The 2nd International Photography and Journalism Festival, “Flaiano fO” returns to the Aurum in Pescara on 10 and 11 May as part of the 51st edition of the International Flaiano Awards
The second edition of the “Flaiano fO” International Photography and Journalism Festival will be held at the Aurum in Pescara on 10 and 11 May 2024 – with free entry while places last, within the 51st edition of the Flaiano International Awards, founded in 1973 by Edoardo Tiboni to honor Ennio Flaiano and constantly propose the study of his work.
After last year’s great public success, the festival proposes the same formula of two days of talks with great Italian photographers. The theme of this year’s Festival is “The Martians of the image: looks at contemporary Italy”. The Presidency of the Flaiano International Awards, with the Presidency of the Festival of Photography and Journalism have decided to establish from this year, the Flaiano International Photography Award which will be awarded for lifetime achievement to Dario Coletti. Starting again from “A Martian in Rome” by Ennio Flaiano, the management wanted to invite Italian photographers who, with courage, often considered Martians, continue to create reportages, study, investigate and look at the Italian territory.
This year the artistic direction is entrusted to Marco Longari, who takes the place of Romina Remigio, who maintains the Presidency and coordination of the Festival. Born in 1965, Longari began his career in 1998 covering the war in Kosovo, before joining the France Press Agency in Rwanda in April 2000. As chief photographer of the AFP he worked in Nairobi (covering East Africa and the Indian Ocean) and in Jerusalem, from which for seven years he covered Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Egypt, Libya and Syria. He currently works in Johannesburg as Africa Chief Photographer for AFP. Special guest Gabriella Simoni, war correspondent and foreign chief of Mediaset’s Tg5, who in a thirty-year career has covered all the wars from the Gulf War in 1991 (where she was taken prisoner) through Somalia, the Middle East, the Balkans, Afghanistan , Iraq, Libya, up to the latest in Ukraine and Gaza.
The busy program of the two days begins on Friday 10 May at 10 am with the memory of Carlo Orsi, a reporter who died in 2021 and the screening of the film “He was moved by nothing. He went berserk for a little while.” Then the talk with Gabriella Simoni and the journalist, writer and photojournalist Giovanni Porzio, Panorama’s special correspondent for 30 years, one of the first journalists to enter Kuwait City during the 1991 Gulf War and winner of numerous awards including the prestigious Max David for his reporting from Afghanistan.
At 11.30, “33 years later”, talk with the freelance photojournalist Michele Amoruso and the professional photojournalist Roberto Salomone. On the one hand Michele Amoruso, who since the beginning of his career has focused on the most fragile and complex aspects of society, preferring issues such as environmental ones or those linked to social, economic and humanitarian crises and for some years has been involved in the documentation of some of major environmental disasters, such as those caused by the earthquakes in Turkey or Morocco, and of migratory flows along the Balkan and European routes.
Then, Roberto Salomone, former stringer for the AFP (Agence France Presse), who focuses his work on social issues and has worked in Afghanistan, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, the United States and the United Kingdom.
At 3.30 pm the talk with the documentary photographer Valeria Sacchetti entitled “Journey to the Lowlands, between the Via Emilia and the West”, a book which has received numerous national and international awards and which was born from a long-term project that lasted seven years and began after the 2012 earthquake.
At 6.30 pm the journalist Gabriella Simoni and the artistic director of the Festival, Marco Longari will discuss “The photographer and the journalist. Different twins.”
Saturday 11 May, again at the Aurum, will begin at 10.30 am with the talk with Franco Carlisi entitled “A happiness after”. Photographer, director and screenwriter, Carlisi has carried out his activity mainly in the countries of the Mediterranean basin since 1999, alternating the need for testimony with the diaristic and introspective use of the video-photographic medium. In 2011 he exhibited at the Italian Pavilion of the 54th International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia and in 2023 his film “You don’t know how many names I gave you” was released, receiving numerous awards at independent film festivals.
At 11.30 the protagonist of the talk “Memories in the Mirror” is Giovanni Marrozzini, author of numerous reportages in Italy, Africa, Central and South America, the Balkans and the Middle East, collected in photographic books. In 2016 he founded Parolamia: in collaboration with the Hoepli bookshop he exchanged his images (in limited edition) with new books of literature, history and art, starting to create a library for his children and other libraries around the world. At 3.30 pm Naples will be the protagonist of the talk “Adagio Napoletano. The Genesis Impulse. The suspension of judgment”, with Stefania Adami. Born in 1962, the Tuscan Adami received the title of FIAF Photographer of the Year in 2018, hence the monograph “A private awareness”. In 2022 with “Adagio Napoletano”, an intimate story set in the alleys of the Quartieri Spagnoli of Naples, he won the Fosco Maraini award for Reportage and since 2023, it has been exhibited in numerous national photo galleries. In 2023 the FIAF awarded her the recognition of MFI Master of Italian Photography.
At 6.30 pm the Flaiano International Lifetime Achievement Photography Award will be awarded to Dario Coletti, with the following motivation: “Always attentive to social and anthropological issues, he has been able to tell and make known aspects, traditions and problems of Italy and its regions and suburbs, with an attentive gaze, full of particular sensitivity but always real”. Coletti will therefore be the protagonist with Marco Longari of the talk “The Photographer and the Shaman. The Universal Spirit in the photographic research of Dario Coletti”. Born in 1959, Coletti has always been attentive to social issues, and in recent years he has moved towards broader photography, deepening the relationship between photography and visual anthropology and experimenting with other visual languages such as documentary film (in 2007 he directed The Choice, men of the dark, on life in the Iglesiente mines). He currently collaborates with the Malik association of Cagliari as head of the image sector. His photographs are preserved in Italian libraries and museums. Among his monographic books: Ammentos – popular festivals in Sardinia, Mining people, The photographer and the shaman.
The Flaiano International Prizes therefore continue their journey on 22 June 2024, with the Flaiano International Poetry Prize. Followed by the Flaiano International Prize for Fiction and Italian Studies, which will be held on 30 June and the Flaiano Film Festival, directed by Riccardo Milani, from 1 to 6 July. The event ends on 7 July in Piazza della Rinascita in Pescara with the Flaiano Award for cinema, theatre, television and journalism.
Main Sponsors of the second edition of Flaiano fO are Toto Holding and Toro Liquori.
