To use the word “interesting” to describe an event, a book, an exhibition or a piece of poetry, is generally the kiss of death. It is more or less the default word when the commentator can think of no other but sometimes, just sometimes it is really the only word that could be used to describe something that has been viewed and now needs to be commented on.
Such was the case during last summer in Barga Vecchia, when Carmine Parrella and his troupe of filmmakers and actors turned up to record one of the final scenes for a short film which has just released to the public with a screening in Barga Vecchia.
As you can hear in the short interview with Carmine Parrella recorded in the barganews office directly after they finished filming, their working methods and reasons behind the making of the film could only be described as very interesting.
In a world that seems to be in love with labels or little boxes to put people in, Carmine has a perfect label to describe just what it is that he is involved in – he calls it, Community Filming.
There is no set storyline but one which evolves during the work process based on the content and the interests of the people involved and using feedback from the community once filming starts.
It could almost be described as an organic process and certainly nobody involved in the filming has at the start any idea of the final product.
Circumstances and chance encounters combined with concepts and ideas that they wish to explore make for an interesting working method.
There was a slight Fellini atmosphere in the piazza as at one point it was unclear who where the actors and who were simply onlookers. Just to make it even more confusing, at one moment during the proceedings, a passing visitor was seen to be operating the boom mic whilst the sound engineer appeared to be taking photographs of some of the actors.
It all got a bit confusing, especially when in the main scene involving a bicycle race it appeared to be Garibaldi waving the starting flag and the Mayor of Barga informing the participants the correct route around the city.
Garibaldi was obviously not the real Garibaldi but The Mayor of Barga was played by the Mayor of Barga, Marco Bonini who won a round of applause after delivering his lines in one perfect take.
Normal life in the city carried on where these events were taking place with filming halting for passing visitors dragging their heavy suitcases, the occasional passing tractor and at one point another perfect Federico Fellini* moment, as two smiling men came in view carrying a large red sofa between them. Exit stage right.
*Federico Fellini was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for his distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images with earthiness, he is considered one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of the 20th century.In a career spanning almost fifty years, Fellini won five Academy Awards including the most Oscars in history for Best Foreign Language Film.