TURIN -- Seeyousound International Music Film Festival, the first festival in Italy entirely dedicated to the music themed cinema, will bring to this northern-Italian city from Jan. 27 to Feb. 4 a multifaceted universe of feature films, short films, documentaries, reportages and music videos which all have their gravitational center in music.

 It is a festival born from the passion of a group of cinema and music lovers that is having a wide appeal and became in a short time an expected appointment and a reference for the artists who dedicate their artistic and poetic research to the rich connection between cinema and music.

 The festival has reached its third edition and has become richer: the days of screening and the film exhibitions have increased and the main International Competition feature films climbfrom eightto 10.

 The festival structure has not changed though, and proposes, beyond the competition, two non-competitive International exhibitions. The first is called ‘Into the groove’: music comes alive and personifies, transforms, shapes the six selected filmscharacters'existences, stories and lives.

 The second is called ‘Trans-Global Express’ and will take us through six films on an intense journey to discover new landscapes filled with global, multicentered, polychromatic sounds, more and more hybrid, beyond the market borders, stereotypes and prejudices with an open wide look to a new world.

 Besides the two film exhibitions, there are the three sectionsofcompetitive titles: feature films (Long Play), short films (7inch.), music videos(Soundies). The works, selected from around the world with an International competition announcement have in common the ability to use the cinematographic language merging it from the inside with the musical one.

 There will be many appointments to focus on the themes with panel, workshop, showcase, djset, parties and also a graphic novel about Syd Barrettproduced by Seeyousound.

 INTO THE GROOVE is the film exhibition that narrates the reality through the music’s strength and impact, anunexpected and provocative journey through very strong emotions. Six titles that will make you dream, be angry, smile, and be movedbecause tell real and profound stories. Thanks to Seeyousound ‘Born to be blue’ by Robert Budreau arrives in Italy, a movie that narrates Chet Baker’s dramatic and charming story, outstandingly played by Ethan Hawke. ‘Piano’ by the Lithuanian director Vita Maria Drygas that will take us on the barricades of the Ukrainan civil war, where a piano’s chords become more powerful and dangerous than the molotov; we’ll be on the frontline with musicians becoming soldiers in orderto free their country from terror during the days of Mu’ammar Gheddafi’s downfall (‘Stronger than bullets’ by the Californian director Matthew Milan); then we’ll find ourselves in front of the sea with a woman who discovers music as aninstrument of redemption and affirmation of a new identity in a funny adventure that sees as protagonists some impromptu musicians between Israel and Palestine (‘The promised band’ by the American director Jen Heck). The journey continues inside the tendencies of the exceptional biography of one of the most eclectic and influential artist of contemporary music such as Björk, starting from the latest album Vulnicura and from the dramatic story of the separation, from Iceland to London, from Paris to New York.

 TRANS-GLOBAL EXPRESS isthe title of Seeyousound’s “historical” film exhibit, a cinematographic journey that celebrates the creation of links between cultures. Through six films it will take us on an exploration and discovery of new landscapes filled with global sounds where unexpected encounters create the sounds of the future, because innovation can only come from contamination and the acknowledgementthat culture is not static or immutable. Seeyousound becomes a unique chanceto get toknow distant countries and extraordinary events through musical stories. ‘Fonko’ a movie by Lamin Daniel Jadama, Lars Lovén and Göran Hugo Olsson of ‘The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 and Concerning Violence’ is a journey from Dakar to the west, through Accra, Lagos and Luanda ending inJohannesburg, witness that the great musical revolution oftoday is developing in Africa, where the music of the urban clubs merges with the traditional styles,and new technology and faster communication are spreading music, art and ideas tothe rest of the world.

 Yallah!Underground from the German director Farid Eslam follows some of the most influential artists of the Arab underground culture, from 2009 to 2013, during the time of great changes, the so-called “Arab Spring”: a documentary about a world in transformation, about their works, dreams and fears.

 ‘Presenting Princess Shaw’ by Ido Haar is the super contemporary story of a singer who lives in New Orleans and records her songs on YouTube and of Kutiman, a composer who,from his kibbutz in Israel,uses the samples of artists discovered on YouTube for his performances.

 In "Shu-De!", whichin theMongolian language spoken in Tuva means “let’s go!”,tells the story of a beatboxer from Baltimore, called to collaborate with the Mongolian-Siberian musicians,and of the moving forward of the limitations of thehuman body asa musicalinstrument.
 The International Competition, the sectionLONG PLAY concerning the feature films follows a fil rouge that through ten films – Italian and European premières – tells ofthe search for affirmation, ofthe rise and fall and the genial follycut down by the record industry, ofmen irremediably leaningtowards music.

 The theme of success has always been present in music, from the times whenBeethoven, completely deaf, wouldcry inanger because he was unable to hear the audience'sapplause.

 Rockstars with their excesses have become real legends and archetypes of the modern world, celebrated as Greek myths and adored as gods. The protagonists of these events are, for the documentaries, the most famous band of the Land of the Rising Sun, the X-Japan (‘We Are X’by Stephen Kijak), the emblematic person of James Lavelle, the trip-hop favorite (‘The Man From Mo’Wax’by Matthew Johns), Adrian Borland and The Sound, a British new wave cult band (‘Walking in the Opposite Direction’ by Marc Waltman), the leader of a Danish psychedelic band as Baby Woodrose (‘Born To Lose, History of Lorenzo Woodrose’ by Palle Demant) and a Russian pianist who used to compose for the cinema (‘Oleg y las raras arte’by Andrès Duque).

 While on the fiction side we find the story of a Bollywood’s violinist looking for fame (‘The Violin Player’ by Bauddhayan Mukherji), the story of an Israeli soldier who has lost his memory and thinks he’s a rockstar (‘Everything is broken up and dances’ by Nony Geffen), the story of a teenager dealing with socialmedia (‘Dryads: girls don’t cry’ by Sten Hellevig) and the story of a musician who tries to emerge from the New York hip-hop scene (‘Beatbox’ by Adrian Dresher).

 The last chapter of thispolyptych reaches beyond music with a documentary that starting from the composer  John Cale investigates our relation with silence (‘In Pursuit of Silence’by Patrick Shen).

 7 INCH is Seeyousound’s short film competition. A competition that, in spite of the increased number of submissions and the great improvement in terms of quality, has been  restricted to ‘only’ 10 titles. In fact, the idea is to assign to every short movie the deserved exposure and to give the audience the chance to discover them all.

 Animations, documentaries, experiments and fiction; war, migration, relationships, music as a game, as a redemption and drama: the proposal is very wide as usual, some works will be presented as Italian premières and all of them come from the world’s most prestigious festivals.

 SOUNDIES, the music video competition section entitled to Nicola Rondolino, closes this overview. An important challenge for Seeyousound that has digged and researched into an almost infinite production selecting 40 titles among the more than 230 submitted from all over the world: a journey intended both geographically and artistically. Chemical Brothers, Radiohead, Jamie X, Kiwanuka, Kings Of Leon are only some of the most well-known names whose video will be presented to the festival. Originally born as an alternative to the live performance, the music video has then become a promotional object to increase record sales and the dates of live gig, and nowadays it is a very important communication tool: communication via images,and the communication is no longer the artist's own, but of his/her audience,who uses the clip'scode to tell of an emotional feeling and share it with the world.

 As withthe previous editions, in 2017 Seeyousound  also proposes a rich calendarof appointments beyond the competition screenings and located outside the auditoriums, with moments of in-depth insights, experiments and debates. 

 Seeyousound 2017is made in collaboration with the Torino National Cinema Museum.

www.seeyousound.org

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