Last night’s screenings of La Febbre and Private, served as the official launch for ” Prima Settimana”, a review of contemporary Italian cinema which was organized by San Paolo’s Brazilian Italian Chamber of Commerce and AIP-Filmitalia.
The review is aimed at spreading Italian culture, as well as increasing the notoriety and diffusion of Italian cinema in relation to Brazil’s great audience.
The event took place at the Iguatemi Shopping Center, which for the occasion inaugurated several new Cinemark movie theatres. The screenings were highly successful. The audience was highly qualified, inquisitive and showed great enthusiasm in discovering Italian cinema’s most recent productions. In attendance was AIP-Filmitalia president, Giovanni Galoppi, who declared to be extremely satisfied by the warm welcome and stated : “I believe that events such as this one are essential for the further implementation of Italian cinema. The collaboration with the Brazilian Italian chamber of commerce has been extremely valuable, and I would particularly like to thank its president, Edoardo Pollastri, and collaborators, for making this such a successful event. I also would like to thank all of the sponsors who with their contributions made this event possible . Seeing such a great display of interest from all the intervening parties, professional operators, renown Brazilian journalists, producers and distributors,has further convinced me of this initiative’s great importance, which I hope will be repeated next year, in an even larger and winning format. I would also like to underline the fact, that in this present time of substantial cost cuts in Italy’s film industry, we succeeded in having the Brazilian Italian chamber of commerce absorb almost all of the expenses for this event. In conclusion, I believe that an event such as this one in Brazil, is essential for promoting our cinema, and for creating a new audience for films that have not yet been distributed in this country. My wish is that during this week of screenings in San Paolo which will end on November 24, there will be opportunities for creating more institutional and professional relations favourable for the distribution of Italian films and coproductions in Brazil.”