Experiencing Interruptions?

The Collapse

Under the Morandi Bridge, hundreds of people lived in buildings stuck between its concrete pylons. 'The Collapse' narrates the Morandi Bridge tragedy from the standpoint of these people. It is the choral narration of a violent and sudden biographical caesura. We can listen the stories of the displaced people in their making, from the first days after the event and the first temporary accommodation, through the demolition of the bridge, up to existential choices opening to new perspectives. These testimonies, the experiences of the displaced people, reveal the everyday and apparently banal experience of inhabiting a house, being part of a community settled in a small neighbourhood, a fragment among the many others that make our cities.

  • Massimo Cannarella
    Director
  • Massimo Cannarella
    Writer
  • Enrico Fravega
    Writer
  • Luca Queirolo Palmas
    Producer
  • Massimo Cannarella
    Photography
  • Dagmar Thomann
    Editing
    C.T.P. come ti parlo, Dopo la primavera… l’inverno…
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    Il crollo
  • Project Type:
    Documentary, Short
  • Runtime:
    30 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    September 1, 2022
  • Production Budget:
    20,000 EUR
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
Distribution Information
  • gargagnànfilm
    Distributor
    Country: Worldwide
    Rights: All Rights
Director Biography - Massimo Cannarella

Massimo Cannarella, photographer and film-maker, interested in forms of visual storytelling, works as a research technician in the Visual Sociology Research Group of the University of Genoa.
In the past he took part in many research projects in the fields of migrations, youth cultures, the social condition of the migrants’ children, as well as on gender-related issues.

Filmography: 2021, Si la terre (31 min.), Cannarella (regia), Anderlini, Cannarella, Kouagang, Queirolo Palmas, Rahola (soggetto); 2019, Riski (17 min.) M. Cannarella (regia), M. Cannarella L. Queirolo Palmas (soggetto); 2018, Transiti, la valle solidale (16 min.) M. Cannarella (regia), M. Cannarella, L. Giliberti (soggetto); 2018, Preferisco avere da fare (20 min.) M. Cannarella (regia); 2017, Permiso de soñar (82 min.), Oddone, Navone, Ruvioli, Cannarella (regia), Colectivo Escuelita (soggetto); 2016, Calais, la fin du monde (10 min.) M. Cannarella, H. Idihia (regia), M. Cannarella, H. Idihia, L. Queirolo Palmas (soggetto); 2013, M&F. Io Maschio Tu Femmina (30 min.), C. Oddone (Regia), E. Abbatecola, M. Cannarella. (soggetto), Marco Taddei (sceneggiatura); 2012, Loro Dentro (54 min.), di C. Oddone (regia), S. Spensieri, M. Cannarella, L. Queirolo Palmas, F. Lagomarsino (soggetto).

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Director Statement

The collapse is a participatory documentary. The production involved the development of a reflection on the condition of displaced persons matured through a process of discussion and elaboration carried out with the former residents of Via Porro. Several narrative workshops were organized and filmed in which people left homeless reasoned and confronted themselves freely.

This choral interview work was accompanied by the constant attendance of the places and neighborhoods involved, which made it possible to film the evolution of the consequences from the day of the collapse to the reconstruction of the new bridge.

The direction alternates these two narratives (one more dialogic and the other purely visual) to convey emotions and lived events. The object of the documentary is not so much the Morandi Bridge as the depth of a biographical break produced by a collective tragedy, and the signs that this event has left on the lives of displaced people.