15° FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE CINEMA GIOVANI
Italian Cinema-Cinema

QUANDO L'ITALIA NON ERA UN PAESE POVERO

WHEN ITALY WASN'T A POOR COUNTRY

Country: Italy
Year: 1997
Duration: 44'


1959. The president of Eni, Enrico Mattei, asked Joris Ivens, the director of Nieuwe Gronden, to make a film criticizing the American influence in the field of the extraction and refining of hydrocarbon fuels in Italy. After countless discussions and negotiations, Ivens worked with Valentino Orsini and the Taviani brothers in shooting the film, L'Italia non è un paese povero. However, RAI refused to broadcast the whole film, maintaining that it gave a particularly crude image of Italy. After many negotiations, the documentary was to be broadcast in a censored version entitled Frammenti di Ivens. This middlelenght film aims to reconstruct that particular historical-politlcal moment through the testimony of Valentino Orsini, the Taviani brothers, Giovanni "Tinto" Brass (who worked as assistant director), as well as through other interviews and through the documents of the Joris Ivens Foundation, the archives of Eni and RAI and the Alberto Moravia Foundation.

Biography

film director

Stefano Missio

Stefano Missio (Udine, 1972) was awarded a diploma in documentary film in 1998 at the National Film School in Rome. He has worked as assistant director to Marco Felloni and Matteo Pedani. He has participated in numerous workshops with accomplished Italian and foreign directors. His video, Quando l'Italia non era un paese povero, has been screened in major Italian and international festivals.

FILMOGRAFIA

Vesevus (1995), Notte di Natale (1996), Quando l'Italia non era un paese povero (1997), Siamo troppo sazi (1998), Scusi, dov'è il nord est? (2000).

Cast

& Credits

Director and screenplay: Stefano Missio.
Director of photography: Diana Canzano.
Art director: Luisa Nisco.
Editor: Ilaria De Laurentiis.
Music: Tony Pagliuca.
Sound: Gabriele Gubbini.
Production company: Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, via Tuscolana 1524, 00173 Roma, tel. +3906722941, fax +39067211619.
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