[This event will be held in Italian] Screening of the documentary by Francesco Cordio, with the author | Finalist Masters section (+)
“Roma. Golpe capitale”, by Francesco Cordio | Production: Own Air (Italy 2017), 103'
Rome, October 30, 2015. Mayor Ignazio Marino’s government falls when nineteen city council members from his own party, the Partito Democratico, sign a document of resignation in the privacy of a notary’s office. On their reasons for toppling a mayor elected only two years earlier with 64% of the popular vote, the councillors are silent. Rome: Capital Coup tells the behind-the-scenes story of the hostilities, power relations, and hidden interests that Ignazio Marino, a prominent professor of surgery and former Senator of the Italian Republic, faced as head of the Eternal City. The film traces the events that led to Marino’s election. It also chronicles his battle against criminal elements long present in the city administration (‘Mafia Capitale’) and the political and media campaigns against this outsider mayor (a ‘Martian’). Rome: Capital Coup unfolds in a series of interviews with notable witnesses. The narrators include the anti-mafia judge Giancarlo Caselli; Federica Angeli, a journalist widely admired for her stands against organized crime; the firebrand blogger Massimiliano Tonelli; and Marino himself.
Francesco Cordio is an independent filmmaker. His recent works include: L’altra faccia della medaglia (2016), a documentary on Fabrizio Donato, Eusebio Haliti and Ayomide Folorunso, three Italian athletes trying to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games; LocalEuropa. Musica valida per l’espatrio (2014), a road-movie with Italian songwriters Niccolò Fabi, Daniele Silvestri and Max Gazzè touring Europe and meeting Italian expats; Lo Stato della follia (2013), a documentary on Italian judicial psychiatric hospitals, born from a shorter work awarded at Premio Ilaria Alpi 2011. He also directed a documentary film with actor-director Ascanio Celestini and Nobel Prize Dario Fo (Tutti giù per aria, 2009) and Inti-Illimani, donde las nubes cantan (2007), a film on the famous Chilean folk music ensemble, shortlisted in several international festivals. During his career, he has also worked as an actor, and as a director of theatrical productions and music clips.