40° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
OUT OF COMPETITION/RITRATTI E PAESAGGI
THE BEAT BOMB
by Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani
Country: Italy, Argentina
Year: 2022
Duration: 83'
A journey began in 2007 with a chance encounter between a director and a famous poet. It could have ended there but instead, through a series of coincidences, a collaboration and a friendship sprang up between the two, between Rome and San Francisco, that continued until the end of the long life of Lawrence Ferlinghetti (who died at almost 102 years of age in 2021). Besides being the catalyst, talent scout, and editor of the Beat Generation, Ferlinghetti carried on his vision, a political and cultural agenda that was rigorous and coherent. The documentary is an echo of his voice: The Beat Bomb, a bomb against “the military-industrial complex,” the powerful lobby which even President Eisenhower (as a retired general) warned against in vain in a historic speech he gave. In his poetry, Ferlinghetti hoped that, through the power of words, poets could be “reporters from outer space” to respond to the challenges of the apocalyptic times.
Biography
film director
Ferdinando Vincentini Orgnani
(Milan, Italy 1963) graduated in directing from the Centro sperimentale di cinematografia in 2002; he wrote and directed Vinodentro (2014), Ilaria Alpi - Il più crudele dei giorni (The Cruelest Day, 2003), and Mare largo (Open Sea, 1998). He has created and directed many documentaries, including 68 - Utopia della realtà (2007), Percorsi di pace (2008), Zulu meets Jazz (2008) and Time in Jazz (2009) with the jazz musician Paolo Fresu, and Un minuto de silencio (A Moment of Silence, 2013). With Marcello Fois and Diego De Silva, he wrote the screenplay of Certi bambini (A Children's Story, 2004), the Fassbinder Award at the European Film Awards, and has produced various movies and documentaries with Sandro Frezza. In 2012, he played the role of Marcello Mastroianni in the film Parajanov - Lover of Beauty and in 2019 he published the collection of short stories Baba Carapa with A&B.
FILMOGRAFIA
La giustizia trionfa (cm, 1991), Apocrifi sul caso Crowley (mm, 1993), Mare largo (1998), Ilaria Alpi - Il più crudele dei giorni (2003), Hannover (2003), 68 - L’utopia della realtà (doc., 2006), Zulu Meets Jazz (doc., 2008), Vinodentro (2013), The Beat Bomb (doc., 2022).
Declaration
film director
“To me, the discreet narrator of this story, The Beat Bomb was a unique opportunity for reflection, a moment to put together various life experiences like a puzzle. In this way, I feel I have done my duty (a lesson I learned from my poet friends) and, with the means at hand, I tried to show, to bring to the surface, some of the contradictions that torment and besiege us. Therefore, rather than a historical-anthropological story, it is something very personal. Chance and need put me in the privileged position to use this extraordinary pretext to update a story that affects many of the things I care about.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY: Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Renato Favro, Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani. FILM EDITING: Alessandro Minestrini. MUSIC: Paolo Fresu. CAST: Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jack Hirschman, Amanda Plummer, Joanna Cassidy, Michele Placido, Tony Lo Bianco, Paolo Fresu. PRODUCERS: Alfredo Federico, Simona Banchi. PRODUCTION: 39films, CO-PRODUCTION: Luce Cinecittà.
CONTACT:
Cinecittà Luce international@cinecittaluce.it
