How to travel

We met Vittorio de Sena, here in Palermo. Not physically, of course. But some coincidences have brought us to discover his work as a documentary filmmaker. As a wave, then, "Lu tempi di li pisci spada" reached us. It’s a 1954 short film, on 35mm color film, which portrays the technique of swordfish fishing in the Strait of Messina.

Screenshot from "Lu tempu di li pesci spada"

Other coincidences, including the meeting with a palermitan director, pushed us going more into his work. We watched "Isole di fuoco" (1954) and then "Surfarara" (1955) and "Pasqua in Sicilia" (1955). One by one, how you'd look at some photo album. Apart from the pleasure of imagining the technical difficulties overcome by De Seta, these films delighted me, inspired by their immersive side: for the place that the director makes us take, as spectators. These film relate a Southern Italy not caricatured and folklorised yet, by mass tourism. They are fascinating, and they also make us realize a certain way to look, a certain type of participation that makes -I find- a video, a documentary. They especially touched me and led me to question what means "discovery" (to adapt it to our case, the travel).

In a 2008 interview, De Seta said:

<[...] sometimes i began to film... without any plans. I remember: I had a topic of a page [...], I updated and developed it along the way. >

He tells us his way of standing in front of the new, based on openness, listening, and shows the capacity of documentary cinema to keep traces of these encounters.

In the same interview, he adds:

< Abandon your presumptuous vision of life and immerse yourself in what is in front of you... You always "gave" something, [...], you are there, you get involved, but always in addition >

__ Luca Gandola