FFFMILANO 5th EDITION

October 1, 2018

Milan, Anteo Palazzo del Cinema, Saturday 22 September 2018.

I went, in the late morning of a saturday still characterized by summer heat, at the Milan Fashion Film Festival. An international event. Founded and directed by Costanza Cavalli Etro and sponsored by the Italian National Chamber of Fashion and by the Municipality of Milan, with the support of GRAY GOOSE® as main sponsor and Mini as a partner, this edition has an official selection of 200 fashion films. Curator of the fifth event is Gloria Maria Cappelletti, Editor-at-Large of i-D Italia. The atmosphere is electrifying and my expectations are very high. This year the fashion films are divided into various themes: Around the World, Back to Nature, Diversity, Identity, Ladies and Gentlemen, Life Stories, Media Mix, Minimalia, Minimalist and Time Machine. I already feel the ethical sense, the contemporaneity, the great social and gender themes that characterize this year’s selection.

In the AROUND THE WORLD section, exciting and sometimes psychedelic is the Kenzo GIGI GIGI BU UGWU EZE fashion film (‘UNITY IS STRENGHT‘) directed by Crackstevens, where the 2017 s / s collection is presented in the context of various celebrations within the Igbo community of Nigeria. Intense, punctuated by exceptional tribal music, full of masks and colors.

Fun, music and street art are the keywords for F IS FOR … FENDI directed by Wiissa, where the brand, bringing together the past, the present and the future of the iconic FF logo, celebrates the launch of the new capsule #FFreloaded collection in London. “Creative Resistance” is instead the slogan of THE 0212 GENERATION directed by Valeria Romano, a touching documentary that explores a generation of young Venezuelans active in the constant revolution of the world of fashion, art and aesthetics in their country of origin. Through a series of photo shoots set in the city of Caracas, a reality is analyzed in which young creative people manage to break the status quo of the traditional rules of beauty in Venezuela and above all to challenge the political chaos and the humanitarian crisis that the country is going through , showing that they are a creative resistance.

Coach and i-D present A TO Z OF NEW YORK STYLE directed by Agostina Galvez, a fun and ironic fashion film that, through a guide from “Americana” to “Gen Z”, tells the style of the “Big Apple”.

In the TIME MACHINE section, interesting and delightful is the fashion film EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL by the Beautiful People brand and directed by Pablo Chocron. The concept of the brand that transpires also from the short film is the following: “We can not always change the world, but we can choose how we see it. Everything is beautiful “. Adidas presents HOURGLASS / PAST directed by Daniel Arsham & Benny Nicks, the first chapter of the exceptional fashion film that reveals the next phase of the brand’s collaboration with the artist Daniel Arsham. It is a short film that explores his life and his creative work. In part documentary and partly fictional work, “Hourglass” is a film told in three parts: Past, Present and Future. In this autobiographical work, Daniel Arsham recalls a hurricane that he experienced as a child.

In the LADIES AND GENTLEMEN section, fun and adolescent is the GRETA fashion film directed by Van Khokhlov, which tells the story of a boy who falls in love with a girl he sees on the subway in Milan. Unfortunately she will never rise on the same meter of the boy and the protagonist, as well as narrator of the short film, begins to imagine how that girl was and what her life was, to the point where she believes she does not deserve such a beautiful woman, but it’s just his imagination.

Worthy of note is the surreal fashion film POOR CHERRIES directed by Jimmy Marble, which takes a playful approach to the world around us. The resulting film is an unconventional daydream, told through the eyes of two irreverent characters, who love the quarrels of lovers and summer clouds in equal measure. Giorgio Armani presents A UNA GIACCA / A JACKET directed by Marco Armando Piccinini, a short film made for the first edition of Armani / Laboratorio, and is the result of a film training workshop dedicated to young film students. “A jacket / A jacket” tells the head of Giorgio Armani icon between past and present, in an alternation of flashbacks marked by the transition between color and black and white.

In the DIVERSITY section there are fashion films loaded with meaning that tell the difference in all its genre or form. The goal is also to reflect and succeed. MUXES, directed by Ivan Olita, documents the remoteness of the southern state of Oaxaca where, in the indigenous communities around the city of Juchitán, the world is not simply divided into males and females. The Zapotecs have made room for a third category of mixed gender, which they call “muxes” – men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned limbo between the two genders.

“Todos somos uno” is the slogan of UNIDOS COLORES directed by Timothy Wright, a film and a photographic project that explores the diversity of Hispanic culture, with insights, hopes and aspirations for the future of intercultural acceptance and universal progress. Polite presents I AM AN INDIVIDUAL directed by Noir Tribe, a wonderful fashion film that celebrates unique human identities through five personal stories of love, appearance, friendship, power and dreams. Each chapter is a true story, told by the same models, inspired by their life experiences. “I’m not a man … am I a woman? No, I am an individual”.

Marco Rambaldi, a young Bolognese designer, on the occasion of his third collection (a / w 2018-19) presents a delightful fashion film: VOGLIAMO ANCHE LE ROSE. The short, characterized by warm colors, almost muffled and shot in a suggestive location, is directed by Mattia Colombo and starring Valérie Taccarelli, an Italian transsexual, an activist for LGBT rights since the second half of the seventies. The fashion film tells, through the words of the protagonist, the important generational, cultural and sentimental passage between the young revolutionaries of the seventies and the children of today. A civil commitment that is also reflected in the clothes of Rambaldi that become for the stylist weapons for women, which become an active subject in the construction of their world. Valérie tells during the fashion film: “I was not born in a wrong body, I was born in a wrong society. […] I am a feminist trans, a fighter, one who thinks there must be justice “.

In the LIFE STORIES section the first fashion film to be presented is IDENTITY THROUGH FERRÉ, directed by Federico Cianferoni. The short film tells – through period films, memories, testimonies of collaborators and interventions also by some students of the Domus Academy – the figure of Gianfranco Ferré not only as a great fashion designer, but also as a teacher and mentor for the most Young people. One of the greatest Italian designers ever, defined as the fashion architect, is here told and partly unveiled. A figure to rediscover and exploit, especially from and for the Post-Millennials.

“Versace not Versaci”: this is the opening words of DONATELLA VERSACE TRIBUTE directed by Ivan Olita, a hilarious and eventful pop fashion film that represents a real tribute to the iconic figure of Donatella Versace. This dynamic short film full of great show stars has none other than Lady Gaga – Donatella’s best friend and genuine superstar – as a narrator of the opera. Lady Gaga thus highlights some of the many successes of Donatella Versace, known to all, and puts things clear while explaining exactly what it takes to become and to be such a legendary power (blonde).