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Official Selection PIFF 40

Fire at Sea

Directed by Gianfranco Rosi

Italy, France • 2016 • 114 mins. • In Italian, English

Showtimes & Past Screenings

The island of Lampedusa, between Sicily and Tunisia, is a major destination point for refugees fleeing Africa and the Middle East. In recent years hundreds of thousands of immigrants seeking a better life have landed there with the literal shirts on their backs. Rosi spent a year on the island experiencing the reality for the fishing families living there, an Italian coast guard swamped with a massive human crisis, and the heart-wrenching stories of people driven to desperation. Rosi’s moving documentary reveals the subtle connections between the micro and macro realities of our globalized world. This year’s Italian submission for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

Sponsored by SundanceNow and Adelina Books

Reviews: Artforum, The Village Voice, Reverse Shot, Brooklyn Magazine, Slant Magazine, Cinema Scope

Interviews: Interview with Gianfranco Rosi at Film Comment

 

Filmography: Sacro GRA (2013), El Sicario, Room 164 (2010), Below Sea Level (2008), Boatman (1993)

Appears in: 40th Portland International Film Festival, PIFF XL: Documentary Views

The Northwest Film Center recognizes and honors the Indigenous peoples of this region on whose ancestral lands the museum now stands. These include the Willamette Tumwater, Clackamas, Kathlemet, Molalla, Multnomah and Watlala Chinook Peoples and the Tualatin Kalapuya who today are part of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and many other Native communities who made their homes along the Columbia River. We also want to recognize that Portland today is a community of many diverse Native peoples who continue to live and work here. We respectfully acknowledge and honor all Indigenous communities—past, present, future—and are grateful for their ongoing and vibrant presence.