At the 40th Turin Film Festival, today – 30 November 2022, ETT – SCAI Group, Rai Cinema and Anica took part in “La Scuola in Prima Fila” (Schools to the Forefront). This event looked at new communication between teaching and innovation and was hosted at the National Cinema Museum in Turin as part of the National Cinema and Images Plan for Schools, promoted by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education.
The event focussed on the screening, for 1st and 2nd-grade secondary schools, of the first two chapters of the project entitled “ The Divine Comedia VR” – Hell and Purgatory, produced by ETT and soon available on Rai Cinema Channel VR. The two short films, produced in Virtual Reality, show a first-hand experience of Dante’s journey through selected passages from the two Canticles. During the presentation, Tommaso Maggi – Rai Cinema strategic and digital marketing, ETT CEO Giovanni Verreschi, film director Federico Basso, literary consultant Alessandro Cavallaro and researcher Gabriele Campanella discussed various themes relating to the technology, content and perspectives of VR in the field of edutainment and education.
When we started working on La Divina Commedia VR, it became immediately clear to ETT and the SCAI Group that this was not only a new project using technologies at the service of culture but also a new approach to Dante’s work that would be particularly suitable for engaging with a younger audience. Getting to know the Canticles by identifying with the Poet himself, perceiving the atmosphere and the characters he meets during his descent into hell or along the redemptive Purgatory ascent, means being able to almost vibrate with his emotions and fears. These are just some of the possibilities that new immersive languages offer, although they require great mastery not only of 3D cinematographic techniques but also of the content of the work itself. The whole production, the choice of three-line stanzas, the soundtrack, the voice of Francesco Pannofino and VR is a powerful introduction to the Comedy that does not detract from reading the text but, on the contrary, brings it closer to schoolchildren through experience and emotion. – Giovanni Verreschi, CEO ETT
