Perched on the shores of lake Revine, in North East Italy, Lago Film Fest has cemented itself as a go-to event for short film enthusiasts around the world. Now at its nineteenth edition, each July LFF brings together filmmakers and film lovers for a nine-day cornucopia of over 170 shorts screening in open-air cinemas set up around the lake. But the crowning jewel may well be A Shape of Film to Come, a series of thought-provoking and candid conversations that run parallel to the festival, and invite some of its most distinguished guests to speak about their craft. Just last year, Alexandre Koberidze, Kiro Russo, Mitra Farahani, and Matías Piñeiro traveled to LFF to talk about their cinephilia, their filmographies, and how they see the medium evolving in the not so distant future.
In a wide-ranging chat with Kiro Russo, the Bolivian filmmaker behind such marvels as, most recently, El Gran Movimiento (2021), Alexandre Koberidze talks about his What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? before diving deep into the formative years of his cinephilia, where piracy and Russian dubbed films reigned supreme (“I think that shaped how I make films […] In the beginning it was only films where one person is speaking for everyone, and you basically have almost no sound design. And still now remains for me, the most cinematic way to experience movies, I think that’s why I use so much voice over, and have problems making dialogues.”). Talking with Iranian Mitra Farahani (director, painter, and producer of Jean-Luc Godard’s last two films), Matías Piñeiro weighs in on his Shakespeare adaptations, his fascination with the Bard’s female heroines, and his choice to work with the same collaborators he recruited for his student films.
Watch Kiro Russo and Alexandre Koberidze’s talk below.
And then enjoy Mitra Farahani and Matías Piñeiro’s:
Lago Film Fest will kick off its 19th edition on July 21, 2023; several other illuminating chats between former guests can be watched for free here.