - continued Gubitosi - It was the right one because year after year, hour after hour, it has been enriched with experience, knowledge, identity. It is difficult to be able to express, in a few minutes, the weight, the responsibility, the joy, the emotion of something that has chosen to change me and consequently the fate of my town, Giffoni, and then again a vast community that it is united, year after year, to our small reality ».

"Hundreds of thousands of young people have found, in this small dot of the world - the director explained - their home, the place where you can get to know each other, appreciate the beauty of different cultures, true friendships, the strength of hospitality and diversity, expressing oneself freely, being listened to, being able to interact with everyone, without any distinction, with the greats of the earth, with the Oscar and Nobel Prize winners, with those beautiful people who are the witnesses of our time. In an era where the younger generations are of little importance, in a society that sometimes does not recognize their languages​​and does not give them the opportunity to be able to express themselves. Several times branded as incapable or big babies, here in Giffoni they find the meaning of their existence, those rhythms that we know better than others. Here they also find job opportunities and motivations that enrich their future journey ».

An Excited and very enthusiastic Undersecretary of State for Cultural Heritage with responsibility for Cinema, Anna Laura Orrico said: «I dreamed of Giffoni many times - she began in her heartfelt speech - and when in 2014 I wrote to the director to ask him to collaborate on my project that I was carrying on in my land, in Calabria, I was surprised when I received his reply of encouragement to go on. The answer was a yes to starting the collaboration with Giffoni. For someone like me, who tried to build those opportunities that I hadn't had, it was a great injection of courage. Since then I never broke up with Giffoni. And every time I return it is a great emotion because Giffoni represents the better Italy, because it expresses great values, first of all in terms of dialogue between several generations, in terms of interculturality, because it highlights the importance of meeting people from Different nations and different cultures, which find fertile ground here to express themselves freely» .

«Here - continued the Undersecretary - we can see a model of possible economic, social and cultural development. I am so proud that all this happens in Campania, here we have the best expression of the South and our country, here there is everything that the world envies us. Here there is a concentration of creativity, energy and emotion that is difficult to keep under control. I thank Giffoni and the giffoners for giving meaning to my commitment in politics to serve my country, to try to make it the place that it deserves to be because we are imbued with beauty, creativity expressed by visionary men and women who really could help even more to build a country that lives up to the expectations of young people Thanks Giffoni for what you are, for what you give, for all the energy you will give me and for the value I attach to being here to open the celebrations for fifty 'years of emotions, of vision, of hope for a future that starts here again today in Giffoni».

The Campania Region was represented in the theatre by the Councilor for Tourism, Corrado Matera: «Giffoni - he said - is an intuition, a design of the mind. Claudio Gubitosi fought at an early age for this idea and created a very important project, creating the conditions for this idea to become a cultural enterprise. In recent years there has been a significant growth in tourism in Campania. We recorded an increase of 13%. Giffoni was an opportunity to increase youth and cultural tourism, representing the opportunity to get to know the great strength of Campania even more. In this context, therefore, Giffoni is a two act for how important it is. Of course, in recent months we have experienced a world war that has created anxiety, poverty and resulted in death. Campania, however, has always reacted head-on, from an health point of view with important international awards, but also from the economic point of view. We have put in place actions to promote Campania. This is why Giffoni could not stop and this for us must be the moment of restart, an important moment to make the world understand the great strength that we are able to express. Campania starts again with Giffoni».

To make the honors of the house the mayor of Giffoni Valle Piana, Antonio Giuliano: «It is a pride and great satisfaction - he said - in a moment so delicate for the whole world to open today the celebrations for the fifty years of Giffoni. In a moment of collective bewilderment, this year we could not stop because today even more than yesterday we must send a positive message. Through the new generations Giffoni is a strong vehicle to start all over. I thank as a Giffonese citizen , and as a mayor, Claudio Gubitosi who was and is a man capable of large projects. Giffoni never stopped even during the lockdown because this is the meaning of Giffoni ».

Also in the theatre the Papa family, from Pescara, with a nice peculiarity: eight members, six children, all six jurors. They brought their experience as jurors, of giffoners linked to the values ​​that made Giffoni great. Furthermore, the novelty of 2020 was announced with the presence, during the next stages starting from that of August, of the international hubs - there will be eighteen in as many countries of the world - and the national ones that will be set up in many Italian cities. They will enrich the edition of the Festival and will attend all the screenings of the films in competition with voting rights. In addition, # Giffoni50 will be visible with daily insights on all the main national television networks.

To celebrate #Giffoni50, Feltrinelli Comics in collaboration with COMICON, has created A dream called Giffoni, a graphic novel written by Tito Faraci (editorial curator of Feltrinelli Comics, screenwriter, of Mickey, Tex, Diabolik, Dylan Dog), and designed by the talent of Walter "Wallie" Petrone (Cross on the heart, Dirty and immediately), in bookstores from 29 July.

"This is the only publication - said director Gubitosi - that we have been able to create for our 50th anniversary, a work that has moved me greatly thanks to the feature of Wallie, one of the youngest and most promising designers on the Italian scene and written by one of the most important cartoonists and creatives in the world: Tito Faraci».

The mayors of the Picentini and other Municipalities with whom Giffoni Opportunity has, over the years, established fruitful relationships of friendship and collaboration were present in the theatre. Among these, the deputy mayor of Salerno Eva Avossa, Sonia Alfano (San Cipriano Picentino), Giuseppe Canfora (Sarno), Carmine Pignata (Oliveto Citra), Giuseppe Lanzara (Pontecagnano), Stefano Pisani (Pollica), Martino D'Onofrio (Montecorvino Rovella ), Francesco Munno (Giffoni Sei Casali), Massimo Cariello (Eboli), Generoso Matteo Bottigliero (Castiglione del Genovesi) and Domenico Volpe (Bellizzi). Francesco Picarone, President of the Budget Commission of the Campania Region.

Numerous Authorities were present: Giuseppe Forlenza Vice-prefect vicar of Salerno; General Danilo Petrucelli Provincial Commander of the Guardia di Finanza; Giancarlo Santagata of the Provincial Command of the Carabinieri; Antonio Giummo Captain of the Frigate of the Port Authority of Salerno; Andrea Prete President of UnionCamere of the Campania Region and of the Industrialists of Salerno; Vitantonio Sisto of the Carabinieri Command of Battipaglia; Rosario Muro of the Local Police Command of Giffoni Valle Piana; Giuseppe Scialla, Guarantor for Children and Youth and Alfonso Amendola delegate of the Rector of the University of Salerno.

In Sala Truffaut there were also some historical figures of the festival such as: Tonino Pinto, Giuseppe Blasi, Alfonso Andria and Roberto Napoli.

At the end of the ceremony, the director Claudio Gubitosi guided the institutional representatives in the visit of the beautiful exhibition, hosted in one of the exhibition rooms of the Multimedia Valley, dedicated to the history of Giffoni. Historical documents on show, starting from 1973, such as the first program written on two sheets, the long and complex editorial production that testifies to the many activities promoted, both in Italy and abroad, the historic letter of the French director Francois Truffaut, the correspondence with President Gorbachev, together with some "finds". These include Michelangelo Antonioni's projector and the one that President Giulio Andreotti gave to Giffoni, received by the American ambassador at the world premiere of Quo Vadis. Some original drawings by the Oscar winner Carlo Rambaldi and a score by the late Ennio Morricone, soundtrack of the H2S film by Roberto Faenza will also be visible.

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