In an incredibly challenging time in the history of our world, and while most of the worlds museums and galleries are closed, Venice Institute of Contemporary Art (ViCA) is proud to bring you the 7th Annual Fine Arts Film Festival (FAFF), from June 8-14, 2020. FAFF – the world’s largest art film festival – will present 92 films from 27 countries online using the Vimeo platform. Our new trailer, produced by Syrian artist Waseem Marzouki, is now featured on ViCA’s website and Vimeo.
FAFF features profiles of artists who’ve had to fight for racial justice as part of their daily lives, including Jesse Lott and Lonnie Holley, architect Raymond Morimaya, and artists forgotten and newly discovered. These include Myriah Marquez, adapting to life in a van in Venice Beach, the last elderly worshipper at a 1,000 year old mosque in Saudi Arabia, and a DJ named Mekon who fled Nigeria to Libya, and then fled to Malta to survive. These films – over half of them by women filmmakers – tell stories of comedy, tragedy, famous and infamous art, music, dance, and performance world figures will be presented in this not-to-be-missed seven-day online event. Live Q&A’s with filmmakers and artists will begin soon and be broadcast during the festival.
The festival is dedicated to presenting the finest new films about art in the western capital of the art world – and now globally – to highlight the world art community. The films — narratives, documentaries, experimental, and hybrid genres — tell stories about how art is made, how artists survive, how they think and work, and what makes creativity our most important skill, and our best hope for mankind.
“Considering the world situation, the fact that we received so many more submissions this year, and are able to select so many more films is very gratifying,” says Juri Koll, Founder and Director of ViCA, which produces the festival as part of its ongoing exhibition programs. Koll adds, “We’ve had to pivot quickly to get this online with permission from all the filmmakers. We are very proud to be screening many great and never-before-seen films from fine filmmakers from around the world – and half of them are women. We didn’t set out to achieve this, it’s just a wonderful new reality these past 2 Festivals. Films about art and creativity are a labor of love, and the film and art worlds have always intertwined. It’s easily forgotten how much blood, sweat, and tears go into the work we do. We expect this festival will amaze audiences with intelligent, cutting edge, eloquent, passionate, and incredibly engaging films.”
