Ferdinando Scianna documentary premieres out of competition at Venice 81

Roberto Andò's documentary 'Ferdinando Scianna. Il fotografo dell’ombra' premiered out of competition at the 81st Venice International Film Festival and will be released in Italian cinemas by Fandango from October 6 to 8. The film follows the renowned 20th-century photographer Ferdinando Scianna through Palermo, Bagheria, and Milan, interweaving past and present. Scianna, now in his eighties, reflects on his encounters with cultural giants such as Leonardo Sciascia and Henri Cartier-Bresson, and his philosophy of photography as an autonomous language rather than mere art. The documentary, shot in black and white to mirror Scianna's own aesthetic, captures his return to childhood haunts and his reunion with old friends he once photographed. Andò, a longtime friend, describes the film as a gift born from a desire to share their friendship with audiences. Scianna expresses gratitude for the transformation of their extended dialogue into a poetic object, free of rhetoric. The film eschews nostalgia, instead presenting a living portrait of a man who sees photography as a probe into reality, tasked with seeking possible truths in an image-saturated world. Cecilia Mangini's quote about the inherent falseness of being in front of a camera is invoked, yet Scianna's presence in the film seems to dissolve that notion, offering a simple truth made of complicity and shared time.