It’s all systems go for the 12th edition of the Seeyousound International Music Film Festival
- The leading Italian festival dedicated to music-focused films will unspool in Turin between 3 and 8 March, hosting world and international premieres accompanied by live music and DJ sets
Make Some Noise: this is the mantra of the 12th SeeYouSound International Music Film Festival, taking place in Turin between 3 and 8 March. This year, the first ever festival in Italy wholly dedicated to music-themed films will explore how noise can act as a creative impetus with the capacity to break the mould and morph into art, communication and acts of protest.
Directed by Carlo Griseri, the festival will host six days of film and music showcasing 68 titles – including feature films, documentaries, short films and music videos – screening in world, international or European premieres, as well as 16 acts comprising live performances, DJ sets and audiovisual shows, two exhibitions and one artistic residency. One of the festival’s most hotly anticipated films is Bowie: The Final Act, which is screening in an international premiere and which sees director Jonathan Stiasny (who’ll be attending the festival) delving into Blackstar, which is the final artistic testament by an artist who managed to turn the end of his life into a radical creative act: David Bowie, who passed away ten years ago.
The Long Play Feature Competition will showcase four European films: Greece’s They Come Out Of Margo [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Alexander Voulgaris, selected in the most recent Karlovy Vary Festival; Switzerland’s Wolves [+see also:
film review
interview: Jonas Ulrich
film profile] by newcomer Jonas Ulrich, a coming-of-age tale set on the fringes of Europe’s black metal scene; Germany’s Rave On [+see also:
trailer
interview: Nikias Chryssos, Viktor Jak…
film profile] by Nikias Chryssos and Viktor Jakovleski, which takes viewers on an endless night out in Berlin, following a fading DJ on an immersive journey between clubs, raves and hallucinatory visions, and British film Ebony & Ivory by Jim Hosking, offering up a surreal re-reading of the genesis of the legendary musical collaboration between Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder, turning it into an irreverently toned, nonsensical comedy. The feature film competition line-up will be rounded off by Abdolreza Kahani’s Mortician (Canada), which tells the story of an Iranian undertaker and a dissident female pop singer while exploring exile, resistance and banned music.
Films taking centre stage in the Long Play Doc competitive section - offering up a selection of music documentaries spanning different eras, genres and geographies - include British movie Pauline Black: A 2-Tone Story by Jane Mingay, which is dedicated to the charismatic voice from The Selecter who was also a key figure on the British ska scene in the late ’70s; the German title presented in the 2025 Berlinale I Want It All. Hildegard Knef [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Luzia Schmid, which paints an intense portrait of the German diva, actress and singer who’s considered to be the heiress to Marlene Dietrich, and French work Herbie by Patrick Savey, which pays tribute to one of the most innovative and transversal musicians in the history of contemporary music, Herbie Hancock.
The festival agenda will further boast its two long-standing, non-competitive sections: Rising Sound, which celebrates freedom-seeking and mould-breaking approaches, and Into the Groove, a diverse mosaic which brings distant worlds together in the name of music. Especially noteworthy events include the world premiere of Pietro Fuccio’s La prima festa, which focuses on the shortfall between ideal and reality during the creation of a music event during the pandemic, following in the footsteps of Italian singer-songwriter and record producer Cosmo, and Boy George & Culture Club by multi-award-winning director Alison Ellwood, who previously authored the recent Cyndi Lauper documentary and who’s now offering up a vibrant portrait of one of the most iconic groups of the 1980s. They’ll be joined by The Banjo Boys by Johan Nayar, Para vivir - El implacable tiempo de Pablo Milanés by Fabien Pisani and Legacy by Manal Masri. Last but not least, Falene by Ivan Cazzola is set to screen in a world premiere, reconstructing the birth and evolution of Turin’s club culture between the ‘80s and the early Noughties, and featuring a special live concert at the end of the screening.
(Translated from Italian)
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