Country: USA, Italy
Year: 2022
Duration: 10'
A beached whale encounters its simulacrum as other intruders observe, gather, dissect, and take a selfie. The borderline between documentary and fiction blurs; using an experimental lens, the movie explores the changes caused by progress and post-industrial capitalism. The moment has come to pay our last respects to the whale.
Biography
film director
Alessia Cecchet
(Feltre, Belluno, Italy) graduated from the University of Bologna with a degree in film studies. She completed her practical training in filmmaking at Syracuse University, New York, USA. She is pursued a PhD at the University of California Santa Cruz and her thesis Salvate il soldato Donald. Cinema di animazione di propaganda americana durante il secondo conflitto mondiale has won the Franco La Polla Prize at the 2013 Future Film Festival. With her shorts Onikuma (2016), Il sentire dell’occhio (2017) e WWW (the whale who wasn’t) (2018) partecipate at Italiana.Corti competition at Torino Film Festival.
FILMOGRAFIA
Psycho-Drama (cm, 2014), Cold Fish (cm, 2015), Onikuma (cm, 2016), Il sentire dell’occhio (cm, 2017), WWW (the whale who wasn’t) (cm, 2018), Big(foot) Love (cm, 2019), Balaena (cm, 2022).
Declaration
film director
“Trying to impede the artificial movement created by man, Balaena concentrates on the immobility of a body and the beauty of its decay. Through my research on 'whales on rails,' I discovered that female bodies were often photographed with whales for promotional purposes, creating an astonishing parallel with the patriarchal mentality and the concept of traditional gender roles: the woman's body as an object. This is how how the female 'balenofora' (whale bearer) was born. Through a simulacrum (the puppet), she searches for closure with the earth and its inhabitants, in mourning for the damage caused by human supremacy.”
Cast
& Credits
DIRECTOR, SCREENPLAY, FILM EDITING: Alessia Cecchet. MUSIC: Joshua Dean Tuthill.
CONTACT:
Alessia Cecchet - filmandfibers@gmail.com
