WELCOME TO ITALY

 

A documentary by
Aluk Amiri, Hamed Dera, Hevi Dilara, Zakaria Mohamed Ali, Dagmawi Yimer, 2012 (60′).

Five shorts written, shot and directed by young immigrants to Italy. A mosaic of stories providing an inside approach to the migrant condition, together with a composite portrait of Italy and its reception system as perceived by the new arrivals.

Benvenuti in Italia (Welcome to  Italy) is a documentary in five episodes, shot by ten hands, produced by the Archive of Migrant Memories and supported by the lettera27 and Open Society foundations in collaboration with the Italian language school Asinitas and the Circolo Gianni Bosio (a centre specializing in popular culture). The authors of the film come from a wide variety of countries and were selected regardless of their having any experience in the audiovisual field. Many had never held a video camera before. After a period of training they chose to set their stories within the different contexts of their arrival in Italy.

Aluk Amiri, a young Afghan who came to Italy when he was 15, tells of the tribulations of his alter ego Nasir, on the day of his 18th birthday, in a flat provided by the Municipality of Venice for political refugees.
Zakaria Mohamed Ali, forced to leave Mogadishu after the assassination of his teacher of journalism and other colleagues, gives voice to a young footballer’s dreams of glory. Dadir, a soccer champion in his own country, has to travel from Milan to Rome without a railway ticket in order to play with the “Somali national team of Rome”.
In her episode, Hevi Dilara, a Kurdish refugee, tells of the disorientation of a young family that has just disembarked and is now in a first reception centre in Herculaneum.
The episode filmed by Hamed Dera, from Burkina Faso, shows the activities and guests of “Chez Margherita”, a boarding house that had become a landmark for the Burkinabé community in Naples, shortly before it closed.
The Ethiopian refugee filmmaker, Dagmawi Yimer, presents Mohamed Ba, the Senegalese actor and cultural mediator, while he describes how a stranger suddenly knifed him at a bus stop on a beautiful sunny day.

Read further information in Benvenuti in Italia – The project.

Participants in the project attended a training course on documentary filming, conducted by Renaud Personnaz from the Ateliers Varan, producing six brief documentaries on the subject of work:

 

Roma arrota (Sharpening Rome) by Aluk Amiri

 

L’attesa (Waiting) by Zakaria Mohamed Ali

 

Bilal by Hevi Dilara

 

Friziorat by Dagmawi Yimer

 

Centro Campista (Midfielder) by Mahamady Dera

 

A lavoro (To work) by Desislava Stoichkova

Parternships

Partnerships established over the years with cultural associations, foundations and non-profit organizations have allowed us to accumulate experience and professional expertise to support the Archive and its activities. In particular, our collaboration with the Circolo Gianni Bosio has enabled us to carry out joint activities and find operational support at its premises in the Casa della Memoria e della Storia in Rome.

These partnerships have resulted in a whole series of activities culminating in educational and cultural initiatives, public events, participation in festivals, production awards, advocacy interventions, conventions with cultural organizations, non-governmental associations, universities and schools, especially in Rome and its province.

AMM has also been engaged in activities located in other areas: Sardinia, partnering with the 4caniperstrada association (Sassari), with participatory video production and screening and visual research; Sicily, with the Isole association, the Municipality of Lampedusa, the Biblioteca Centrale della Regione Siciliana in Palermo, the Amari-Ferrara-Roncalli  and Perez-Madre Teresa di Calcutta schools; Naples, with the Università “L’Orientale” and the Università “Federico II”, the Valenzi foundation, the L.E.S.S. association NGO and the Istituto Comprensivo Fava-Gioia; and also in a number of schools located in Brescia, Ferrara, Mantua, Milan and Turin.

Since 2012 AMM has played an active part in three long-term online projects with other organizations:

Rete di archivi su memoria e migrazioni (Fondo Rete Memorie Migranti – FRMM)

In 2012 AMM’s partnership with l’Università di Napoli “L’Orientale”, Circolo Bosio and ICBSA led to the launching of a Network of archives on memory and migration the Rete di archivi su memoria e migrazioni (RAMM) (Memory and Migration Archives Network), later to become the Fondo Rete Memorie Migranti – FRMM)  aimed at making available to the public audiovisual productions and personal narratives by migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Italy, Somalia and other countries.

2) The Gianandrea Mutti Prize. Starting the same year, in partnership with the Cineteca di Bologna, the Amici di Giana association, Human Rights Nights and, as from 2016, with the Pianoterra foundation, AMM has contributed to an annual award for foreign filmmakers who have lived in Italy for at least a year. The name of the winner is announced every year during the International Film Festival in Venice.

3) The DiMMi Prize. In 2016 AMM began a partnership with the Associazione diaristica nazionale (National Diary Association, ADN) at Pieve S. Stefano and with its partners in Tuscany to launch the DiMMi-Diari multimediali migranti (multimedial diaries by migrants) competition and extend it to the rest of Italy. As of 2018, AMM has become one of the project’s centres for collecting diaries containing testimonies and personal stories.

From the outset, AMM has devoted particular attention to the production and diffusion of participatory videos and audiovisuals on the condition of migrants in Italy.

Some of the videos were produced as part of the activities of the Asinitas associaton (Come un uomo sulla terra, 2008; Una scuola italiana, 2009; C.A.R.A. Italia, 2010); some with the support of lettera27, Open Society and the Premio Mutti (Soltanto il mare and Benvenuti in Italia, 2011; Va’ Pensiero. Storie ambulanti, 2012); others as part of educational projects (“Il rovescio della migrazione”, FEI, Centro Cabral and University of Turin project,  2014-2015; “T’imparano” by Suranga Katugampala, Tor Sapienza i-LAB project with the Pianoterra Foundation and the Anthropos Association, Rome 2017; “Strade minori”, CPIA 1 project, Palermo, 2017) or in connection with MigrArti competitions (including a film forum at the Cineteca di Bologna, 2016; the production of “La consegna”, a short by Suranga Katugampala, with OktaFilm, 2017; the presentation of “Ver sacrum”, a short by Letizia Gullo and Dagmawi Yimer with graffiti.doc, 2018).

AMM has also been involved in the production of music CDs with the Circolo Gianni Bosio (Istaraniyeri – Musiche Migranti a Roma, 2011, and We are not going back. Musica e migranti di resistenza, 2017). Starting in 2013, a partnership with the educational publisher Giunti Scuola led to the development of a teaching kit (Va’ Pensiero. Percorsi di antirazzismo in classe, 2014), based on the film Va’ Pensiero. Storie ambulanti (2012) by director Dagmawi Yimer, and the publication of AMM’s blog, “A scuola dell’altro”, in the online journal Sesamo.

For further information see our Projects and Schools pages.

Over the last five years AMM has conducted projects, workshops and initiatives in partnership with a number of different universities, centres and institutes in Italy and abroad.

Cinema and Migration

Over the last twenty years, there has been a focus on migrants in a vast number of films, bringing them to the centre of attention. This section includes a list of over 200 film titles, filmed all over Italy between the early 1990s and 2017: feature films, shorts, documentaries, reportages, arthouse films. This overview of works that we find interesting, but that seldom reach the main distribution circuits, responds to the need for a general survey of film production on migration in Italy.

Help us add to the list by indicating new releases or omissions.

All requests regarding films listed in this sector – viewing, consultation, further information – should be sent directly to the producers or authors. For AMM films write to us directly.

 

2017

Sea Sorrow – Il dolore del mare
Vanessa Redgrave
Gran Bretagna – 2017 – 75′

L’altro volto della speranza
Aki Kaurismäki
Helsinki – 2017 – 98′

La consegna – The Delivery
Suranga Deshapriya Katugampala
Lessinia (VR) – 2017 – 15′

L’ordine delle cose
Andrea Segre
Roma, Sicilia, Libia – 2017 – 112′

Io sono qui
Gabriele Gravagna
Palermo – 2017 – 92′

Figli Maestri
Simone Bucri
Acilia (Roma) – 2017 – 16′

Human Flow
Ai Weiwei
2017 – 140′

Pagine nascoste
Sabrina Varani
Italia, Etiopia – 2017 – 67′

Talien
Elia Moutamid
Italia, Marocco – 2017 – 87′

 

2016

C’è un posto per me nel mondo
Nene Grignaffini, Francesco Conversano
Brescia, Moldavia – 2016 – 56′

Fuocoammare
Francesco Rosi
Lampedusa – 2016 – 108′

If I Close my Eyes
Francesca Mannocchi, Alessio Romenzi
Libano – 2016 – 52′

Per un figlio
Suranga Deshapriya Katugampala
Nord Italia – 2016 – 74′

Radio Ghetto Relay
Alessandra Ferrini
Rignano -2016 – 15′ 24”

Se una notte di mezza estate i Bottom Brothers
Adriano Foraggio
Napoli – 2016 – 86′

The Black Sheep
Antonio Martino
Libia – 2016 – 70′

 

2015

Dustur
Marco Santarelli
Bologna – 2015 – 74′

If Only I Were That Warrior
Valerio Ciriaci
Affile (RM), Roma, New York (USA), New Jersey, Addis Abeba, Etiopia – 2015 – 72′

Loro di Napoli
Pierfrancesco Li Donni
Napoli – 2015 – 75′

Luoghi comuni
Angelo Loy
Roma – 2015 – 75′

Flotel Europa
Vladimir Tomić
Copenaghen – 2015 – 70′

La mer ne nous accroche pas
Omar Ba, Malik Nejmi
Tangeri – 2015 – 55′

Negotiating Amnesia
Alessandra Ferrini
Etiopia – 2015 – 29′

 

2014

Asmarina
Alan Maglio, Medhin Paolos
Milano, Bologna – 2014 – 69′

Io sto con la sposa
Gabriele Del Grande, Antonio Augugliaro, Khaled Soliman Al Nassiry
Europa – 2014 – 98′

Napps – Memoire of An Invisible Man
Tami Liberman
Berlino – 2014 – 30′

Samira
Nicola Mai
Marsiglia – 2014 – 28′

L’Abri – The Shelter
Fernand Melgar
Losanna – 2014 – 101′

Sponde. Nel sicuro sole del nord
Irene Dionisio
Zarzis, Tunisia – Lampedusa (Tp) – 2014 – 55′

Cittadini del nulla
Razi Mohebi
Mori (Tn) – 2014 – 52′

La neve, la prima volta
Valerio Cataldi
Lampedusa (Tp), Olanda, Svezia, Norvegia – 2014 – 54,13′

Non morire fino a primavera
Camilla Ruggiero
Roma – 2014 – 32′

Il futuro è troppo grande
Giusy Buccheri, Michele Citoni
Roma, Shanghai, Qingtian – 2014 – 80′

Quando Yousef si mise in cammino
Valerio Cataldi
Grecia Macedonia Serbia Ungheria – 2015 – 57′

Terra di transito
Paolo Martino
Roma – 2014 – 52’

 

2013

Campososta
Stefano Liberti, Enrico Parenti
Roma, Campo di via Salone – 2013 – 8′

Ciè Business
Marco Bova
Modena, Roma, Trapani – 2013 – 12′

EU 013 – L’ultima frontiera
Alessio Genovese
Ancona, Bari, Fiumicino (RM), Ponte Galeria (RM), Trapani – 2013 – 62′

L’escale
Kaveh Bakhtiari
Atene – 2013 – 100′

Grooving Lampedusa
Mario Badagliacca
Lampedusa (Ag) – 2013 – 5′

La prima neve
Andrea Segre
Trentino – 2013 – 105′

La polvere di Kabul
Morteza Kaleghi
Iran, Grecia, Roma – 2013 – 12′

Mare Madre
Ernani Paterra
Camigliatello Silano (Cs) – 2013 –  10′

Maschera mia quanto mi costi
Mohamed Kenawi
Roma – 2013 – 53′

Nuove cittadine
Sara Zavarise
Roma – 2013 – 8’

Ponte Galera
Marco Casciani, Maurizio Tafuro
Ponte Galeria (Rm) – 2013 – 63′

Rosarno
Greta De Lazzaris
Rosarno (Rc) – 2013 – ’70

Sanperè! – Venisse il fulmine
Francesca Frigo
Cuneo – 2013 – 70′

Schiavi – Le rotte di nuove forme di sfruttamento
Stefano Mencherini
Lecce – 2013 – 62′

To whom it may concern
Mohamed Zakaria Ali
Lampedusa (Ag) – 2013 – 16′

Un core dentro stazione Termini
Samuel Cirpaci
Roma – 2013 – 18′

Va’ pensiero. Storie ambulanti
Dagmawi Yimer
Firenze, Milano, Roma – 2013 – 55′

Italeñas
David Chierchini, Matteo Keffer, Davide Morandini
Genova – 2013 – 6′

 

2012

To work – A lavoro
Desislava Stoichkova
Roma – 2012 – 3’

Alì ha gli occhi azzurri
Claudio Giovannesi
Ostia (Rm) – 2012 – 100′

Anija (La nave)
Roland Sejko
Puglia – 2012 – 83′

Arcipelaghi
Martin Errichiello, Gabriele Sossella
Napoli – 2012 – 19′

Aula 3 – Storie di rifugiati politici‬
Silvia Perra
Cagliari – 2012 – 45′

Bello essere Habesha
Enrico Turli, Ines Vieira, Akio Takemoto
Bologna – 2012 – 30′

Benvenuti in Italia
Aluk Amiri, Hamed Dera, Hevi Dilara, Zakaria Mohamed Ali, Dagmawi Yimer
Venezia, Milano, Roma, Ercolano, Napoli – 2012 – 60′

Bilal
Havi Dilara
Roma – 2012 – 10’

Caminante
Franco Di Martino, Giuseppe Portuesi, Francesco Valvo
Noto (Sr) – 2012 – 80′

Centro Campista
Mahamady Dera
Roma – 2012 – 9’

Friziorat
Dagmawi Yimer
Roma – 2012 – 13’

GeNEWration
Amin Nour, Pietro Tamaro
Roma – 2012 – 12’16”

Grazie per tutto Signor Presidente
Bennati Matteo
Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mn) – 2012 – 49′

Il santo nero
Antonio Bellia
Agrigento – 2012 – 75′

In nome del popolo italiano
Gabriele Del Grande, Stefano Liberti
Ponte Galeria (Rm) – 2012 – 7′

Inshallah
Riccardo Tappo
Ferentillo (Tr) – 2012 – 31′

Just About My Fingers – Storie di confini e impronte digitali
Paolo Martino
Turchia, Grecia, Italia – 2012 – 40′

L’attesa
Zakaria Mohamed Ali
Roma – 2012 – 11′

La fortuna mi salverà
Alexandra D’Onofrio
Torino – 2012 – 18′

La nave dolce
Daniele Vicari
Albania, Bari – 2012 – 90′

La palestra
Francesco Calandra
Pescara – 2012 – 70′

La quarta via: Mogadiscio, Italia
Simone Brioni, Graziano Chiscuzzu, Ermanno Guida
Pavia – 2012 – 37′

Lampedusa-Parigi: diario di viaggio
Emiliano Pappacena
Lampedusa (Ag), Parigi – 2012 – 52′

Le perle di ritorno. Odissea di un vetraio africano
Franco Basaglia
Venezia – 2012 – 62′

L’amore ai tempi della frontiera
Alexandra D’Onofrio
Tunisia – Italia – 2012 – 20′

Mamma rom
Antonella Cristofaro, Vincenzo Valentino
Roma – 2012 – 43′

Mare chiuso
Stefano Liberti, Andrea Segre
Mar Mediterraneo, Shousha (Tunisia) – 2012 – 60′

Mare deserto
Emiliano Bos, Paul Nicol
Libia, Italia – 2012 – 54′

Memorie uditive
Adriano Foraggio
Palermo – 2012 – 16′

Mineo Housing
Cinzia Castanìa
Mineo (Ct) – 2012 – 59′

Papà non torna più
Alexandra D’Onofrio
Casablanca, Marocco – 2012 – 15′

Piccola terra
Michele Trentini
Valstagna, Canale di Brenta, Valsugana (Vi) – 2012 – 54′

Roma arrota
Aluk Amiri
Roma – 2012 – 9′

Sicilia Sama Diwaan – La Sicilia è la mia casa
Djibril Kebe, Marzia Mete, Roberto Scarpetta
Palermo, Catania, Porticello (Pa) – 2012 – 58′

Studenti in mezzo come me
Matteo Bennati
Castiglione delle Stiviere (Mn) – 2012 – 54′

Zingarò, una sartoria Rom
Marilisa Piga, Nicoletta Nessler, Nicola Contini
Carbonia (CI) – 2012 – 50′

 

2011

Katada Ayti (I Soldi di Mia Madre)
Suranga Deshapriya Katugampala
Wennappuwa (Sri Lanka) – 2011 – 11’48”

18 Ius soli
Fred Kudjo Kuwornu
Bologna, Roma, Napoli – 2011 – 50′

A Chjàna
Jonas Carpignano
Rosarno (RC) – 2011 – 19′

Aicha è tornata
Juan Martin Baigorria, Lisa Tormena
Castello di Serravalle (Bo), Torino – 2011 – 35′

Altra Europa
Rossella Schillaci
Torino – 2011 – 75′

Aulò
Simone Brioni, Graziano Chiscuzzu, Ermanno Guida
Roma – 2011 – 41′

Caramadre
Matteo Pianezzi
Mazara del Vallo (Tp) – 2011 – 6′

Dalla testa al cielo
Debora Scaperrotta
Bolzano – 2011 – 53′

Di tessuti e di altre storie
Teresa Paoli
Prato – 2011 – 53′

Ferrhotel
Mariangela Barbanente
Bari – 2011 – 73′

Good buy Roma
Gaetano Crivaro, Margherita Pisano
Roma – 2011 – 50′

Harraguantanamo
Ilyess ben Chouikha, Giulia Bondi
Lampedusa (Ag), Trapani – 2011 – 5′

I nostri anni migliori
Matteo Calore, Stefano Collizzolli
Manduria (Ta), Mineo (Ct), Palazzo San Gervasio (Pz) – 2011 – 46′

Il debito del mare
Adil Tanani
Torino – 2011 – 15′

Il viaggio di Mohammed
Web doc interattivo, sviluppo del film Dalla testa al cielo
Debora Scaperrotta
Settat (Marocco); Bolzano – 2011

Immaginario Rom
Domenico Distilo
Venezia, Budapest – 2011 – 42′

Invito a Cena‬ – ‪ Il Lazio incontra il Kurdistan turco‬
Angelo Bozzolini
Roma – 2011

Io sono – Storie di schiavitù
Barbara Cupisti
Crotone, Napoli, Roma – 2011 – 63′

Isola, là dove si parla la lingua di Bacco
Patricia Boillat, Elena Gugliuzza
Milano, quartiere Isola – 2011 – 108′

La-Bas. Educazione criminale
Guido Lombardi
Castel Volturno (Ce) – 2011 – 100′

Life in Italy is Ok. Emergency Programma Italia
Gianfranco Marino
Palermo, Marghera (Ve) – 2011 – 38′

L’arrivo di Wang
Antonio Manetti, Marco Manetti
Torino – 2011 – 80′

L’uomo nero‬
Jessica Di Benedetto
Abruzzo – 2011 – 45′

Mama illegal
Ed Moschitz
Austria, Italia, Moldavia – 2011 – 95′

Mohamed e il pescatore
Marco Leopardi
Lampedusa (Tp), Parigi – 2011 – 52′

Next stop Lampedusa
Nicola Angrisano
Lampedusa (Tp) – 2011 – 33′

Non è un paese per neri
Luca Romano, Francesco Amodeo, Armando Andria e Mario Leombruno
Castel Volturno (Ce) – 2011 – 50′

Recinti. Manduria 2011
Andrea Gadaleta Caldarola
Lampedusa (Ag), Manduria (Ta), Ventimiglia (Im) – 2011 – 40′

Schiavi
Giuseppe Laganà
Foggia, Rosarno (RC) – 2011 – 52′

Soltanto il mare
Dagmawi Yimer, Giulio Cederna, Fabrizio Barraco
Lampedusa (Ag) – 2011 – 49′

Sono qui perché
I ragazzi e gli insegnanti della scuola primaria e secondaria dell’Istituto Comprensivo Statale di Vimodrone, nel corso degli anni scolastici 2009-11
Milano – 2011

Storie di Libertà
Paolo Inno, Riccardo Specchia
Manduria (Ta) – 2011 – 15′

Terraferma
Emanuele Crialese
Italia, Francia – 2011 – 88′

Un paradiso di schiavi
Sandro Di Domenico
San Nicola Varco (Sa), Castel Volturno (Ce), Napoli – 2011

Vite in attesa
Alessio Genovese, Rosario Riginella, Gaspare Pellegrino
Trapani – 2011

Vol spécial
Fernand Melgar
Frambois (Ginevra, Ch) – 2011 – 103′

 

2010

Alysia nel paese delle meraviglie
Simone Amendola
Roma – 2010 – 40′

C.A.R.A. Italia
Dagmawi Yimer
Castelnuovo di Porto (Rm) – 2010 – 38′

Famiglie migranti a porte aperte
Aldo Pavan
Giavera del Montello (Tv) – 2010

Homeless United
Marco Leopardi, Emiliano Sacchetti
Milano – 2010 – 52′

Lasa Revuca‬
Martin Fliri
Alto Adige, Slovacchia – 2010 – 42′

Il paese dei bronzi
Vincenzo Caricari
Riace (Rc) – 2010 – 41′

Il sangue verde
Andrea Segre
Rosarno (Rc) – 2010 – 52′

Il tempo delle arance
Nicola Angrisano
Rosarno (Rc) – 2010 – 30′

In coda
Andrea Paz Cortès, Diego Fabricio con la collaborazione di Elia Mariano
Milano – 2010 – 60′

Jamal va in Europa
Paolo Palermo
Brindisi – 2010 – 9′

Nato sotto un altro cielo
Roberto Magnini
Torino – 2010 – 52′

Non tutti i neri vengono per nuocere‬
Salvatore Nappa
Provincia di Caserta – 2010 – 50′

Sola andata. Il viaggio di un Tuareg
Fabio Caramaschi
Pordenone – 2010 – 52′

Termini Underground
Emilia Zazza
Roma – 2010 – 80′

Una scuola italiana
Giulio Cederna, Angelo Loy
Roma – 2010 – 75′

Vera
Francesca Melandri
Campagna vicino Roma – 2010 – 48′

MEI [MEIG] voci migranti
Federico Greco
Valtiberina – 2010 – 50′

 

2009

Di che colore sei?‬
Carlo Ruggiero
Italia – 2009 – 26′

Fratelli d’Italia
Claudio Giovannesi
Ostia – 2009 – 90′

Giallo a Milano
Sergio Basso
Milano – 2009 – 74′

Good Morning Aman
Claudio Noce
Roma – 2009 – 105′

Hanna e Violka‬
Rossella Piccinno
Salento, Polonia – 2009 – 56′

Il colore delle parole
Marco Simon Puccioni
Roma – 2009 – 70′

Ritratto di famiglia con badante
Alessandra Speciale
Italia – 2009 – 51′

Io, la mia famiglia rom e Woody Allen
Laura Halilovic
Torino – 2009 – 50′

Le altre stelle. Il suono dei migranti
Simone Furbetta
Provincia di Ancona – 2009

Nìguri‬
Antonio Martino
Calabria – 2009 – 50′

Storie migranti
Takyiu Traoré, Abdelhadi Fahmi, Ana Maria Preda, Octavian Petriu, Florin Lucan, Shaku Gassma
Milano – 2009 – 39′

‘U stisso sangu
Francesco Di Martino
Sicilia – 2009 – 55′

Valentina Postika in attesa di partire
Caterina Carone
Pesaro – 2009 – 77′

 

2008

Come un uomo sulla terra
Andrea Segre, Dagmawi Yimer, in collaborazione con Riccardo Biadene
Roma – 2008 – 60′

I cercatori di miraggi
Mario Chemello
Zambia; Bologna – 2008 – 62′

La dispensa di Genet‬
Cristiano Regina
Modena – 2008 – 30′

La Domitiana. Dove non c’è strada non c’è civiltà
Romano Montesarchio
Castel Volturno (Ce), Mondragone (Ce) – 2008 – 58′

La forteresse
Fernand Melgar
Svizzera – 2008 – 100′

Sognavo le nuvole colorate
Mario Balsamo
Lecce – 2008 – 65′

Via Anelli
Marco Segato
Padova – 2008 – 68′

Voci di donne native e migranti‬
Rossella Piccinno
Lecce – 2008 – 14′

 

2007

14 Kilómetros
Gerardo Olivares
Mali, Niger, Algeria, Marocco – 2007 – 95′

Carmine. Voci da un quartiere
Sara Zavarise
Brescia – 2007 – 23′

Il deserto e il mare
Dagmawi Yimer, Sintayehu Eshetu, Solomon Moges, Menghistu Andechal, Adam Awad
Roma, Catania – 2007 – 61′

Le ferie di Licu
Vittorio Moroni
Roma – 2007 – 93′

La giusta distanza
Carlo Mazzacurati
Nord Italia – 2007 – 106′

Sei del mondo
Camilla Ruggiero
Ostia – 2007 – 52′

Storie arbëreshë
Mario Balsamo
Piana degli Albanesi (Pa) – 2007 – 53′

Un tempo si chiamavano cafoni
Orsola Sinisi
Orta Nova (Fg) – 2007 – 34′

 

2006

Donne in corriera
Michele Codarin, Marta Zaccaron
Udine, Casablanca – 2006 – 41′

Il mondo addosso
Costanza Quatriglio
Roma – 2006 – 90′

Inatteso
Domenico Distilo
Roma – 2006 – 50′

La grande corsa
Caterina Monzani, Alessandro Pavone, William Negro
Bologna – 2006 – 19′

L’orchestra di Piazza Vittorio
Agostino Ferrente
Roma – 2006 – 90′

Sini & Roi una storia d’amore tra Bologna e l’India
Claudine Tissier, Fabio Campo
Bologna; Kerala – 2006 – 60′

Storia di Habteab
Federico Triulzi
Roma – 2006 – 30′

Via dell’Esquilino
Daniele Di Blasio
Roma – 2006 – 47′

 

2005

Campioni d’Africa. Cittadini italiani
Gianfranco Anzini
Roma – 2005 – 111′

Hotel House
Giorgio Cingolani
Porto Recanati (Mc) – 2005 – 68′

La Polverera
Manuela Borgetti, Maria Rosa Jijon, Sonia Maccari
Roma – 2005 – 30′

Le donne vestivano gonne fiorite
Carlo Chiaromonte
Roma – 2005 – 52′

Tra due terre
Michele Carrillo
Buenos Aires – 2005 – 70′

Un cinese a Roma
Gianfranco Giagni
Roma – 2005 – 50′

 

2004

Filo di luce
Michele Fasano
Vescovato (Cr) – 2004 – 56′

Jetoj – Vivo
Ervis Eshja, Mattia Soranzo
Puglia – 2004 – 18′

Materiali a confronto
Giuseppe M. Gaudino
Napoli – 2004 – 109′

 

2003

Lovte
Andrea Camuffo, Simone Spada
Roma – 2003 – 52′

Welcome to Italy project

 

Five shorts written, shot and directed by young immigrants to Italy. A mosaic of stories providing an inside approach to the migrant condition, together with a composite portrait of Italy and its reception system as perceived by the new arrivals.

A documentary by
Aluk Amiri, Hamed Dera, Hevi Dilara, Zakaria Mohamed Ali, Dagmawi Yimer, 2012 (60′).

Benvenuti in Italia (WELCOME TO ITALY) is a documentary in five episodes, shot by ten hands, produced by the Archive of Migrant Memories and supported by the lettera27 and Open Society foundations in collaboration with the Italian language school Asinitas and the Circolo Gianni Bosio (a centre specializing in popular culture). The authors of the film come from a wide variety of countries and were selected regardless of their having any experience in the audiovisual field. Many had never held a video camera before. After a period of training they chose to set their stories within the different contexts of their arrival in Italy.

Selection took place in January 2011. This was followed in February by an intensive practical course on documentary filmmaking, after which each of the five authors made a brief short. Between March and April they decided on their characters and stories and wrote a synopsis.

Filming was carried out in four different Italian cities between end April and August. Each episode was filmed by a crew made up of two of the participants, acting alternately as author-director of their own story and sound-editor for the story of their colleague. They were assisted by a tutor who helped with logistics and shooting.

 

All five authors spent several weeks editing their episodes, flanked by two experienced video editors.

Among its participants the project also included Svonko DJORDJEVIC. Born in Rome, Svonko grew up in the Roma camp of via dei Gordiani. Although he is to all intents and purposes “Italian”, Svonko never received Italian citizenship. All he has is a residence permit. His contribution to the project is “Where do I come from?”.

Click here to watch the trailer and the shorts produced during the participatory video-making course.

Contributors

BENVENUTI IN ITALIA has benefited from the invaluable assistance of a number of collaborators:

Renaud PERSONNAZ, who supervised AMM’s documentary filmmaking workshop, is a well-known documentary and fiction film camera operator and cinematographer in France and Italy. He has worked with directors such as Martone, Ciprì and Maresco, Soldini, Di Costanzo and Lo Cascio. His own films include the documentaries “Le boeuf sous le toit”, “Au-delà des notes” and “Opera oscura”. For the last ten years he has been a member of the Ateliers Varan, an association founded in Paris in 1981 by Jean Rouch that specializes in hands-on courses in documentary filmmaking.

Aline HERVÉ, a French film editor stationed in Italy, has worked with Pietro Marcello, Paolo Pisanelli and Angelo Loy and has edited numbers of documentaries, including “Pinocchio Nero”, “Don Vitaliano”, “Il passaggio della linea” and “Una scuola italiana”.

Lizi GELBER, born in Italy to American parents, has worked as editor for feature films in Rome, Los Angeles (with Altman, Cimino, Polanski, Sergio Leone) and Paris, where she turned to documentary film editing. Among the documentaries she has worked on is “The Agronomist”, directed by Jonathan Demme. Reflecting on her experience, she describes how “Editing documentaries makes me feel I can combine my work as storyteller with my need to make some sort of contribution, however small, by doing something that is both useful and exciting. The aim of documentaries is often to tell a story from an OTHER point of view, one that is relatively unknown and unprecedented. In this respect, BENVENUTI IN ITALIA provided me with a very special opportunity for an intense exchange of ideas and experiences. I learnt a lot from it… both humanly and professionally.”

Saba ANGLANA, a singer of Ethiopian origin, generously allowed us to use a song from her new upcoming album, “Xamar” (by courtesy of AMRE/Verosound). Born in Mogadishu to an Ethiopian mother and Italian father, with a degree in History of Art, she has several discs to her credit, including “Jidka” (Egea, 2008), “Biyo” (World Music Network, 2010), “Life Changanyisha” (Sud Music, 2012) and “Ye Katama Hod” (Felmay/Egea, 2015).

Denislava Valentinova STOICHKOVA, backstage photographer to the project, designed AMM’s logo and graphic artwork. Born in Sofia, where she graduated, she is a talented photographer and graphic artist and has lived in Italy for several years.

Benvenuti in Italia is a project by Giulio Cederna and Alessandro Triulzi, coordinated by Dagmawi Yimer and Federico Triulzi.

Launch

Benvenuti in Italia was launched simultaneously on January 27, Remembrance Day, in five Italian cities, Rome, Milan, Naples, Venice and Verona.

The event saw the participation of writers, directors, singers, mediators and other celebrities, most of whom were migrants, including Pap Khouma, Saba Anglana, Maria Stefanache, Mohamed Ba, Issa Diallo and Ali Baba Faye. It was made possible by the collaboration of a number of institutions, networks and associations:

Ansi – Associazione Stampa Interculturale; Fortress Europe; L’Italia sono anch’io; Passpartù; Radio.doc; Razzismo brutta storia; Rete Primo Marzo; Storie Migranti; ZaLab; Milano: Institut français; Kenzi Productions; Festival del Cinema Africano d’Asia e America Latina; Naples: Università Federico II; Università L’Orientale di Napoli; CISS – Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud; LTM – Laici Terzo Mondo; L.e.s.s. Onlus; Shangri-La; CEICC – Centro Europeo Informazione Cultura e Cittadinanza; Rome: Centro Aggregativo Apollo 11; La Casa del Cinema; Cinema Trevi – Cineteca Nazionale; Off!cine; Venice: Assessorato alle Attività Culturali Città di Venezia; La Casa del Cinema; Verona: Nella mia città nessuno è straniero; Fondazione Nigrizia Onlus; Festival del Cinema Africano di Verona.

To obtain copies of the film for screenings and public events, write to: segreteria@archiviomemoriemigranti.net

 

Projects

The projects listed in this section are based on participatory methods and on using the practice of self-representation as tools for sharing and coming to awareness of the condition of migrants in Italy. Through training or performance projects carried out in universities, schools or cultural centres and associations, the Archive seeks to leave traces of memory and to diffuse field- and reception practices by recording participants’ voices and stories, sharing the results of its meetings and interactions with a wider public by way of animations and audiovisuals.

 

The Horizon 2020 – ITHACA. Interconnecting Histories and Archives for Migrant Agency: Entangled Narratives Across Europe and the Mediterranean Region project aims to analyze narratives of migrants both in the past and the present, starting from the 15th century until today and create a rigorous historical framework based on them. The project’s idea is based on the creation of the ITHACA Platform, which digitalize all narratives,
“Multimedial Diaries by Migrants” is an Italian life story prize designed to collect and give publicity to stories by people from foreign countries who either live or have lived in Italy. The award has a double objective: as well as collecting and preserving a cultural heritage in danger of being lost, it aims at contrasting anti-migration stereotypes through the stories of people with a personal experience of migration.
The Migrant Memories Networks Collection (FRMM) in the Central Institute for Sound and Audiovisual Heritage contains audiovisual material on memories of immigration in Italy. The idea of setting up a network of migrant memory archives originated in the conviction that Italy is ready to include in its own collective memory cultural traces of the experiences of migration, on the increase in our country.
Why have a prize for foreign filmmakers in Italy? For foreign or Italian filmmakers of migrant origin living in Italy it is almost impossible to find funding for their work. The Mutti Prize for foreign and Italian filmmakers of migrant origin was created in 2008 with the double aim of promoting new forms of self-representation through films and documentaries and of stimulating the development of more inclusive cultural policies.
Young professional and non-professional film-makers of any nationality, aged between 18 and 35, can compete for the Prize through a public call for applications: just submit the project of a short film, with a maximum duration of 15 minutes, which includes the use, even partial, of the film material of the Aamod Foundation, the partner archives or other archives. Among the projects, a jury composed of five personalities of Italian cinema
Five short films written, shot and directed by immigrant girls and boys in Italy. A mosaic of small stories united by the search for an internal look at the migrant condition and, together, a composite portrait of Italy and its reception system reflected in the eyes of those arriving. The authors of the film come from a wide variety of countries and were selected regardless of their having any experience in the audiovisual field.
The theoretical intuition that gave the title to the research is that the condition of immigrants is crossed by a series of reversals that it is necessary to be able to think together to account for the complexity of the migratory experience. The spaces where these reversals have been investigated are the places of life, work and care: desire for “normality” that affects immigrant families, struggling with transformations
“Diari Multimediali Migranti” is a national competition based on the life stories of migrantion. In order to embrace new languages and countries, the initiative expands to other Mediterranean contexts with a second competition, “DiMMi International – ITHACA Diary Contest,”. Developed in collaboration with the European research project ITHACA – Interconnecting Histories and Archives for Migrant Agency: Entangled Narratives Across Europe and the Mediterranean Region
Paola Monzini was a brilliant and passionate researcher, who chose to devote herself to the study and understanding of complex and uncomfortable phenomena, and she did it with great rigor and at the same time with profound humanity and participation. From this inspiration was born in 2022 the Prize in memory of Paola Monzini, with the aim of transmitting her passion and her rigor to other young researchers

AMM Productions

This section lists the audiovisuals produced in the context of AMM’s projects, made by or involving migrant filmmakers. 

Abstracts and trailers are available for consultation, together with indications of the projects in which the works were developed.

None of these works are on the market, but it is possible to apply to AMM for authorization to organize public screenings or private consultation. Associations interested in screening AMM’s audiovisuals can also invite the authors or protagonists of the stories recounted in them, enhancing the value of the event by enabling a more direct exchange between authors and public.

 

Five shorts written, shot and directed by young immigrants to Italy. A mosaic of stories providing an inside approach to the migrant condition, together with a composite portrait of Italy and its reception system as perceived by the new arrivals.
Dagmawi Yimer returns to Lampedusa with a videocamera and a regular identity card to see and film what he could then only imagine as he looked through the gratings on the windows of the detention centre. The film is a tribute to the island and its inhabitants.
After “Soltanto il mare” (Nothing but the sea), another “Returning to Lampedusa diary” this time by Zakaria Mohamed Ali, a young Somali journalist. A chance to recall his stay in the CIE (Centre for Identification and Expulsion) and to go in search of lost memories.
Mahamed Aman and Zakaria Ali return to Lampedusa for the first time after landing on the island in 2008. Author Mario Badagliacca accompanies the protagonists on their visit to the sites of their first landing, listening to their stories and memories.
Va’ pensiero intermeshes the stories of two racist aggressions in Milan and Florence and the process of collecting and putting together the fragments of the survivors’ lives. The stories of the three protagonists intersect with one another as they speak of their dramatic experiences.
Zakaria Mohamed Ali, a young Somali journalist, following the dramatic news of the shipwreck of october 2013 that killed 368 migrants from the Horn of Africa, returns to Lampedusa to give voice and listen to survivors still detained in the center one month and 15 days after the tragedy.