Selfie is a unique record of the case of 16-year-old Davide Bifolco, who was shot dead by a carabiniere in the Neapolitan district of Traiano. To understand a neighbourhood often portrayed as a ghetto and ‘Camorra’ stronghold, as well as the circumstances of Davide’s death, director Agostino Ferrente seeks out Davide’s friends and meets Pietro and Alessandro.
Friday, February 24th – 6pm
Casa d’Italia
505 Rue Jean Talon E. – Montréal
”Selfie” by Agostino Ferrente
Italy – France | 2019 | 76 min | Italian | Subtitles: French
Admission $10 – Ticket Office
In the film’s introduction he is heard asking off-camera, ‘tell me about your friendship’, which reveals his approach to this consistently collaborative documentary-fiction project. Equipping the boys with a mobile phone and a microphone, he asks them to document their everyday lives as a ‘selfie’ film, whether they are riding a scooter, at the beach, hanging out with friends or on the toilet. This turns out to be the perfect format in an age where self-dramatisation often becomes a product. The result is an impressive collage, both visually and in the film’s audio track, about adolescence; about lives where your background determines your future; about state despotism; about anger and grief, but above all about a tender boyhood friendship in a male world in which toughness reigns.
