Tag: italy

The year is drawing to a close — here’s a look back on what has happened in our project so far. 2018 has been an incredible ride for us, in many respects.

It all started back in February, when we found out that two things were going to happen. One, a group of government representatives from Scotland, Costa Rica and Slovenia were going to gather in Ljubiljana in March, to say openly to the world that they want to pursue a different type of politics in economics, an approach that respects the needs of people and planet. At the same time, we heard that one of the people working on making this government summit happen, Lorenzo Fioramonti (a fierce critic of the GDP and of the way most economic policies are currently being designed), was going to leave academia and join the world of Italian politics, and run for office with the 5 Star Movement. Since the 5 Stars were the strongest contender in the Italian election, this was very interesting news — there was the potential that a man who had written books about how bad a measure the GDP is could become a minister in a new Italian Government!

So we decided that we just had to start filming this story, no matter what — a story about people who want to move our world away from its endless “growth obsession”. So without funding (there was no time to wait for funding), and with only a vague concept of what kind of a story we wanted to tell, we went on our first trip: In the middle of February, we drove up to Scotland, to meet with Katherine Trebeck and other people at Oxfam, to find out what that government summit was going to be about. Katherine had worked on this thing from within the Scottish Oxfam offices, where she’d been a researcher.

(Also, Nick still had to move most of his stuff from a storage in Glasgow to Berlin, so we did it all in one go, with a hired truck. That’s a fossil fuel burning vehicle, of course, and since we want to be as climate-friendly as we can, we compensated the CO2 emissions on that trip. Unfortunately, there isn’t really any other way to move house these days than using a truck that burns Diesel.)

On the way to Scotland, on the Le Shuttle train under the Channel.

Nick waiting at Oxfam Scotland’s offices.

Glasgow.

Nick getting a good shot of Adam Smith.

Back onto Le Shuttle.

A few days after returning from this one, we were already off on our second trip — down to Italy. And this time we went fully electric. We met with Lorenzo in Brescia where he had to give a campaign talk, and then we drove him down to Rome. We had been invited to stay at his parents’ place outside Rome, to be able to follow Lorenzo around during this last week of campaigning before the election on March 4th. Lorenzo’s family and his home were still in South Africa where he had been living for many years. As he was launching his career in Italian politics, he turned his parents’ house — which has lots of space — into his new temp home as well.

The week we spent together in Rome was remarkable. We were traveling around the city non stop, went on lots of campaign appointments, saw plenty behind the scenes stuff in the “5 Star Campaign”, we went to their secret campaign headquarters in the center of Rome, and felt the vibe behind and on the stage at the big campaign rallies and events. It felt a little bit like being inside a real-world “House of Cards”.

Very unusual — lots of snow in Rome when we arrived. This is Lorenzo’s parents’ garden.

Nick filming Lorenzo and parents in their kitchen.

At campaign headquarters — Lorenzo in the center, in the foreground Davide Casaleggio, of the 5 Stars.

Luigi di Maio, prepping a campaign rally.

The economics team for the 5 Stars shadow cabinet.

Lorenzo giving an interview in the streets of Rome. On the left, Nick filming Lorenzo being flimed.

Lorenzo and 5 Stars founder Beppe Grillo.

The final 5 Star campaign rally.

Charging the car on the way back.

In early May, it had turned out that the summit in Slovenia was not going to take place — so we had to go back to Glasgow and speak with the team there again — about what was going to happen next. Timing was tight, and we had to somehow fit the trip in. We couldn’t drive — it takes four days driving time alone to go up there and back — so we flew this time around. But we compensated for our CO2 emissions with Atmosfair — like we do with every flight which we cannot avoid.

It wasn’t until later in April that we went traveling again — but that doesn’t mean we sat idly in the meantime. We produced a small comedy show in Berlin, I moved house, and more importantly, we had to work hard on defining our story.

In theory, a documentary filmmaker only starts rolling his camera after s/he has thoroughly investigated and written down what the story is meant to be, exactly, that s/he wants to tell in the film. Based on this description, you go out into the world, and try to collect your story — or the version of it that reality will present you with. It’s obvious that life will never turn out the way you intend it in your head. But it’s still incredibly helpful to have that idea — otherwise you don’t know what you are shooting for.

It didn’t quite happen that way in our case. Instead, we had already started rolling the cameras, but we only knew that we wanted to follow these two people — Katherine and Lorenzo — to document what they were trying to do, to help us move to a post-GDP world. But what does that mean in terms of the story that we’re telling? How do we structure it, how do we intend to keep viewers engaged in a topic that may seem very technical to many people. We had lots and lots of conversations with lots and lots of people, and particularly with my friend Kim Münster, an experienced film director and producer, who agreed to produce our film and help me — a novice to the whole process — structure the whole thing.

To structure it meant primarily to write a treatment. Which is essentially the screenplay to the documentary — a description of the intention I have as a filmmaker for the story I want to tell. It was a hard process to do this, and the treatment got rewritten a number of times, and it changed around a lot. But I learned an awful lot about what it means to be a documentary filmmaker, and how I need to think, in order to make a film that anybody will want to see.

In April, we returned to Rome for our second trip there. On the way down, we stopped over in Venice, to meet with and interview Petra Reski. She’s a German writer, but she has been living in Italy (closely following the “5 Star Movement”) for decades now, and she gave us a very helpful perspective on what this movement means for Italy. Then we journeyed on to Rome. Lorenzo had won his seat in the Italian election, and we spent another 5-day work week with him around town — while the party was trying to form the new Italian government. The negotiations with the “League” had failed, and now the 5 Stars were trying to figure out how they could potentially form a government with the “Partito Democratico”. And Lorenzo was trying to prepare for his new role, potentially as the Minister for Industrial Development in the new government.

Heading down south, towards the Alps.

On the road again.

Venice.

Charging the car in Arezzo at the Supercharger.

Lorenzo with Pasquale Tridico at a rally celebrating the end of World War 2.

We had the most expensive cappuccino ever at this place. I believe they charged me 7.50 EUR. I felt like an idiot.

Setting up for another long interview with Lorenzo in the garden.

Having a peek at the discussions between party leadership and the 5 Star parlamentarians, about negotiating with the PD.

Waiting for the bus after a long day.

Returning home.

On May 7th, we had the chance to meet up with Tim Jackson in Berlin. He’s a very well-known professor, researcher, author and speaker, working on the post-growth agenda. I’d met him once before, in 2017, as we were preparing our climate change show “vollehalle”. It was fun to meet him again in Berlin. He gave a speech in the very impressive hall of the Evangelische Akademie Berlin — check out the floor lights in the pictures below — and we were allowed to film that speech.

Setting up to film.

Tim Jackson presenting.

And then at the end of May, we returned to Scotland. This time with the Tesla, again getting on the Le Shuttle train under the Channel. I really love that train! The trip first took us to Tim Jackson’s university in Surrey, where we had the chance to do a sit-down with him, and interview him for about an hour.

Then we journeyed on to Glasgow and then Edinburgh, for a very particular reason: on May 23rd, the Task Force meeting for the Wellbeing Economy Governments — the group that was originally supposed to meet officially in Slovenia in March — was happening at a hotel in Edinburgh. The idea was to plan the next potential official public meeting, which could now be in South Korea at an OECD conference, at the end of November. So there were representatives from the Scottish, Costa Rican and Slovenian governments, plus people from Oxfam and a couple of universities, getting together to hash out how they could develop their group until that conference. And we were in the room, with the cameras rolling! It was very exciting!

On Le Shuttle.

With Tim Jackson in Surrey.

The Task Force meeting in Edinburgh.

Returning home.

In Edinburgh, Katherine also told us that she was going to go to Costa Rica herself, to speak at a conference, and to (potentially) meet the Costa Rican president, and tell him about this project, and get him excited about it. It was clear — we had to go, too! So we booked two seats on the same flight that she was going to be on (again, we compensated for our CO2 emissions with Atmosfair), to travel with her to Costa Rica, only two weeks later!

But just before that, I had the hunch that I had to go back down to Italy. The forming of the government there had become this never-ending thriller — negotiations with the PD had been cancelled only days after our last trip there, because of a very controversial TV appearance of the former leader of the PD, and so the 5 Stars turned back around to negotiate once again with the right-wing “Lega”. When they finally tried to propose a government together, the Italian President Mattarella refused to sign them into office, for fear of a European backlash against the new minister of economics, a Euro critic. It was apparently all coming to a blow, with the 5 Stars organising a rally to demonstrate against the President, when at the last minute a compromise was found, and the goverment was sworn in. And so the demonstration against the President turned into one to celebrate the first time the 5 Stars were in an Italian Government. Since I only had two days, there was no way to drive down again, so I went on yet another flight, and spent two days in Rome, and got a few great shots and impressions of the vibe both within the 5 Stars, and also from Lorenzo’s point of view, who — at that stage — seemed nowhere near becoming part of the new government, despite the fact that he had been quite close to Luigi di Maio and the party leadership during the election campaign.

And then, only three days later, we went to Costa Rica. It was a great experience — we met incredibly interesting people, the conference called Omina (about sustainable fashion) was inspiring, and even though Katherine did not manage to meet the President (he had to cancel his appearance at the conference), she did meet the First Lady. And we were in the room with them! We returned to Berlin on June 11th, after being away only six days — it had felt much longer because it had been so intense.

Katherine visibly happy about “her own” banner.

Pablo, Alvaro, and Katherine — the Wellbeing Economy force.

Meeting the First Lady (on the right).

Omina vibe.

Alvaro giving his speech at Omina.

Seeing nature in Costa Rica.

On a hike with new friends.

In the meantime, working on the proposals and trying to get funding kept right on going — unsuccessfully, however. The most irritating thing in this whole funding process is that with some German film funding institutions, you cannot get money if you apply after you have started filming. There is apparently a bit of wiggle room, but not enough for us, so a couple of sources of money for our film were already dry before we even started applying … There seem to be laws about public financing of films that make it so, but I don’t really understand it. And it is quite irritating that we are blocked from funding simply because we realised early that we simply had to start capturing this story. Otherwise, there would be no story.

The next trip took us back to Rome, we left Berlin on July 1st. This time, we wanted to be there when Lorenzo brought his whole family — his wife and the two kids — back from South Africa. We documented their arrival at Fiumicino Airport. But even more importantly, we had the chance to witness Lorenzo arriving at his new office — he eventually did end up in the government, he had been named Vice Minister in the Ministry of Education and Research (“MIUR”), and we were there to see his first days on the new job.

heading south, past the symbols of a new world of energy.

The MIUR — the Italian Ministry for Education and Research.

Nick getting shots from across the street from the MIUR.

Near Stazione Centrale in Rome.

The Colosseum.

Sunset over Rome.

Traveling back, charging stop in the Swiss Alps.

In mid August, we returned to Scotland once again — this time because Katherine was coming back from her summer holidays, and we wanted to be present (and film) as she was getting an update about the state of things with the Wellbeing Economy Governments from the Scottish government team.

The many remarkable and incredibly comfortable stays in Edinburgh for our film are only possible, by the way, thanks to Nick’s extremely generous and hospitable parents Pat and Howard Scholey — a massive thank-you to them!

View of Edinburgh.

Inviting.

Nick, cat photographer.

Which takes us straight to our last Italian journey so far for the film, in early September — and this one was by far the most tiring because we went to so many different places. Our first stop was Geneva where we interviewed Alvaro Cedeno (he’s in the pictures from the Costa Rica trip — but he lives and works in Geneva). From there, we traveled to Milan, where we met up briefly with Katherine (!) who happened to be there that night, and then we shot an interview and other material with a start-up company that we may include in our film.

From there, we traveled on to Genua where the motorway bridge had crumbled a few weeks earlier, and we needed to get shots of that. And from there, we traveled on to Rome, where we spent some more time with Lorenzo — we drove him to a couple of TV studios, for example, where he was giving interviews. And finally, we went with him back up north, to Tuscany, where he had meetings in Pisa and Lucca. It was a super intense trip, but again well worth it.

Preparing the interview with Alvaro.

Genua.

Sometimes hotels have chargers specifically for Teslas — very convenient.

Again the Ministry, but a different building this time.

Getting a nice shot for our film.

Nick filming Lorenzo at the TV station.

Rome skyline.

Lorenzo giving a speech in Lucca.

In late September and early October, we started a little sub-project within our film project — this blog right here, and the social media accounts that we’re using, to publish behind-the-scenes stuff around making this film. We kicked it off by shooting, editing and posting our “Welcome Video”.

In the meantime, we had also learned that further hopes for external financing from film funds had fallen through. But I managed to open up another source of finances, so even though we don’t have any film fund supporting us right now, we can still continue to make the film. And we keep applying to other funds — more specifically now to a couple of US funds that also support international films.

Finally, in the middle of November, our most intense traveling and shooting period began. Within a very short time frame, we first went on our latest road trip back up to Scotland, met with Lorenzo in Berlin and then traveled to South Korea.

On the trip to Scotland, we were passsing through London once more where we did our interview with Rowan. Then we journeyed on, to interview my friend Basile in Northampton, and then on to Scotland again, where we met with the Scottish Government team again, and with Katherine.

Katherine’s husband Mark also agreed to be interviewed by us — which was really nice. And we joined one of his Dramble Tours: he himself does these guided tours of Glasgow that include stops in six carefully selected pubs where you get to sample six different carefully selected Scotch whiskys. We had fun. (I was just a bit cold, to tell the honest truth, my jacket wasn’t warm enough …)

On the road again.

Rowan Mataram, at Platform London.

The street outside Nick’s parents’ house.

Edinburgh.

Meeting Katherine and Una before the session with the Scottish government team.

St. Andrew’s, the government building.

Glasgow.

Aberlour, whisky #4 on the Dramble Tour.

On the way back, we actually got into a traffic jam in France that had been organised by the yellow jackets, at the very initial stage of that movement.

Symbol of hope, as we were returning home.

Only two days after our return, Lorenzo came to Berlin! Together with his assistant Nicoletta they came for a few meetings. That made life easy for us — no need to travel to Italy to film our Italian protagonist!

Nick filming Lorenzo inside the Bundestag (Reichstag building).

Coffee break.

Lorenzo meeting with Christoph Gran (left) and Jonathan Barth (right), of the ZOE Institute.

And finally, our last trip this year: to South Korea. The Wellbeing Economy Governments initiative (“WEGo”, here is the website) was going to be launched at a big OECD conference on measurement and statistics there, so the Scottish Government team, teams from other governments, and Katherine were going to be there. And Lorenzo was coming as well. So we had to go, too, and see what it was going to be like, to see that initiative see the light of day. Just like in South Korea, we spent a good deal of time with Katherine, and even managed to fit in a last day of “light tourism” in the old part of Incheon — the city where the whole thing was taking place.

(I already posted a fairly extensive blog post about what we learned at the conference.)

Our two main protagonists, together for the first time.

The big ballroom where all the main sessions took place.

Ready to doc!

The WEGo booth, manned by Michael Cairns (foreground).

Katherine moderating a panel on the big stage.

Dessert.

Nick has to do a nightly backup session. The computer was too slow to get it all done before we went to bed …

The WEGo have launched!

Our main rig for the conference.

Incheon skyline on our last day.

So … that was the summary of what we’ve been up to this year, trying to make this film. (Not to mention other projects that we have worked on.) This does not include, of course, a whole bunch of little things that we were working on here at the office: editing work for funding applications, the countless revisions and reworkings of our various (German and English) treatments and other documents.

2019 will probably begin for the film in the second half of January, with yet another trip to Scotland. We hope to get done with the main bulk of shooting by March — in other words, more or less exactly a year after we started. And after that, we need to sit down and start to work out how to actually make this film — sift through all the material, edit it, and do all the prost production. There is a lot of work ahead of us, and it will be, without a doubt, another very interesting year.

We’ll hope to post another video, about the trip to South Korea, towards the end of this week — so stay tuned! And other than that, have a Merry Christmas Season, and all the best for 2019!