Sicily cine journal by Ugo Saitta
From November 15th to November 20th
From 10am to 5pm
Opening 18th of November at 5pm
Abbotsford Convent – The Store
Sicily cine journal by Ugo Saitta is a screening program closer to journalistic information than to narrative feature films, showcasing some of the main themes presented by “Sicily, Mediterranean Garden”. The program aims to share with the australian viewers the Catanese director’s audiovisual research; it includes six film journals that cover a wide variety of topics, all directed by Ugo Saitta who was the first Sicilian documentary filmmaker and above all witnessed an island that no longer exists.
Ugo Saitta created with his camera a system of representation, which is conceived precisely as a ‘series of short films’. Reviewing and rereading the island, through his cinema, means recovering a naive and hopeful look at an economic development based as much on nature tourism as on the industrial aspirations of the economic boom. Every single shot, every sequence, every lighting effect and editing cuts contribute to drawing a Sicily of myth and at the same time its daily reality..
Each short film deals with several topics: the Sicilian beaches, the sulphur mines, the carusi, the blessing of the boats, and the puppets and the religious processions along the shores. There is also Mount Etna, a physical element of territorial recognisability and thus, inevitably, of cultural identity. Mount Etna in Saitta’s pellicula appears as a place both feminine,” the mountain”, and masculine, “the volcano”.
The screening program is curated by Maria Chiara Di Trapani, thanks to Fondo Saitta at the CRICD at the Filmoteca Regionale in Palermo. Thanks to the director Laura Cappugi and Dr. Marcello Alajmo, in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Institute, Melbourne.
Titles
Volto di Sicilia V ( 8’32”)
La valle dei templi, Agrigento (1951) (10’17”)
Traveling in Sicily (10’35”)
Etna itinerary (9’47”)
Volto di Sicilia III (9’57”)
Il Carretto Siciliano (7’39”)
Biography
Ugo Saitta (1912-1983) is the first Sicilian documentary filmmaker who was mainly active cinematically in Catania since the 1930s. After some experiences as an amateur filmmaker, he enrolled in the inaugural course (1935-1936) of the
Scuola Romana, where he learnt filmmaking and storytelling techniques.
The history of Ugo Saitta’s documentary cinema is intertwined with the history of Sicily. Zolfara (1947) marks the beginning of the most inspired period of the Catanese director’s production, the most continuous from the point of view of directing and stylistic coherence, and certainly the most relevant from an artistic point of view.
The most interesting work realised by Ugo Saitta, in this first phase of experimentation, is undoubtedly the animated short film Teste di legno (Wooden Heads) which was presented under the title Pisicchio e Melisenda (Pisicchio and Melisenda) at the 7th
International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art in Venice in 1939.
