http://lacittanuova.milano.corriere.it/2015/02/23/asmarina-project-tributo-alla-milano-habesha/
Asmarina Project, a tribute to Milan "Habesha"
of Kibra Sebhat
"The best moment was when we realized that they had taken the same photograph. From two different perspectives, of course, but it was the same scene, the same persons involved shooting. Unbelievable. " It represents the union of looks that characterizes the film Asmarina Project , one might add. Sitting at a table Rainbow Cafe, bar Eritrean most famous Porta Venezia, authors Alan Maglio and Medhin Paolos retrace the steps that led them to imagine and then realize the documentary about community Habesha (Ethiopian and Eritrean) in Milan. "The word" documentary "expresses well what we have achieved, yes: "document" indicates a willingness to protect memory. "Cinema of reality", however, is better than what we have achieved. You will not find anything recreated, all images were collected live, we have been patient and waited once again for the right opportunity, the party commanded the ceremony marriage that would allow us to film the reality, in fact. No construction. "
And so it was also for the discovery of the shooting as unique as valuable, because double. The first one they found in the pages of the photo book Foreigners in Milan Vito Scifo and Lalla Golderer, who in 1983 had the intuition that the Milan (and Italy) that was changing the face had to be documented. The second shooting appeared by chance among the images that respondents have provided the two film makers, thanks to the family album .
But what you see in the two photos? A historical scene: one of the conferences that Eritrean citizens organized in Bologna to support the war of independence of Eritrea. "Here, this space was filled with black heads," recalls a Bolognese Eritrean, but today restaurateur who was studying medicine.
An 'other representative figure is Elena, the daughter of two Eritrean parents, a second generation. "You will see it in the film, we met by chance at home parents and became take so much from the moment of sharing that has not even taken off his hat and coat, he immediately began to share with us what he felt and what she thought. She was able to make the best summary of the history of our parents, our children of immigrants and that of girls and boys who arrive in Italy today with makeshift "says Medhin. And yet "in movies you will not see my story of Italian girl of Eritrean origin, you will not see the story of Medhin, but it is inevitable that the cuts and the choices of the pieces say something about me. What I wanted to do from the beginning was to resume my memories and merge them with those of others. And I realized that there was a need only mine. "
60 hours of recorded, 70 minutes of final work, when Asmarina Project will arrive in theaters will be passed just over 18 months after the start of the adventure. Meanwhile, several Italian universities have already made contact with the authors to accommodate their work. Even in the United States and Poland know of the project and you can see the possibility of collaborations as much details as unexpected.
I ask Alan to make an effort to recover from memory, even before the friendship with Medhin, the first contact with the community Habesha Porta Venezia and leaves me with the last picture: "I came to this bar when it was still called Bar Ethiopia. One of those days, back when they used the cassette tape, I hear in the background music of Mulatu Astatke, who did not know, and I fall in love. The next time one of the managers I had dubbed the tape and had given me. Here, this is my chance to return that gift and feel on all the responsibility of the trust that was given to me by those who testified for Asmarina Project . This will be my tribute to Porta Venezia and its people. "
Asmarina Project is also on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/asmarinaproject?ref=hl
ASMARINA - a project by Alan Maglio and Medhin Paolos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCKl0mcVhqk
(Software translation)
Received on Mon Feb 23 2015 - 06:10:26 EST