Award-winning US-based Italian auteur Roberto Minervini is the subject of DAFilms' retrospective entitled “Roberto Minervini: Gonna Dig a Hole to Put the Devil in”, which starts streaming on the platform on 10 May. The selection includes three films that capture the stories of often-overlooked people living on the fringes of society: the 2012 Venice prizewinner Low Tide [+lire aussi :
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In addition, DAFilms will live-stream an exclusive discussion between the director himself and Locarno's artistic director, Giona Nazzaro. The chat can be watched on DAFilms’ website, its social-media channels and Cineuropa's Facebook page on Wednesday 19 May, from 7pm onwards. For more information, please click here.

Minervini achieves a great sense of intimacy in his films, working with small crews, an absence of artificial lighting and a deep level of trust built with those people whose stories he collaborates on. In the talk, Minervini will discuss his own personal approach to filmmaking and every aspect of his exacting work in bringing the alien social worlds of the under-represented side of the United States to the screen.

From the moment he began making movies, Minervini was able to work creatively with the limits of non-fiction. His filmmaking style, a balance between fiction and documentary, came to full fruition with Low Tide and Stop the Pounding Heart. Following success at a number of documentary film festivals, Minervini garnered huge acclaim and sparked controversy with his next work, The Other Side, about a couple of drug addicts in Louisiana.

Minervini’s most recent film is the Venice winner What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire? [+lire aussi :
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“We’ve been following Roberto Minervini’s work for many years and have grown fascinated with the ease with which he portrays the overwhelming lives of his main characters. We are thrilled to finally be able to showcase his work to DAFilms viewers in such a comprehensive way as well as put together a discussion with this talented filmmaker, whose work we’ll certainly continue to hear about in the future,” says Diana Tabakov, executive director and curator at DAFilms.