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" The whiteness of a child's mind and death "

The film is an inner monologue in the mind of a child full of sensibility who becomes aware of the death for the first time in his existence. A fact that generates anguish and a sense of precariousness of the whole. The editing, used in allegorical function, expresses this trauma and psychic torment in evocative way.
Pictures, music and scenes are edited in a non-narrative logic which favors metaphorical concatenations, and which advances through the juxtaposition of the frames and for associations of ideas designed to define the various concepts that have been expressed.

  • Antonio Montefalcone
    Director
  • Antonio Montefalcone
    Writer
    "Mark, 12, 41" - "The cold caress of fear" .
  • Antonio Montefalcone
    Producer
  • No cast
    Key Cast
  • Antonio Montefalcone
    SUBJECT
    "The child with many names" - "Mark, 12, 41" - "The cold caress of fear" .
  • Antonio Montefalcone
    Editor
  • Rafael Krux
    Music
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    " L'innocenza della mente di un bambino e la morte "
  • Project Type:
    Experimental, Short
  • Genres:
    Drama, Philosophical and psychological movie, Experimental
  • Runtime:
    18 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    July 5, 2019
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital - HD - H264/AVC -1080p
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Black & White and Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 2019 Lisbon Film Rendezvous
    Lisbon, Portugal
    Portugal
    Official Selection: Semi-Finalist
  • 2019 Roma Independent Film Festival
    Roma
    Italy
    November 16, 2019
    Italian Premiere
    Official Selection: Finalist
  • 2019 Malabo International music & Film Festival
    Malabo City
    Equatorial Guinea
    December 14, 2019
    International Premiere
    Official Selection: Finalist
  • 2021 Horror International Film Festival

    United States
    Official Selection: Finalist
  • 2021 Silent Short Film Festival Goya Rural
    Zaragoza
    Spain
    August 12, 2021
    Official Selection: Finalist
  • 2022 The Fear Faire International Film Festival
    Spring Valley Lake, California (USA)
    United States
    Official Selection: Finalist
  • 2023 AltFF Alternative Film Festival
    Toronto, Ontario
    Canada
    Nominee - Best Film Poster
Director Biography - Antonio Montefalcone

Antonio Montefalcone was born in Lanciano (CH), on September 27th, 1980.
After graduating in Business Administration at the University of Pescara in November 2005 and having attended university studies in "Cultural Manager"; he attended courses in "Management in the film industry and audiovisual communication", and subsequently courses in "Screenplay and film direction".

He has always been a lover of Cinematic Art, so that he has tried to combine his passion with professional goals. For this reason he writes and directs independent videos and movies.
Even in the past he has written numerous subjects and screenplays (especially for short films directed by other directors), as well as original subjects and unpublished screenplays of short films or feature films, sent by himself to various competitions or film festivals.
Many of these scripts, unpublished and original, have also collected some awards.
Among these works, there are:

"Pieces of a mosaic": First Prize as Best Original Screenplay at the "Corto e Cultura Film Festival – City of Manfredonia (FG)", on 07/23/2011.

"The Inverted Crucifix": First Prize as Best Original Screenplay at the "GALP 2011/2012", a competition in Padova dedicated to unpublished screenplays for the cinema.

"It's not a world for me": Special Mention at the XII edition of the “Mitreo Film Festival” in Santa Maria Capua Vetere (Caserta), on December 08th, 2012.

"The fourth dimension", "Slaves of pain", "The lit candle" and "The hidden eyes of the night": in the Final at the “Torino Fantasy Film Festival” respectively in the editions from 2010 to 2013.

"The little girl with many names": First Prize as Best Original Subject at the XXI edition of the “Energheia Award - Cinema section”, in Matera on September 12th, 2015.
The subject, already published online on the contest website, has become a short film produced by the homonymous cultural association of Matera which organized the competition.
It was screened to the public in a national premiere during the XXII edition of the “Energheia - Cinema Award”, in Matera on September 16th, 2016. It is visible on the Internet (YouTube).

"Broken hearts": Finalist at the “Low Budget Cinema Festival”, in Ispra (Varese), on 02/21/2016.

"The Syrian friend": First Prize as Best Original Screenplay at the XI edition of "Corto e Cultura Film Festival – City of Manfredonia (FG)", on July 28th, 2018.

"Mark, 12, 41": screenplay entirely written in English for foreign festivals, represents the first international success and beyond the European borders for Antonio Montefalcone, because that it was awarded abroad, exactly in North America. After a long valuation of projects from all over the world, "Mark, 12, 41" was appreciated and selected among the 10 finalists at the “Calcasieu Parish Short Film Festival 2019”, located in the city of Sulphur in Louisiana (USA) and, during the awards ceremony of May 18, 2019, was 3rd place winner in the "Best Script for short movie" category.

"The cold caress of fear", written in English, has obtained 2 Finals in American festivals, including one at the “Newark International Film Festival 2020,” situated in the city of Newark in New Jersey (USA), a few miles from New York.

"Ginkgo Leaves", written in English, was a Finalist at two Festival in the USA in 2020 and 2021.

As a writer, Montefalcone has also written some storytelling tales. Among these: "The most precious thing" and "The light of the lighthouse", printed on paper anthologies by various Italian publishing houses.

As a director, Antonio Montefalcone, in 2018 directed and wrote a one-minute silent film.
In 2019 he directed, edited and wrote "The whiteness of a child's mind…and death", an experimental short movie. This short movie was a semi-finalist in the official selection of the Lisbon Film Rendezvous 2019, in Portugal.
It was a Finalist (Official Selection) at the RIFF – Roma Independent Film Festival 2019, where, on November 16, 2019, with the public screening at the Nuovo Cinema Aquila in Rome, it also had its National Premiere in theaters.
Finalist in the Official Selection of the Malabo International Film Festival 2019, in Equatorial Guinea. Two more Official Selections at two American film festivals in 2021.
Official Selection at the Silent Short Film Festival Goya Rural 2021, in Spain.
Official Selection at The Fear Faire International Film Festival 2022, in Las Vegas (Nevada, USA).

In 2020 he directed, edited and wrote during the Italian lockdown a short video on Coronavirus, "Covid-19: Surreal Days", visible on the Internet in the author's YouTube channel.

In 2020 he directed, edited and wrote a new film, an experimental short film entitled: “The silence of God”. The work achieved these finals:
Official Selection at the Standalone Film Festival & Awards 2021 - Los Angeles (California, USA).
Within the program of this festival, the film was visible on the web in the online cinema platform of UVT Cineplex (USA), a virtual Cineplex available on the Internet around the world.
Official Selection at the Cefalù Film Festival 2021 (Sicily, Italy).
Semi-Finalist at the Lisbon Film Rendezvous 2021, in Portugal.
Winner of the Best Christian Film Award at the Shepherd's House International Film Festival 2021 (Manila, Philippines).
Official Selection at the Clapperboard Golden International Film Festival 2022, in Brazil.
Official Seletion at the XIII Festival Internazionale del Cinema Patologico 2022, in Rome (Italy).

Finally, Antonio Montefalcone is also a Film Critic. He has written and published essays and articles on Cinema History and Culture. He still writes online critical reviews of films released in movie theaters on the websites: www.bestmovie.it and www.mymovies.it .

Among his hobbies, the author loves looking at old films and all of them (authorial movies or entertainment movies) which have a certain artistic quality. He likes films that express existential themes with acuity, sensitivity, thickness. Among his other hobbies: in addition to travel, reading and photography, also an interest in scientific, psychological and philosophical subjects.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Visually, the film represents an interior monologue, an unfolding of thoughts, moods, sensations and emotions in the troubled mind of a child full of sensibility who becomes aware of death for the first time in his existence. Death is a certain fact of human existence, and in this movie it is also fear that is transmitted, anguish that is generated in the soul of people, above all in the most delicate or innocent ones.
The editing builds this process of trauma and psychic torment but also several interpretations, such as: the child could process a bereavement of a loved one, or he could feel close to his death, or he could be unexpectedly forced to face with fear of dying in immediate time, or other explanations, from the most philosophical and psychological to the most metaphysical ones (for example: what happens to the soul after death, for people who have faith), etc.
In any case, the key theme of this work is focused on the relation between the idea of death and the innocent look at the world that a child has. The discovery of death overwhelms and upsets at unconscious level, forever and in negative way, both the psyche and the mood of a person. This impact conditions in negative way a serene growth and compromises balances, strength and expression of the individual to the point of alienating and bad-relating a person to many aspects of his psyche and surrounding reality.
This subjective perception of death affects our whole existence. Disturbing in this sense is what the individual sees ruining and losing in himself, starting from the most basic, his own innocence of spirit and what good it entails.
Towards death and its acceptance (with or without the help of faith in God), the child, protagonist of this film, as anyone else, is forced to experience the devastating sense of precariousness of the whole existence, both outside and inside of him, and becomes aware of his own limitation, his own imperfection, his own incompleteness, things to which the essence of death refers.
This awareness will always leave child in a frustrating condition of suspension, psychological and existential, far from the fullness of his being and life (therefore unrealized and unfinished in himself), even and above all alone, mislaid, fragile and confused prey of a labyrinthine, chaotic, complex and relative reality (for example: lost in moral questions about “Good” and “Evil”…).
So in the film death becomes synonymous with everything that characterizes the limits of the true nature of human being and its finitude, namely imperfection, incompleteness, vulnerability, impotence. Death also becomes synonymous with the illusion of a permanent sense - purpose - utility of our temporary existence, when this existence is compared with eternity and / or with eternal oblivion after the end of time and space...
The film tries to visually represent these experiences and with its allegorical and evocative load tries to get to stimulate the interpretative and intuitive vein of the viewer. So the viewer with his intelligence, culture, sensitivity, is free from guessing with his fancy the open and metaphorical reading plans of the work.
This experimental short movie with music but without dialogues, is an introspective journey based on the fascinating and exclusive force of cinematographic editing, here used as a purely allegorical, symbolic and evocative function. There is therefore a precise figurative composition, an expressive combination of images and music that makes the whole film abstract and evocative.
It is an abstraction of allegoric scenes, in itself and between them, which is based on the theories of the use of Analogical editing by director Sergej Michajlovič Ejzenštejn, reworked in this project in a radical and personal style.
There is in this movie an abstraction of the representation of real things that is accomplished through figurative concepts. The images and the scenes are edited in a non-narrative logic which favors metaphorical concatenations, assonances and internal correlations, and which advances above all through the juxtaposition of the frames and the associations of ideas designed to define, intellectually and emotionally, the various concepts that have been expressed.