FABRICA PRESENT AT DOCUMENTA MADRID (1-10 MAY) WITH “HUNTERS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME” AND “BRANDING KOSOVO”

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FABRICA PRESENT AT DOCUMENTA MADRID (1-10 MAY) WITH “HUNTERS SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME” AND “BRANDING KOSOVO”

“Hunters”, coproduced with RTSI, continues its participation in important international festivals, while “Branding Kosovo” makes its debut in the world scene

Treviso, April 2009. A community of whale hunters who use centuries-old techniques to hunt and kill their prey in the Bering sea off the coast of Siberia. This is Hunters Since the Beginning of Time, a documentary directed by Carlos Casas and co-produced by Fabrica, Benetton Group's communication research centre, and RTSI, the Italian-language Swiss Television, which is set to compete in the 6^th edition of Documenta Madrid, international documentary festival, 1-10 May 2009.

Hunters Since the Beginning of Time takes its audience to the outer reaches of civilisation where the extreme conditions of everyday life make living a question of survival. Life here is possible only because the community maintains the old traditions, such as whale hunting. The documentary presents the hunt's fascinating rituals handed down through the generations.

Best Documentary at the Festival Internacional de Cine Contemporáneo de la Ciudad de México 2008, Hunters Since the Beginning of Time is the last of a cycle of three short films realised by Carlos Casas about life in the far-flung regions of our planet. It follows Solitude at the End of the Word (2005), set in Patagonia, which won the Special Jury Prize at the Festival de Cine Independiente de Buenos Aires in 2006; and Aral. Fishing in an Invisible Sea (2004), which talks about the last three generations of Aral Sea fishermen and won Best Italian Documentary at the Torino Film Festival in 2004.

Hunters is part of COLORS' publishing activities which include not only documentaries, but also a magazine, music CDs and exhibitions. They all share a particular attention towards the rest of the world and a commitment to exploring globality with an eye on local issues in the belief that diversity is a source of enrichment and that all cultures are equally valuable.

The documentary marks a further step in the collaborative process between Fabrica and RTSI. Fabrica is a place for experimentation and innovation created in 1994 by Luciano Benetton and Oliviero Toscani with the aim of combining culture and industry in an unprecedented experiment based on the experience of a group which operates in over one hundred countries around the globe. Based near Venice in an architectural complex which Tadao Ando restored and enlarged, Fabrica offers young creative talents from around the world a one-year grant for developing their projects – guided by an international team of experts – in the fields of video, graphics, cinema, industrial design, publishing, new media and photography.

Ever since it was established 50 years ago, the Italian-language Swiss Television (Italian-language unit of the Swiss broadcaster SRG-SSR), has given prominence to documentaries among its cultural programmes and current affairs analyses. Since 2003, “Storie”, a magazine programme, broadcasts every Sunday evening in prime time a documentary about people. The subjects range from in-depth portraits to commentaries on social phenomena and including history and human experience. Human beings are, therefore, the foundations on which narrative paths and experimental expressive languages are built to present, through people's stories, the complexity and difficulty, or indeed the beauty and charm, of an individual or collective destiny.

Fabrica is present at Documenta Madrid also in the non competitive section “Documenta la Musica”, with the documentary “Branding Kosovo”. First work of the young Spanish filmmaker Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, “Branding Kosovo” is It’s a film about the creation of the symbols which represent the Republic of Kosovo. It focuses on the graphic and artistic aspects, and tells the story of the people of Kosovo from a non-political viewpoint, through the voices of those who participated in the competition to design the flag and compose the national anthem.

Screening times and places:

HUNTERS:

Tuesday, 5th May

10:00pm

Princesa Cinema 9

Wednesday, 6th May

7:30 pm

Princesa Cinema 8

BRANDING KOSOVO:

Friday, 8th May

7:30pm

Princesa Cinema 9