Country: Italy
Year: 1999
Duration: 42'


Mario is a forty-year-old grandfather. He is unemployed and lives in a city in southern Italy. He was released from a juvenile prison when he was seventeen. He embarked as a dishwasher on various freighters. In the meantime, he went in and out of the «tunnel of drugs.» When his son was born, he decided to emigrate to Australia with his family. Down under on the other side of the world, he did odd jobs and maybe a few little swindles. Things never seemed to turn out. Ten years later, Mario decided to return to Bari. When he went back, he began to dream of becoming an actor and dancer, but he was living off of odd, temporary jobs and insurance payments.

Biography

film director

Agostino Ferrente

(Cerignola, 1971) he founded the Pirata Produzioni Cinematografiche production company and belongs to the Apollo 11 collective which transformed a historic cinema in Rome into a cultural centre. The Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio, which was founded there, became the subject of one of his documentaries. He also created the Doc/it Award for documentaries at the Venice International Film Festival where the film Le cose belle, which he co-directed, and which narrates ten years in the life of four young Neopolitans, premiered in 2013. In 2019 he presente in Berlinale’s section Panorama his most notable film, Selfie.

FILMOGRAFIA

Poco più della metà di zero (doc, cm, 1993), Opinioni di un pirla (doc, cm, 1994), Il film di Mario (doc, cm, 1994), Intervista a mia madre (doc, cm, 2000), Scusi dov'è il documentario? (coll., doc, 2004), L'orchestra di piazza Vittorio (doc, 2006), Le cose belle (doc, 2013), Selfie (2019), Coupon – Il film della felicità (cm, 2023).

Giovanni Piperno

(Rome, 1964) worked as a photographer and assistant cameraman in movies and commercials; in 1997, he began making TV programs and documentaries. His films include L’esplosione, which won the Doc competition at the 2003 TFF and was nominated for a David di Donatello; This Is My Sister, which won the Avanti! award at the 2006 TFF; and Cimap! Centoitalianimattiapechino, which was presented at Locarno and won the 2009 Libero Bizzarri award. Il pezzo mancante (2010), about the Agnelli family, won the Cinema Doc competition at the TFF, while his next movie Le cose belle (2012), co-directed with Agostino Ferrente, participated at the Venice Film Festival and later won twenty-five national and international awards. The collective film 9x10 novanta (2014), produced by the Istituto Luce for its ninetieth anniversary, participated at the Giornate degli Autori in Venice and that same year he collaborated with Antonietta De Lillo on the documentary Let’s Go, out-of-competition at the 2014 TFF. In 2015, he presented the short films Se avessi le parole and Quasi eroi at the Rome Film Fest; this latter movie also won the Silver Ribbon for best short film. In 2017, he made the video installation L’energia degli italiani for the Italian pavilion at the Expo in Astana, Kazakhstan, and in 2018, the web series Ogni santo 23. In 2020, he presented the short Come si scrive ti amo in coreano in Rome and that same year he taught documentary directing at the Gian Maria Volonté Film School. In 2021 he presented Cipria.

FILMOGRAFIA

Ebrei in Sudafrica (coregia Laura Muscardin, cm, doc, 1992), Black Taxi (coregia Laura Muscardin, cm, 1993), Mosè a Bombay (coregia Laura Muscardin, cm, doc, 1994), Bananine unipolari (cm, doc, 1997), Il mio nome è Nico Cirasola (mm, doc, 1998), Intervista a mia madre (coregia Agostino Ferrente, mm, doc, 1999), Verdi Suprême (cm, doc, 2002), L’esplosione (doc, 2003), This Is My Sister (mm, doc, 2006), Cimap! Centoitalianimattiapechino (doc, 2008), La danza delle api (coregia Giulio Cederna, mm, doc), Il pezzo mancante (doc, 2010), Le cose belle (coregia Agostino Ferrente, doc, 2012), Miracolo italiano (ep. di 9x10 novanta, 2014), Chiedi a papà (serie tv, doc, 2015), Almost Heroes (cm, 2015), Viale Giorgio Morandi (2017), Lamiya (cm, 2019), Voci a domicilio (cm, 2019), Come si scrive ti amo in coreano (cm, 2019), Cipria (2021), Sedici millimetri alla rivoluzione (doc, 2023).

Cast

& Credits

Regia, soggetto, sceneggiatura: Agostino Ferrente, Giovanni Piperno.
Director of photography: Giovanni Piperno.
Editor: Giancarlo Cammarota, Roberta Cruciani.
Sound: Fabio Santesarti.
Production company: Agostino Ferrente, Giovanni Piperno, via Flaminia 441, 00196 Roma, tel. e fax +39-06-36002817, e mail ccolaiac@it.oralle.com.
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