08/09/2020
A conversation with Małgorzata Szumowska and Mati Diop
by Ida Bisogno
edited by Francesco Gamberini
Giornate degli Autori celebrates female creativity with the showcase Miu Miu Women's Tales and its conversation series featuring emerging filmmakers and actresses' takes on new trends and forms of contemporary film. At the Hotel Excelsior, in the Veneto Region meeting space, journalist Penny Martin will be doing the moderating for speakers and filmmakers Mati Diop and Małgorzata Szumowska.
"Today's talk is a significant way to promote that female creativity that women bring to their art," declares Giornate's General Delegate Giorgio Gosetti in his opening remarks. "This dialogue is key to the exchange of impressions and ideas, which is exactly why, year after year, everyone is excited to be here and be a part of it."
The pair of women filmmakers are at Giornate with two unique and very different latest efforts.
Małgorzata Szumowska, whose film
Never Gonna Snow Again is in competition at Venice, has crafted for Miu Miu Women's Tales the short
#19 Nightwalk, about a transformation overnight as a young man and woman shed the layers of gender they inhabited previously. As for what prompted her to make
Nightwalk,
Szumowska explains, "Violence against the LGBT community needs voices, and that community's voice is heard loud and clear in this film. Making the film as a woman filmmaker was important. I wanted to make a strong statement that would speak directly to the audience."
In My Room is the twentieth short in the
Women's Tales series, and springs from an unexpected proposal made in the middle of the lockdown.
Mati Diop underscores the significance of her short film: "
In My Room was the only film I thought really needed to be made at that time, and I had the feeling it was really worth making and sharing. In my films I express the joy of rebirth and transformation, yet there's also an undercurrent of sadness for all those who feel trapped."
