Retrospective of Solanas’ Work To Be Presented as Part of Festival’s Salute To Argentina

Famed Argentine film director, screenwriter and politician Fernando Solanas will receive a “2012 Ischia Legend Award” in recognition of his lifetime of outstanding contributions to the cinema of Argentina during the 2012 Ischia Global Film & Music Fest to be held from July 8th to 15th on the isle which is located off the coast of Naples. The announcement was made here today by actor Franco Nero, a long-time honorary member of the Ischia International Arts Academy under whose auspices the Festival is presented with the support of International sponsors and Italian public institutions.
The 76-year-old auteur will be coming to Ischia along with his long-time companion, the actress Angela Correa. As part of its salute to the arts of Argentina, the festival will feature a retrospective of Solanas’ films. Other particpants in this sidebar will be director Gabriela Tagliavini, who is currently finishing production on “The Mule” starring Sharon Stone, Billy Zane and Marciel Alvarez, who debuted in Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu’s “Biutiful”.
“Fernando Solanas is one of the greatest artists of Latin American cinema,” said Nero, who has just completed a starring role in Quentin Tarantino’s latest movie, the western “Django Unchained.” “Apart from being an iconic director and writer, he has composed numerous film scores with the great Astor Piazzolla and has inspired filmmakers around the globe. With his manifesto “Toward a Third Cinema” - devoted to the idea of another cinema, beyond Hollywood and the European auteur movies - and his films  “Tangos”, “Sur” and “El viaje” that conquered the Venice and Cannes Film Festivals as well as audiences throughout the world, Solanas is a significant part of cinema history.”
Countries saluted by the Festival in prior years include India, China, Russia, Germany, Brazil, Japan, South Africa, Mexico and the United Kingdom.
Overseeing this year’s Ischia Global Film & Music Fest are chairpersons Paula Wagner and Rick Nicita and Festival founder and producer Pascal Vicedomini, along with President Trudie Styler, Honorary President Tony Renis, and an Executive Board comprised of producers Mark Canton, Marina Cicogna and Aurelio De Laurentiis, multi Oscar-winning production designers Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo, Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis and Italian movie icons Franco Nero, Lina Wertmuller and Enrico Lucherini.
Members of the Festival Board will include Italy’s Minister of Cultural Heritage, the Minister of Tourism and Cultural Heritage for the Campania Region,  and the Director General of the Cinema Department of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage.
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ABOUT FERNANDO SOLANAS
Fernando Ezequiel Solanas (born 16 February 1936, Olivos, Buenos Aires, Argentina) is an Argentine film director, screenwriter and politician. His films include La hora de los hornos (1968), Tangos: el exilio de Gardel (1985), Sur (1988), El viaje (1992), La nube (1998) and Memorias del saqueo (2004), among many others.
Solanas studied theatre, music and law. In 1962, he directed his first short feature Seguir andando and in 1968 he covertly produced and directed his first long feature film La Hora de los Hornos, a documentary on neo-colonialism and violence in Latin America. The film won several international awards and was screened around the world. Solanas has won the Special Jury Award and the Critics Award at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Director Palme at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival. He was awarded a special Golden Bear at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival. He collaborated with the great tango composer and musician Ástor Piazzolla on the soundtracks for various movies.
Solanas was at the forefront of the Grupo Cine Liberación that revolutionised Argentine cinema in the 1970s, developing its social conscience and political voice. He was active in the campaign to support Perón. Threatened by right-wing forces in the 1970s, one of his actors was assassinated and he himself was almost kidnapped.
Together with Octavio Getino, Solanas wrote the manifesto "Toward a Third Cinema". The Idea of a political Third Cinema, opposed to Hollywood Cinema and European Auteur cinema, inspired filmmakers in many so-called developing countries.
Solanas went into exile in Paris in 1976, only returning to Argentina with the arrival of democracy in 1983.
He continued to make political films and was an outspoken critic of Carlos Menem, the Argentine President. Three days after such a public criticism, on 21 May 1991, Solanas was the victim of a violent attack, which severely injured his legs. Despite dealing with the attack and disability, Solanas became even more involved in politics and stood to be a Senator for Buenos Aires, receiving 7% of the vote in 1992. A year later he was elected a National Deputy for the Frente Grande list, although he left the party after a year.
Solanas continues to write and direct, including the 2005 film La Dignidad de los Nadies and the 2008 film "La última estación". His son, Juan Solanas, is also a noted film director.
In October 2007, Solanas was a presidential candidate in the Argentine General Election.
In 2009, Solanas was elected as National Deputy for the city of Buenos Aires on the June 28th parliamentary elections, as his party Proyecto Sur became the 2nd force on the city by collecting 24.2% of the votes.