Paniko
Documentary film, 37’, 2024. Directed and edited by Francesco Petrantoni. Original music by Paolo Schillaci. Distributed by OpenDDB.
A group of artists, musicians and free spirits comes back from a year of travelling across Asia on a converted bus and decides to start a circus. That is how Circo Paniko was born, the first independent contemporary circus in Italy: nomadic, with no bosses, far from institutions and associations. The film steps into their everyday life, between rehearsals, cooking, caravans and shows, and tells in black and white what it means to choose to live free.
The premiere
Under the chapiteau of Circo Paniko.
After its first premiere at Cinema Anteo in Milan, Paniko went back to where it all began: a second premiere under the chapiteau of Circo Paniko. The artists, their friends and the people of the circus watched the film together, in the same ring where the shows happen. There was no ticket: as the circus does for every performance, entry was by free and conscious offering. This reel tells that night.