16/02/2021 - The international music film festival based in Turin will be accessible via a new dedicated platform until 25 February, showcasing 81 titles and hosting a focus on black music

It was one of the first events in Italy to be brought to a sudden standstill in February last year, just a few days into its programme, on account of the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic. This year, the Turin-based Seeyousound International Music Film Festival intends to unfold as planned, boasting a seventh edition equipped with all the tools required to survive the latest wave of the health crisis and armed with a new online format accessible via a purpose-built platform.

As such, between 19 and 25 February and to cries of “You Can’t Stop Music!”, the new virtual cinema Playsys.tv will host online screenings and daily editions of the ‘Seeyousound Live Show’, involving upwards of 60 guests and broadcasting concerts taking place in Turin’s Cineteatro Baretti, which can also be live-streamed via the festival’s social media channels. All titles screening within Seeyousound 7 will be available to view for seven days, and that’s only the beginning, because Playsys.tv intends to continue screening music-focused audiovisual content across the length and breadth of Italy, subsequent to 25 February.

Jostling on the agenda are 81 titles composed of feature films, documentaries, shorts and music videos, five of which are out-and-out premieres while sixteen are premieres of an Italian kind. Among the latter, we find Crock of Gold [+see also:
film review
interview: Julien Temple
film profile] by Julien Temple, which looks back over the life of the frontman of The Pogues; In a Silent Way by Belgium’s Gwenaël Breës, which focuses on Talk Talk and the creation of their experimental album “Spirit of Eden”; The Ragged Life of Juice Leskinen [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Teppo Airaksinen, a gritty yet moving film about the life of Juice Leskinen, a hugely sensitive singer and poet, and the founding father of Finnish rock; Rockfield by Hannah Berryman, which tells the true story of two brothers who turned their farm into the first ever home recording studio, frequented by Black Sabbath, Queen, Robert Plant, Oasis and Coldplay; Variações: Guardian Angel [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by João Maia, which pays tribute to the first openly gay Portuguese superstar António Variações, and Anna Hildur’s Icelandic documentary A Song Called Hate, homing in on the multi-award-winning techno group BDSM Hatari. As for world premieres in competition, one such screening is on the cards for This Film Should Not Exist, a documentary and Italian-French co-production by Nicolas Drolc, Gisella Albertini and Massimo Scocca looking back on the twenty-year career enjoyed by eccentric underground musician Ben Wallers and shining an amusing light on the 1990’s Lo-Fi scene.

For its part, the festival’s Black Lives Matter focus will take viewers on a cross-sectional journey exploring the wider significance of black music. Enjoying their Italian premieres in this particular section are Ronnie’s by Oliver Murray, which revolves around the legendary club founded in a London basement in 1959 which has welcomed legends along the lines of Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Nina Simone and Miles Davis through its doors, and Everything: The Real Thing Story by Simon Sheridan, investigating the first revolution of black music in the UK, not to mention Contradict by Peter Guyer & Thomas Burkhalter, who go off in search of a new wave of musicians who use the internet to record and disseminate music demanding a new role for Africa, and Lisbon Beat by Rita Maia and Vasco Viana, which unfolds in the outskirts of Lisbon and explores the vibrant African-Portuguese music scene. Last but not least, and set to be screened in an all-time first, is Osannaples by M. Deborah Farina, which celebrates the 50-year career of Neapolitan band Osanna and includes an unreleased demo by Pino Daniele.

The festival will also see a jury composed of Stephen Kijak (a director who has documented icons such as David Bowie, The Rolling Stones, The Smiths and Judy Garland), Frauke Knappke (a sales agent for Berlin firm MagnetFilm) and Marta Ravani (a sales agent at London-based HanWay Films) reveal the winners of the awards for Best Documentary (€1,000) and Best Fiction Film (€1,000).  

(Translated from Italian)