Gustav Hofer and Luca Ragazzi, Italy, 2011, 75 mins

Saturday May 5 | 4:00 PM | Pacific Cinémathèque

Repeat Screening:
Sunday May 13 | 4:00 PM | Pacific Cinémathèque
 

What do you do when your country has gone to shit? Italy: Love It, or Leave It goes beyond the picture postcard version of Italy to show a once glorious country beset by corruption, greed, and trash. Partners in life and filmmaking, Luca Ragazzi and Gustav Hofer have grown disillusioned by their country’s economic and cultural decline. Before deciding whether to decamp to Berlin, the boys embark on a grand tour to rekindle their love for il bel paese. Crammed into their vintage Fiat 500, Luca and Gustav’s road trip takes them from Italian trash TV and Berlusconi’s geriatric fan girls, to Sicily’s unfinished monuments to government corruption and Napoli’s all too literal trash problem. After charming Vancouver audiences at the Queer Film Festival a few years ago with their award-winning Suddenly, Last Winter, Ragazzi and Hofer return with their endearing blend of the personal and the political. –JC

FILMMAKERS' BIOGRAPHIES

Gustav Hofer was born in 1976 in Sarnthein in South Tyrol, Italy. After his studies in Communication Science at the University of Vienna and Cinema at Middlesex University in London, he moved to Rome. He worked as a freelance journalist and independent filmmaker. He presented and worked as an Itlaian correspondent for Artejournal for the French-German broadcaster Arte. His film Suddenly, Last Winter, co-directed with Luca Ragazzi, was screened in over 200 festivals and garnered 20 awards.

Luca Ragazzi, born in 1971 in Rome, graduated in Literature and Philosophy at the University La Sapienza of Rome. He has worked as a journalist, film critic and photographer. Suddenly, Last Winter was his first film as a director.

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