“I have always maintained that the only interesting documents not so much of ’68, but of the immediately following period in the early ’70s, are those that emerged from the poor and light use of videotape (...). Using the ‘poor’ video recorder — thus freed from the costs of film and the economic constraints weighing on cinema where ‘time is money’ — allowed us to give ourselves all the free time of a work parallel to real life time.” Alberto Grifi

“It happens periodically that cinema, overwhelmed by the gigantism imposed by its spectacular DNA or stiffened in the cages of a system that thinks only of itself and not of what it was created for, explodes in its useless arrogance, stops, and detaches itself from the flow of reality. Yet always, in these moments, cinema generates new pioneers and returns to being a ground for experimentation, research, exchange, renewal, giving life to corrosive and vital works that launch themselves like enzymes against the commercial sterilization of cinema and the formal petrification of its languages and production formulas. Alberto Grifi is one of the great personalities of experimental and political cinema, in Italy and worldwide. A master, a trailblazer, a man fatally attracted to the search for ‘truth’ in images, and the will to find technological means to produce them that allow ignoring the annihilating compromises imposed by ‘the system’.

His work is the subject of a series of initiatives that will take place in Milan in this period, now that cinema still seems to need the energy of new pioneers to escape the swamp it has been pushed into. With many young people who refuse to resign themselves to the apparent impossibility of a different cinema and invent original ways to make the cinema that no one allows them to make, Grifi’s lesson must be remembered, re-proposed, and reviewed for its intrinsic value, now historical, and for all the ‘generative power’ it unleashes, thanks to the energy it still manages to transmit today to those who want to attempt the path of a more alive and truer cinema.” Gianfilippo Pedote

Strongly affirming the necessity of an important presence in cinema such as Alberto Grifi’s means above all putting the director (but also photographer, actor, cameraman, and author of video-cinema devices) in the best conditions to continue working. Over the years Alberto Grifi has designed, edited, built, and rethought his cinema. A continuously active laboratory, which cannot and must not stop.

The event Alberto Grifi: Vite Vendute gathers the appeal “Una casa per Grifi,” already signed by some of the most important personalities in the Italian film and cultural world, so that in various Italian cities, through initiatives by organizations, institutions, societies, and individuals, a series of support actions for Grifi will be developed along with pressure so that he can soon obtain the public benefits of the so-called ‘Legge Bacchelli,’ which provides a lifetime allowance to citizens distinguished in culture, art, entertainment, and sport.

The initiative also seeks to meet a very concrete need. Seriously ill, in precarious economic conditions and homeless for years, Grifi needs immediate material help to be able to receive care. All events dedicated to him are subscription-based: proceeds will be entirely donated to Grifi.

The photographs and materials on display will be for sale; it is also possible to contribute via bank transfer to account no. 11281 in the name of Alberto Grifi - BNL ag. 22, Rome – ABI 1005 – CAB 03222.