L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2015 www.italoamericano.org L'Italo-Americano 5 I t a l i a n - A m e r i c a n d i r e c t o r J o n a s C a r p i g n a n o i s t h e a u t h o r o f t h e f i l m Mediterranea, which tells the story of two African migrants, A y i v a , p l a y e d b y K o u d o u s Seihon, and Abas (Alassane Sy), as they try to make better lives for themselves in Italy, after traveling from Burkina Faso to Rosarno, in the southern region of Calabria. The issue of race relations is close to Carpignano's heart, as he grew up between New York and Rome, the son of an Italian father and an African-American mother. His feature film debut, Mediterranea was well received at the Cannes Film Festival last May and was just released in the U.S. Fresh from victory at New Y o r k ' s G o t h a m I n d e p e n d e n t Film Awards, where he won for best breakthrough director on N o v e m b e r 3 0 , C a r p i g n a n o s p o k e t o L ' I t a l o - A m e r i c a n o about how the film came about. What inspired you to make this movie? T h e r e a r e m a n y d i f f e r e n t factors that inspired me to make this movie. The real inspiration for Mediterranea is Koudous Seihon. Once I got to know him while we were working on a short film (A Chjàna, about the 2010 riots by African migrants in Rosarno, ed.), we knew that we wanted to make something very long together about the i m m i g r a n t c o m m u n i t y ; s o K o u d o u s a c t u a l l y i n s p i r e s Mediterranea, in the sense that the film is mainly about his life. I t w a s b o r n o u t o f h e a n d I getting to know each other. B e s i d e s t h a t , I w a s v e r y i n t e r e s t e d i n m a k i n g a f i l m about race relations in Italy, e s p e c i a l l y b e c a u s e o f m y background: my mother being African American and my father being Italian, I had always been very sensitive to racial issues in Italy. It's something I wanted to examine in depth. D o y o u t h i n k t h e m e d i a p o r t r a y s t h e m i g r a n t experience accurately? The media seem to mainly focus on the difficult journey of the m i g r a n t s f r o m A f r i c a t o Europe, but then there are v e r y f e w a c c o u n t s o f w h a t happens once they actually reach Europe. Is that why you wanted to make this film? I don't think it's an issue of a c c u r a c y , i t ' s c e r t a i n l y n o t inaccurate to talk about people coming over from north Africa t o I t a l y , p e o p l e m a k i n g t h e journey from Libia on a boat… but yes, we wanted to focus on w h a t h a p p e n s a f t e r w a r d s because the journey is only half of the story. People concentrate on the tragedies, the number of people coming over, the people at the immigration shelters, but at the end of the day, there are people who are still trying to m a k e a l i f e h e r e . A n d integration is another huge part of the story, the troubles people face once they're here are a big part of the story and we wanted to make a film which spoke to that as well. None of the characters in the film, except for Abas, are professional actors. How did you earn the trust of the local c o m m u n i t y ? W e r e t h e y r e l u c t a n t t o a p p e a r i n t h e film? In the beginning, when I first went to Rosarno in 2010, there were a lot of journalists down there, so getting people to talk to me at that point was more difficult because they thought I was there just for a news story. P e o p l e w e r e t a l k i n g a s i n a script, they were saying what they were supposed to say. We w e r e n ' t e x a c t l y f o r m i n g r e l a t i o n s h i p s t h e w a y I w a s hoping. Later, when I went back and people saw that I had come back and I was still interested in the story after journalists had gone away, they started to open up. I began staying there for long periods of time, and every time I was there, it wasn't just to get an interview or to do research, I was actually hanging out with people, making friends, and that's what got me into the community; people started to see me more as a friend and less as someone coming to exploit t h e m f o r a s t o r y , w h i c h i s something we never wanted to d o . O u r g o a l w a s a l w a y s t o make a film with the people of the community, not necessarily about them. What do you hope viewers will get from watching this film? U l t i m a t e l y , t h e r e ' s n o m e s s a g e w e ' r e t r y i n g t o g e t across by making this film. The idea was always to have the public get to know an individual better. We always thought, if people can put the headlines behind them, it'll force them to l o o k a t t h e i s s u e i n a m o r e humane way. So our challenge, our goal was to make a film where an audience would feel like they know someone who's been through this experience they read about. We were trying to make the film as intimate as possible. Growing up bi-cultural and in two countries, do you feel m o r e c o n n e c t e d t o y o u r I t a l i a n r o o t s , t o y o u r American roots, to both in equal parts, and how? I'm a product of both places: I'm a product of America, I'm part of New York, I'm a product o f R o m e a n d o f I t a l y . I ' v e a l w a y s h a d m o r e f a m i l y i n Rome so that has always been a factor to me. Family is very much associated with going to R o m e . B u t I f e e l j u s t a s connected to my mother's roots and my American roots. At this point in my life though, I feel much more at ease living in Gioia Tauro. I've been living in southern Italy for about five years, it's a place where I've b e e n a b l e t o c r e a t e a h o m e , where I can do the things I want to do, which is mainly write. I love the people that I live with and work with there, and the l o c a l c o m m u n i t i e s , b o t h t h e A f r i c a n c o m m u n i t y a n d t h e Calabrese community. I found a place I'm really, really into and for now I'm happy to be there. Italian-American filmmaker Jonas Carpignano NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS Jonas Carpignano's Mediterranea puts a human face on the migrant crisis in Europe SILVIA DONATI A still from the movie "Mediterranea"

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