Interviewing Women in Italian Cinema

I’ve been a journalist for twenty-five years. In my career I’ve interviewed many film professionals, mostly directors, but the Women in Italian Film Production project was such a different experience for me.For the project, with my colleagues Daniela Treveri Gennari and Silvia Dibeltulo, I conducted thirty-eight interviews with female film professionals working in the Italian film industry.

All the interviewees were asked a series of standardized questions, which, although it may seem like a boring practice, is an effective method to detect trends, similarities and differences in their experiences. Asking the right questions in a confidential environment is the key to understanding their personality and life choices. The group of people we spoke to is composed of producers, heads of production, distributors, VFX artists, costume designers, casting directors, continuity supervisors, assistant directors: all below- the-line female workers . Despite their different roles, the ways in which they describe their work and experience are often similar.

I was struck by how often the following topics recur in their testimonies:

• Fate: most of them started to work in the film industry by chance, without having planned it. Some of them sent a last-minute application for the Italian National School of Cinema (CSC), while not being entirely confident that they would be successful in their attempt.
• Passion: they smile a lot while talking about their work. It looks like it’s one of the most important things in their life, if not the most important one.
• Professionalism: all these women are very independent, since they have built their careers on their own. They want to be recognized for the quality of their work, just like their male colleagues are.
• Fun: working on set is tiring and stressful, because of long shifts and psychological pressure, but this doesn’t matter, as the upside is that they have a lot of fun. According to their statements, working in the film industry is a source of unique experiences, interesting encounters, and unforgettable moments of collective fun.
• Family: they mean the family that gets created while shooting a film, when 100 to 200 people strive together towards a creative goal. This kind of partnership can be very powerful and sometimes almost more important than your own family. For some of these women the family built on set is the family they choose.

The photo chosen for this blog post was taken during one of the interviews. It is a motto adopted by one of our interviewees that means “Ignore your responsibilities. Pretend to be dead.” It is a way out that women should practice more, as animals do, instead of always being ready and present.

Barbara Corsi