The adventure of man International Festival of the film and documentary of adventure and exploration Festival "The Adventure of Man": seven works awarded It has been concluded by awarding seven films the first edition of "The Adventure of Man", International Festival of the film and documentary of adventure and exploration. The event, promoted by the Literary Park "Formiche di Puglia" and organized with masterly skill at Castellana by Gruppo Puglia Grotte, consisted in four days - between 31 March and 1 April - of full time projections. The thirty-three works admitted to the competition - works of great scientific and cultural interest coming from many different countries, including China and India - have been attended by more than 1000 spectators; a multi-language simultaneous translation was available for the works in english and french language. The Italian works received three awards. The Jury, whose president was the director and producer Silvia Innocenzi, allotted: - the award for best ethnographic work to The roots of the stars by Piero D'Onofrio, a documentary filmed among the indios in the Lacandona forest of Chiapas, - the awards for the didactic section to The Alburni Mountains, one of the more interesting karst massifs of our country, directed by Enzo Franco, and to Portrait of Altinè in the dry season by Elisa Meneghetti and Marco Mensa, which describes the daily struggle for life against the drought of the Peul tribe in the Sahel of Senegal. These were the three awards allotted to italian works, much deserved indeed - as pointed out by the Artistic Director of the festival Tullio Bernabei during the award ceremony. Other four awards have been allotted to the best works among the 33 participants: Two awards have gone to french documentaries produced by Gedeon Programme, world leader in the sector of documentaristic production. The best speleological film has been The expedition Last Patagonia by Luc Henry Fage that, as can be read in the motivation by the Jury "opens a window on one of the last unexplored corner of our planet". The award for the archeology section, offered by the Association LA VENTA, has gone to L'enigme des Nascas by Thierry Ragobert, a documentary which suggests hypothesis of interpretation of the giant peruvian hyerogliphics. The best fiction award was The iceman of Oetz Valley and his world by the austrian director Kurt Mundl. Best documentary was Arctic desaster: crash of the airship Italia, the award being offered by the Municipality of Castellana-Grotte. The documentary, by canadian Jane Armstrong and co-produced by National Geographic Society, tells the human and scientific history of the explorer Umberto Nobile and his misfortunate expedition to the North Pole. Special mentions have been provided to other four works: La grande Traversée (France), Volcano (Great Britain), Akhà: when the wind was blowing (Italy) and A century of cinema and archeology (Italy). A positive outcome, therefore, for this first edition of the Castellana festival, much appreciated by the public, especially that of school age, for its original formula, and well accepted also by the authors. The only false note: an inexplicable silence of the local press has accompanied "The Adventure of Man". Was this due to political disputes higher than the politicians themselves? It is not known. And, more importantly, it does not matter: as a matter of fact, we are already working toward the next appointment, in March 2002, for the second edition of "The Adventure of Man". Hoping in a higher number of works, and in a greater participation by the people of Castellana as well.