New York is just around the corner
In our previous article, we shared our experience at the Workers Unite! Film Festival in New York. However, chronologically, the first selection for The Interview at Sea in an American—more precisely, New York-based—festival was at the International Film Festival Manhattan. The festival began on October 11 with in-person screenings and various events running through October 26, later moving online from November 20 to 26.
The overlaps with the Workers Unite! Film Festival didn’t stop at the location (not just New York, but Manhattan itself); in fact, the dates were partially overlapping as well. Moreover, when we received news of the selection, we realized that we already knew Luis Pedron, the eccentric, multifaceted, and wonderfully friendly director of the International Film Festival Manhattan. Just a couple of months earlier, he had been president of the jury at the Caorle International Film Festival (here‘s the article recounting our participation there).
At that point, we had planned everything to attend the final part of the International Film Festival Manhattan and then head to the screening of The Interview at Sea at the next festival. But, as we explained in the previous article, it ultimately wasn’t possible for us to travel to America.
Nonetheless, The Interview at Sea made it to New York on its own and stayed there from October through November, with both in-person and online screenings.
During that time, we found ourselves wondering why New York seemed to appreciate our work so much. It couldn’t be just another coincidence. In our earlier article, we spoke about becoming aware of the international relevance of our message. While a festival like Workers Unite! may have been drawn to the theme of labor, the International Film Festival Manhattan doesn’t have that same thematic focus. It is a generalist festival open to a wide range of genres and tones; it’s not specifically oriented toward documentaries or socially engaged topics. In fact, there’s no shortage of comedies and lighter genres. Above all, the festival exudes a celebratory atmosphere—everything is done with great joy and a healthy dose of self-irony, a clear sign that it never slips into superficiality.
Here are some useful links for further reading:
The International Film Festival Manhattan is a serious film festival, led by competent professionals. The connection between our film and New York lies precisely in this complex coexistence of elements: seriousness and optimism, a sense of fun and a dedication to doing things right.
Looking back now, during a period when we were going through not always positive emotions (as we discussed here), perhaps attending a gala evening steeped in self-irony would have done us some good. On that note, for anyone interested in exploring the theme of irony in cinema, we recommend not a film, but a book—written by our director Ludovico Ferro, who in this case dons his more familiar hat as an essayist. The book (in Italian) is titled Sociologia dell’ironia. Comunicazione e rappresentazione della complessità moderna nei romanzi filosofici di Voltaire e nel cinema di Woody Allen (Sociology of Irony: Communication and Representation of Modern Complexity in the Philosophical Novels of Voltaire and the Cinema of Woody Allen) (Cleup, third edition, 2021), and it is also available on Amazon.
With New York, as we’ve now seen time and again, there is a solid bond—so, as we’ve already said, our journey is only postponed!
