12/02/2008

From Teddy Awards emcee to nominee: After having hosted the 2007 ceremony for the awards given to gay-themed films at the Berlinale, this year Gustav Hofer (a documentary filmmaker and noted face to Arte audiences) is vying for one, in the documentary/essay category.

The film, co-directed with journalist Luca Ragazzi, entitled Suddenly, Last Winter (in homage to Suddenly, Last Summer by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, who was among the first directors to tackle homosexuality in Hollywood), is having its world premiere tonight in the Panorama section.

What Hofer and Ragazzi, a couple off the cameras long before they made the film, offer is a look at a homophobic Italy, where the proposed DICO law – put forth by the government in February 2007 to extend civil rights to domestic partners – turned into a bitter battleground. With the battle being fought from the city streets to the Senate, from pulpits to megaphones.

With a voice-over narrated by Veronica Pivetti, Hofer and Ragazzi also offer (self)irony –– exploiting the lightness of digital technology to capture their daily lives together. However, the reality surrounding them belies unease and fear, anger and disappointment in a climate of intolerance poisoning public life in the country, and the private lives of men and women who come up against (on the streets, in newspapers or on TV) religious fundamentalism, insults from extremists and the uncertain secularity of the political class.

Made for €5,000, Suddenly, Last Winter was produced by Hofer’s hiq productions and has not yet found an Italian distributor. Production was supported by Maria Teresa Tringali, and later by actress Jacqueline Lustig (The Religion Hour).

(Translated from Italian)