Selfie: Agostino Ferrente's iPhone-shot doc on Naples' Rione Traiano

Agostino Ferrente's documentary 'Selfie', entirely shot on iPhone, premiered at the 2019 Berlinale Panorama and opens in Italian theaters on May 30. The film follows two teenagers, Alessandro and Pietro, from Naples' Rione Traiano neighborhood, where their friend Davide was killed by a carabiniere's bullet in 2014. Ferrente gave the boys iPhones to film their daily lives, creating a long single-take selfie-style documentary without reverse shots, except for surveillance camera footage. Alessandro left school after a conflict with a teacher over memorizing Leopardi's 'L'Infinito' and now works in a bar; Pietro aspires to be a hairdresser but is unemployed. The film captures their friendship, the summer exodus from the neighborhood, and the tragedy that struck their friend, offering an authentic portrait of a community facing hardship without succumbing to crime.