Documentary

Visuality and Migration: Two Crises in Gianfranco Rosi’s documentary “Fire at Sea”

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Visuality and Migration. A video essay by Erik Scaltriti

I am very happy to announce the publication of my video essay and commentary [in]Transition issue 7.3

Can moving images narrate the migration phenomena without stereotyping it? Offering a site to explore the deep connection between the parallel crises of migration and Western visuality, “Fire at Sea” contrasts several media stereotypes on migration. However, I argue that it foregrounds a false contraposition between a humanitarian vision of migration and a state vision of it.

Thank you to all who supported this project and gave their feedback!

“The Bridge Master’s Daughter”: screening and discussion

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With my colleague Estelí Puente Beccar of the Spanish and Portuguese Department, we are happy to facilitate the discussion with the director Elisa Stone of @noondayfilms . With Matthew Leahy, they dedicated years to produce their compelling documentary The Bridge Master’s Daughter. A must-see you can watch on Kanopy. Thanks to the Abya Yala Student Organization for the opportunity, and the Center for Latin American Studies at Ohio State for the support).

 

“Arrivederci Saigon”: screening and discussion

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At the XV Symposium on the History of Social Conflict, Damiano Garofalo and I dialogued with the director Wilma Labate.

Arrivederci Saigon (“Goodbye Saigon”, 2018), a documentary which revisits the historical events of 1968 from a unique perspective. Le Stars is an Italian girl-only band of teenagers from Tuscany. In 1968, they receive an offer they can’t turn down, a tour in the Far East: Manila, Hong Kong, Singapore. They set off hoping for success but found themselves in the middle of the Vietnam war. Fifty years later, they tell the story of their adventure amongst American soldiers, remote jungle bases and soul music.

XV SIMposio of History of social conflict
Arrivederci Saigon
Screening night

38th Cincinnati Conference on Romance Languages and Literatures 2018

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Panel Cinematic Representations of Sexuality, Marginalized Identities, and Migration. Moderator: T.E. Arce (University of Cincinnati). 4/6/2018.

The hybridity of Migration in Italian Contemporary Cinema: Crialese’s “Once We Were Strangers” (1997) and Rosi’s “Fire at Sea” (2016).
by Erik Scaltriti

Emanuele Crialese’s cinematography refuses the closures of genre or gender by its narratives which unfold between fantasy, open-ended narratives, and the reality of clashes and relationships. The academic investigation has largely addressed the major works of the Italian director, producing a rich literature of journal articles and book chapters. However, less critical attention has been paid to his debut film Once We Were Strangers (1997).

In this paper, I compare Crialese’s use of realist/imaginary strains to Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare, 2016). I argue that Crialese and Rosi do not step outside the Italian cinema tradition but develop their original narratives interweaving national and global perspectives. Blurring film genre’s borders, they both explore the nature of the Western gaze through hybrid representations of migration phenomena.

Eclats of Africa

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36 ‘, XdCam, Italy, 2012

Online the English (and shorten) version. Original title: Eclats d’Afrique

The Arab Uprising of 2011 through the voices and the images of the photographers who documented it. The faces of JR’s project “Inside Out” during the Tunisian Revolution. The Somalian civil war in the photos of Mohamed Dahir. The turmoil of Libya and Egypt in the work of the Italian collective CESURA LAB. With the participation of the photographers Mohamed Dahir, Sophia Baraket, Sonia Dourai, Gabriele Micalizzi, Andy Rocchelli and Luca Santese.

DVD © Quaderni di Boorea n.52, 2012 © Erik Scaltriti

Sentimental Atlas, Migrant Autobiographies

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“This is an atlas, a human atlas, made up of people who have left a distant place, in space and time. Autobiographical stories, made with tenderness, through small memories and impressions of youth. A small collection of individual human uniqueness, where in the different stories, everyone can find himself/herself.”  (Monica Carrozzi)

Above all, this video-documentary is the result of a team effort which brought together different skills and different sensitivities in tackling two topical issues: identity and mobility.

Sentimental Atlas,  Migrant Autobiographies is the result of a participatory workshop I coordinated within the project ON: Itinerant Workshop Of Music And Various Arts, in collaboration with the Province of Reggio Emilia, the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, SpaceLab (Onlus Papa Giovanni XXIII Association) and the Associazione Ricreativa e Culturale Italia (Reggio Emilia).

This video has also traveled and been presented in diverse spaces of the city and to festivals. The screenings have always been followed by discussions with people who have experienced migration and forced displacement over the years (often accompanied by the photographic exhibition by Monica Carrozzi “Ethnic collection of hens”).

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Seasons of Campotrera

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19′, DVCAM, Italy, 2008

Original title: Le Stagioni di Campotrera

In a territory steeped in history, dotted with ancient villages and medieval fortresses, the cliff hides behind its own immovable nature: it is something special and much more dynamic than one might imagine…

  • Special Award: Best Nature Documentary 4th Video Festival Imperia, Italy, 2009

Leaning Left

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16’45”, DV, United States and Italy, 2008, by Erik Scaltriti and Andrea Righi.

Why was Barak Obama elected President of the United States? A journey to the ‘enclave’ of Ithaca (NY), a week before the vote, draws a striking portrait of the American dream.

  • Selected at the 1st CinemaAvvenire Film Festival, Rome, 2009

Ask the dust…

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13′, DVCAM 4/3, E.S.R.A., France, 2004

Original title: Demande à la poussière…

During the ’90s, French military served their country in Iraq and in the Balkans.
Once back home, many of them got sick. What was happening?

  • Selected at the 4th, Concours Européen du Premier Film Documentaire “Aux Ecrans Du Réel”, Le Mans, 2005.


© Erik Scaltriti – © École Supérieure de Réalisation Audiovisuelle, ESRA Paris.