06/06/2005

Having previously focused on Spain and Scotland, this year Archipelago is talking Irish (and Gaelic) and features 'Irishorts', a selection of twenty short films produced in Ireland over the last ten years, including two animation shorts which were nominated for Oscars in 2001.
The 13th Archipelago, International Short Film Festival, taking place in Rome from the 17th to the 23d June, will open with a tribute to Peter Watkins, Ken Loach's inspiration, an unruly rebel who became a living legend after receiving the 1966 Oscar with a pacifist film censured for many years by the BBC, The War Game. The festival will screen two of Watkins' first short films, The Diary of an Unknown Soldier and The Forgotten Faces as well as a recent video interview, Peter Watkins Lithuania 2001.

Besides the various competitions (in which 215 titles chosen from 1400 entries will compete), a section entitled 'Europe in shorts' will show what is currently going on short film-wise in Europe, while the section 'Crimes & Violent deeds' will focus on the Holocaust, the Rwandan genocide, and the conflict in the Middle-East. Archipelago will also screen a selection of Gianfranco Pannone's best documentaries (including Io che amo solo te, to be released soon in Italy) and a full-length feature, Move!, the first episode of a series designed and partially directed through the internet by Pietro Jona, in collaboration with a dozen filmmakers from all over the world.

(Translated from Italian)