Change drives Pesaro fest

One of Italy’s oldest and most respected film events, the Pesaro fest this year comes under the helm of new director Giovanni Spagnoletti, a critic and film history professor at Rome U., who is also founding editor of the specialist film magazine Close-Up.

Titled "European Cinema of the Melting Pot," the 20-feature program will be accompanied by an interdisciplinary confab and a book of essays. The slate attempts to provide an overview of the cultural interchange being fostered, among others, by Arab and North African filmmakers in France; by Jamaican, Indian and other "colonial" directors in the U.K.; and by filmmakers of Turkish origin in Germany.

Also on the Pesaro lineup is a retrospective of the work of French auteur Jacques Doillon and an eight-title selection of the femme-themed melodramas of Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan.