Flying Roots

 

SHORT SYNOPSIS
A group of teenagers, a participatory video lab, three second-generation stories. Flying Roots is a collective self-narrative documentary about the search for self and identity that explores some urgent issues for the youths: who I am, what my origins are, what my future is.

SYNOPSIS
Flying Roots tells the story of three teenagers who inherited three different national backgrounds: Italian-Chinese Federico (16 years old); Micaela (16years old) Italian-Bolivian; and Ludovica (18 years old), Italian-Armenian.

We see them filming themselves and others in search of answers about their existence, guided by a common question: what is my identity?

Federico is interested in the relationship between. Italians and the Chinese community. He feels that there is a gap between Italians and Chinese and is annoyed by the stereotypes of the former over the latter. It is crucial for Federico to show those
moments in which Italians and Chinese are together, such as his sister’s wedding, where many guests are Italian.
Micaela, on the other hand, wants to understand if she is more Bolivian or more Italian. She was born in Bolivia, but grew up in Italy. We follow her interviewing her brother and father, performing traditional dances during the Bolivian Carnival and
celebrating the most important event of her life, the “quinceañera”.
Ludovica wants to learn more about the Armenian genocide through the voices of her relatives.
However, both the grandmother and the great aunt seem reluctant to tell the family story. Ludovica’s research remains suspended and a huge generational gap displays through paradoxical and grotesque conversations.
The three stories are accompanied by Scilla’s voice and texts (18 years old), an Italian born in Holland, whose empathic poetry adds intensity to the whole narrative.

 

DIRECTORS

 

 

Michele Aiello was born in Verona in 1987 and is a documentarist and participatory video educator for children, adolescents and adults. Member of the ZaLab Cultural Association, he has collaborated with Radio3 RAI, the Teatro di Roma and the Educational Cooperation Movement.
He’s a first-class graduate in International Relations, specializing in armed conflicts and marginalization of minorities in Sudan. Occasionally he’s also a freelance journalist.
In 2016 he was co-author with Stefano Collizzolli of the documentary FuoriClasse – the Possible School. In 2017 he directed one of the episodes of the multi-hand documentary film Paese Nostro. In 2018 he participated as a journalist in the investigative documentary Violents Borders. In 2019 with ZaLab Film he started his first documentary feature film as director, Un Giorno la Notte.

Davide Crudetti was born in Rome in 1991 and is a documentarist and a participatory video trainer. He’s a member of the ZaLab Cultural Association, graduated Performing Arts from the University of Bologna in 2014, he attended the basic course of direction of the Centro Sperimentale in Rome in 2015. From 2012 to 2014 he worked as assistant director at Cine sin Autor, production company in
Madrid. Since 2016 he has been collaborating with ZaLab, with whom he distributed Mingong, his first feature film awarded in various national festivals. He has carried out participatory cinema workshops for important cultural institutions. In 2018 he was assistant director of Andrea Segre for the film “Il Pianeta in Mare”, produced by ZaLab Film srl with Rai Cinema and Istituto Luce. In 2019 he is the director and contributor to the writing of the docu-theater show Lybia Back Home, produced by La Ballata dei Lenna and Acri Teatri Indipendenti. He has his second documentary feature Mamma Rita in production with ZaLab, already a finalist of the Solinas Prize for Documentary.

Country: Italy 2018

Duration: 40 mins

Credits

CREATED BY
Micaela Zurita Poma, Federico Hu, Scilla Volpe Simoncelli, Ludovica Paesano
SCREENPLAY BY
Micaela Zurita Poma, Federico Hu, Scilla Volpe Simoncelli, Ludovica Paesano
CAST
Micaela Zurita Poma, Federico Hu, Scilla Volpe Simoncelli, Ludovica Paesano
EDITOR
Artemide Alfieri
CINEMATOGRAPHY BY
Micaela Zurita Poma, Federico Hu, Scilla Volpe Simoncelli, Ludovica Paesano
COLOR CORRECTION
Clara Anicito
SCRIPT AND VOICE
Scilla Volpe Simoncelli
SOUND DESIGN
Silvia Orengo
SCORE
La Flor del Otro, Banda Poopo
PROJECT COORDINATOR
Sara Zavarise
INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION
Maud Corino
PROMOTION AND COMMUNICATION
Chiara Tringali
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Giulia Vigna