[1][2][3] La Guarimba was created in 2012 by a group of friends who sought to reopen the only cinema in the small town of Amantea, located in southern Italy.
"[7] In 2012, the artistic director of La Guarimba, Giulio Vita, returned to his hometown, Amantea, together with the illustrator Sara Fratini.
In four months and with the help of Amantea's community, the Sicoli family as well as external collaborators, Giulio Vita and Sara Fratini cleaned and renovated the space, making it once again accessible and functional.
[10] Young people from Italy and the rest of the world joined the project and worked on the relaunch of the Arena Sicoli, finally reopened for the first edition of the festival in August 2013.
Therefore, the festival took place in the "La Grotta" natural park in Amantea, succeeding in maintaining the original spirit of the open-air cinema.
[13] The founders of the festival are Giulio Vita, Sara Fratini, Pablo Cristóbal and Alicia Victoria Palacios Thomas, two members of the Spanish film collective El tornillo de Klaus, bringing together independent artists and audiovisual critics.
There they met members of the El Tornillo de Klaus collective and worked together for the launch and the development of La Guarimba International Film Festival.
[15] The association's team is made up of young people aged between 20 and 30, from all over the world, who collaborate to organize the festival as well as various events during the rest of the year.
[19] Among the artists who made posters for the festival are Jean Jullien, Sawako Kabuki, Egle Zvirblyte, Juan Pablo Zaramella, Elisa Macellari, Antoine Lopez (founder of the Clermont-Ferrand festival), Hannah Jacobs, Cécile Dormeau, Thomas Wellmann, Amélie Fontaine, Laurina Paperina, Powerpaola, Joe Murray, David De Las Heras, Adolfo Serra, Alberto Montt, Liniers, Angela Dalinger, Joe Ciardiello, Rayma.
[25] The jury was made up of the independent director Tomas Sheridan, Vimeo curator Sam Morrill, as well as members of El Tornillo de Klaus.
The international jury was represented by the director Ruslan Magomadov (Russia), Claudette Godfrey from SXSW (United States), Kyrylo Marikutsa from the Kyiv Short Film Festival (Ukraine), Diane Malherbe from the Clermont-Ferrand Festival (France), as well as Javi Muñíz from Certamen Internacional de Cortos Ciudad de Soria (Spain).
152 works from 42 countries, divided into the categories Fiction, Animation, Documentary, Insomnia and La Grotta dei Piccoli - Children's film, are selected.
[33] Despite the health crisis situation caused by the COVID-19 epidemic which has forced the majority of festivals to be held online, La Guarimba makes it face-to-face, registering more than 3000 admissions in 6 days.
160 works coming from 54 countries of all the contents, and divided in the categories Fiction, Animation, Documentary, Insomnia, La Grotta dei Piccoli - Films for children are selected for the competition.
Due to the collapse of a rocky ridge in the historic center of Amantea, which made the Parco La Grotta[39] unusable, the festival had to change location.
The idea was to recover an abandoned parking lot, as part of a larger urban renewal project that led to the cleaning and clearing of the area, as well as the creation of two murals by street artists Sara Fratini and Cesáh.
Like every year, La grotta dei Piccoli also presented a selection of a hundred short films for children and young people.
Like every year, La Grotta dei Piccoli also presented a selection of a hundred short films for children and young people.
[45] In order to guarantee the continuity of the provision of a free service to the community aimed at promoting film culture in the territory, parliamentarians Lorenzo Fioramonti, Andrea Cecconi, Matteo Orfini, Nicola Fratoianni, Alessandro Fusacchia, Flavia Piccoli Nardelli and Paolo Lattanzio have asked the Ministry of Culture to monitor the action of complaint involving La Guarimba International Film Festival together with other Italian associations.
Additionally, they guaranteed psychological and social support and acting as a motor of cultural offer in an emergency period during which Italy has been particularly affected.
[44][46][47] In July 2020, shortly before the festival, La Guarimba denounced to the press a case of racism suffered by Abbas Mian Nadeem,[48] a young Pakistani immunosuppressed who ended up among the migrants expelled from Amantea by mistake because of a positive Covid test, and who also received threats from the 'Ndrangheta (Calabrian mafia).
[49] The association worked with the authorities to allow his return to Amantea, helping him to find legal assistance, in particular thanks to the involvement of Italian and European deputies which shed light on the case.
In 2014, the cultural association La Guarimba wins a public tender from the Apulia region which allows it to create The Monkey's School (Scuola Delle Scimmie).
[52] As part of the sixth edition of the Workshop on Social Enterprise, held in Riva del Garda in 2013, Giulio Vita is invited to speak about the impact that the reopening of the Arena Sicoli has had on the community of Amantea during the festival.