Giulia Zennaro
When I read the italian call for Artist@Work I was very enthusiastic. First line said: «Are you an artist and would you like to tell the social changes that are crossing Europe?”. Well, I am not sure about the “artist” (!), but I was struck by the idea to be involved in a project which would have given me the possibility to learn more about filmmaking while dealing with stories that fascinate me. Plus, I hoped to find people (and friends!) to share ideas, projects and interests with. I had the possibility to experience Libera, Associazione Nomi e Numeri Contro le Mafie and through her I knew Cinemovel, I thought It could have been stimulating to work with these two interesting realities.
What a theater workshop has to do with a shoes factory?
Currently I am involeved in two projects, one of them more feasible than the other. Both projects would treat the issues of immigration, hospitaliy and integration but in two complitely different ways: one through theatre, dance and music; the other with the work in a shoes factory.
1. Cantieri meticci is a space in Bologna where they plan theatre performances, music, exhibitions, video installations. Cantieri Meticci, has always meant culture as a glue to join citizens and refugees, intellectuals and artisans, international artists and people from the suburbs. Specifically, the project “Quartieri Teatrali” every year makes theater for hundreds of people of the most diverse origins. They try to promote integration through the theater. Now we are focusing in a theatre workshop which take place in Giardini Margherita. The teacher is Sanam, a very strong and eccentric iranian woman who speaks italian. They are preparing a revisitation of Richard III by Shakespeare, hoping to propose to the spectators a reflection about the role of the "Power" in human relations.
2. Calzaturificio it is located in Vigonza (Riviera del Brenta) an area famous for the production of shoes. 23 employees work in the shoe factory: 10 Italians (mainly women), 13 migrants. The goal of Solidalia, the cooperative that manages the shoe factory, is to offer to the refugees a job opportunity (apprenticeship and then contract). They promote integration by teaching a job through which they can live in autonomy. How do old workers cooperate with the new ones? How do they teach each other? What do refugees think about learning this kind of job?
First we tried to document the realities we intended to tell. Observing activities, explaining our projects and what we intend to do, listening to the people who either partecipate to the theatre workshop or work in the shoes factory, speaking with partecipants of the theatre workshop, beeing involved in a theatre lesson, understanding the process of making a shoe, having a smoking breaks outside with the guys who work in the shoes factory, beeing attentive spectators... All this, in order to find a good story which allow us to speak about these realities and the changes they are introducing in our society.
Next step is understand how we want to tell the story and what we would like to shot. For now we are focusing on Hamed, the guy who might play the role of Richard III, and Sanam, the woman who leads the workshop: both seem good players. We are trying to film some parts of the workshop, the ones we consider more relevant for the story. Personally, I consider this stage very stimulating because we constantely share ideas on what to shot and how to shot it. It's a good exercise in term of creativity.
Eventually we will start the montage. A very delicate phase to wich we will be hopefully ready enough!
Now we are focusing on Cantieri Meticci project but we haven't found a title yet because we need a little more time to define which story we are going to tell. One of the different ideas we thought is : "The new king" referring to the content of the performance and also to a song which will be play during the show. In this society full of lights and shadows, we might need a new king who leads us in a different way of seeing things.
The original title of the project "Calzaturificio" was "Shoes your life" because I liked the play on words. I wanted to sum up the main idea of the shoes factory which is not only about making new pairs of shoes but through this job refugees can try to build themselves a different life.
