September this year, as if in a world still bound to school rhythms, seems to mark a restart, a new beginning. This year, for many and for me as well, summer – which normally was the busiest period professionally – has instead been a time of rest, for many of us unwanted, and we know well why.
In October we will renew the elective bodies that lead and set the operational course of the Collective:
we will have to elect a new Board of Directors, made up of 11 members, and a new president.
The current board and presidency are the outcome of the painful but necessary split from AIC. The next board, however, should be the result of the movement that has grown around the Collettivo Chiaroscuro project, which to date has involved around 90 cinematographers.
In these first two years of activity we have managed to attract the interest of many among us who had never taken part in any association, despite having practised our art successfully for many years. And many young people have also asked to join us.
What has happened is proof that it was necessary to create a new representative body, entirely new and independent, deeply rooted in the present and with its gaze fixed on the future of our cinema, of world cinema, and on society.
Now the time has come to reshuffle the cards and embark on a new stage. The founders remain at the heart of the Collective, but it would be wonderful to see our activity revitalised with fresh energy and a renewed sense of purpose, strengthened by a new leadership team and by a new president, whether female or male.
We can strengthen the website, organise new opportunities for us to come together, for training and in-depth exploration both for ourselves and for younger generations, we can find new ways to share our work and our most recent experiences, we must expand our international relations as an association, and we can certainly devise new forms of professional exchange.
I want to say that I am proud to have served as president of Collettivo Chiaroscuro. It has been an intense commitment that has allowed me to get to know many colleagues more closely, sometimes deeply, whom I had only known superficially, and to meet many of us I did not know at all. All these exchanges, both human and professional, have been extremely positive.
I feel that a network of supportive professional relationships has been built, and new friendships have taken shape.
I believe it would be wonderful for the Collettivo to have a new president who reflects the contemporary reality of our cinematography and who can lead the Collettivo into the future.
I am sure that many of you have both positive and negative feelings about our work, and I am equally sure that many members would like the Collective to be somewhat or very different from what it is, and would like certain initiatives not yet carried out to be realised.
I am sure that many of us have projects in mind and waiting in the drawer.
To bring these ideas closer to realisation, positively contributing to the renewal and strengthening of the Collective, consolidating it and freeing it from possible uncertainties, the best way is to join the Board or stand as a candidate for the Presidency.
We await new energy, new creativity, new ideas. The beauty of our association must lie in its ability to change quickly. Nothing should remain still or immobile. A new face can be a great surprise and a great source of motivation. A new Board, this time the result of the choice of 93 members, will be a guarantee of attentiveness, of ideas being realised, of fresh energy or of consolidated experience being brought back into play.
Never as in this moment, in our professional world and in our society, has there been such a need for active participation and personal involvement, because as filmmakers and citizens we cannot passively endure the reality of a world that seems to have forgotten even the most basic ethical foundations, and we, through our work and our ability to tell stories, but also through the strength of our community, can and must fight against this brutalisation of society with all our energy.
The Collettivo is a small yet wonderful drop of hope in a vast and complex sea. But we can be part of that great sea which, from Los Angeles to Shanghai, inevitably passes through Gaza, and we cannot remain on the sidelines. Our work is about taking risks – this is what we know how to do, and we know that only by taking risks will we do our job at its best. Let us begin here, by taking part. With the awareness that only by working with courage will our community be able to expand beyond… (The art of cinematography and beyond…)
Paolo Carnera
