Storie di Pietra - La vita nell’alta Valle del Cervo
Municipality of Rosazza
- Municipality of Rosazza
OUR SERVICES
- Content Production
- Video Production
A new Virtual Reality short film that portrays the life of mountain communities in the Biella area in an innovative and creative way, experimenting with new filming techniques for a totally immersive experience
“Storie di Pietra. La vita nell’alta Valle del Cervo” (Stone Stories. Life in the Upper Cervo Valley) is ETT’s new short film set in Rosazza, in the province of Biella. The work, directed by Federico Basso, is divided into two chapters of 6 minutes each and gives a glimpse of life in the Upper Cervo Valley at the end of the 19th century, interpreting the daily habits and practices of the inhabitants of these places, which conceal the family values and customs of the resident population from most people.
With the narrative register of the historical present, the short film aims to portray the social fabric of the Cervo Valley, mostly made up of men who spent their lives, from March to October each year, on the building sites of the great works of the time, anywhere in the world and often far from home. This made women the real protagonists, as much in family life as in the performance of the most strenuous daily tasks.
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Spring, time for departures: as every year, men are therefore preparing to leave their families for the construction sites that will keep them away from the country for the next eight months, until the beginning of November. Daring master builders, masons, far-sighted contractors, holders of knowledge and dexterity. Men known and appreciated throughout the world who master a secret, which they use to build great works in the four corners of the planet.
Unusual places, those visited by the ‘men of stone’, that those who stay in the valley only see in photographs, or in traces in the few, simple gifts (mostly clothes) brought home. Awaiting these men are some of the most daring engineering challenges: bridges thrown into the void at astonishing heights, dams, interminable tunnels. Risky works; not all will return, on the Day of Saints.
Women prepare for the time of absence and waiting. The time in which they measure loneliness, but without despondency. It is an active and industrious life, theirs. They are the protagonists in the life of the valley, from spring to autumn; responsible as much for the domestic household as for the labours. They have to look after the house and the children, at the same time sewing clothes and shoes, working with hemp; but above all, they have to carry the blocks of stone, on their accustomed, strong, straight backs. The stone, that prized syenite that does not wear out, has helped write the fame of the villages and the local people.
They are proud, tough, stone women. But they are also capable, intelligent, emancipated women. They are the binder of a social fabric that breaks, fragments and disperses every year, with the diaspora of men.
The story is set against the backdrop of the nascent workers’ societies and quarry workers, who arrived in the valley from other regions, and the figures of the benefactors, who shared with the community some of the fortunes achieved through building work. Standing out above them all is the Senator: Rosazza’s noble father who dedicated himself to the progress of the valley with munificent works: roads, schools and public works.
In the background, the spirit of the place is perceivable, mysterious and esoteric. A distant valley, almost always in the shadows, caught in these images in a historical present and wondering what the future will be like.
With the aim of recreating an all-encompassing and immersive experience, the production set up realistic sets and used new experimental technologies to create sequences capable of giving the spectator a sense of immersive participation. In fact, the decision to shoot the scenes of the short film on location stems from the need to enhance a place that preserves historical traces of the past. Through Virtual Reality filming and technical equipment, such as drone, steadycam and fixed cameras, the director wanted to build an evocative story that would go beyond the purely documentary sphere and go beyond the typically didactic modalities of fruition, to position itself as an immersive entertainment experience, closer to the cinema environment.
The innovative idea was to apply the production practice borrowed from cinema to the context of VR filming, subsequently treated in CGI and introducing the use of AI, with the prospect of creating an innovative short film that goes beyond the purely documentary sphere and exceeds the typically didactic modes of fruition.
The first chapter of the short film is introduced by a voice-over which, in contemporary language, takes us back to what was happening in the Valley at the end of the 19th century. The use, by the characters, of dialect, albeit in a circumscribed form, contributes to making the film scene more agile and dynamic. The second part of the film, on the other hand, focuses first on the dialogue between two men from different social backgrounds and then on the scanning of a family’s life as the father prepares to leave home to emigrate to faraway places where he will be engaged in risky professions.