APCOM

Milano is ready to host the 18th edition of the Festival of African, Asian and Latin American Cinema, the only festival in Italy entirely and specifically dedicated to the knowledge of their countries' cinematography, reality and cultures. Between April 7th and April 13th, over 100 movies and documentaries from 50 different nations will be screened in 5 different locations: the Auditorium San Fedele, Spazio Oberdan, Multisala Arcobaleno (Sala 1), Centre Culturel Français and Cinema Palestrina.

The event's history clearly reflects its aims. The festival was born in 1991 as an opportunity of meeting and knowledge of topics and languages belonging to African cinematography and tightly connected to the African Diaspora. Thanks to the vision offered by directors and authors, the continent manages to convey to the audience an image of itself which differs from the one commonly given by the mass media. In 2000, the festival started to widen its calendar by promoting movies coming from the Caribbeans, Latin America and Asia as well. Three years later, the happening changed its name and officially extended the competition to the productions of the three continents.

Since the beginning, the expansion has helped intercultural dialogue and artists have found many chances to get in touch with a more international context. Besides, the festival offers foreign communities in Italy an occasion to meet their cultures of origin and urges schools to use movies as a didactical instrument for the intercultural approach. The novelty of this edition is the 'Festival Center', a space in Porta Venezia for guests and spectators that will host a lot of initiatives, from art exhibitions to dance classes, from workshops to daily appointments such as 'Etno hour': at 6.30 p.m. it will be possible to have a taste of typical food and drinks from Eritrea, Mali, India, China and Peru.