In June, the second edition of KinoAppennino brought more than thirty participants from various countries to Pettorano sul Gizio, who in under a week shot twenty-six films. Some speak of wild nature and of how we live side by side with wildlife, others look at the village and the people who live there, others still went wherever they wanted. On 28 August, everyone gets to see them all.
Twenty-six films in six days. Thirty-two people arrived from various countries across Europe and the world, splitting into makeshift crews, competing for the same streets in Pettorano sul Gizio, and asking residents to act, lend a kitchen, or hold a microphone.
KinoAppennino comes from kinokabaret: a few days, an almost non-existent budget, films made because someone puts an idea on the table and someone else decides to help shoot it. The second edition confirmed that the formula holds up here too, in a village in the Central Apennines, within the Monte Genzana Alto Gizio Reserve.
Themes we didn’t leave to chance
On some stories, the Rewilding Apennines team stepped in directly, bringing themes it works on all year round and leaving the filmmakers to give them shape.
The Trap tells the story of plastic waste and the animals that get trapped in it. Let’s leave snakes alone dismantles a fear that often translates into blows with a stick, one that condemns hundreds of entirely harmless individuals, like the Aesculapian snake at the centre of this film. Nonna’s Spaghetti is a hilarious warning about how dangerous it is to feed wild animals. And then there’s the Semi-Serious Manual for the Correct Use of Bear-Proof Bins.
It wasn’t a one-way process. We supplied the themes; directors and crews supplied craft, time and imagination. The value of cooperation during a kinokabaret isn’t an abstract ideal, it’s a necessary practice.
The village in front of the camera
Other films looked at Pettorano sul Gizio and the people who live there. Memory of the Stones, by Yanick Lampe, is the clearest case: a poetic tribute to the village and its inhabitants, built around a story told by Antonio Trombetta.
Then there’s Lost in Pettorano, made by Rewilding Apennines volunteers. An absurd and very funny story that isn’t trying to prove anything, beyond how much energy and creativity this magical week can unleash.
The other films
For the rest, directors and writers did as they pleased. Some took only the light and the stone from the landscape, and the inspiration for their stories. From action to fantasy, from comedy to horror, down to the “quickies”, very short films shot in just a few hours, almost on a dare.
..
All together, on 28 August
The twenty-six films will be screened on the evening of 28 August, in a marathon in Pettorano sul Gizio. It’s the first time they’ll all be seen one after another, and it’s probably the fairest way to watch them: what holds such different films together isn’t the theme, it’s the week in which they were made.
___________________________
KinoAppennino 2026 was organised by Rewilding Apennines in collaboration with the Municipality of Pettorano sul Gizio, the Monte Genzana Alto Gizio Regional Nature Reserve and the Valleluna Cooperative.
Under the patronage of: Rewilding Europe, APIC – Associazione Produttori Indipendenti Cortometraggio Sulmona International Film Festival – SIFF Sulmonacinema Aps CinemAbruzzo
Many local businesses helped with organisation and provided food and lodging at reduced rates for participants: La Pizzicheria di Costantino, B&B Il Giardinetto di Pettorano, B&B Civico 41, Ristorante Il Torchio, Azienda Agricola Michele Muraglia, B&B La Fantesca, Il Chiosco, D3C Engineering, Salviamo l’Orso.
KinoAppennino is made possible thanks to the support of Rewilding Europe.
