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In a striking display of poor taste fashion sense, Italian filmmaker Luciano Silighini Garagnani paraded a Weinstein Is Innocent t-shirt on the Venice Film Festival red carpet Saturday night for the world premiere of Suspiria. Venice fest chief Alberto Barbara told Deadline this morning the stunt was “a stupid move.”
Garagnani is described as a provocateur and right-wing supporter who has made a series of low-budget movies. One prominent Italian distributor told Deadline this morning that they had never heard of him.
This is not what the festival needs in a year it is taking heat for the lack of women directors in competition and as it attempts to distance itself from commentary which has connected the dearth of female filmmakers to a wider Italian problem of sexism.
Weinstein is facing the possibility of life behind bars from sex crime indictments by a New York grand jury and numerous rape investigations in Los Angeles and the UK. Italian actress Asia Argento, currently in the midst of her own controversy, has also publicly accused Weinstein of rape. He has denied allegations of non-consensual sex. Suspiria is the remake of Dario Argentos 1977 film.
Twitter is beginning to react to last nights stunt:
[contf] [contfnew] 
Deadline
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