After the hysteria of the co-premier of Lions for Lambs yesterday, and the manic excitement at having Robert Redford and Tom Cruise around, the festival has calmed down somewhat today. In fact, everyone just seems to want to play on the internet, which is why I have been standing around for half an hour waiting for a computer. After issuing a press release last night countering an apparent accusation that the festival did not have enough stars (in which they felt the need to list every, single, one) it seems that, for most of the press at least, it is stars that form the main interest at the festival. Obviously Rome will always feel the need to compete with its big brother, Venice, but it seems sad that to do this it must line up the celebrities and let the cameramen loose.

As far as I’m concerned, the most interesting aspects of the festival have been the parts that have nothing to do with celebrities. Take, for instance, the hoards of children that have been flooding the auditorium for much of the day as part of the Alice in the City screening of September and Die drei räuber (The Three Robbers). Although I won’t pretend to enjoy feeling like a twig in a storm holding on to a pillar for dear life as a swarm of hyperactive ten-year-olds sweeps me away, there is something gratifying about knowing that cinema really is alive and kicking here and that the festival is doing its best to encourage young people.

Since I last wrote two of the most interesting and socially conscious elements of the festival have also been screened: last night was the international premiere of Zero - Investigation 9/11 and today Il nostro Rwanda (Our Rwanda). After watching Zero and hearing the members of the panel speak I was very moved and interested to find out more, so I managed to get an interview with one of the directors, Franco Fracassi, and Robert Mc Ilvaine, founder of the WTC Victims Association.

The documentary, which as of yet does not have a distributor in the US though is set to be released in 40 other countries, was made by a group of Italians including the two directors Fracassi and Francesco Trento. It is a series of interviews with engineering experts, aviation experts, eye witnesses etc. looking at what happened on 9/11 and the inadequacies of the explanation offered by the US government. It is purely factual, implies maybe but does not propose any alternative theories, and highlights some of the more “grotesque” inaccuracies that they believe show the government’s “lack of respect for people’s understanding.”

In terms of questioning the events themselves, this is nothing new, and I’m sure will be dismissed by many as another conspiracy theory. However, it should be of interest to any indie filmmaker if only as a study of documentary making, from the issues of raising capital to editing footage, as well as posing some extremely interesting questions about the ability of film to represent reality and the audience’s ability to believe it - if we can’t write poetry after Auschwitz, how can we make films after 9/11? (And yes, I know this is misrepresenting Adorno but let it go for the sake of coherence).

Back to the festival, tonight sees the premier of Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn and featuring Emile Hirsch and William Hurt, as well as the final installment in the long awaited Italian horror series from Dario Argento, La terza madre (Mother of Tears) with Asia Argento, Cristian Solimeno and Adam James. Last but not least is the world premiere of Li Chun (And the Spring Comes) by Gu Changwei and featuring Jiang Wenli and Wu Guohua.

Oscar-winning director Ang Lee will also be at the festival tonight to introduce the world premiere of the restored version of Once Upon a Time in the West. The project was announced by Scortese at the festival last year and provided the impetus for the spaghetti Western retrospective that has taken place this year, including the showing of Clint Eastwood, le franc tireur last night and this evening.