Eco-balle
Directed by
The provinces of Naples and Caserta from August to November 2004. In a city overflowing with garbage, a skip is worthless: sanitation workers wearing masks collect the garbage that is then summarily sorted and compressed into bales at a processing plant. Acerra is threatened by the planned construction of an incinerator that will burn Campania’s rubbish, a region dotted by dumping sites often containing toxic wastes, but so are the local farmers who fear no one will buy their produce. The local residents join forces: men, women, children, old and young alike march through the cities and the countryside. The farmers claim the right to health and work, demand the State do something, protest against representatives who have forgotten their constituency. The State steps in with helmeted, truncheon- wielding police ready to defend an ailing land from the sovereign people.
A surreal guerrilla war fought in the open countryside will remind sensitive observers of reality that current events offer a wealth of stories to be recounted in a new neo-realistic style. Being transparent while allowing things to transpire, this is the double-sided aspect of our research. Becoming invisible to the viewer and remaining unperceived by onlookers despite the camera. A complex operation in an era when a general awareness of the mechanical eye leads to coded behaviour resulting in a distorted depiction of reality. This is why we decided to use a narrative style: editing the voices recorded on the street, without conducting the usual interviews, without creating the barrier of the inquisitor-microphone.
Activism
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Creative Europe Media Program. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.