Diaz: Don’t Clean Up This Blood

Writer-director Daniele Vicari in person!

Daniele Vicari’s searing rendition of the events surrounding the horrifying and still controversial police raid at the Diaz Pascoli School in Genoa during the 2001 G8 Summit was one of the most hotly debated films at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The summit was drawing to an end; although there had been numerous clashes between the police and the many protesters who had descended upon the city, things had been calm for hours. Around midnight, dozens of uniformed police officers arrived at Diaz, a temporary shelter for the many international protesters, as well as a site for various social forums. For the next two hours, the police moved down its hallways, indiscriminately attacking everyone they could find, sending dozens off to the hospital or a detention center.  Described as the greatest European human rights tragedy since World War II, the events at Diaz continue to fester in Italian politics—a terrible wound that still has not been healed.

This screening will be preceded by an Olympic clip from the Instituto Luce Archive:
Los Angeles – 08/1932
Italians win the absolute record of all European nations
(Giornale Luce B0131)