Private Project

FREEDOM OF SPEECH: GIORDANO BRUNO

In this historic poetry film the Norwegian visual poet and artist Ottar Ormstad documents parts of the life of the Italian philosopher and poet Giordano Bruno, born in 1548. After 1870 there was a long struggle for a monument on Campo dei Fiori in Rome, where he was burned alive for heresy the 17th of February by the Roman inquisition in the year 1600.
In less than a quarter Ormstad is telling a story about his life, travels, thoughts, death and the fight for raising a monument in Rome. This is presented through his camera, his own concrete poetry and music. Five of Bruno's poems are presented in Italian and read in his English version by Ormstad.

  • Ottar Ormstad
    Director
  • Ottar Ormstad
    Writer
  • Ottar Ormstad
    Producer
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Experimental, Short, Other
  • Genres:
    Poetryfilm (historic
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 29 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    January 20, 2025
  • Production Budget:
    30,000 NOK
  • Country of Origin:
    Norway
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Language:
    English
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Digital Cinema Package:
    Unavailable
Distribution Information
  • Ottar Ormstad
Director Biography - Ottar Ormstad

Ottar Ormstad was born and lives in Oslo, Norway and started creating concrete/visual poetry in the 1960s. The last 25 years he has worked digitally, and created several poetryfilms alone and in collaboration with Taras Mashtalir as OTTARAS. He has also published visual poetry as books and graphic art. In his last films he has also created the music. Since 2015 he has performed soundpoetry in combination with videos and music in several countries.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

In this film I want to document poetry from the 16th century and illustrate how the Inquisition worked. At that time it was dangerous to argue against the Vatican, even about heliocentrism and Giordano Bruno's revolutionary thoughts about the infinity of the universe. Bruno was philosopher and poet, and published a lot of books when he w e n t through Europe. I want to show how his life and thinking was reflected in his poetry. Working with his poetry in combination with my own concrete poetry and music in the modern perspective of freedom of speech I've found very interesting.