Title: PITRè STORIES

Genre: Documentary
lenght: 75’
country of origin: italy
year of production: 2011
Format: HD, Bluray, Dgbeta, Dvcam,v.o. it. sott. english

director:
Alessandro D’Alessandro - Marco Leopardi

subject AND SCREENPLAY:
Alessandro D’Alessandro, Marco Leopardi, Laura e Silvia Pettini

Cast:
Nico Bonomolo, painter, animator, graphic designer
Antonino Buttitta, professor emeritus, University of Palermo
Giuseppe Donato, a fisherman
Gaetano Celano, “cuntastorie”
Don Cosimo Scordato,rector of St. Francesco Saverio all'Albergheria
Silvia Di Blasi, actress and painter
Pietro Ales, sacristan Parish of St. Nicholas of Tolentino in Palermo
Michelangelo Balistreri, poet
Dora De Luca,“magara” Giardinello
Nino Cuticchio, works in Palermo at the Puppet Theatre "Hippogriff."
Giovanna Di Miceli, educator "Salesian Center Santa Chiara" all `Albergheria
Mario Affronti, MD, Head of Medicine of Migration, Policlinico Universitario of Palermo
Giuseppe Quatriglio, journalist and writer

Music:
Fabrizio Mancinelli – edizioni musicali Rai Trade Music

photography:
Marco Leopardi

editing:
Roberto Di Tanna

Animation:
Nico Bonomolo

executive Production:
Laura e Silvia Pettini

Production:
Felix Film

with the support of:
Regione Siciliana – Assessorato Beni Culturali AA. E P.I. / Sicilia Film Commission, Media Sviluppo Programma Unione Europea, Cinecittà Luce.

whit the support of:
media plus program


with the partecipation of:
Museo Etnografico Giuseppe Pitrè

International distribution:
Rai Trade

sales:

Synopsis

Nico Bonomolo is a young painter and cartoonist who lives in Bagheria, near Palermo. In his drawings there is a fantastic world of imaginary places, fictional characters, colors, dreams and childhood memories. It is just following the thread of memories that one day, Nico decides to return to visit the Ethnographic Museum in Palermo where he had been as a child.

The Museum is now closed for restoration and the thousands of objects are almost all locked in crates and boxes. Each of them maintains a memory, tells a story, a story of the customs, beliefs and rituals. To put together all these witnesses was a physician born in 1841 in Palermo, Giuseppe Pitrè. Nico has the feeling that there is a whole world to discover around him, which perhaps he has never pay any attention.

From that moment he feels growing for the first time, the need to confront himself with the reality of his country, a difficult and elusive reality but also unique and fascinating. A need that leads him to discover and design the life of Giuseppe Pitrè which becomes for him a guide, a support, a stimulus.

This young doctor becomes for Nico the starting point from which to start travelling around the Sicily of today, an itinerary which inspires him to rediscover his roots, his identity through the encounter with different people in some way directly or ideally connected to Pitrè. In this way Nico meets Peppe, a young fisherman of swordfish, one of the last remaining who lives in the Straits of Messina; the cuntatore Gaetano who brings around the world an art which belonged to his grandfather; Don Cosimo a priest who lives in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Palermo, who struggles as did Pitrè to offer to the humble, those who have a strong attachment to tradition, to redeem themselves.

And also Silvia, one of many girls who acts as Santa Rosalia in the procession of her feast; Nino Cuticchio, puppeteer, heir to the tradition of the Sicilian puppets; Dora, a woman who believes in superstition and practices magic rites. And also the encounter with Concettina, an eighty years old Italian-American woman who had come all the way from California to donate to the Pitrè Museum the beadspreads which had belonged to her great-grandmother.

Nico's journey is enriched by many different voices, the voices of the people of Sicily. Which are also those of the new immigrants which have invaded the neighborhoods of the city centers. Various stories which come from the past and pone new questions. One in particular which comes from the words of Mario Affronti, a doctor committed to assisting immigrants: how many Sicilies are there today? In trying to give an answer to this question that Nico continues to travel.

In a guideline in which contemporarely are welded togheter, as shown in this documentary, the precious documents left by Pitrè, Nico’s want to draw and imagine other stories, and the need to explore and investigate the reality of his country with courage, deeply immerging himself in that mystery called Sicily.

Fwstival:

Sole luna un ponte tra le culture - IV edizione
Palermo, 4 - 10 july 2011 - Premio Speciale del pubblico




Vento del Nord
Lampedusa, 29 july - 4 august 2011

Provincia in Festa: Cinestudio Mario Bellone
Palermo, 11 august - 11 september 2011

I’ve seen Films
Milano, 5 - 14 october 2011 - Spazio Doc Italia, Menzione speciale

Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival
Taiwan, 07 - 11 october 2011


public screenings:

Fipatel – Mercato Internazionale Televisivo
Biarritz, 20 - 24 january 2011

Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia
Palermo, 6 April 2011 - Cantieri Culturali della Zisa

Università degli Studi di Catania
Catania, 7 April 2011

other title

PITRè STORIES
by Alessandro D’Alessandro and Marco Leopardi (Italy, 75', documentary, 2011)

ONCE UPON A TIME IN ITALY - Memories from a bygone country (1957-1967)
by Stefano Grossi (Italy, 75’, documentary, 2011)

TALKING ABOUT CINEMA
by Carlo Lizzani, Laura Pettini, Silvia Pettini
(Italy, a collection of 31 documentaries (interviews), 2000-2010)

CLOUD MAN
by Stefano Mordini (Italy, 54', documentary, 2009)

ITALIAN MIRACLE - TEN YEARS TO REMEMBER (1957-1967)
by Stefano Grossi (Italy, A DOCUMENTARY IN 4 EPISODES OF 52’, 2009)

DIARIES OF THE 1900’S
by Stefano Grossi (Italy, a collection of 30 documentaries (interviews), 2009 / FORMAT)

THE UNIONIST (GIUSEPPE DI VITTORIO, VOCI DI IERI E DI OGGI)
by Carlo Lizzani and Francesca Del Sette (Italy, 52', documentary, 2009)

GIUSEPPE DE SANTIS
by Carlo Lizzani (Italy, 52', documentary, 2009)

luchino visconti, life as a novel
by Carlo Lizzani (Italy, 60', documentary, 2008)

VALLE D'AOSTA (LES MONTAGNARDS SONT LÀ!)
by Piergiorgio Gay (Italy, 60', documentary, 2008)

BEING CLAUDIA CARDINALE
by Stefano Mordini (Italy,52’, documentary, 2006)

The perfect fit
by Piergiorgio Gay (Italy, documentary, 2005)

Looking for SOPHIA
by Roberto Olla (Italy, 52’, documentary, 2004)

CESARE ZAVATTINI
by Carlo Lizzani (Italy, 52’, documentary, 2003)

The Off-screen Director
by fedele aula (Italy, 52’, documentary, 2002)

ROBERTO ROSSELLINI
by Carlo Lizzani (Italy, 64’, documentary, 2001)

ROBERTO ROSSELLINi, FRAGMENTS AND SPEECHES
by Carlo Lizzani (Italy, 74’, documentary, 2001)

LUCHINO VISCONTI
by Carlo Lizzani (Italy, 60’, documentary,1999)