Carolina Levi • Producer
“The old distribution models have to be reviewed”
- An interview with Italian producer Carolina Levi of Tangram Film, one of the participants of Jihlava's 2018 Emerging Producers
An interview with Italian producer Carolina Levi of Tangram Film, one of the participants of Jihlava IDFF's 2018 Emerging Producers.
Why do you produce documentaries? Do you believe that they have the power to change the world?
Carolina Levi: I strongly believe that documentaries are a most powerful tool to discover and tell people stories, events and situations, which often stay hidden and untold. My passion and my commitment is to find stories and bring them to light. Recently, two documentaries have changed my life (My Generation [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: David Batty
film profile], directed by David Batty and One More Time With Feeling with Nick Cave) and this is one reason why I will continue my hard duty.
What do you think is the future of distribution of documentary films?
I think that every film needs a customized distribution strategy that should be planned as early as possible, increasing funding options and the creative collaboration between the director, the producer and the distributor.
The old distribution models have to be reviewed and updated, also increasingly involving the public. Today, the public has the possibility, concurrently too, to see docs also on demand. I think that online distribution on VOD platforms represents a good continuation of the documentary's journey.
What projects do you have under way?
I'm currently working on the development of several projects:
- Beatrice Cenci – The Trial, created by Roberto Levi and written by Paola Randi, TV series (Italy), 10 episodes of 60 min. The first legal thriller set in Italian Renaissance, based on a true story. The case of Beatrice Cenci is a clash of power, the Papal Court versus a noble family. A clash of generations, a despotic father, and a young girl’s cry for freedom that awakens the heart of the people of Rome.
- 1938 Different (The Racial Laws of the Fascism), written and directed by Giorgio Treves and co-produced with Sky Italy, documentary (Italy), 58 min.
1938 – 2018: Eighty years after the Promulgation of the Fascist Racial Laws: an important and unfortunately very topical anniversary. The movie will focus on the subtle mechanisms of social persuasion employed by fascism through the effective and pervasive activity of the Ministero della Cultura Popolare. It will show articles, comics, and movies through which, in the scope of a few months, Jews were turned into "different" first and then into real enemies of the nation. It will tell the consequences this had on the everyday life of Italian Jews in the aftermath of the laws through the voices of some direct witnesses, and through the reconstruction, in animation, of some true events of discrimination and humiliation. Eminent scholars will help us reread this dramatic era from a new perspective, capable to disclose the role of mass media in one of the most tragic racial persecutions in the history of humankind.
- Swisside, directed by Paolo Civati, co-produced with Controra Film, documentary (Italy/Switzerland), 80 min.
Switzerland. The Present Day. The realm of opportunities. Three women: Violet, Serena and J., stories balanced between free will and ethics. In a world where everything is possible and marketable, if life no longer has to fear death, what can be lost? Three women, three existences united by the need to come to terms with their own limits. Between ethics and legality, there exists a space where free will questions itself, and can transform itself into a cage.
- Tasmania Buyers Club, directed by Nicola Moruzzi, in co-production with Schicchera Productions, documentary (Italy/Australia), 80 min. It tells about Greg Jefferys, the leader of the biggest Hep-C drugs buyers club in the world.
- The Blue Night, written by Chiara Marchelli and based on her novel finalist at the Premio Strega 2017. Feature film; 90 min.
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Emerging Producers is a promotional and educational project, which brings together talented European documentary film producers. The programme is organised and curated by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.
Deadline for applications to the Emerging Producers 2019 edition is 31 March, 2018. Click here.