Experiencing Interruptions?

[a-live] - based on a true story

* Honorable Mention  for "best represented the women's world" - 5° Firenze FilmCorti International Festival
* Best Actress - Medd Film Fest
* Finalist- 40° Festival Internazionale Cinema Donne (IWFF, Firenze)
* Award Best Visual Effect - Worldwide Women's Film Festival (Arizona)
* Finalist - 24th Annual SPE Women’s Film & Video Festival (Cleveland)
* Best Editing - Gulf of Naples Film Festival
* Finalist - Eurasia International Monthly Film Festival (Moscow)
* Finalist- Reggio Film Fest 
* Official Selection - Rieti and Sabina Film Fest
* Finalist - Genre Celebration Festival
* Official Selection - Prisma Independent Film Awards 
* Semi-Finalist - Dieciminuti Film Festival
* Finalist - RiFF River Film Festival
* Official Selection - New York International Film Festival
* Finalist Eve Film Festival (Ottawa)
* Finalist Oporto Film Festival (Porto)
* Award "Best set design" Elba Film Festival
* Finalist Sardinia Film Festival
* Screening Casa delle Donne di Roma - rassegna "Donne in regia"

This is an all female project based on a true story, that deals with the question of suicide, of the feeling of absence and loss, and looks at how Art can be used as a way to save and heal.

Vania is a young woman who is concluding an unfinished work of her mother’s, who had died years before in a car accident. The work is an investigation into the lives of 8 famous artists who committed suicide (Silvya Plath, Marina Cvataeva, Sarah Kane, Amelia Rosselli, Antonia Pozzi, Roberta Tatafiore, Francesca Woodman and Diane Arbus). Carrying out the narrative research of the mother brings her close to that world where questions are left unanswered, and makes her question every aspect of her own existence, to the point where she herself falls into a lucid, psychotic and emotional short circuit where she contemplates and plans her own suicide. Will this immersion into an art so pure as to prevent any compromise with reality be Vania’s salvation or end?

[a-live] is born as prequel to a larger project, where the intention is to examine the stories of the artists at the centre of Vania’s research, and develop a series of short films so as to transport us not only into the world of the protagonist but also into the world of each one of the artists.

Even though it starts off telling a real story, the [a-live]'s approach is deliberately visionary and dreamlike to underline the fact that the unconscious mind becomes accessible through symbolism, associations and myth.

  • Alice ROTIROTI
    Director
  • Alice ROTIROTI
    Writer
  • INSTANT project - Alice Rotiroti e Filippo Kalomenidis
    Producer
  • Agnese PIOLA, Filippo KALOMENIDIS, Silvia SCUDERI
    Actress/Actor
  • Alessandro GAFFURRI
    Sound
  • Sara GORGOGLIONE
    Costumes
  • Mirco SGARZI
    Photography
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    [a-live] da una storia vera
  • Project Type:
    Short
  • Runtime:
    14 minutes 57 seconds
  • Completion Date:
    July 21, 2018
  • Country of Origin:
    Italy
  • Country of Filming:
    Italy
  • Language:
    Italian
  • Shooting Format:
    digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Finalist - 40° Festival di Cinema e Donne (IWFF)
  • Award - Best Visual Effect in Worldwide Women's Film Festival
  • Finalist - 24th Annual SPE Women’s Film & Video Festival
  • Honorable Mention at 5° Florence FilmCorti International Fest
  • Award - Best Actress in MedFF
  • Finalist - Reggio Film Festival
  • Finalist - Eurasia International Monthly Film Festival
  • Finalist - Genre Celebration Festival
  • Selected in RSFF - Rieti and Sabina Film Festival
  • Semi-Finalist - Dieciminuti Film Festival
  • Award - Best Editing - Gulf of Naples Film Festival
  • Finalist - RiFF River Film Festival
  • Official Selection - New York International Film Festival
  • Finalist - Sardinia Film Festival
  • Award- Best Set Design - Elba Film Festival
  • Finalist - Oporto Film Festival
  • Screening - Casa Internazionale delle Donne - Roma, ragssegna "Donne in Regia"
  • Finalist - Eve Film Festival
Distribution Information
  • INSTANT project
    Country: Italy
Director Biography - Alice ROTIROTI

Alice Rotiroti is a psychologist, filmmaker and screenwriter.

She worked several years in mental institutions, in close contact with pathological conditions that became a central theme of her artistic research.

She spent several years travelling around the world, being a student of the great photographer Letizia Battaglia, learn the Photolangage and Phototherapy's technique with the Canadian Judy Waiser, and then she starts to work with screenwriter and storyeditor Filippo Kalomenidis, together with whom she developed film and tv projects for Leone Film Group Production.

In 2018 she directed her first short movie: “[a-live] based on a true story", which received several awards and special mentions, mostly in Women's Film Festivals and in Psychoanalytic society.

In 2019 she recived the award by FEDIC (Italin Federetion of Cinema) as emergent author; she was tutor in "Women in Set" (an artistic resident promoted by 16Corto Film Fest), and was a member of jury in Visioni Corte Film Festival.

In Jennary 2020 she won the Italian's Film Commission contribution for production of the screenplay of the feature film directed by Enrico Pau for Mammut Film Production (Ireland).

Her work is based on researching and deepening the link between image and psychology, Sacred Feminine and the struggle to bring together her experiences in the field of photography, psychology and writing.

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