7 moons and a little snow
Following the beginning of 7 student’s day on the Italian Alps, the film recounts 7 stories as a metaphor of something that remains unsaid.
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Sandro BozzoloDirectorNijole
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Maria Cecilia ReyesWriterNijole
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Max ChiccoProducer
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Project Type:Documentary, Feature
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Runtime:1 hour 10 minutes
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Completion Date:December 17, 2019
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Production Budget:80,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Italy
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Country of Filming:Italy
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Language:Italian
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Shooting Format:HD
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Aspect Ratio:16:9
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:No
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Student Project:No
Sandro Bozzolo authored documentaries, reportages, short films and stories addressing the intercultural processes that define and redefine contemporary history. He holds a PhD in Migrations Studies (University of Genoa) and a Master in Social Communication and Urban Documentary.
He has directed several documentaries and short movies, including Ilmurràn – Maasai in the Alps (Best Italian Doc “Libero Bizzarri 2016”). His first feature film, Nijole, has been awarded at Bologna Biografilm Festival (2019) and at Vilnius Documentary Film Festival (2019.
Sandro Bozzolo authored the books A Raccontare la luce, about Italian pioneers of cine in Colombia Francesco and Vincenzo Di Domenico (2017), Ilmurràn – Maasai in the Alps (2015) and Un sindaco fuori del comune. Storia di Antanas Mockus, Supercittadino di Bogotà (2012).
He has led the journalistic research project Agritools.org in Senegal, Kenya, Uganda and Ghana, funded by European Journalist Centre. His reportages appeared on the Italians and international newsrooms.
The project “7 moons and a little snow” is the result of an experimental workshop conducted with the students of 'Istituto Comprensivo di Garessio', a school based in a wide area characterized by wilderness and mountains (Maritime Italian Alps).
The starting point of the whole project relies in the deep bond between today pre-teenagers and the latest technologies. A kind of bond that it seriously exposed to risks of addiction, but that offers new ways of expressions, new perspectives, new games. The French philosopher Pierre Levy once said: “Technology is not positive, it’s not negative, but it’s not even neutral”. Following this cue, the movie is built over the point of view of its protagonists. 12-year-old boys and girls ready to face the world, holding a kind of 'weapon' through which they create a strange game. The phone, squeezed between their hands ready to explore, is used as a sort of a magic wand in order to distort reality.
In 2018, our screenplay was awarded by the Italian Ministry of Education ("Visioni Fuori Luogo-Cinema per la Scuola") and we started the production. The protagonists were identified among the students, while their family members, real or imaginary, are all non-professional actors. The entire movie is shoot in early mornings, between 6.30 and 8.30 am. In order to describe the socio-reality of the territory (and to fight the lazy system of Italian cinema, in which everything is dubbed), we included four languages: in addition to Italian, we have Albanian and Dutch (from two foreigner families who came to live in the territory), and a curious minority of Piemontese, the regional dialect, which is now at risk of extinction.
The narration includes multimedia elements (chat and vocal messages, selfies and emojis). Somehow, they contrast and coexists with the strength of the real elements: on their journey to school, the young protagonists of this story are crossing a complex territory dominated by open spaces and populated by fragmented communities. For all of them, the school is an important meeting point. Between snow, ice, distance and isolation, the journey to school becomes an adventure in its own right, a long journey through space and time to be faced accompanied or in solitude. The journey to school is associated in the movie with the taste of freedom, a freedom of youthful self-determination before any role-playing game, that in every time is defining young generations.