By Rebecca Ceccatelli and Giulia Piceni. Cover image: still from Lolo & Sosaku, The Western Archive © Sergio Caballero. Courtesy of Lo Schermo dell’Arte.
Now in its 17th edition, the Lo Schermo dell’Arte Festival in Florence is a rare initiative that transforms the art world by extending art beyond the traditional confines of galleries and museums. Additionally, through its companion project, VISIO, Lo Schermo dell’Arte brings emerging talents from across the globe to the forefront, enabling them to express their unique visions through film and artistic media.
The programme is packed with exciting films, and we’ve marked the must-see selections. Here’s our list of top picks that are sure to satisfy our hunger for art, emotion, and thought-provoking experiences.
1. Arte Povera, Appunti per la Storia directed by Andrea Bettinetti and produced by Michele Bongiorno, 2023 (93’)
“A project lasting more than three years, generating an incredible amount of documents and allowing for the rediscovery of wonderful archival material,” says producer Michele Bongiorno to la Lettura. The documentary film focuses on a revolutionary group of artists who made a significant impact on the Italian art scene in the 1960s.
The film showcases a collective effort, featuring interviews with key figures, including notable artists like Giulio Paolini, Fabio Sargentini, Lia Rumma, and many others. It presents extensive research and re-examines some of the most iconic masterpieces from that era.
The manifesto of Arte Povera, published in issue no. 5 of Flash Art in 1967 by Germano Celant, stated, “First comes the individual, then the system; it used to be that way. Today, society produces, and the individual consumes”. Now, the documentary brings this mission to the big screen, adapting it for a contemporary audience.
When: Cinema La Compagnia, Thursday 14, 5 pm
2. Alreadymade by Barbara Visser, 2023 (82’)
The documentary “Alreadymade” explores the intriguing idea that anyone in the art world can often serve as either puppets or puppeteers—or even both. It addresses a heated topic that has emerged in recent years: a newly discovered letter by Marcel Duchamp.
In this letter, Duchamp references a female friend while submitting his iconic artwork “Fountain” to the Society of Independent Artists exhibition in New York. What if the conspiracy theories suggesting that Fountain was actually conceived by Elsa von Freytag are true? The documentary seeks to investigate this possibility by revisiting the era when Dada culture was overturning the standards and definitions of art.
When: Cinema La Compagnia, Friday 15, 10:20 pm
3. Sarcophagus of Drunken Loves by Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, 2024 (8’)
In Lebanon, a country shattered by war, darkness and blackouts are a daily reality. Yet, life must go on, holding on to the human ability to adapt amidst pain and harsh truths. The National Museum of Beirut, much like the country itself, often finds itself without electricity.
What happens in the museum when the lights go out? How does one connect with a work of art if it becomes invisible to the eye? This short film captures visitors as they engage with their past—the remnants of their civilization preserved in the museum—using the flashlights on their phones to illuminate the artwork. Meanwhile, the world outside continues to crumble.
When: Cinema La Compagnia, Sunday 17, 6 pm
4. La Mécanique des Fluides by Gala Hernándes López, 2022 (38’)
This short film is part of the VISIO European Programme on Artists’ Moving Images at the Lo Schermo dell’Arte Festival, conceived and curated by Leonardo Bigazzi. The programme features young artists who use moving images as the fundament of their work, allowing them to create new productions in the context of an international festival.
La Mécanique des Fluides delves into the story of an incel (involuntary celibate) who, one night, takes his own life, leaving behind a note on Reddit titled “America is responsible for my death”. The documentary seeks to make sense of his words: what is this America that contributed to his death? Gala Hernández López presents an investigation composed of footage found online, depicting our hyper-connected reality and revealing its significant sociological impact. The prominent theme here is the tangible manifestation of hate.
When: Available to stream on Lo Schermo dell’Arte channel until November 24.
5. La gola by Diego Marcon, 2024 (22’22’’)
Diego Marcon has exhibited extensively, with solo shows at prominent venues such as Kunstverein in Hamburg, Sadie Coles HQ in London, and Galerie Buchholz in Berlin, Cologne, and New York. His recent work unfolds as an epistolary narrative featuring two characters, Gianni and Rossana, two digitally animated hyperreal dolls who explore a novel form of visual melodrama.
In a series of four letters each, Gianni describes to Rossana the dishes prepared by a chef friend for an upcoming dinner. He details an appetizer, a pasta course, a meat entrée, and an elaborate dessert. Meanwhile, Rossana responds with updates about her ailing mother, detailing her decline through a series of harrowing symptoms: a rash, dysentery, vomiting blood, and, ultimately, total dementia.
When: Cinema La Compagnia, Sunday 17th, 18h30
7. The speech by Lina Lapelyté, 2024, sound (21’)
Lina Lapelytė art merges professional and amateur performers in vocal acts that span various genres, from pop to opera. In 2019, her collaborative piece Sun & Sea (Marina) won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. Her recent work, The Speech, created for the 2024 Festival d’Automne in Paris, marks a departure from traditional language, inviting one hundred Parisian children to “speak” using animal sounds to form a living “sound sculpture.”
This piece explores the limitations of language, the concept of empathy, and the transitional state of childhood identity. Set within Tadao Ando’s Bourse de Commerce, The Speech constructs a primordial, narrative-free environment, drawing listeners into a whimsical yet thought-provoking chorus of abstract voices.
When: Cinema La Compagnia, Sunday 17, 6:30 pm
7. Con i denti tra i coltelli by Roberto Fassone, 2024, 35’
Roberto Fassone, the recipient of the 2023 Maxxi BVLGARI Prize for Digital Art, has showcased his work extensively in recent years, presenting at both national and international venues, including Palazzo Collicola in Spoleto and the Art Week during Cremona Contemporanea.
In his film Con i denti tra i coltelli, Fassone offers an intimate and creative perspective on the 2023–2024 season of the amateur men’s basketball team PVM (Polisportiva Valle del Mugnone), based in Florence.
As both a player and an artist, he presents a unique narrative that merges his personal experiences with an outsider’s eye. The film immerses viewers in the life of the team, moving through the raw reality of local gyms, practice routines, and candid locker room moments. These scenes are contrasted with visual references from the broader world of professional basketball, along with an imaginative array of archival and experimental footage, from the early cinematic captures of the Lumière brothers to more futuristic elements sourced through AI.
When: Cinema La Compagnia, Sunday 17, 7:15 pm
8. Being Strong is Hard, Leyla Yenirce, 2021, 4’13’’
Leyla Yenirce is a German-Kurdish artist based in Berlin. As part of the VISIO project at Lo Schermo dell’Arte, her multidisciplinary practice spans video, installation, sound, painting, and performance, weaving together themes related to cultural and media-based power structures. Yenirce’s work often appears in films and installations that use existing footage infused with political and critical depth. Central to her art is the intentional use of sound as a narrative element. With a background in cultural anthropology, time-based media, and painting, she brings a layered understanding to her craft.
Her film, Being Strong Is Hard, presents a dynamic and impactful sequence of images—some collected online and others captured by the filmmaker herself. It features Kurdish activists, journalists, and fighters, predominantly women, who gaze directly into the camera, often smiling, accompanied by an electronic score. Describing it as an “image machine,” Yenirce blends themes of solidarity and resilience in tribute to those who have been lost or who continue the fight.
When: Available to stream on Lo Schermo dell’Arte channel until November 24.
