Friends of AFF

 

When we talk about water, I believe there are no modest ambitions. Behind each well, dyke or project, there are human lives. Thanks to greater awareness and personal commitment, we could better understand and preserve this resource. Among media and art forms, which can be more effective to raise wider public awareness, than cinema? This is, indeed, the goal of Aqua Film Festival.

Prince Albert II of Monaco

 

Water means life, the cinema represents emotions: AquaFilmFestival is the union of these two special entities. So precious because there is no life without emotions.

Malagò - President of Coni

 

Water is the origin of life; the Cinema is our LIFE! ... flowing.

 

 

Eleonora Vallone [AFF Artistic Director]

 

The body is mainly made of water; my life, my imagination, my time are mainly made of films! Combining both films and water in a single Festival is like quenching body and soul at the same time. The Elba Island, location of the Festival, is a beautiful place worth to be preserved, just like water and the cinema should be.

Valentina Carnelutti [Actress]

 

Water is essential for our lives. Cinema is essential for our lives too, because it brings culture, beauty and art. Basically water and cinema are LIFE.

Ludovico Fremont [Actor and Film Director]

 

The first movie I remember was "Manon des Sources", by Marcel Pagnol. Water is vital, water is love, but it also brings conflicts and dramas. Water is the mirror of humanity.

SEM Bernard Fautrier [Chargé de missions auprès du Ministre d'état - Administrateur délégué Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco]

 

Cinema is liquid, it flows, it wets you, gets into your mind, and becomes memory and feeling.

 

Michele Lo Foco [Lawyer]

 

Water is very cinematic as it constantly moves, and even when it is still, it reflects the world around like a mirror

Fabien Pruvot [Professor at the International University of Monaco ]

 

Cinema is water because it is the moving, irregular, and continuous reflection of our lives. Cinema looks at itself in water, and becomes its own reality.

Elisabetta Sgarbi [Film Director and Founder of the Publishing Company “La Nave di Teseo”]

 

Water is life, with its endless flow and never ending transformation. As Confucius said, “… Great water can continuously flow without stopping … It is just like a wise man who is good at teaching.” Cinema – like water – teaches, drags away, supports, unveils and hides, unites and divides. Leading us to an unknown “elsewhere”.

Veronica De Laurentis [Actress]

 

From the seaside comedies to the current tragedies of immigration, from pirates adventures all the way to the fantasy: the “Blue Planet” has always bewitched the cinema, and its immensity captures the public imagination. The mission of Marevivo has always been to spread the knowledge, respect and love for the sea. Events like Acqua Film Festival are essential to achieve this goal.

Rosalba Giugni [President of MAREVIVO

 

The roar of water is the first musical instrument we received by nature. A sound which is always different, depending on the environment, the water flow, the wind and the climate around it: just like the sounds of an orchestra playing a symphony are always different. The sound of a wave breaking on the beach or on the rocks can be compared to the sound produced by a string section. Like the melodies arising from the spurts and taps of every fountain in Rome are different and personal, and often recognisable only by their “sound”. To this, in my free time, I have dedicated my whole life.

Edoardo Vianello [Singer]

 

Water is a parallel world, living next to the earth. It is very dangerous, mysterious and poetic, sacred like God. I was born in water, and there I feel in my world.

Antonietta De Lillo [President of Marechiaro Film]

 

Just like water is a primary source of life for human being, the cinema gives the man unforgivable memories, through images and special moments.

Filippo Scicchitano [Actor]

 

Water reminds me cleanliness and purity. Ghandi used water to purify himself. I use to take a footbath every night, to remove all negative energies. Cinema has been my greatest passion since I was a child. Water and the cinema is therefore a beautiful combination.

Elisabetta Pellini [Actress]

 

Water and the cinema recalls me some sets of action movies, like seaquakes. Apart from that, water is life, and the cinema is the reproduction of life, and this is a beautiful connection.

Cecile [Singer]

 

It calls to my mind the great author’s films, like “Knife in the water”, or the movies by Hitchcock. In these stories the river crossing the town is an important player. I also think about films created along the banks of the Tevere river. Water is a subject that inspires the creativity of cinema.

Dario Salavatori [Author and TV Presenter]

 

Water is life. Cinema is an important cultural activity, and allow us to spend carefree afternoons and evenings. I wish success to Aquafilmfestival: it should be the first edition of a long series. Water and the cinema: an inseparable combination, just like cinema and solidarity.

Stefano Notti [Politician and cinema lover]

 

Water is my favourite element: I feel like I’m flowing when I am immersed in water. The images from films flow as well, and the most significant ones will float forever on the waves of my memories.

Paola Gassman [Actress]

 

Cinema and water: your fist thought instinctively goes to Titanic and to the Winslet-DiCaprio couple. But I hope your project will not sink! Rather, I hope it will help to exalt all the symbols behind water. Water represents, through its “physicality” and effects, one of the most recurrent themes in cinema, since its origin. And we need purity, both on and off the screen.

Valerio Cappelli [Journalist at Corriere della Sera]

 

Water and the cinema are both in continuous flow. Their temperature and motion change, but their basic composition remains the same: they represent life.

Sara Serraiocco [Actress]

 

Water is essential to life. When it flows, it purifies the body, inside and outside, leaving a feeling of serenity in its wake.

Ludina Barzini [Writer and Journalist]

 

Water and the cinema is a winning combination. It recalls me creativity and, at the same time, energy and desire to live, all features that young people wish to explore. I also associate it to the spirit of adventure, and sometimes to the sense of sacrifice, required to lead our ship safely in port.

Gennaro Falcone [Italian Navy]

 

Water excites me. I use to drink a lot of water, and I have frequent showers… I have been practising scuba diving for years, watching the unknown world, experiencing moments of reflection and absolute joy. I have also been practising rowing: gliding on the water is a gift from God. Water is the border between possible and impossible. Between reality and fiction. Most of all, water hides beautiful, sometimes enigmatic, secrets. This gives us the pleasure of using fantasy.

Enrico Vanzina [Screenwriter - Producer]

 

Water, I have always loved water, its various shapes, the springs of small streams in my home region, Umbria, and standing under the rainfall with an umbrella?

Out of the blue Summer heavy showers, with the smell of wet ground, and then.... the sea!!!!!!!

Enrico Lucidi [Photografy Director]

 

The Friends of AFF asked me to tell in short, what is the Sea for me, and what the Cinema represents: it is very difficult. However, I can say that, though it is true that we breath in the air, when I am immersed in the sea, I breath differently: my soul expands, I feel as I was in my element, and this is the only moment when I feel in harmony with everything. As far as the cinema, it is a different sea, I began to sail when I was a child, and I hope to keep on sailing for a long time: it is the sea of emotions, of memories, and of the possibility to continue to live after we’re gone. Bye bye Friends of AFF!

Pino Ammendola [Actor]

 

I have seen the most beautiful films at seaside locations, I enjoyed the most unforgettable swimming at the cinema...

 

Marcello Veneziani [Writer]

 

I think about Water and I imagine the sea: the element I care most, the environment preserved by the Navy. I think about Films, and I feel passion, and an extraordinary opportunity to tell the sea, giving emotions.

Ammiraglio Fabio Agostini [Italian Navy]

 

I want to fly higher than this dark sky, to fall down like rain on your trail.

 

 

Stefano De Sando [Actor – Dubbing Actor]

 

Water and the cinema remind me wonderful films, like Titanic, but also a splendid Rachel Welch emerging from the water, or the beautiful “Mediterraneo”. Water and the sea are magic, just like cinema.

Silvia Signorelli [Press Office “Spettacolo”]

 

I remember a spring, a pure, cold waterfall in the middle of Corse: I could not resist to the water call, and I threw myself.

I often think about my meeting with Esther Williams, some personal episodes she told me during an interview, and her spectacular choreographies. A simple, though extraordinary woman.

Solvi Stübing [Actress and Model]

 

I feel good at the cinema. When water is part of the film, I am in my element.

 

 

Gian Stefano Spoto [Journalist and Writer]

 

Sometimes, in Venice, high water joins the land. In these occasions, Venetians feel proud, tourists have fun, gondoliers earn higher tips, and innkeepers have the chance to promote an infallible remedy against water: wine. At this point, the fraternity between water and the cinema emerges: we can say that cinema becomes great right there, at the Festival, on the Adriatic Sea shores, and around Venice canals.

Here, the winning combination comes from: water, film, and festival.

Stefano Torossi [Musician and Blogger]

 

The first philosopher of the western school of thought, Talete di Mileto, stated, 600 years before the birth of Christ, that “water is the origin of Everything”. It is therefore also the origin of cinema, that is a continuous image in movement; beautiful, liquid, fleeing or exciting, like water of the Ocean. I have always been dreaming of a Festival organised with a wide screen on the water, the audience sitting on the beach, in the silence of a starry night, and the background of sea undertow. Pure, simple emotions.

Prof. Giovanni Spagnoletti

 

I lived my first real experience of freedom and independence thanks to the Sea. It was an unforgettable imprinting for the emotional and sensorial memory of my childhood. I believe my gratitude for that experience comes from the deep respect I feel for the Sea and its creatures. Water and the Cinema? The magic of Esther Williams films, I saw with my grandma: I was entranced.

Irene Ferri [Actress]