The project begins with Gennariello, a film written and directed in 1957 on Super 8 film by the photographer and amateur filmmaker Paolo Maggiore, and recently digitised by the Archivio Cinema del reale as part of the Zavattini Prize. Set in Praiano, a fishing village on the Amalfi Coast, the film tells the story of a young boy grappling with the difficulties of everyday life, offering an empathetic glimpse into an Italy marked by poverty, aspirations and the small gestures that accompany growing up.
Taking these archive images as her starting point, Sophia Giustizieri creates a work that interweaves painting, collage and drawing. The original images are overlaid with marks, colours and superimpositions that do not illustrate the narrative, but expand the possibilities for interpreting it, bringing to the surface emotions, desires and thoughts that remain off-screen. The project, featuring original music by the young composer Albis Umbra, focuses on Gennariello’s gaze and his experience of the world, evoking a dimension suspended between reality and imagination. This reinterpretation brings to the fore themes such as childhood, social differences and the father-son relationship, told with realism and relying on the evocative power of the images.
