IL SECOLO È MOBILE
di/by GABRIELE DEL GRANDE

UNA STORIA DELLE MIGRAZIONI IN EUROPA VISTA DAL FUTURO / A STORY ABOUT MIGRATIONS IN EUROPE SEEN FROM THE FUTURE

Scrittura e ricerca immagini/ Writing and image research Gabriele del Grande
Montaggio/ Editing Matteo Calore
Con la consulenza di/ Production consultant Andrea Segre
Mappe infografiche/ Infographic maps Isacco Chiaf, Andreas Trenker
Consulenza archivi/ Archive consultant Alessandro Marotto
Prodotto da/ Produced by ZALAB in collaborazione con/ in collaboration with CINEMAZERO

A hundred years ago, there were no visas or passports. Today, the bodies of fifty thousand migrants who drowned along smuggling routes lie at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. How did we get here? And, most importantly, how will we get out of this situation? Gabriele Del Grande takes us on a journey through images and words, exploring the history and future of migration in Europe, challenging us with a visionary proposal.

TRIBUTE TO DANILO DOLCI

Danilo Dolci was one of the main nonviolent activists and one of the most important figures in Italy post-World War II for his political, social and educational commitment. When he arrived in Sicily, in 1952, he began his activity by initiating a process of self-analysis, participation and change that had echoes throughout the world. Between nonviolent struggles, fasting, peace marches and revolutionary initiatives such as the “Reverse Strike” and the foundation of Radio Libera, he developed a creative space for awareness-raising and planning from below, laying the foundations for the concrete improvement of the conditions of live of thousands of people. The real lever of this change is education, to which Danilo Dolci has dedicated almost all his life: an inclusive education based on dialogue with children and adults with the aim of shedding light on the needs of his community and encouraging action.

This year, on the occasion of the Centenary, the Centro Sviluppo Creativo – Danilo Dolci (Danilo Dolci Centre for Creative Development) proposes a participatory, widespread and collective journey of this important anniversary, so as to best enhance and explore the richness of the history and complexity of the figure of Danilo. For more information, see: www.danilodolci.org/centenario/

In collaborazione con /with Centro Sviluppo Creativo – Danilo Dolci

Danilo Dolci understood the documentation of reality as a political tool: to make publicly known a scenario, Sicily in the 1950s, characterized by educational and economic poverty and practically ignored by the institutions. This public denunciation was one of the revolutionary actions that the sociologist put into practice, preparing the ground for some of the most famous nonviolent protests in Italian history.

On the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the Italian Gandhi, we want to pay him a tribute by talking about the value of documentation and how telling reality can be a tool for denunciation and collective self-awareness.

Dio delle zecche

Regia/Directors Leandro Picarella e Giovanni Rosa 
Fotografia/Photography Andrea José Di Pasquale
Montaggio/Editing Leandro Picarella e Giovanni Rosa
Produzione/Production Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia – Sede Sicilia
Italia 2014, 60’ italiano / Italy 2014, 60’ Italian 

Dio delle zecche is a documentary that tells the figure, the story and the works of Danilo Dolci through a journey undertaken by En, his youngest son, from Sweden, the country where he grew up, to Sicily. A journey through places and people, but above all a journey through time, in search of the lost memory of an entire country. A memory made of struggles, fasting, reverse strikes, peace marches. A non-violent memory, a warning for the future.

Migrazioni, spaesamento e appaesamento: letture antropologiche del nesso rituali/migrazioni in contesti di Italia meridionale * / Migrations, blurring boundaries, and home-making: Anthropological analysis of the rituals/migrations nexus in Southern Italy

* Evento riconosciuto tra le attività formative del Dottorato MIDIGI. Migrazioni, Differenze, Giustizia sociale, UNIPA, cicli 38 e 39.

Progetto di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN) 2017

Intervengono: Berardino Palumbo, Mara Benadusi, Gabriella D’Agostino, Ferdinando Mirizzi, Domenico Copertino, Giovanni Cordova, Roberta Teresa Di Rosa, Ferdinando Fava, Sandra Ferracuti, Eugenio Giorgianni, Alessandra Rizzo, Giuliana Sanò, Vita Santoro, Pino Schirripa, Francesco Zanotelli

Upon completion of the project, the four research units from the Universities of Palermo, Catania, Basilicata, and the coordinating unit of Messina will share their findings with a broad non-expert audience.

The project looked into the ritual scenarios of migration in urban areas in southern Italy and in transnational spaces stemming from these contexts, to determine whether and how migration induced processes of ritualization generate embodied forms of sociality. To what extent do ritual practices help in creating stronger bonds between host and migrant communities? When do situations of sociopolitical polarization and identity-based radicalization occur? These questions have been explored through field research and anthropological comparison to comprehend the historical contexts, public space dynamics, social policies and moral economies that shape migration rituals.

The study of the links between religion and migration has become a well-established focus in socio-anthropological studies. However, the project primarily concentrated on exploring the public aspects of religious belonging in the migratory space. Navigating through ethnographic fields where popular religiosity and devotional practices have a history of complex interactions with the nation-state and religious institutions, the project sought to examine the impact of migration rituals on social dynamics of subalternity and on the creation of public and individual agencies in southern Italy. Also, the project aimed to investigate how ceremonial disputes and conflicts involving migrants influence the political and religious environments in the studied contexts.

As part of the first round of public communication of research findings, besides researchers sharing views, a series of ethnographic documentaries made in Palermo will be screened in the presence of some of the people involved in the research. One of these (Santa Rosalia) was included as part of the program dedicated to the four hundredth anniversary of the city’s patron saint. Other public meetings and dissemination events will be held in the following months by the partner universities.

The final step in the public communication process will be an exhibition that will broaden the public resonance of the research results, so that the “voice” and practices of “the others” can fully and equally enter in written, performative, and museum representations.

GANPATI. Una festa per Ganesh 

Regia/Director: Eugenio Giorgianni
Fotografia/Photography: Eugenio Giorgianni, Ruben Monterosso
Montaggio/Editing: Eugenio Giorgianni
Produzione/Production: PRIN 2017 Migrazioni, spaesamento e appaesamento
Post-produzione / Post-production: Studio Marino 
Italia 2024, 45’, Kreol mauriziano, sanscrito, italiano, con sottotitoli in inglese e italiano/ Italy 2024, 45’. Kreol morisien, Sanskrit, Italian, with Italian and English subtitles.

The film explores all the phases of preparation and celebration of the Ganpati festival in Palermo from 3 to 12 September 2021, including the domestic ritual opening of festive time, the setting up and decoration of the festival space, the preparation of the foods, the consecration of the murti (simulacrum) of Ganesh, the offerings, the sacred songs and dances dedicated to the God, the collective ceremony of the last day of the festival (visarjan) and the immersion of the clay statues in the Arenella sea, and finally the return to ordinary time and space. The protagonist of the film is Betty, a Mauritian woman of Marathi origin who organizes and supervises all the moments of the festival.

KANJI. Oltre il corpo

Regia/Director: Eugenio Giorgianni
Fotografia/Photography: Eugenio Giorgianni
Montaggio/Editing: Eugenio Giorgianni, Massimiliano Marino
Produzione/Production: PRIN 2017 Migrazioni, spaesamento e appaesamento
Post-produzione / Post-production: Studio Marino 
Italia 2024, 30’, Kreol mauriziano, tamil, sanscrito, italiano, con sottotitoli in inglese e italiano / Italy 2024, 30’. Kreol morisien, Tamil, Sanskrit, Italian, with Italian and English subtitles.

The film takes place on the last day of the Kanji celebration (19 June 2022), a festival dedicated to the goddess Mariammen, the main deity of the Mauritian Tamil temple in Palermo. The celebration begins in the temple, where the penitents receive from the priest the cavadee (ritual container with consecrated water) which they carry in procession to the place of the ritual, where they are skewered with the vel, a small metal spear that pierces the penitents’ tongue and cheeks. The devotees, some of whom fall into a trance, return in procession to the kovil, where the ritual ends with a convivial moment.