Videocracy

The documentary is about what Italian television has done to the country. At the centre of it is Silvio Berlusconi: prime minister, owner of Mediaset, and answerable for the state broadcaster RAI as well. The film does not interview Berlusconi; it looks at the people around him. The agent Lele Mora and the paparazzo Fabrizio Corona both talk at length. And there are the ordinary people queuing for a place on television, all of them wanting to be recognised. Erik Gandini directs. The film takes a side and does not hide it; its case is that television has changed what a country expects. It caused an argument in Italy, where both Mediaset and RAI refused to air its trailer.