Deadlinecaught up with Wissman earlier this week as he was putting the final touches to the festival.
Can you explain how the structure works?
WISSMAN:The foundation does two things, the film festival and the arts festival afterwards throughout the summer.
Barrett Wissmansubject’s own
My job is the film festival while Beatrice Venezi is focused on the arts festival.
But the film festival is really me, Im doing 90% of it.
DEADLINE:Its quite rare for a non-Italian to be given the reins of an Italian cultural event?
Do you feel comfortable in the role?
BARRETT WISSMAN:Ive lived and done festivals before in Italy.
Im used to working in Italy and I speak Italian.
I started the Tuscan Sun Festival in Cortona.
It sort of took over from Spoleto and was there for almost 15 years.
We had virtually every major classical jazz artist.
We did a lot of things with actors.
Jeremy Irons, Anthony Hopkins and Robert Redford came.
We did a lot of cross-genre punch in programming.
Sting used to do a lot at the festival.
I ran it for many years.
It was my project.
I started it from ground zero.
It was a wonderful thing in a certain place and time and a good experience.
DEADLINE:What drew you to the role of Artistic Director at Taormina?
WISSMAN:The history of the place.
By place, I mean the festival.
In many ways, it was more important than Venice for a long time and less commercial.
I became fascinated because its very rare to find a festival with all the attributes that this place has.
This is starting from ground zero programmatically, but not organizationally.
DEADLINE:How was it pulling together a line-up In just two-and-a-half months?
DEADLINE:Nonetheless, pulling in the Italian premiere ofIndiana Jones and the Dial of Destinyis a coup.
The Disney CEO in Italy Daniel Frigo told me they used to launch a lot of projects at Taormina.
OnIndiana Jones, some of the movie was shot here and then theres the Teatro Antico.
I think it will serve a purpose in the commercial promotion of the film.
Its a combination of those factors.
Do you plan to reinstate this?
WISSMAN:I think its placement in the summer is interesting.
I dont necessarily want it to be known as a summer blockbuster launchpad.
DEADLINE:Who goes to the Taormina Film Festival?
Whats the audience demographic?
WISSMAN:Its changed a lot in the past five to 10 years.
Sicily has become the Provence and the Tuscany of today.
All these people are buying houses here, from Madonna to Mick Jagger.
Then you hadThe White Lotus.
The place has also become really popular with artists.
I was speaking with Julian Schnabel, the painter, his daughter lives around here.
The photographer Mario Testino moved here.
Its become a place to go to and restore houses and all that sort of thing.
Its not one particular nationality.
Theres a lot of English.
Americans, Germans… people from everywhere.
Its brimming with activity.
But Taormina is not a destination event where you have 1000s of people coming just for the film festival.
That needs to be developed.
DEADLiNE:You devoted an evening Teatro Antico slot to the short film-focused programInfluential Shorts curated by Bella Thorne.
Thats quite an audacious move.
What was the thinking behind that?
We need to develop new audiences for the arts in the quickly moving world of digital and social media.
Its hard to get young people to sit and watch something for more than two minutes.
And so, if this can help to do that a little bit thats great.
Kristen Stewart, for example, doesnt even have an Instagram account.
DEADLINE:Youre opening the festival with thePavarotti Foreverbenefit event for the Luciano Pavarotti Foundation.
Is that going to be a permanent fixture in the festival calendar?
WISSMAN:Its a one off.
I just thought it was an interesting event to do and Placido wanted to do it.
We have Vittorio Grigolo coming to sing too.
Its something thats really impressive to do and very difficult to do.
How did they come about?
WISSMAN:Abel is a friend of mine and we had been talking about doing something.
He wanted to do that so were showing those seven films that hes done with Willem.
On John, I love Johns films, its sort of my generation.
Hes a very engaging person with a strong personality.
Everybody knows the films in America, but not much about him.
I think itss a good mix between retrospectives, current films and cutting-edge films.
WISSMAN:Im an arts person.
Im not a film person.
You could argue Im a music person.
Im an arts programmer, not just a film programmer.
I usually end up with eclectic mix, not by design but because thats the way my mind works.
Another key factor is that Im also very artist focused.
Ive known Bella for many years, since she was a teenager, and done some projects with her.
When I told her about this, we sort of strategized on what to do.
Its the same with Abel and Willem.
Ive also done a lot of things with Anthony Hopkins in the past.
I had lunch yesterday with the Italian actress Valeria Golino.
DEADLINE:So you expect the role to continue into next year?
WISSMAN:There is a contract that Ill be there.
That is the intent.
