L'Italo-Americano

L'Italo-Americano THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017 www.italoamericano.org 4 NEWS & FEATURES TOP STORIES PEOPLE EVENTS A Ciambra is set in a gipsy community in Gioia Tauro, Cal- abria, and focuses on 14 year-old Romani Pio Amato, and his jour- ney to become an adult after his older brother and father go to jail. Some critics said the movie is controversial, do you agree? Not really. There is always going to be controversy when there's something unexpected in a film. Personally, I don't think it's controversial, because my main goal while filming was to bring the audience close to a world they wouldn't be able to know otherwise. It was truly a special turning point in my career and in my life. It opened up my eyes about what it means being part of the gipsy commu- nity. But that said, I didn't have an agenda, I wasn't trying to bring a message or to make peo- ple feel in a certain way. I just wanted to present this world as it is. Everyone will feel differently about it, based on what they see in the film. Some will see it as controversial, others won't. You show an unknown part of Italy, especially from an American audience's point of view: what do you think their reaction will be? It's a hard question to answer because even Italians don't real- ly know this reality. There are only a few representations of Romani and Sinti in Italian cine- ma: this is a film that tries to do add on to it, while attempting to change our perception of this world. What is it to be a gipsy? In Italy, for we Italians, it's something very specific, but it may not be the same in the US. So, I am actually finding out that Americans are more inter- ested in the fact actors play themselves and that they are a family also in real life. Ameri- cans are not struck by the fact they are a gipsy family, but that they are a family for real. This may change slightly from a place to the other, but I think that, in the end, what really gets to Americans is that the protago- nists play themselves. What was the process for you in discovering this part of the world? I didn't decide to move to Calabria, seven years ago. I was there to make a movie about the riots in Rosarno. I started cast- ings and I met the lead actors, with whom I decided to share an apartment while we were shoot- ing Mediterranea. In the process of making that film, I met the gipsy community: our car got stolen and I was told to go to the gipsies to get it back. When I went there they told me they would help me, but I had to wait as they were having a funeral. Actually, it was the funeral of Pio's grandfather. The funeral scene in the film is based on the very first thing I saw of the gipsy community in Calabria. So when I was finishing Mediterranea I started to develop the film right away. I haven't really decided to stay in Calabria, it's been more like "I am happy here, I am inspired here, why change it?" I decided to keep going on that path, and see where it'd lead me. It was instinctive, not as planned as it may seem. Did Martin Scorsese's sup- port change things a lot? It gave us a lot more visibili- ty. When we were making the Italy at the Oscars 2018: Jonas Carpignano and the world of A Ciambra film in Gioia Tauro we were iso- lated. I knew he was our produc- er at that point, but I didn't feel his presence. It was really five friends and the cast running around to have the movie done. Later, when we had his input and his support in pushing the film out to the world, people showed much more interest. The first film we made, Mediterranea, was not even released in Italy, but only in the States, at the AFI Festival. And now all of a sud- den we are representing Italy at the Academy Awards, it's an 180 degree turn. Did he tell you what made him decide to support the movie? At the beginning he read the script, he saw the short and Mediterranea, and the book of photos I made about my seven years living in Gioia Tauro, so he was certainly acquainted with the movie's atmosphere and style. I can't specifically say what attracted him to it, but I know he was interested in that world and in our approach to it. Then, when he saw the movie, he was very drawn to Pio, to his world and how it was rendered cinematically. What are you working on at the moment? I am making another film about this little girl, it's about the bond between the people of Gioia Tauro and their city. The idea is to show why people decide to stay there even if there are not many economic opportu- nities. It's about when you come to terms with what your life is going to be, when you decide where you are going to live and what's really important for you. Did you actually meet this girl? Yes, my movies are always based on people I know, situa- tions I see living in Gioia Tauro. All I do is giving them a dramat- ic structure and turn them into a film. I know her very well, all her family is going to be in the movie. At the moment, I have an outline, which I am filling in with details from their every- day's lives, so that it gets more faithful to their actual experi- ences. Why the choice of having people playing themselves like in A Ciambra and Mediter- ranea? Everyone plays themselves or a version of themselves. When you are making films that are about marginal communities, and since I am not part of them, it is very important for me to step away from an anthological approach. I don't want to speak about them, but help them speak for themselves and the best way to do it is to bring to the screen their most authentic essence, the best way to honor their reality. I don't want professional actors to play them, because it's their emotions and their truth that I want to show, it's them. And no one else can do that but them- selves. Continued from page 1 Jonas Carpignano explores the reality of the Italian Rom minority through the eyes of Pio and his family. Photo: Stefania Rosini Pio Amato in a scene from the movie "A Ciambra"

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