Articles by: Benedetta Grasso

Two beams of blue light visible throughout Lower Manhattan and even from Brooklyn or Jersey City.

We are in 2010 and by now we all should all be familiar with “A Tribute in Light,” an artistic installation first conceived in 2002, a year after the infamous attack. We should all be familiar with it, since the lives of all of us drastically changed in big or small ways after that day. I was just starting high school, a moment that represented a turning point for me, I was stepping into a new stage of live, I was beginning to have a sort of  a political consciousness, and those terrorist attacks became my closest personal experience to the war or the idea of it. They became an historical event particularly felt by people of my generation, a generation of which values and interests would have been shaped by them.
Nine years have gone by, presidents have changed, just as the culture of this country and its image and popularity. Books, movies, witnesses and popular culture have all analyzed in one way or the other those traumatic events and their consequences.

It’s impossible not to say what has already been said. For the victims and their relatives it was a huge tragedy. For America it was a heart-stopping shock and a moment to stop and think; citizens and families bounded together but the society was broken into pieces as opinions became more radical and extremist.  At the same time, however, a wide array of debates contributed  to the growth of a more sophisticated political debate and the birth of a of a nationally conscious public opinion.

For most of the other countries that was a cathartic moment, a media event that involved you emotionally and have you sympathize with the victims although you had no real connection with them. Today we use expressions or theorize on concepts that exist only because of 9/11

And then there are the beams of light...

A few nights ago they were tested for a few hours, but  they will be officially lit only on September 11 at sunset. On that moment I wondered for a few minutes what those glimpses of blue light breaking through my window glasses were and why I could see blue shadows on the white walls of my apartment.
I realized that sometimes we need physical objects or actual rituals to re-think about  events we quickly put behind us. Looking at the blue shadows, I remembered a family friend who told me how on the day of the attack  the dust invaded his apartment in the World Trade Center area covering every piece of furniture in the house, like if it had snowed inside. Thinking about his recounts I asked myself: what if this light coming in was dust instead?  What if it was the smell of corpses? What if the blue light was coming from the siren of a Police car?

Walking around my neighborhood, located a few blocks away from Ground Zero, I noticed  that everything and nothing is being done in view of the upcoming anniversary from 9/11.  

If a few years ago I walked near Wall Street and saw more men in uniform than men in business suit, I would have probably got scared.  Metal barriers everywhere, streets closed, police cars and white NYPD traffic bars at every corner... I still see all of this today, but now I know that everything is under control: a stage is being set for the Official World Trade Center Site Memorial Ceremony and Remembrance 2010 , which will take place on Saturday at 8:45 am at the presence of  survivors, victims’ families, the Mayor and thousands of people.

As I walk on  Greenwich Street and head towards the 9/11 Museum I see a golden plaque featuring the names of the victims. A  few tourists are taking pictures or homaging them with fresh flowers. The names are all there, they are Jewish, Arab, Hispanic, Italian... Italian American. Among the others, I find those of Vincent A. Princiotta, Michael P. Ragusa or Leonard J. Ragaglia. Their names are half Italian and half American, and show to my eyes how real the  myth of the American melting pot is.

As a keep walking around, I stop before the nearby fire-fighter station. A group of kinder-garden kids is following a fire-fighter inside the building. He is telling them about his job and what it means to him. I look at the children and I notice how deeply they are fascinated by his stories, they follow him just as if they were participating to a game, a treasure hunt maybe.  My thoughts go to their piers who in 2001 had to run away from their classrooms after the planes crushed into the towers.

My mind goes back to Milan, to the professors who, right after the attack, escorted my classmates and I out of school as we were told to go back home, watch the news, stay with our parents, and call whoever we knew in the US.

Today the Financial District area is busier than ever. Chinese restaurants, sushi and pizza places at every corner... The neighborhood has become lively and much more exciting than before in the past few years.
Thanks to its wonderful location by the Hudson and the consistent renovations and investments on real estate that have been made in the last few years, the area is attracting more and more young people, including “yuppies” about to start a family and college students. With its greatly improved services, the Financial District is still a classy area but is also fillew with a new, growing energy.  

Obviously Ground 0 is not empty anymore....  The high rhythms of NY life can’t keep you from noticing tha the landscape changing every second. You see a work-in-progress sign one day and a building the other, or a new park near the West Highway with basketball and soccer fields or beautiful gardens. Cranes are constantly working and every day shop-owners enjoy a new sight from their window. The “joke” going around the neighborhood is: it’s not ground 0 anymore but ground 2 or 4 or 5 depending on how much of the new World Trade Center has been built already….

People on the street are talking about Terry Jones, the pastor from Florida who is intending to  burn the Koran on 9/11 causing a fierce debate worldwide and forcing Obama to intervene. Many are those who gather every day on Broadway to protest against the new Mosque, announcing a great demonstration to be held this September 11.
Public opinion is split into two currents of thought. On one side there are those who fight in favor of the freedom of speech, and of the democratic value of reciprocal acceptance. Among them, major Bloomberg recently underlined the high symbolic importance of allowing the building of an Islamic cultural center in the area.
Those who protest against it, on the other side, fear that the new Islamic center will welcome and support practices that are in contrast with Western values and find it shameful to support the building of a monument related to a religion in the name of which terrorists have caused so much pain to the American people.

Personally speaking, I find that everybody should just forget everything about monuments, towers or mosques and look up to those beams of light.
On that day my generation has learned what a cultural shock is, what a tragedy can mean.  We became more cynical, more critical but even more fascinated by other cultures and international politics as well. I can’t speak for everyone but we are not a generation who likes monuments. We like things like the web, that are less tangible but that have the power to reach everyone in the world.These beams of light are something like that.
They also remind me of stars, of constellations that can be seen from everywhere in the planet, no matter where you are. They represent our history and make of the universe an open air museum, an explosion of memories glimpsing right above us.

 A sleek glass table, long and surrounded by elegant and classy stools. A dashing and yet cozy wine bar (Clo's Wine Bar) on the 4th floor of the famous Time Warner building at the center of Columbus Circle in New York. On the table a few simple items, placed in front of every seat: five glasses of wine with their names and origin aptly written on the table mat; a small white plate with samplings of different cheeses alternated to various kinds and cuts of speck. 

All around, in dimly lit modern-looking glass cells, bottles of a huge variety of wines are stored, with silvery spouts under which a glass can be placed to enjoy the results of these fine vintages.
 

While tasting a small piece of cheese, a sweet and spicy bite of a product made in far away mountains, one can see the contrast between a setting of almost perfect beauty and the rough, simple pleasures of life: this contrast is also perfectly captured by the Alto Adige area in the North-East of Italy.

In Trentino-Alto Adige the nature around you is spectacular: the Dolomites with their white crests of snow and the shade of rose that tinges them every dusk, the perfect mountain-like architecture of the wooden chalets, houses and hotels with decorated windows, roofs white in the winter and shiny and silvery in the summer. These mountains and the area around them has been preserved incredibly well: ther are still plenty of animals and trees species that are unique to this location and the paths and walks around the hills and mountains seem like a painted landscape. The rivers and falls seem to be placed perfectly where they have to be.  In the summer the green pastures and the colorful flowers cover up all the white and brown of the winter and surround the stones and the shiny rocks.

Alto Adige, which welcomes thousands of tourists every year, still maintains though a very basic life-style. Although launched into modernity, most people living there are still following the way of life of their ancestors, the agricultural and farming traditions of centuries ago. They are still in touch with the land, the original products, the natural way of making something but their specialties and brands have reached out around the world and sometimes can be seen in gourmet menus or in stores on the other side of the globe.

One of these stores is Di Palo Fine Foods, in the heart of Little Italy, New York, where constant efforts to bring the best and authentic Made in Italy products has turned this store in an affordable and unique food shopping experience.
Forth generation of an Italian-American family, Lou Di Palo has traveled many times to Italy, getting to know the territory, its big companies or small farms, meeting people and trying new tasting experience, exploring the land. He can very eloquently tell you a story about one of these trips but, more important, he can tell you a story behind every product he sells: he makes it a priority to explain not only the origin, but the history, sometimes the legends or personal stories behind a piece of cheese.

He perfectly contextualizes every product for his American clients, as his very personal "Italian American point of view" perfectly combines with a strong knowledge of modern Italian culture, terms and traditional and modern way of life.

Thus, celebrating Trentino-Alto Adige through an event sponsored by the Italian Trade Commission, EOS (Export Organization Südtirol) and the Italian Ministry of Economic Development was a much more complete and enjoyable experience with Lou DiPalo hosting the event. 

The guests, in fact, were invited to sit back and guided through each single bite, slowly and carefully. As an example, Lou gave precise instructions on how to taste the Asiago cheese and the wines to which it can be and was paired. The small cuts of speck brought other stories to his mind, and he described for us the physical feeling of flavors and images that came with those memories. Eating together should always be about sharing past experiences, ideas and laugh.
Hearing about the beauty of seeing a cow giving birth or the legends behind the famous rosy color of the Dolomites, can actually stimulate the five senses all at once. 

Trentino-Alto Adige is a border region. The "Alto Adige" part on which this event focused is also called South Tyrol and confines with Austria to the north and Switwerland to the north-west.

The languages spoken are both Italian and German but also a local dialect, which comes from a mix of both, and the ancient idiom called ladino that is spoken only in few communities.

A well-known vacation spot for Italians (and not only) during the winter, it offers one of the best skiing experience in the world, with hundreds of ski resorts, slopes and endless opportunities for snow sports. On a snowy day, most of its cities, sometimes built in the Middle Ages or even centuries before, look like a fairytale landscape. 

When the snow goes away, the sun beats down on the rivers, the small lakes and the grass as families and tourists hike or enjoy the pure mountain air. 

Being an area always contended between Italians, Austrians and Germans its identity is still nowadays very complex to define. The new generation feels Italian but the previous one might still try to identify itself in an autonomous community, somehow independent both from Austria and Italy. However, as Lou Di Palo beautifully said, you can get the best of both worlds by combining their best ingredients. It happens just this with speck that is a variation on the sweet and tender Italian prosciutto, but has elements of the smoked and more tough Northern European ham.

Food is central in this area and after a long day of skiing or walking there's nothing you will crave more than some cheese with spicy honey, speck on rye bread and a glass of red wine...

 Soccer, soccer, soccer. Since the World Cup started, it’s all we can talk about. Who will win? Which country do you support? How patriotic are you?

Europeans don’t need something as extraordinary as the World Cup to talk about soccer, but it’s strange to hear the major US networks, newspapers, the most famous comedians and talk shows dedicate more and more time to soccer.

This is obviously a media-centric event, much like the Olympics, but it’s also true that the trend is changing. Soccer, the most unpopular game in the US for years, has now gained a form of respect, an attention that encourages Americans to know more about it, whether by looking up to certain players or by practicing and playing it from a young age.  
 

Still though, baseball remains the national sport and as many Americans like to point out, this pedestal is about something bigger than the game itself.

The first day the World Cup started I turned my TV on ESPN and there it was: two hours of college baseball. In Italy, meanwhile, every single channel had something on the upcoming soccer matches. 

And that brings us to the eternal debate. Why is soccer not popular in the US? Why is sport perceived so differently in the two countries?

Year after year, we hear the same things said over and over, the same inevitable comments on both sides. Raise your hand if you have never heard an Italian (or a European) say: “Baseball is the most boring game in the world. Nothing happens. There are too many rules, too many pauses”. Or an American say: “Soccer is pure anarchy. Soccer is a simplistic game, it’s something for kids and little girls”.

It’s fascinating because the way a country approaches sports reflects other aspects of the culture and shows what the prioritized values in society are.  

It can become a political thing or a matter of ethics.

In fact, a few decades ago - and still today in the most conservative circles - soccer was considered deeply “un-American”, a game that stands for “enemies”, “third world” countries, like the South American neighbors, and which displays typical “un-American” characteristics.  

The comedian Stephen Colbert recently joked about this in a monologue comparing baseball to soccer. In baseball you have the complexity of rules and various phases- seen in a positive and negative light. There are “time ins and time outs”, a sense of pace, safety and the reassurance that you are guided through the game. There is a deep need for the ritual, songs like “take me out to the Ball game”, movements and specific moments (“kiss-cam” or cues given by music) in which the audience is supposed to react a certain way.

Soccer stadiums have their rituals too, their slogans, their songs, but they are more spontaneous and less universal. They are not always the same.  

What’s even more intriguing is that these kind of comparisons are often made not only in the field of sport. Take a graduation ceremony in the United States: it’s exactly the same feel, a beautiful ritual which comes at the end of a more guided and supervised academic career compared to the more spontaneous and independent academic career that you can pursue in Europe. At the end of college in Europe there are wild parties and celebrations but not a universalized ritual. Both are equally fun and meaningful: they simply reflect a mentality that goes beyond the sports field. 

Then again, soccer is grassroots passion, technique and strategy. Its supporters argue that it’s “the real sport,” a sport where you sweat, you run, you are one with your team. A sport that, yes, little kids and girls can play easily, but that through the great champions shows what genius, grace and practice can mean… 

Another big difference is the audience participation. Most Europeans are shocked when they walk into a baseball stadium and very few people are actually watching the game: there’s eating, there’s drinking, chatting, looking around for friends, roaming into the hallways of the stadium with a hotdog in your hand.

Most important, in some moments there is a strange silence, or a low background buzz. And then in the old continent, you have a heated game, fans who barely eat or drink because they can’t take their eyes off the field. They constantly, non-stop, show their support to their team. Not just one yell or one song, but 90 minutes of uninterrupted chants, cheering and shouting. 

There is the national anthem, something that in Italy you only hear during the World Cup, while in the United States is used to open each game. Americans (most of the times, at least) really mean it when they are singing with a hand on their heart and hats off, while for Italians the anthem is sort of a joke. It’s true Italians are less patriotic. But in a way, it’s crucial to remember how they have been much more deeply united by a sport than Americans. In the past decades it was soccer and the World Cups Italy won (as in 1982) that unified a country, bringing it together more than any political law. Everyone feels Italian when Italy plays, the rich, the poor, the little kid and the old man. It’s the people’s game, not just the national sport. 

There are some who argue that with baseball, and even more with US football, the violence is symbolized through the game or it’s contained within it - like in a gladiators’ match - but doesn’t spread through the fans and hooligans, who cathartically experience it but don’t practice it. This is sort of a pretentious statement, although it’s undeniable how much more violent sports’ fans are in Europe, when soccer in itself it’s not a violent sport and compared to football has less physical contact.   

Sports are linked with politics, economics, the way you are brought up. The slogans in the soccer stadiums in Italy reflect the latest news, the political parties linked to the team, the financial investments involved… racial or religious prejudices find their way into the chants. In the US there’s a detachment from politics, which could mean a “cleaner,” more neutral stadium. But it also reflects a general disinterest and apathy.  

Italy puts a huge emphasis on soccer: little kids could tell you every single player, minor little details, an infinite number of data and facts on a team or on a tournament better that they will ever know History or Geography. An American kid does the same with baseball or basketball or football, although having more options in terms of sports and a huge country to grasp, there’s probably less that he will know.

The Italian paradox, though, is that in school, at least, there’s barely any sport or any possibility of practice. P.E. is a couple of hours a week, its’ almost a long ”recess” where nothing is really taught. In Italy kids don’t get scholarships for sports and they are never trained for it in school. P.E. is regarded as a minor subject - most high-schools barely consider it for the final GPA. You can still play soccer but in small tournaments or leagues outside of school.

On the other hand, with the dedication that American schools put into sports, and into treating athletes like students, giving baseball the same importance of Math, even if soccer might never be the most popular sport in the US, you might find a kid who has played it a billion more hours than a European one…and isn’t that ironic? 

Finally, there is one big issue that always comes up when this debate arises. How can there be a sport where at the end of a match no one wins? Well, the question posed often by Americans regarding soccer games ending in a tie, sometimes shows a little ignorance, because a soccer match even when it ends 0-0, still gets a determinate amount of points to the team that could benefit it or not. But the problem is not really that: it’s in the satisfaction of seeing someone winning or losing, it‘s in setting things straight.

America is about big numbers, matches that end with double digits: there’s nothing more American than vastness, largeness, greatness and “setting things straight”. 

Sports become once again political, social. One could even go as far as saying that, on the one hand, soccer is very direct, populist, and allows for equal opportunities. On the other hand, baseball is the epitome of representative democracy, in which you pass things, base after base.

As far as winners and losers are concerned, it’s funny how, at every US presidential election, Italian newspapers or Italians in general are always incredibly shocked at how quickly the candidate who loses disappears from the political scene. Of course, McCain and Kerry are still active in politics, but once the match is won, one winner remains, while in Italy, politics drag in that grey area of those who can still block things from getting done, regardless of their title.  Can sports be a lesson for politics?

Obviously these are all big generalizations, but they prove once again that sports are not simply sports and that the next time you criticize or comment on a baseball or a soccer game, you might look at how many interesting implications there are in choosing between hitting a ball with a bat or kicking it with your foot.

Le Isole Eolie, piccoli paradisi un pò isolati dal resto della Sicilia e dell'Italia, così diverse l'una dall'altra e così' uniche nell'aver mantenuto vive antiche tradizioni e uno stile di vita spartano e affascinante, sono, nel nostro immaginario, da sempre connesse al cinema. Nanni Moretti,per esempio,  in Caro Diario, ce le ha presentate con diverse "personalità", ogni isola rappresentante di qualche stile di vita o di pensiero diverso e lui è uno dei tanti registi che hanno fatto omaggio a queste misteriose isole.

Non è un caso quindi che nell'isola di Salina da ormai quattro anni ci sia un festival che cattura lo spirito originario del cinema italiano, un festival di documentari che porta alla luce le diverse realtà dell'area del Mediterraneo, che ci fa ascoltare racconti di emigrati e emigranti, che omaggia il grande cinema italiano e cattura nei suoi fotogrammi spezzoni di vita vissuta. Questo è il Salinadocfest che si svolgerà questo Settembre (12-19/9/2010).

Anche se non avete la possibilità di visitare Salina a Settembre, quando i turisti hanno riposto gli ombrelloni e abbandonano le spiagge e se vi trovate a New York allora non potete perdervi la presentazione di questo festival al Calandra Institute, incontrando la regista e direttrice del festival Giovanna Taviani - che mostrerà' anche il suo primo documentario - e scoprendo chi collabora con il festival (I-Italy e ANFE-Associazione Nazionale Famiglie Emigranti) e quali progetti ci sono nel futuro ore collegare gli Stati Uniti e la Sicilia. Alla fine magari dopo questo incontro, prendere un biglietto per Salina, sembrerà' l'idea migliore per concludere l'estate... 

I-Italy ha incontrato Giovanna Taviani, una giovane regista piena di talento cresciuta circondata dai grandi maestri del cinema italiano e assorbendo l'ambiente e la storia cinematografica italiana mentre muoveva i suoi primi passi. Suo padre e suo zio sono i famosi Fratelli Taviani che con il loro stile realistico e letterario hanno lasciato un segno inequivocabile nella Storia del nostro paese.

Giovanna collabora con importanti riviste, è una studiosa, una saggista e una critica di cinema, ma la sua grande passione dove mostra tutto il suo talento sono i documentari. Giovanna ha fondato il Salinadocfest con una precisa filosofia di pensiero e un progetto concreto in mente, idee che ha condiviso con noi in questa intervista. 

Come e quando è nata l’idea per il SalinaDocFest?

L’idea è nata quasi per caso, in una estate di quattro anni fa, a Salina. Da anni gli albergatori dell’isola si lamentavano per una scarsa affluenza del turismo durante le stagioni più belle, come Settembre, il mese delle vendemmie. Così, una sera, un amico di vecchia data, Alberto Oliviero, presidente dell’Associazione SalinaIsolaVerde, mi chiese: - Giovanna, perché non ti inventi qualcosa per promuovere un turismo culturale destagionalizzato qui nelle isole? – Per quel che mi riguarda, da anni sognavo di portare il mestiere che amo nell’isola che amo. In più sapevo che le Eolie, oltre ad essere nel patrimonio dell’Unesco tra le isole più belle del mondo, erano state set di grandi film del passato, da Stromboli terra di Dio con Ingrid Bergman a Vulcano con Anna Magnani; dall’Avventura di Antonioni a Kaos dei fratelli Taviani, dove io stessa feci una parte quando ero bambina; fino al Postino di Troisi e a Caro diariodi Nanni Moretti. Per non dimenticare i grandi documentari di Vittorio De Seta, che a Stromboli girò uno dei suoi più bei film, Isole di fuoco, e i documentari subacquei del gruppo di Moncada, Maraini, D’Avanzo e Alliata, che proprio a Salina fondarono la mitica sede della “Panaria Film”. Allora mi son detta: facciamo un festival di documentari a Salina, un’idea un po’ folle, vista la difficoltà dei collegamenti con l’isola, quasi una scommessa. E cosi nel settembre 2007 è nata la prima edizione del Salinadocfest.  

Il Mediterraneo è sempre stato un melting pot di popoli che ha dato vita a grandi incontri di civiltà e che ha portato a grandi collaborazioni culturali e artistiche. E’ ancora oggi cosi’?

Il Mediterraneo, come tu dici, è stato sin dai tempi dell’antichità crocevia di scambi e incontri, andate e ritorni. Uno scrittore da noi molto noto, Vincenzo Consolo, premiato dal nostro Comitato di Onore nella edizione del 2008, pone questo movimento ininterrotto attraverso il Mediterraneo come il fulcro stesso della civiltà, quando afferma: “Siamo ciechi a voler scansare o eludere quell’incontro o incrocio di etnie, di lingue, di religioni, di memorie, di culture; incrocio che è stato da sempre il segno del cammino della civilità”. Oggi che quel mare si è trasformato in barriera di separazione, muro del pianto e del lutto, tradito nella sua vera essenza dalla politica italiana dei respingimenti, il concetto di civiltà e di identità rischiano di venire intaccati. Perché senza una cultura della differenza, non si può avere percezione di una identità; che è come dire: chi teme la conoscenza dell’altro, teme la conoscenza di se stesso. Al Mediterraneo e ai popoli che lo abitano è dedicato il “Salinadocfest. Immagini culture e realtà del Mediterraneo”.

L’isola di Salina e l’isola di Manhattan cos’hanno in comune?

Sono entrambe isole di lacrime e di speranze. Nel secolo scorso le isole Eolie conobbero il dolore dell’emigrazione e l’ansia della scoperta del nuovo mondo. Tra la fine dell’ottocento e l’inizio del Novecento quasi 6000 persone scapparono da Salina, che ne contava appena 7000, per fuggire alla crisi dei vigneti causata da un insetto velenoso. L’isola si spopolò e rimase per molto tempo vuota. Una delle rotte privilegiate dai salinari fu proprio Ellis Island, a Manhattan, come racconta in Nuovo Mondo il regista Emanuele Crialese, che si andò a documentare proprio a Salina, nel bellissimo museo dell’emigrazione di Malfa. In America i nostri emigrati si organizzarono con intelligenza, creando società di mutuo soccorso per i connazionali che arrivavano senza soldi e senza conoscenza della lingua. Ma dovettero faticare per farsi accettare dal nuovo mondo, che li guardava con sospetto e diffidenza, proprio come oggi “noi” italiani guardiamo ai nuovi immigrati provenienti dai paesi del terzo mondo.
Al ponte Sicilia-America il Salinadocfest dedica le prossime edizioni, in collaborazione con l’Anfe, Associazione Nazionale Famiglie Emigrate, nel ricordo del tempo in cui gli emigranti eravamo noi, costretti, ieri come oggi, ad emigrare lontano per cercare fortuna altrove.
 

All’interno del vasto genere del documentario, come definiresti i tuoi lavori?

Credo che oggi il documentario, rispetto al film di finizione, abbia il privilegio di restituirci la realtà  raccontando delle storie. Per questo abbiamo scelto come sottotitolo del Salinadocfest “Festival del documentario narrativo”. Io stessa come regista tendo sempre a partire dalla realtà - un’inchiesta, un articolo di giornale, un esperienza diretta vissuta sul campo - per reinventarla attraverso un punto di vista personale, la costruzione di un intreccio narrativo, la messa in scena di personaggi: vale a dire attraverso il linguaggio del cinema. Credo cioè che il documentario sia prima di tutto un film, con una propria sceneggiatura, una regia, un montaggio, una fotografia, con la differenza che non ricorre ad attori professionisti ma a persone reali incrociate lungo il corso della vita. In Italia è nata una ottima generazione di registi documentaristi che tornano al documentario della più alta tradizione (da Flaherty a De Seta) per reinventarlo in maniera soggettiva, personale, creativa.  

Sono molti gli emigrati dalla Sicilia in America. Pensi che questo festival può avere un significato particolare per queste persone?

Credo di sì e abbiamo avuto modo di sondarne l’interesse durante la scorsa edizione, nell’ambito della sezione “Superotto in famiglia”, organizzata dall’Anfe, dedicata alla memoria documentata dei nostri emigrati in America. All’interno di una Chiesa in una bellissima baia dell’isola, abbiamo proiettato dei superotto provenienti da siciliani che vivono in America da più generazioni e che avevano documentato la loro esperienza nel corso della loro vita. Al piano, di fronte allo schermo, un musicista siciliano commentava le immagini come negli antichi filmini muti. La gente dell’isola, che per ciascuna famiglia conta almeno uno o più emigrati, partecipava in silenzio commosso. A questi spettatori ci rivolgiamo con il nostro Festival, con la speranza, e con il progetto comune, di costruire nel tempo un archivio della memoria di tutti i migranti del mondo, per continuare a ricordare chi siamo e da dove veniamo.   
 

Cosa ti aspetti da questa presentazione newyorkese del festival?

Con la direttrice di I-Italy Letizia Airos, conosciuta attraverso la mediazione di Gaetano Calà, direttore dell’Anfe, il Salinadocfest ha in progetto un concorso web dedicato agli emigrati siciliani in America, che potrebbe aprire prospettive interessanti per il nostro Festival. Pochi giorni fa a Roma abbiamo incontrato la redazione di Studio Universal, un importante canale satellitario in Italia, dedicato al cinema americano, che si è detta disponibile a collaborare con il Salinadocfest per una sezione dedicata al cinema americano che trae le sue origini dal nostro paese: da Turturro a Coppola, da Vincent Schiavelli a Rober De Niro, fino a Martin Scorsese che vorremmo avere come nostro ospite di onore all’edizione 2011 del Salinadocfest. L’evento di New York è il primo e necessario passo.  
 

Che cosa accomuna gli artisti di questa edizione? Che novità ci sono?
Il tema che abbiamo scelto come filo rosso della prossima edizione è “Il mio paese: l’identità”. In un momento in cui, in Italia, in Europa, e più in generale nei paesi del Mediterraneo, il concetto stesso di identità, privata e pubblica, personale e sociale, femminile e maschile, sembra vacillare, ci è sembrato giusto dedicare il nostro Festival alla ricerca dell’identità in un tempo disgregato e frammentato. Credo che i registi, gli scrittori, gli artisti che parteciperanno alla quarta edizione del Festival si sentano accomunati da questa necessità: ridefinire un orizzonte comune di valori per domandarci chi siamo, da dove veniamo, dove andiamo.   

Vedi gli Stati Uniti come un buon punto di lancio anche per future collaborazioni con le miriadi di festival di documentari che ci sono in questo paese?

Lo spero vivamente. Negli Stati Uniti il documentario è un genere in ascesa e i festival dei documentari sono una realtà importante. Il Tribeca film festival è solo uno dei molteplici esempi. Il Salinadocfest si è gemellato con uno dei più importanti Festival cinematografici del Brasile, la Mostra internazionale del cinema di San Paolo, diretto da Leon Kakoff. Speriamo ora, sbarcando come fecero i nostri nonni ad Ellis Island, di farci conoscere e apprezzare anche negli Stati Uniti.

Che cosa ti ha spinto a voler fare documentari? Qual è il primo che hai girato?

Credo che la mia generazione sia mossa da un’impellente “sete di realtà” che il monopolio della televisione ha offuscato e allontanato in una rappresentazione spettacolare, molto distante dalle cose che ci accadono veramente attorno. Viviamo in una bolla di sapone, senza riuscire a intravedere un orizzonte al di là dei vetri opachi. E’ forse per questo che ho cominciato a fare documentari e quando qualcuno mi chiede: - quando girerà un film “vero”? – io rispondo: - ma noi facciamo film! - Solo che raccontiamo la realtà, da quella partiamo e a quella torniamo, talvolta in modo persino visionario e surreale. La verità, come diceva Balzac, non è mai verosimile! Mi piace molto la possibilità che offre il documentario di lavorare con materiali di repertorio, con la memoria, e spesso utilizzo spezzoni di film del passato per raccontare il nostro presente. E’ quel che ho fatto con il mio documentario di esordio, I nostri 30 anni Generazioni a confronto, un viaggio nella memoria del cinema italiano, attraverso quattro generazioni di registi, per sapere come eravamo e come, forse, saremo.  

Parliamo di giovani. In America insegnano che l’età non conta per saper narrare una storia unica, pensi che si possa far arrivare questo messaggio anche in Italia?

Posso parlare della mia esperienza personale. Il mio primo documentario l’ho girato tardi, superati i 30 anni, forse per paura del confronto inevitabile con i padri da cui provengo. Volevo arrivarci preparata e con un’ identità  “mia” ben riconoscibile. Vengo dalla letteratura e da un percorso accademico, lungo e faticoso, pieno di battaglie e sconfitte, all’interno dell’università. Oggi credo che quella formazione abbia fatto bene a quel che sono oggi e ai miei documentari, che nascono sempre da una riflessione, da un’indagine attenta della realtà in cui viviamo.  Per questo dico spesso agli studenti che hanno l’ansia di esprimersi subito: non abbiate fretta, organizzate prima un vostro punto di vista sul mondo e poi le cose verranno da sole.

Puoi fare qualche accenno al film che presenti a New York?

E’ un viaggio in automobile per le strade di Roma, che ho compiuto allo scoccare dei miei 30 anni, attraverso quattro generazioni di registi, dai nonni ai padri ai figli, ai quali ho chiesto di raccontarmi cosa ha significato per loro essere giovani e avere una macchina da presa in mano per raccontare i giovani “del” loro tempo “nel” loro tempo. Ho cominciato dai trentenni “vitelloni” degli anni del boom di Dino Risi e Mario Monicelli (il Gassman del Sorpasso e dei Soliti Ignoti), per continuare con i giovani rivoluzionari del 68 (Bellocchio Bertolucci Taviani) per arrivare agli “anni dell’ansia” raccontati da Nanni Moretti inEcce Bombo, girato nel 78, anno del sequestro di Moro, e chiudere con la nuova generazione di trentenni italiani (oggi quarantenni) che ho riunito attorno al tavolo del Biondo Tevere, storica trattoria romana dove Visconti girò Bellissima. Ne viene fuori un viaggio in discesa, dai “furori e le utopie” dei nostri padri all’oblio del presente, contrassegnato dalla perdita delle ideologie e delle grandi speranze. Eppure non c’è rassegnazione: accanto all’esigenza di tornare a raccontare la realtà del nostro paese, come nella più alta tradizione del nostro cinema, è nata in Italia una nuova generazione di registi, da Garrone a Sorrentino, da Crialese a Munzi, da Marra a Vicari, che stanno reinventando il cinema italiano con un nuovo linguaggio e una nuova vitalità espressiva.