CinemaEye: a long-distance dialogue between past masters and present-day questions.
Cinemaeye is a curated program section dedicated to hybrid forms and works that explore film archives, write history through cinema, and reflect on what a moving image can be today.
This year we explore the visual anthropology of three major European cinematic figures – Milka Badjura, Luigi Di Gianni and, with a special focus, Fernand Deligny. Through his »anti-psychiatric« work, Deligny influenced François Truffaut's film The 400 Blows and – alongside Basaglia – made a key contribution to developing social awareness surrounding mental distress.
We will open the program on Wednesday, September 30 at EPICenter at 10:30 AM with Deligny's film Ce gamin-là (1976), followed at 4:00 PM by Le moindre geste (1971). After the screenings, at 6:00 PM, we will open a space for a conversation on how cinema can become a tool for a different understanding of human beings, society, and institutions. Nil Baskar will discuss Deligny with Rajko Muršič and Carmelo Marabello.
We will also connect the day to the present and to the question of what happens to spaces that once served institutionalization and are now seeking new ways of openness. In the discussion Walls That Give Way at 12:30 PM, we will present the vision for the transformation of Parco Basaglia in Gorizia and the Museum of Madness at Cmurek Castle.
The second part of Cinemaeye on Thursday, October 1 at Kinemax focuses on Milka Badjura and Luigi Di Gianni, bringing together a Slovenian and an Italian filmmaker who captured with their cameras worlds, people, and places on the margins of grand historical narratives. Today, their films are not merely documents of an era, but are becoming an archive through which we can reread space, history, and society.
The program is produced in collaboration with the Slovenian Film Archive, the Slovenian Cinematheque, the Slovenian Film Centre, and the Lucanian Film Commission.
Wednesday, Sep 30 | EPICenter, Nova Gorica
Cross-border Film Festival Tribute to a Vision, Day 2
10:30 AM
Film screening: Ce gamin-là (English subtitles)
Renaud Victor, Fernand Deligny, France, 1976, 88'
Introduction: Nil Baskar
12:30 PM
Walls That Give Way
A discussion on Cmurek Castle and Parco Basaglia – former spaces of psychiatric institutionalization that are now seeking new ways of openness, community, and creativity.
followed by
Film screening: Modri konj želja (The Blue Horse of Desire)
Jakob Vogrinec, Ciril Zupan, Staša Prah, 2026, 22’
3:00 PM
Film screening: God Plays Sax, the Devil Violin (English subtitles)
Alexandra Gulea, Romania, 2004, 43'
Q&A with director Alexandra Gulea
4:00 PM
Film screening: Le moindre geste (English subtitles)
Jean-Pierre Daniel, Fernand Deligny, Josée Manenti, France, 1971, 105'
Introduction: Nil Baskar
6:00 PM
Discussion on Deligny
How to look differently? On film, pedagogy, institutions, and Deligny's radical rethinking of the gaze, discussed by Rajko Muršič and Carmelo Marabello.
Moderated by Nil Baskar.
Thursday, Oct 1 | KINEMAX Gorizia
Cross-border Film Festival Tribute to a Vision, Day 3
4:00 PM
Cinemaeye: Milka Badjura vs. Luigi Di Gianni (English subtitles)
A program bringing together two authors, two film heritages, and two ways of recording the world. Introduced by curators Mila Lazić and Žiga Brdnik.
Milka Badjura: Spring in White Carniola (1952), Blacksmiths of Kropa (1953), Brda (1960), Carolers (1967)
Luigi Di Gianni: Magia lucana (1958) 19’, Pericolo a Valsinni (1959) 13’, Donne di Bagnara (1959) 10’, Grazia e numeri (1962) 15’, Tempo di raccolta (1967) 13’
Through the films of Milka Badjura and Luigi Di Gianni, questions of cinematic memory, documentation, and the relationship between image and history open up. What remains in a film when time fades away? And how can an archive become a space for a new perspective?