On Sunday, November 13, 2011 the Ticino antenna of the Tribune des Jeunes Cinéphiles celebrated its birth at Castellinaria, the International Young People’s Film Festival, accompanying five young Ticino critics to a screening of Jump by Bindu de Stoppani. The critics-in-training wrote reviews that some days later appeared on the Tribune website. From the following month on the kids started to frequent movie houses regularly to watch, think and write.
To help young people deal with their own difficulties and the diversity of styles and types of critical writing, during the past two years we have organized critique workshops with Antonio Mariotti, critic with the Corriere del Ticino, and Giancarlo Zappoli, Castellinaria’s artistic director.
This year we decided to broaden the offer to all young people interested in experimenting with film critique and to include the workshop in the festival itself. One of the main principles behind Castellinaria is that young people be the stars of any activity and that, experimenting, they learn.
Gino Buscaglia, President of Castellinaria, will direct the workshop on Sunday, November 17 at the Espocentro from 3 to 6 pm, giving young critics the keys to analyzing a film and critiquing it with skill and coherence. The workshop will conclude with the screening of a film at the Espocentro that participants can put their new critical faculties to work on.
François Truffaut once said that everyone has two professions: his or her own and that of film critic. Even today I believe it’s important that everyone (and especially a young film critic) develop a personal viewpoint in regard to what he/she perceives. Having a point of view to defend with sensible arguments often leads to building a worldview, to knowing what you love and to acting positively to combat society’s homogenized thinking.
Filippo Demarchi
