Country: Italy
Year: 1990
Duration: 27'
"I happened to meet the protagonists of Other Voices almost by chance while I was going around Rome looking for a story three years ago. They had recently began a squat in a crumbling, longtime abandoned building. There they gave life to a new community. What struck me right off about their way of casting themselves was their constant seesawing between a sense of disenchanted resignation about their past life situation and a fierceness which was naive, if you will, but full of an instinctive pride in what they were setting about to build. I remained fascinated by an effort so lyrically dense with hope. I proposed that we meet again to see if we could work out the cooperation needed to carry out a project of shooting a documentary about their situation. They accepted. Our meetings became more and more frequent and only what they wanted to talk about was recorded on the professional tape recorder we always carried with us. We decided that we could begin to shoot the film only after months of being together. We used their voices as the narrative thread along which we made up the story of a typical day. Luckily my cameraman friend Bruno Cascio was free in this period. With him, with his help, and with a borrowed 16mm camera we began to shoot. Presently, at three years' distance from that first encounter, the community is broken up because they were evicted from the building where they had been squatting. I have since lost sight of them because time and life have sucked them up again into the streets or maybe into other cities. Still in some ways under the influence of my encounter with these people, I shot the film Verso Sud in order to keep the umbilical cord of the memory on its feet. To propose this documentary today is my way of showing my respect for these marvelous, unlucky, but desperately free characters who go around the streets without ever taking 'tomorrow' into consideration". (Pasquale Pozzessere)
Biography
film director
Pasquale Pozzessere
Pasquale Pozzessere (Taranto, 1957) moved to Rome with his family as a small child. He graduated from a high school of the sciences and enrolled in medical school, but soon gave this up to dedicate himself to his principal field of interest - film. He began to work as second assistant director in several films of Pupi Avati, such as Noi tre (1984) and Impiegati (1985). He then was Francesco Maselli's assistant director for Codice privato (1988), Il segreto (1990) and L'alba (1991). He debuted as director for the documentaries Altre voci and Le sirene di carta. He also works for Raitre from time to time on some programs. In 1991 he founded Demian Film, the production house for which he produced, screenwrote, and directed his first long fiction film Verso sud.
Cast
& Credits
Director: Pasquale Pozzessere.
Director of photography: Bruno Cascio.
Editor: Carlo Valerio .
Production company: Demian Film s.r.l., via del Giordano 10, Roma, tel. 3216050.
Director of photography: Bruno Cascio.
Editor: Carlo Valerio .
Production company: Demian Film s.r.l., via del Giordano 10, Roma, tel. 3216050.