Academy award-winning director Michel Gondry in Turin with the Museo Nazionale del Cinema and Scuola Holden

As a guest of the Museum, the French director will be celebrated with a complete retrospective of his work, receive the Stella della Mole Award and hold a masterclass at Cinema Massimo. He will also meet Scuola Holden students in the School’s auditorium. The meeting will focus on the works and artists who influenced Gondry from childhood and helped shape his highly personal vision of cinema and audiovisual storytelling from the very beginning of his career. The discussion will be moderated by Martino Gozzi, Director of Education at Scuola Holden, and will be open to questions and contributions from students.

The director will then visit the Usine de Films Amateurs, the practical filmmaking workshop conceived by Gondry and inspired by his film Be Kind Rewind, which Scuola Holden will host for the first time in Italy from 22 to 31 May. Since 2007, the project has visited 22 cities in 14 countries, involving more than 65,000 participants and generating approximately 5,000 short films. In Turin, more than 600 people will have the opportunity to experience filmmaking first-hand. Divided into crews of 15–20 participants, they will have three hours to write, shoot, edit and screen a short film.

For the occasion, Scuola Holden will be transformed into a vast film set featuring fourteen temporary locations—including a railway carriage, a nightclub, a police station and a video shop—which will interact with the School’s historic spaces. The result will be a creative collision in which everyday furnishings become part of the scenery.
The initiative is free and open to everyone, with no previous experience required. Several sessions will be held throughout the event.

Registration is now open at www.scuolaholden.it/lusine-de-films-amateurs/ 

Also on Thursday 28 May, at 6.00 pm, Michel Gondry will hold a Masterclass at Cinema Massimo. In conversation with Carlo Chatrian, Director of the Museo Nazionale del Cinema, Gondry—widely regarded as one of the most original voices in contemporary cinema—will look back over his eclectic career and receive the Stella della Mole Award in recognition of his important and enduring contribution to the art of cinema. At 8.00 pm, also at Cinema Massimo, Michel Gondry will introduce a screening of Microbe & Gasoline.

The director of cult films including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind—written with Charlie Kaufman and winner of the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2005—The Science of Sleep and Mood Indigo, Michel Gondry has developed a unique style combining handmade effects and dreamlike narratives, visual experimentation and predominantly analogue techniques. Before achieving success in cinema, Gondry established himself during the 1990s as an innovator in music videos. His collaborations with artists including Björk, Daft Punk, The White Stripes and Radiohead helped redefine the language of the medium.

The Turin programme featuring Michel Gondry offers audiences privileged access to cinema as a collective, accessible and creative experience in which imagination matters more than resources and imperfection becomes an aesthetic value. It provides an opportunity to engage with cinematic language not only as spectators, but as active participants.

Michel Gondry’s visit to Turin is supported by the Museo Nazionale del Cinema and Scuola Holden, with Alliance Française and SNCF as technical partners.

Cinema Massimo Masterclass 

https://www.cinemamassimotorino.it/masterclass-michel-gondry/

Screening of Microbo & Gasolina introduced by Michel Gondry at Cinema Massimo

https://www.cinemamassimotorino.it/microbo-gasolina/

Link Usine de Films Amateurs

https://scuolaholden.it/lusine-de-films-amateurs/

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CONTACTS

Veronica Geraci – Head of Press Office, Museo Nazionale del Cinema

geraci@museocinema.it – mob. +39 335 1341195 | +39 011 8138509 

Federica Biasio – Head of Communications, Scuola Holden

federica.biasio@scuolaholden.itt – mob. +39 339 5053240

Francesca Tablino – Press Office, Scuola Holden

francesca.tablino@co.scuolaholden.it – mob.+39 333 4799195