Documentaries

The thoughts, emotions, words of those who lived through the drama of the First World War: letters from soldiers in the trenches and their families anxiously awaiting their return.
The enthusiasm of departure, the ardour of patriotism, the exhaustion of forces, cold, hunger, death.
Finally the victory, in which Italy found more discouragement than pride.

In this gripping documentary on the Palio di Siena, Massimo Reale recounts the long road that led Sebastiano Deledda, known as ‘Legno’, to cross paths with the legendary jockey ‘Aceto’. The two protagonists compete in a race that for both can be the meaning of an entire existence and redemption from many sacrifices.

From the images of this now-legendary challenge and from the words of intellectuals, journalists and contradaioli, the meaning of the Sienese joust and how deep and impetuous is the torrent of emotions that the Palio makes flow through the veins of those who, by birth or fate, encounter it in their lives.

…See, the thing I want to understand, which is central to my research, is what a religious vocation is, how it is recognized, and how this “calling,” to use your words, becomes flesh and lived life. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, but I really would like to, how should I say, “dialogue” – let’s use it since it’s the name of my project! – with you on this topic. Maybe you could help me find an answer or part of the answer. As you know, I have no trouble traveling to meet you, let me know. I embrace you warmly, Virginia.

The Contrada is a place of confrontation and meeting, of collaboration and choices, even conflicting ones. Noi is an attempt to recount an entire year in the life of the Noble Contrada dell’Oca by listening to the words of the contradaioli.

The flags of the Contrade are famous throughout the world, those who come to Siena rarely leave without being won over by the colours of one or the other, the very air of the city seems to be made for the neighing of the leocorns, the gazing of the owls, the silent striding of the elephants. Other mediaeval towns are decked out throughout the year, and yet, moving the silk flaps, one discovers a studied municipal organisation or a ‘pro loco’ attentive to giving a patina of the Middle Ages to the tourist and not the history of a people as in the streets of the Sienese Contrade.

The flags of the Contrade di Siena in their light but disciplined, decisive but elegant movement conceal and uncover the existences of the contradaioli, escorting them throughout their lives; the flag is present at birth, at marriage, at death. At all times when a symbol of many laughs or cries with or for one person. The garble of the flag is there to tell you that a people is with you.

Theatre companies are constantly on the move. Throughout the year, actors move around our peninsula to entertain, to make people think, to move. The Art of Comedy is a documentary that tells the story and the everyday life of the heirs of an ancient profession that today seems to be surrounded by a climate of isolation and indifference.

The words of the protagonists form a fresco unknown to most, and totally different from that mythology of the actor so dear to magazines and TV shows. A documentary to give voice to the thoughts and claims of a world that is so much in the limelight as to become invisible.

Una stella per l’Oca (A Star for the Goose) is a documentary by Massimo Reale that recounts, through the narration of Andrea Degortes known as Aceto, Luigi Bruschelli known as Trecciolino and Giovanni Atzeni known as Tittia, the last 10 victories of the Contrada of Fontebranda.

Through their memories, the jockeys tell us about the evolution of the Palio and the contradaiola tradition.