Paesaggi della memoria

Two documentary filmmakers accidentally find some reels containing old films by Vittorio De Seta, the director of unforgettable masterpieces such as Banditi a Orgosolo and Diario di un maestro. De Seta left Rome in 1981 and moved to Calabria, where he cultivates an olive grove. The filmmakers visited him in 1995 and gave him the rediscovered reels from his 1950s documentary films. They all decided that DeSeta would review his experiences as director. They watched the films again with him, analyzing them, commenting on them, and remembering.

"Thirty years have gone by since the cinema and television have experienced the appearance of De Seta's Diario di un maestro. This was a work that fully achieved the basic concepts of direct cinema for the first time in Italy. This way of working finally revealed the beauty of film made in contact with the real world of all of us. Nowadays, aided by the new types of technology, young directors have rediscovered a fascination with the documentary film They should turns their thought to the people like DeSeta who ran against all the problems of their times and constantly risked their careers as directors. They people laid the foundations of a solitary cinema that delved deep into the hearts of everyone but also into the hearts of society." (P. Isaja, M.P. Melandri).

Regia, soggetto, sceneggiatura, fotografia montaggio: Paolo Isaja, Maria Pia Melandri.
Cast: Vittorio De Seta.
Produzione, distribuzione: Paolo Isaja, Maria Pia Melandri per Cinema Ricerca, via del Castello 44, Ostia Antica, Roma, Italia, tel. e fax +39-06-5651764, e-mail paolo.isaja@libero.it.