scienceplusfiction was created in 2000, with the desire to receive the inheritance of the “International Science Fiction Film Festival of Trieste”, that took place from 1963 to 1982. The project of the research institute La Cappella Underground is to take Trieste back to the center of Italian science fiction, by organizing a festival that is meant to explore all the fields of science fiction, paying a particular attention to the cinema, but also sweeping over comics, literature and theater.

From past editions

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from the 6th till the 15th of December, 2000

Cinema

A broad retrospective, with films from the main Italian film libraries (National Film Library of Rome, Film Library of Bologna, Griffith Film Library, Arca Pleiadi Film Library). Classics of Italian science fiction, very successful at the box-office and acclaimed by the critics, from 1950s onwards, TV materials, rarities and previews have been presented on the side of speeches given by some of the most important contributors to the Italian film production in the fields of science fiction and the fantastic: Antonio Margherity (a.k.a. Anthony Dawson), Luigi Cozzi, Manetti Bros., Mariano Equizzi.

Exhibitions

In the space called Fantastikon, a selection of 150 plates with a science fiction theme, taken from the major comics series published by the prestigious publishing house Bonelli, Milano (Martin Mystère, Nathan Never, Legs Weaver, Jonathan Steele, Brendon). In the space of the exhibition there have been meetings with authors and painters such as Alfredo Castelli, Giuseppe Vigna, Franco Devescovi, Mario Alberti, Lorenzo Pastrovicchio. A section of the exhibition was dedicated to the iconographic materials of the early editions of the “International Science Fiction Film Festival of Trieste” (1963-1982).

Scientific convention

La Fantascienza tra antiche visioni e nuove tecnologie (tr.: Science fiction between ancient visions and new technologies), edited by Massimiliano Spanu, five days of meetings about the state of science fiction. Among the participants there were: Stefano della Casa, Antonio Costa, Fausto Colombo, Giuseppe O.Longo, Cosetta G.Saba, Alberto Pezzotta, Marcello W.Bruno, Vittorio Curtoni, Teo Mora, Italo Moscati, Maurizio Sperandini, Alberto Farassino, Roberto Nepoti, Roy Menarini, Franco La Polla, Mariano Equizzi, Giovanni Mongini e Fernaldo Di Giammatteo. The records of the convention were published in 2001 by the publishing house Lindau, Torino.

Music

At the end of the festival, concert of Mauro Teho Teardo, author of many soundtracks for Italian films.

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from the 21st till the 28th of September, 2001

Cinema

Moviegames, selection of films based on games and videogames in their contamination with cinema. Among the films featured: La decima vittima, Tron, Nirvana, eXistenZ, Labyrinth, Final Fantasy: the Spirit Within, Death Race 2000.

Thirteen Ghosts, retrospective, edited by Alberto Farassino and Olaf Moeller, dedicated to the famous horror film director William Castle: Shanks, Mr. Sardonicus, The House on the Haunted Hill, Strait-Jacket, Macabre, Project X, Zotz!, Homicidal, The Old Dark House, I saw What You Did, The Tingler, The Night Walker, A Collection of William Castle’s shorts.

TrashCappella, selection of suggestions and oddities of the Underground Film Library, the film lirbary of the research institute, that collects more than 260 science fiction films. Among them: Operation Ganymed, Zeta One, I Vampiri, The Uninvited, The Land Unknown.

Atollo K(ubrick), rich homage to the director of 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the screening of the documentaries Stanley and Us and Stanley Kubrick: a Life in Pictures.

Napalm, anthology of the film director and web-creator Mariano Equizzi.

Exhibitions

Tholema, exhibition of eighty original plates by Karel Thole, famous illustrator of the Urania series, published by Mondadori.

Pulp, overview of 30 years in science fiction, with the exhibition of 150 pulp magazines from the 1920s till the mid-1950s, a journey in the illustrations of the front covers that modelled the science fiction imagery, edited by Riccardo Valla.

Antiche e nuove mappe dall’Inferno (tr.: Ancient and new maps from Hell), exhibition dedicated to forty years of Italian fanzines, an immersion in science fiction underground, edited by Vitoorio Curtoni and Andrea Jarok.

Meetings

Spazio, meeting that deals with ‘space’, from the outer space to the space of narrative universe, a glance at the world with the most diverse methods, with an eye on cinema, edited by Massimiliano Spanu. Among the contributors: Cosetta Saba Gonzo, Marcello W. Bruno, Gianni Canova, Fernaldo Di Giammatteo, Franco La Polla, Roy Menarini, Teo Mora, Roberto Nepoti, Gianpaolo Proni, Giuseppe O.Longo, Mario Perniola, Mriano Equizzi, Fausto Colombo, Marcello Monaldi,Giuliana Muscio, Emiliano Farinella, Piergiorgio Odifreddi e Andrea Bellavita. The records of the meeting were published in 2002 by Lindau, Torino.

Panel

Antiche e nuove mappe dall’Inferno (tr.: Ancient and new maps from Hell), meeting on four decades of Italian fanzines, with speeches by Vittorio Curtoni, Ernesto Vegetti, Giuseppe Lippi, Silvio Sosio, Vittorio Catani, Riccardo Valla, Piegiorgio Nicolazzini, Mauro Gaffo, Gianfranco Battisti.

Atollo K(ubrick), encounter with Jan Harlan, collaborator of Kubrick, Christiane Kubrick, wife of the film director, Ian Watson, science fiction writer and author of the screenplay for Artificial Intelligence: AI (subsequently directed by Steven Spielberg in 2001).

Tholema, encounter with Elisabeth Thole, wife of the illustrator, Mario Vigiak, Mariano Equizzi, Giuseppe Lippi. Edited by Piergiorgio Nicolazzini.

Theater

Zona 17, a theater play produced by the festival and freely inspired by Stalker, by Andrej Tarkovskij. Conceived by Lorenzo Acquaviva, directed by Giovanni Boni.

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from the 5th till the 12th of December, 2002

Cinema

Le voyage dans la lune, one hundred years after the first public screening of the film by Georges Méliès, a homage to the first science fiction film, with the presence of the heirs of Méliès, in the setting of the historical Caffè San Marco of Trieste.

Fantaespaña, exploration in films of the territories of Spanish science fiction and fantastic cinema, with works from the main Spanish film libraries. The broadest selection in the world ever dedicated to this trend, edited by Carlos Aguilar. Among the films featured: 99.9 ; Abre los ojos; Acción mutante; Amando de Ossorio, el último templario; Arrebato Iván Zulueta ; Ataudes de luz ; Bilbao; Donde nacen y mueren los seños: Katuwira; El espinazo del diablo; Gritos en la noche; La noche de Walpurgis; La torre de los siete jorobados; Llamale Jess Martes de carnaval El bosque del lobo; Memorias del ángel caído; Necronomicon; Pànico en el transiberiano; Viaje al centro de la tierra; ¿Quién puede matar a un niño?.

Curtis Harrington, guest of the festival, the cult American film director presented the preview of his last work, Usher. A short retrospective was dedicated to the filmmaker, with the films Night Tide; Games; Fragment of Seeking; Picnic; On The Edge; The wormwood star.
The Prisoner, screening of the original and uncut version of the 17 episodes of the famous British TV series created, produced and starred in by Patrick Mc Goohan.

Panoptikon, an overview of science fiction and fantastic cinema, with film previews such as Avalon by Mamoru Oshii, Ichi the Killer by Takashi Miike, El Espinazo del Diablo by Guillermo del Toro, Demonlover by Olivier Assayes, and two productions of Brian Yuzna: Faust e Dagon.

Cadetti Spaziali (tr.: Space Cadets), section explicitly addressed to secondary school students, where they enjoyed the guided screening of: Artificial Intelligence: AI; Blade Runner; 2001: A Space Odyssey; Forbidden Planet.

Urania d’Argento Award

In collaboration with the publishing house Mondadori, the life achievement award was given to Pupi Avati, author of some of the most original productions of Italian fantastic cinema, such as La casa dalle finestre che ridono (a.k.a. The House with the Windows That Laugh), Zeder (a.k.a. Zeder: Voices from Darkness) and Balsamus (a.k.a. Blood Relations).

Scientific Convention

Corpi (elettronic e non) (tr.: Bodies (electronic and not electronic), edited by Massimiliano Spanu, collected the contributions of ten prestigious Italian and European academicians and scholars on the body and its mutations from cinema to cyberspace: beside Pierre Sorlin (University of Paris), Fernaldo Di Giammatteo, Sandro Bernardi (University of Florence) and Antonio Costa (IUAV) there also were, as participants to the works, Teo Mora, Maria Luisa Palumbo, Antonio Caronia, Enrico Livraghi, Marcello Walter Bruno e Pier Aldo Rovatti.

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from the 25th till the 30th of November, 2003

Cinema

Neon, selection of science fiction and fantastic previews for Italy. Among the films: Dead End, Robot Stories, Les Enfants de la Pluie, Resurrection of the Little Match Girl, Battle Royale, T.T. Sindrom.

Asteroids, permanent section that rediscovers the films presented in the historic science fiction festival of Trieste, of which forty years from the first edition fell. The films screened were: The Damned; La Jetée; Matango; Operation Ganymed; La Planète Sauvage; Senatorium pod Clepsydra; Silent Running; Solaris; Tales of Terror; L’ultimo uomo sulla Terra (a.k.a. The Last Man on Earth); The War Game.

Cose da un altro mondo (tr.: Things from another world), retrospective dedicated to the Hollywood classics, organized in collaboration with Lab80 Film, Federazione Italiana Cineforum, Bergamo Film Meeting. A rediscovery of classics such as Creature From The Black Lagoon, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Fly, Forbidden Planet, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, The Thing (From Another World).

Brit-Invaders! Reconnaissance in British fantastic cinema, between past and present time, edited by Lorenzo Codelli and Chiara Barbo, with meetings and testimonies of British film directors and producers. Two sections: one dedicated to the new cinema, with ten Italian previews (Autopilot, The Bunker, Darklands, Deathwatch, Doctor Sleep, Dog Soldiers, DV miniatures, Luminal, Octane, Otherworld, Revelation). The other section was an anthology of British genre films from the 1920s till the 1950s.

TV Sci-Fi section dedicated to science fiction films and TV series produced by BBC. Among the works featured: The Quatermass Experiment (1953), the episodes of Dr. Who, The Day of the Triffids (from the novel by John Windham), The Stone Tape and The Year of The Sex Olympics, written by Nigel Kneale, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (from the famous radio drama by Douglas Adams).

Meetings

Dave McKean, unmistakable graphic-designer and cover artist of Sandman, who presented in Trieste his video production and talked with the audience about his creations, showing a preview of some images from his first feature film, Mirror Mask, written by Neil Gaiman.

Britannica, due meetings, introduced by the critic Kim Newman and by the organizer of the London FrightFest Horror Film Festival Alan Jones, with the protagonists of new British fantastic cinema.

Isabella Santacroce, pulp writer who presented, together with the director Andrea Vecchiato, Luminal, the first film taken from the novel of the same title.

Valerio Evangelisti, in Trieste to present the new project Evangelisti R.A.C.H.E., medium length film directed by Mariano Equizzi and co-produced by La Cappella Underground.

Fantascena, in collaboration with the website www.fantascienza.com daily meetings about literature, comics, cyberspace, with the most important experts and the newcomers of Italian science fiction, like: Paolo Mereghetti, critic of the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera and author of the famous film dictionary that bears his name, Vittorio Curtoni, founder and director of Robot, Tino Franco for Space Off and Giovanni Mongini, historian of science fiction and collaborator of Studio Universal.

Urania d’Argento Award

The life achievement award was given to the Italian science fiction film director Dario Argento, for his horror and fantastic production. The film director edited for the festival a selection Carte Blanche, choosing ten titles among his favourite films.

Theater

Tanatos, a theatrical soliloquy freely inspired by Der Bau, the claustrophobic short story by Franz Kafka, directed by Giovanni Boni and starred in by Lorenzo Acquaviva, in collaboration with the Permanent Theater of Friuli Venezia Giulia.