We will stay home but we won't stop: this emergency does not stop Giffoni Opportunity and its activities. The extension of the red zone to the whole nation requires changes in lifestyles and calls for a sense of responsibility with the aim of curbing contagion. And while an entire nation is committed to changing its habits, Giffoni finds new ways to be alongside their children and young people, boys and girls, their parents and grandparents. Turning hardship into new opportunities: this is what Giffoni has been doing for 50 years and, even today, they choose to change their perspective and look to the future with optimism and a desire to react.
«I would like to thank all our international partners - claimed the director of Giffoni Opportunity, Claudio Gubitosi - from the United States to Australia, from Brazil to Sweden, from Qatar to North Macedonia for the numerous and exciting messages of closeness, friendship and solidarity. What I would like to convey to them is our optimism and, above all, the certainty that Giffoni will be one of the world events where energy, affection and love will "contaminate" the world with beauty ".
Here is what Giffoni proposes and plans. From tomorrow until 12 July, a few hours before the opening of the 50th edition of the Giffoni Film Festival, there will be many activities and initiatives that will involve (for the time being from home) thousands of children. The goal is to respond to the needs of young people and their families, offering them a space to tell us their stories while we wait for this to be over so to finally see them as the true protagonists of a journey that will bring them back to meet, embrace and get to know each other in Giffoni.
We start with #GiffoniAUnMetroDaTe a campaign that stems from the current climate that aims to show how the kids are spending their days. At this stage, training, education and culture cannot certainly be stopped. The digital tools, the social networks, used in a conscious way, allow you to connect young people, starting right from the Giffoni community. In a few hours, hundreds of stories were published on the official Instagram channel (@giffoni_experience) in which the Giffoni children and youth chose to share their passions, to tell about their favorite books, or simply to exchange tips on cinema and TV series. Reading, listening to music, playing, creating, writing, thinking, cooking, drawing: these are just some of the ways in which the giffoners are spending their time, discovering the beauty of their relationships with their family and reserving moments for all those activities that are too often put aside. "From the Giffoni observatory we have the demonstration that our youth are reacting in the best way - explains Gubitosi - It is right to give a correct representation of what the generation of today's children is, in particular of the giffoners who always express good values, even in such difficult times. The youth are not only those of the outlaw aperitifs that the media have shown us recently. Giffoners are indeed showing a great sense of responsibility by sticking to the rules. The video messages we are receiving confirm this absolute 100%".
Another challenge we are launching is: #TalentMotivation. The most brilliant Italian and international minds, actors, directors, Oscar and Nobel prizes, talents of art and culture, representatives of all institutions, heads of state and government, scientists, writers, philosophers, men and women of the world of research and medicine, entrepreneurs, people capable of being examples of inspiration and value have experienced the magic of the festival, sharing their stories and ideas with thousands of young people. Today Giffoni reverses the roles and invites the youth to be, even more, an active part of the organization. They will be the ones to propose, directly from their social networks, names and faces of talents they would like to meet, both Italian and International. Giffoni will draw up a top-ten, one for each activity and category, with the aim of inviting those included in them during the Festival. "I will do my best - continues Gubitosi - with all my strength to urge the people that the children and youth will choose. A fundamental task for them: to be the protagonists with our jurors of the next festival".
The strong relationship with the Giffoni community will also be part of the #GIffoniAUnMetroDaTe campaign: We stay at home, but we won't stop, offered on all official social channels. The talk will be held twice a week: on Tuesday and Fridays at 18.00. "For days - says Gubitosi - I have been wondering what we could do for our giffoners. We have a responsibility to be close to the kids and their families. That's why we thought it was our duty to be there, to support parents, to provide food for thought and also opportunities for recreation for children, from the youngest to teenagers. In these weeks we will use our social networks to talk to our huge community. We must project ourselves to what will come after, when this emergency will be behind us. We want to support the children and youth and continue doing it, even more strongly, when all this will be over, when the moment of liberation that we all await, will come, when we will finally be able to hug each other again in the squares of our beautiful countries, our cities, our wonderful Italy, in Giffoni".
We start tomorrow, Friday 13 March at 18.00, on all Giffoni social channels with the second appointment of the talk "We stay at home, but we won't stop". Guests of the director Claudio Gubitosi, on Skype, will be giffoners who will tell how they are spending their time. Speakers with significant stories, such as the ambassador and masterclasser Marco Napoli (29 years old) doctor of the Bambino Gesù and Gemelli Pediatric Hospital in Rome, the ambassador Nico Tripodi (22 years old) currently studying in Sweden, the giffoner Giovanni Cioffi (23 years old) student of the Polytechnic of Turin and Domenico Benvenuto (25 years old) sworn in for seven editions and currently among the researchers who have isolated the Coronavirus DNA, under the guidance of professor Massimo Ciccozzi.
A forthcoming talk will include the participation, also via Skype, of eight young giffoners from Veneto, Calabria, Sicily and Sardinia, some of the partner regions of numerous initiatives that Giffoni promotes during the year in Italy. Another opportunity, therefore, to create links between young people and to multiply meeting opportunities. The format, in the coming weeks, will see the involvement of Giffoni's foreign hubs. Jurors from different countries will participate in the skypecalls, including Japan (Tokyo) and South Korea.
Giffoni's commitment does not stop here, the appeal was fundamental because even the schedules of the main television networks were adapted to the needs of those who are forced tostay at home: "We will do our part in this way - adds Gubitosi - as it is our duty. We have made our appeal to the national television networks to review their schedules in the light of the emergency and I must recognize that our ask has not fallen on deaf ears. So thank you all for having accepted our requests". Furthermore, the commitment alongside Mibact remains fundamental: "We will participate in the web marathon wanted by Minister Dario Franceschini which will be hosted on the Mibact YouTube channel tomorrow - the director explains - It is in line with our idea of experiencing this phase, especially from part of the Italian talents and artists, such as a call 'to cultural weapons' in a time when desertion is not allowed. For our part, we intend to carry out a social, educational and training action, and do it in our own special way, with that authenticity that everyone recognizes us. We want to convey positivity. Italy will emerge victorious from this emergency without a doubt. Indeed, this phase will be an opportunity to rediscover values that seemed dormant, to awaken consciences, to reactivate social circuits that are rarely used today".
After the post-its appeared first in Milan and then in many other cities in Italy, some giffoners took up the challenge. A colored rainbow and the phrase #AndràTuttoBene written on their billboards. Children and young people will be able to make these designs with any technique and on any support, and hang them on their balconies and windows. A rainbow of hope, the hope that for Italy #AndràTuttoBene: this is another of the initiatives that Giffoni has chosen to support, addressing it in particular to children who will thus be able to indulge themselves and produce drawings as they did, until a few days ago , on their school desks.
#IoStoACasaCineforum is instead the idea born from the giffoners of the Cult masterclass of the last edition. The project consists in choosing, through the Instagram profile @IoRestoACasaCF, a film and watching it individually: this will be then commented together online, in the evening, on a video conference debate. Among the titles chosen by the youth THE SEVENTH SEAL, in honor and memory of Max Von Sydow, who passed away last Sunday. An idea that, day by day, is getting great feedback and participation.
Another proposed initiative is #GiffoniStayHuman. The story has often been told to us in literature. One of the greatest examples is the Decameron, in which Boccaccio makes 10 young people take refuge outside Florence to escape the black plague and tell a different story every day. Similarly, Giffoni wants to tell this special moment through 10 short stories. Not a chronicle of the difficulties of this moment, but the rediscovery of ourselves and our time. All you need is a pen, therefore, and obviously a lot of creativity that is often left aside in favor of practicality. Ten short stories told through the beauty of writing. A "call to the arts" to collect stories that will then be introduced by the authors themselves and staged by actors, during the 50th edition of the Giffoni Film Festival. Everyone can participate in the call: both aspiring writers and established ones.
In a few days it will be Father's Day. Giffoni's idea is to purify this anniversary from consumerist aspects to make it an opportunity for a new meeting between parents and children. #CheBelloRiConoscersi is the title of the initiative involving dads. A letter to one's son or children can undoubtedly represent the most effective tool to tell oneself outside the box, outside the rules and to renew a relationship, the one between father and child, which always needs new nourishment, new words and new goals. Today, technology also offers other communication channels. The letter, therefore, can be written or even made in the form of a video message. Giffoni will select the ten works that will have hit the target, that of telling these days of rediscovery of family values projected towards a better future through the language of paternal love. The ten selected dads will be guests of Giffoni during the fiftieth edition of the Festival.
"Every parent wishes their child all the best possible - explains Gubitosi - the words of affection are never enough, the embrace of a father contains the strength that children need, giving them stability and protection. Protecting your children means continuing, without hesitation, to determine the conditions for a better future for them. We thought that expressing these feelings with a letter or a video message could represent a positive model for everyone".
