The Italian Cooperation produced a number of documentary films on CinemArena, an innovative development project carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, Mozambique, Senegal and Uganda.
An extraordinary itinerant caravan
Screenings will be held in the Alice cinema on 9 November at 19:00 and again on 18 November at 20:00 of a selection of the feature-length and short documentaries that emerged from this extraordinary itinerant caravan that brought Italian and international cinema to villages and oases in remote regions where poverty, disease and indigence dominate the lives of the populations. Open-air cinema for people who had never had the chance to see a film was an unforgettable and highly emotional event, and an experience that will remain etched on the hearts of adults and children alike: the magic of a savannah or a desert transformed into a movie theatre under the stars – the silver screen blending into the African night sky.
Messages of deep importance
The screenings were preceded by short films or theatrical presentations on, for example, disease prevention (AIDS, malaria, cholera, leprosy) in Mozambique, Kenya and Uganda; information on family law in Morocco, preventing violence against women and children in Lebanon and Senegal; children’s rights in Kenya and Ethiopia; instruction on cluster bombs in Lebanon and Uganda – messages of deep importance for people unable to read, who do not watch television and do not have access to Internet.
In short, a new method of cooperation and, from the filmmaking point of view, a new use for film, which becomes a tool for social information and education.
During the 2010 World Soccer Championship, held for the first time in Africa, soccer matches often replaced film screenings. Also in 2010, CinemArena worked with the “Overland 12: in the heart of Africa” expedition, produced by the RAI State television company, with interventions aimed at prevention of the diseases most afflicting the continent.
