Speaking to Power is a film program of documentaries portraying subversive acts of resistance, curated by Dr Eloise Fornieles and Marta Pellerini.
This program brings together three films documenting the lives and activities of people speaking to power by demonstrating subversive acts of resistance. Inventive, touching and with bursts of humour, the filmmakers and their protagonists use film, performance and broadcasting to tell their stories and address the politics of power.
The second event in the Speaking to Power film series will be held on 5 February 2025 at 6 pm, on occasion of the LGBTQIA+ History Month, with the screening of ‘Il Principe di Ostia Bronx’ (2017, 61min) by director Raffaele Passerini.
The film is in Italian with English subtitles, and it is followed by a Q&A between the director Raffaele Passerini and curator Eleonore Santamaria.
Il Principe di Ostia Bronx is an experimental work with a folk and a kitsch taste. Its music touches upon Pop, Disco, and Electronic rhythms, featuring unreleased songs by Rossano Baldini, and the Director, who co-authored and sang some of the tracks. All songs which play aside some iconic Italian and international songs, by Antonello Venditti, Pierangelo Bertoli, and Gala. An ultra-low budget movie that, after receiving three awards at the Biografilm Festival in Bologna, starts an unexpected tour throughout Italy.
Dario and Maury, two actors turned away by cultural establishments, have decided to move to the gay Roman nudist beach of Capocotta. Here, they have set their stage, in a place where people come to feel free and unconstrained by the rules of society.
Persevering with their philosophy of ‘failure as a new form of victory’ they have become the Principe (the Prince) and the Contessa (the Countess) of the beach. This film celebrates failure as a parody, making anybody willing to watch, a Prince or a Countess of non-victories.
Raffaele Passerini started his career in US Indie movie productions as first assistant director and Line producer. In NYC he founded his own video production company, Oikos Films, Llc., providing web content for clients such as the Department of Education of the State of New York (DOE NY) and the United Nations (UNDP). He also collaborated as an associate producer at the New York Film Festival and the New Directors New Film Festival- MOMA for the Lincoln Center Film Society.
As a writer-director-producer, Raffaele signed two short movies and the docu-film Il Principe di Ostia Bronx, winner at the Biografilm Festival. He also co-wrote and produced the first Radio RAI Podcast, Labanof, winner of the Prix Italia, second prize at the Prix Europa, and iTunes top 10 after the release. In 2021 he produced his second podcast, Virgo. The Universe Becomes Sound, also produced by Rai Radio 3. His two first autobiographical novels, Love Bombing and Autoimmune will be soon published in Italy. Raffaele is currently working on those novels into films transposition while developing his first fictional TV series, a crime.
Alongside his career as an author and director, Raffaele has been serving as instructor and professor for over fifteen years in several film schools and colleges, such as the New York Film Academy (NYFA), the Rome Film Academy (RFA), of which he also as the Academic Director, the Rome University of Fine Arts (RUFA) and the Rome Business School (RBS), of which he has also being is program director for the Master in Media & Entertainment.
See the full programme here.
