FESTIVAL DEI POPOLI. Tue Steen Müller 11.10.08

 It's festival time. And classics change leadership.  Since 1986 Mario Simondi was the symbol of the documentary festival in Firenze, always searching for the high quality and hosting his guests perfectly. I can witness this as can Allan Berg, my colleague, who was there some years as a juror. Mario has retired, thanks for your contribution.
New people, new ideas: Luciano Barisone is the new director of the Festival dei Popoli. Born in Genoa in 1949, he is a journalist, film critic (Filmcritica, Cineforum, Duellanti, La Rivista del Cinematografo), proponent of Cineclub, and founder of the magazine Panoramiche, of which he is also director. This piece taken from the site, see below, where he also reflects on the status of the documentary today and advertises a policy like this:
What we are interested in doing is not so much to impose limits or boundaries, but rather to observe from year to year where reality cinema is heading, reflecting, through discussion on the underlying phenomena in progress. The 49th edition will therefore be the setting for a round table, which we have decided to entitle Nanook's Legacy, as a tribute to the "first to be so baptised" and to the legacy with which it has endowed us. Our aim is to gather together critics, scholars, cineastes, producers and cinema propagators and to invite them to analyse and to debate the state of the art, with the aim of arriving not so much at a scientific conclusion but at thoughts which will stimulate further thoughts and future processing.
http://www.festivaldeipopoli.org/index_eng.html
http://www.filmkommentaren.dk