SHORT SYNOPSIS:
Examined Life takes philosophy out of the darkened corners of academia and into the hustle and bustle of the everyday, a visual reminder that great ideas are born through profound engagement with the world around us.
Featuring the “rock star” philosophers of our time, including Cornel West, Peter Singer, Slavoj Zizek, Judith Butler, Avital Ronell, Michael Hardt, Anthony Appiah and Martha Nussbaum.
Long Synopsis
UPCOMING SCREENINGS:
Cinematheque Winnipeg - March 4 & 5 @ 7pm, 2009
Cinema Village, NYC - Opens March 6 (1:15 PM 3:15 PM 5:20 PM 7:20 PM 9:20 PM)
Pacific Cinematheque - March 20 - 25, 2009
Cinema du Parc, Montreal, March 23 - 26 @ 9pm
Bytowne Cinema - March 22 - 25, 2009
Broadway Theatre, Saskatoon - March 9 - 12, 2009
Art Gallery of Hamilton - March 25, 2009
Cinecenta, Victoria - April 1 & 2, 2009
Cinema du Parc, Montreal - April 3 - 9
Regina Public Library, Regina, SK - April 4 & 5, 2009
Metro Cinema, Edmonton, April 18 - 20, 2009
View screenings in the United States, courtesy Zeitgeist Films!
View complete Showtimes for all films!
PREVIOUS SCREENINGS:
The Royal, Toronto - Opening Jan 23, 2009 - EXTENDED TO FEB 5th!
Friday @ 7, Saturday @ 7, Sunday @ 4:30 & 7, Monday @ 7, Tuesday @ 7 & 9:30, Wednesday @ 7, Thursday @ 7 & 9
(Panel follows Jan. 27, 7pm screening, on the intersection of public space & intellectual pursuits, featuring Astra Taylor, Jane Farrow, Deborah Cowen, Kanishka Goonewardena and Doug Hutchinson. Filmmaker Q&A on Sat, Sun & Mon.
Kingsway Theatre, Toronto: Jan 30 - Feb 5, 2009 - Nightly at 9pm - 2nd Theatre Added!
Regent Theatre, Toronto: Feb. 6 - 12, 2009
Western Arctic Moving Pictures Film Festival, Feb. 8, 2009 - 7pm
City Cinema, Charlottetown - Feb 11 - 15, 2009
Port Moody, B.C. Film Festival - Feb. 12 - 21, 2009
View complete Showtimes for all films!
Examined Life takes philosophy out of the darkened corners of academia and into the hustle and bustle of the everyday, a visual reminder that great ideas are born through profound engagement with the world around us.
Long Synopsis
UPCOMING SCREENINGS:
Cinematheque Winnipeg - March 4 & 5 @ 7pm, 2009
Cinema Village, NYC - Opens March 6 (1:15 PM 3:15 PM 5:20 PM 7:20 PM 9:20 PM)
Pacific Cinematheque - March 20 - 25, 2009
Cinema du Parc, Montreal, March 23 - 26 @ 9pm
Bytowne Cinema - March 22 - 25, 2009
Broadway Theatre, Saskatoon - March 9 - 12, 2009
Art Gallery of Hamilton - March 25, 2009
Cinecenta, Victoria - April 1 & 2, 2009
Cinema du Parc, Montreal - April 3 - 9
Regina Public Library, Regina, SK - April 4 & 5, 2009
Metro Cinema, Edmonton, April 18 - 20, 2009
View screenings in the United States, courtesy Zeitgeist Films!
View complete Showtimes for all films!
PREVIOUS SCREENINGS:
The Royal, Toronto - Opening Jan 23, 2009 - EXTENDED TO FEB 5th!
Friday @ 7, Saturday @ 7, Sunday @ 4:30 & 7, Monday @ 7, Tuesday @ 7 & 9:30, Wednesday @ 7, Thursday @ 7 & 9
(Panel follows Jan. 27, 7pm screening, on the intersection of public space & intellectual pursuits, featuring Astra Taylor, Jane Farrow, Deborah Cowen, Kanishka Goonewardena and Doug Hutchinson. Filmmaker Q&A on Sat, Sun & Mon.
Kingsway Theatre, Toronto: Jan 30 - Feb 5, 2009 - Nightly at 9pm - 2nd Theatre Added!
Regent Theatre, Toronto: Feb. 6 - 12, 2009
Western Arctic Moving Pictures Film Festival, Feb. 8, 2009 - 7pm
City Cinema, Charlottetown - Feb 11 - 15, 2009
Port Moody, B.C. Film Festival - Feb. 12 - 21, 2009
View complete Showtimes for all films!
DIRECTOR'S NOTES:
As the only son of a widowed mother, for many long years I had to tackle my mother –
a person with an overpowering personality – on my own (my wife and daughters had fled
out of an instinct for survival), and live surrounded by her world.
Even though it was a trying experience, I got to know and love the richness, vitality and
strengths of the elderly. But I also saw their loneliness and vulnerability in a world that
moves on quickly, without knowing where, because it has forgotten its history, has lost
its continuity over time, and is afraid of old age and death, unaware that nothing has
any value except the quality of feeling.
In the summer 2000 the condominium manager, knowing that I was behind with my
payments, really did ask me to look after his mother for the August bank holiday. In a
show of wounded self-dignity I refused, but since then I've often wondered what would
have happened if I had accepted. This is the result.
After talking to some professional actresses, in the end I chose women who had never
acted before, on the basis of their strength of character, and since they lacked any
formal preconceptions.
During shooting they swept me away; the story changed on the basis of their mood, but
their contribution in terms of spontaneity and truth was crucial. I even did some takes
without them realising.
The actor who plays the part of the condominium manager, Alfonso Santagata, is a great
theatre actor. The others, the doctor and the friend from Trastevere really are my
childhood friends, playing themselves.
As for me, I played the leading role because when we were preparing the film, while I
was explaining to the crew that we needed to find a middle-aged man, more or less an
alcoholic, who had lived for years with his mother, I realised that all eyes were turned to
me. I plucked up the necessary courage because when I was younger I studied directing
but also acting with Alessandro Fersen.
BIOGRAPHY: Gianni Di Gregorio
Gianni Di Gregorio was born in Rome in Trastevere, where he still lives and works.
He fell in love with cinema when he was still a child, spending his mornings at school and his afternoons in the local cinemas, sometimes watching up to three films a day.
After studying classics at high school he went to university to study literature, but before
graduating dropped out to go to the Accademia di Arti Sceniche in Rome, run by Alessandro Fersen, where he took a diploma in directing and acting.
For three years he worked in Fersen’s experimental research workshop (taking part in seminars and exchanges with the groups of Bob Wilson, Grotowski, Kantor and Chaikin), which led to the show “Leviathan”, presented at the Festival of Spoleto in 1976.
After three years of theatre, as an assistant director and actor, he saw Scorsese’s film Mean Streets, which made such an impression on him that he left theatre and started to work in film as an assistant director. He then moved into screenwriting.
In 1986 he wrote the screenplay for the film Sembra morto ma è solo svenuto by Felice Farina, with Sergio Castellitto and Marina Confalone, which won the Premio FRIPRESCI at the Settimana della Critica, at the 1987 Venice Film Festival.
In the same year he wrote the story and screenplay for the film Carefree Giovanni by Marco Colli, with Sergio Castellitto, Eleonora Giorgi, Aldo Fabrizi, Franco Fabrizi and Luca De Filippo.
Presented at the Quinzaine des Realizateurs at Cannes 87, it was awarded the Gran Prix du juri at the festival of Annecy.
In 1991 he wrote Shipwrecks directed by Marco Colli, and the following year he wrote the story and screenplay for the film Affetti Speciali directed by Felice Farina.
In 2000 he wrote the screenplay for Long Live the Monkey!, based on the short story Le due zitelle by Tommaso Landolfi and directed by Marco Colli.
He met Matteo Garrone after seeing his first film, Terra di Mezzo. He started working with him, as assistant director, in 2000 with Roman Summer, and continued with The Embalmer and First Love. In 2007, with Braucci, Chiti, Gaudioso, Saviano and Garrone, he co-wrote the screenplay for the film Gomorrah, directed by Matteo Garrone.
As the only son of a widowed mother, for many long years I had to tackle my mother –
a person with an overpowering personality – on my own (my wife and daughters had fled
out of an instinct for survival), and live surrounded by her world.
Even though it was a trying experience, I got to know and love the richness, vitality and
strengths of the elderly. But I also saw their loneliness and vulnerability in a world that
moves on quickly, without knowing where, because it has forgotten its history, has lost
its continuity over time, and is afraid of old age and death, unaware that nothing has
any value except the quality of feeling.
In the summer 2000 the condominium manager, knowing that I was behind with my
payments, really did ask me to look after his mother for the August bank holiday. In a
show of wounded self-dignity I refused, but since then I've often wondered what would
have happened if I had accepted. This is the result.
After talking to some professional actresses, in the end I chose women who had never
acted before, on the basis of their strength of character, and since they lacked any
formal preconceptions.
During shooting they swept me away; the story changed on the basis of their mood, but
their contribution in terms of spontaneity and truth was crucial. I even did some takes
without them realising.
The actor who plays the part of the condominium manager, Alfonso Santagata, is a great
theatre actor. The others, the doctor and the friend from Trastevere really are my
childhood friends, playing themselves.
As for me, I played the leading role because when we were preparing the film, while I
was explaining to the crew that we needed to find a middle-aged man, more or less an
alcoholic, who had lived for years with his mother, I realised that all eyes were turned to
me. I plucked up the necessary courage because when I was younger I studied directing
but also acting with Alessandro Fersen.
BIOGRAPHY: Gianni Di Gregorio
He fell in love with cinema when he was still a child, spending his mornings at school and his afternoons in the local cinemas, sometimes watching up to three films a day.
After studying classics at high school he went to university to study literature, but before
graduating dropped out to go to the Accademia di Arti Sceniche in Rome, run by Alessandro Fersen, where he took a diploma in directing and acting.
For three years he worked in Fersen’s experimental research workshop (taking part in seminars and exchanges with the groups of Bob Wilson, Grotowski, Kantor and Chaikin), which led to the show “Leviathan”, presented at the Festival of Spoleto in 1976.
After three years of theatre, as an assistant director and actor, he saw Scorsese’s film Mean Streets, which made such an impression on him that he left theatre and started to work in film as an assistant director. He then moved into screenwriting.
In 1986 he wrote the screenplay for the film Sembra morto ma è solo svenuto by Felice Farina, with Sergio Castellitto and Marina Confalone, which won the Premio FRIPRESCI at the Settimana della Critica, at the 1987 Venice Film Festival.
In the same year he wrote the story and screenplay for the film Carefree Giovanni by Marco Colli, with Sergio Castellitto, Eleonora Giorgi, Aldo Fabrizi, Franco Fabrizi and Luca De Filippo.
Presented at the Quinzaine des Realizateurs at Cannes 87, it was awarded the Gran Prix du juri at the festival of Annecy.
In 1991 he wrote Shipwrecks directed by Marco Colli, and the following year he wrote the story and screenplay for the film Affetti Speciali directed by Felice Farina.
In 2000 he wrote the screenplay for Long Live the Monkey!, based on the short story Le due zitelle by Tommaso Landolfi and directed by Marco Colli.
He met Matteo Garrone after seeing his first film, Terra di Mezzo. He started working with him, as assistant director, in 2000 with Roman Summer, and continued with The Embalmer and First Love. In 2007, with Braucci, Chiti, Gaudioso, Saviano and Garrone, he co-wrote the screenplay for the film Gomorrah, directed by Matteo Garrone.