43° TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
DOCUMENTARIES COMPETITION
NEL BLU DIPINTI DI ROSSO (CANTACRONACHE viaggio nella musica di protesta)
by Stefano Di Polito
Country: Italy
Year: 2025
Duration: 73'
There are stories we do not know, even though they have profoundly shaped our lives. One of these is the story of Cantacronache, a Turin-based collective of musicians, writers, and poets credited with the birth of Italian singer-songwriter music. From 1958 to 1962, they were the first in Italy to publish records and theoretical journals promoting a “neorealist song,” in contrast to the light tunes of Sanremo, capable of narrating both news events and existential themes. Thanks to the rediscovery of the original recordings from their first concert, held on May 3, 1958, in Turin, the documentary revives Cantacronache’s repertoire, inviting audiences to rediscover their lyrics - including original texts by Italo Calvino - through a refined animation of archival materials.
Biography
film director
Stefano Di Polito
Turin, 1975) wrote and directed his debut film Mirafiori Lunapark in 2014, starring Alessandro Haber, Antonio Catania, and Giorgio Colangeli, which was presented at the Turin Film Festival. In 2015, he wrote E poi sarà amore, a diary of pregnancy seen from the father's perspective, distributed by Rizzoli, and previously recounted the founding of Italy's first anti-corruption movement in C'è chi dice no (2012). In 2019, he shot the manifesto film on ius soli Waiting, which won the Audience Award at the Glocal Film Festival in Turin. In 2022, he made Le mille notti, inspired by the novellas Le mille e una notte. In 2024, he presented the documentary La voce di Ventotene to the European Parliament in Brussels, and in 2025, he made the investigative film PIL - Perché Immigrazione è Lavoro and the documentary Nel blu dipinti di rosso.
FILMOGRAFIA
Mirafiori Lunapark (2015), Waiting (2019), Le mille notti (2022), La voce di Ventotene (2024), PIL – Perché Immigrazione è Lavoro (2025), Nel blu dipinti di rosso (2025).
Declaration
film director
“Nel blu dipinti di rosso tells the story of Cantacronache through the direct testimonies of Emilio Jona, the group’s theorist, and Fausto Amodei, the main performer of their songs. From 1958 to 1962, Cantacronache were the first in Italy to compose “realist songs,” in contrast to the light tunes of Sanremo, thus becoming the forerunners of Italian songwriting. Rediscovering the experience of Cantacronache invites us to exist in the real world, to resist distractions, to act without giving up, to denounce the contradictions and injustices that make us unhappy, and to build the world we desire with passion, hope, and a sense of humanity.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY: Stefano Di Polito. CINEMATOGRAPHY: Stefano Sburlati. FILM EDITING: Giuseppe Bisceglia. PRODUCTION: Silvia Innocenzi, Giovanni Saulini for Magda Film.
CONTACT: Magda Films magdafilms@gmail.com
