The short film “DALL’ACQUA | RE-BORN” is inspired by the project “RE-BORN” by Raffaele Ferrante, Savino Napoleone and Nicolò Santovito.
Almost exactly one year ago, in September 2019, I remember approaching my friend, the actor Gaetano Tizzano, with the idea to produce a short film together in the Italian Dolomites. I had just a few rough ideas for a story, but Gaetano was nevertheless willing to participate in the project that I assured him would not take more “than a couple of weeks” to finish. Back then, neither of us suspected that we were about to commit ten whole months of our life to a project that proved to become more complex, more challenging, and more overwhelming than anything I had done before. So, let me tell you the story of a short film that rewrote itself multiple times and that caused us headaches, sleepless nights and frustration but also gave us an incredible experience.
I spent the next couple of months writing multiple scripts until we decided upon a story that embodied the ideas of “RE-BORN” as well as my desire to centre the short film around the Italian Dolomites. While writing the screenplay it became obvious that we were not talking about a small project anymore. With the backing of CON-CREATION I decided to get out of my comfort zone and to use this short film to tackle my two biggest weaknesses as a director: dialogue and chronology. To push myself further, I wanted to construct the whole story around one central dialogue – and to do that we needed a second actor or actress. CON-CREATION was at the same time writing the homonymous book for “RE-BORN” and suggested to cast Alessandra Lisciani, who was overseeing the publication process of the book, as the counterpart to our protagonist. Alessandra’s energy and motivation convinced me immediately and I decided to rewrite the part to fit her perfectly. So far so good – we had the finished screenplay, the actors and the locations. The first test of our commitment came when Gaetano and I set out to film the scenes in the mountains that were meant to be the backbone of the short film.
The major problem in continuing the production of the short film was that we still needed footage of the mountains without snow. We had envisioned from the beginning that the story would end on a hopeful note, with the protagonist breaking out of his mental prison. But with the scenes we had filmed up until this point it would not have been possible to conclude the film satisfyingly. As a result, we had to wait for several months until the weather conditions were favourable, and we could consider setting out to film the last scenes. But then chaos hit in form of the corona virus, and the lockdown in Italy and Europe prevented all outside activities. I spent the time in lockdown editing the footage we had so far produced, and in-between consulted with Raffaele and Gaetano what course of action to take next. Luckily, Italy got the pandemic under control eventually, and we were able to shoot the last scenes in June 2020, more than half a year after we had filmed the first mountain scenes.
Once all the scenes were filmed and the final edit began to emerge, I lastly began to feel at peace again. I don’t know why Gaetano stuck with me until the end but without his help this short film would not have been possible. Thanks to Gaetano’s critical and creative input and Raffaele’s creative direction we were able to finish the project and create something we all can be proud of. At least I know that I am.
I hope you enjoy “DALL’ACQUA | RE-BORN” and find inspiration in the story. I know that I am a better director and filmmaker now than I was before the project, and for that I am very grateful.
If you are interested in diving deeper into “RE-BORN” I strongly suggest that you follow the project CON-CREATION is doing and to read their forthcoming book! A part from this short film and the novel, CON-CREATION also organizes creative and formative events in the light of "RE-BORN". So make sure to check them out!