a documentary film
'the beauty of the images becomes the terrible colonial sublime that disseminates holes in time'Iain Chambers – Author of Migrancy, Culture, Identity (Routledge, 2008)
'a film in which the intimate, familiar, poignant story reverberates in a collective, living, throbbing memory'Angela Tecce – Curator of War is Over? Art and Conflict between Myth and Contemporaneity
'a stunning immersion into the mediated and architectural archive of the disavowed colonial past of Italy'Tiziana Terranova – Author of Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age
'animated tapestries ... a meticulous work on the substance of memories'Ottavia Salvador – Author of Morti senza Sepoltura and Director of Ogni Anima Muore
'a thought experiment and visual research that escapes any type of definition for its beauty and intensity'Marina Brancato – Monitor
Eighty years have passed since the monumental exhibition of Elsewhere was inaugurated and then quickly closed again in Naples. A lifetime. The discovery of a family letter launches a journey to find the missing grandfather who disappeared overseas that same year in that same war, setting out from the overgrown ruins and remains of the exhibition complex — archives hidden in plain sight. An exploration of wonder and longing, and of the cultural formation and persistence of western colonial thought.
WORLD PREMIERE 25 Nov at TORINO FILM FESTIVAL
at the MUSEO MADRE Napoli 2 Dec
at the RECURSIVE COLONIALISM festival
at the conference 'Mediterranean Crossings: Refusal and Resistance in Uncertain Times'
at the POLO DEL '900 Turin per Il Colonialismo e Noi 6 May
at the CASA INTERNAZIONALE DELLE DONNE, Roma, 18 Sep
at the festival HARVEST, Dordolla, 25 Sep
in exclusive on ADESSOCINEMA 1-7 Apr
distributed in Italy by OPENDDB and available to stream or download here
NOW AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH TO RENT OR BUY HERE
FILM CREDITS
Written and Developed: Alessandra CianelliDirected and Produced: Alessandra Cianelli, Opher ThomsonCinematography, Sound and Edit: Opher ThomsonNarrated: Alessandra CianelliStudio Recordings: Marco Messina
TECHNICAL DETAILS
A L L ' A L D I L A ' D I Q U A2020, ItalyLanguage: ItalianSubtitles Available: English30 mins / HD / ColourScreening Formats: Stereo / various HD File options
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Everything in the universe is born from vibration, everything and everyone, we’re all made up of them. The inaudible rhythm becomes sound, vision, word, and finally meaning. That which the mind manages to alter or erase from the memory concerns meaning — the individual and cultural construction of sense and significance. But one cannot alter or erase the memory of sound, the physical imprint of a vibration, an experience that pertains to a special level of emotional memory, the memory of the body.
This project and journey began from such memories and sounds when I began following the echoes of the Arab Spring more than eight years ago. I went in search of my missing grandfather who had disappeared in Cyrenaica in 1940, exploring the ‘legacy’ of the colonial past in the Italian subconscious. I started out by myself but was gradually joined by other passionate researchers including my co-director Opher Thomson. Together we set out from the fanta-exotic ruins of the Exhibition of the Overseas Territories in Naples, looking for pieces and clues that might have the power to open these hidden worlds. We travelled far and wide between times that (maybe) were and times that (might) one day be, towards the roots of our colonial self but often lost in these lands of Elsewhere: over-there, over-here, all’aldila’diqua.
During the last leg of this journey we saw, felt and sensed the inaudible. We watched, collected and produced souvenirs and testimonies, and from these we have made a film. What is really shown from these collected mirabilia is the epiphanic power of the gaze: the magic of sounds and words. They have the double power — miraculous yet ambivalent — to illuminate and resonate, to open space and time: here-there, there-here. All’aldila’diqua.
Alessandra Cianelli, Novembre 2020
ALESSANDRA CIANELLI is a researcher, artist, and cultural practitioner. Her research develops into works at the intersection of private and collective memory practices, through the production of video, audio, texts, installations, performances and lectures. Her most recent project, Il Paese Delle Terre D’Oltremare (The Land of Overseas Territories), explores colonial archives, focusing on the monumental exhibition complex Mostra D’Oltremare in Naples. A member of the Centre for Postcolonial and Gender Studies at the Oriental University, she founded the Dormire foundation in 2014, an informal residence project for artists, thinkers and researchers.
a DORMIRE FONDAZIONE production
part of the artistic research project “The Land of the Overseas Territories” (2012-2020) by Alessandra Cianelli, comprising:
“Sulle spalle” (film, 2012)“Gli sguardi amorosi riaprono gli occhi dei dormienti chiusi dal passato insolente” (film, 2015)“Discorso sulla pratica della meraviglia e la necessità di un Archivio” (film, 2017) “The Land Of The Overseas Territories” (radio performance, 2017)
with theCentre of Postcolonial Studies, Oriental University, Naples
with contributions and support from: Centre for Postcolonial & Gender Studies, Department of Human & Social Sciences, Oriental University NaplesM.A.M. Matri-Archivio del MediterraneoGoethe-Institut Naplesand with the collaboration of the Film Commission Regione Campania
