Today, 18 June, at the Archivio di Stato di Napoli: the presentation of L’eco dei fiori sommersi, the debut feature of director Rosa Maietta — a documentary that transforms archival documents into a cinematic journey through the lives of women forgotten by history. Cinematography by Francesca Amitrano CCS. The creative team is completed by Rosalia Cecere, composer of the original score and sound designer, Gaia Alari for the animations, Simona Infante as colourist, and Rosa Maietta herself as editor.
Produced by Ladoc and supported by the Ministero della Cultura and SIAE through the “Per Chi Crea” programme, with funding from the Regione Campania Film Commission and under the patronage of the Archivio di Stato di Napoli, the film grew out of an extensive period of research within one of Italy’s most significant documentary heritage collections.
At the heart of the film are stories that span centuries, speaking of discrimination, violence and marginalisation, but also of resistance and self-determination. Among them: Linda, forced to confront the social weight of an unwanted pregnancy; Emma, a factory worker and anti-fascist activist persecuted into exile and imprisonment; Giovannina, a victim of violence at the hands of a possessive partner. Through court rulings, expert reports, judicial documents and fragments of memory, the film constructs a dialogue between past and present, restoring a voice to figures who, in the official record, were so often rendered silent.
A poetic journey that weaves together different languages: the documentary gaze moves through the Archive’s repositories at the unhurried pace of someone exploring memory, while images, animations and visual suggestions carry the viewer beyond the material dimension of the documents themselves. The film thus travels across three centuries of history, from the eighteenth to the twentieth, drawing on the words and silences held within the records to interrogate the present.
Francesca Amitrano ci ha raccontato:
«L’eco dei fiori sommersi is a documentary very close to my heart. My collaboration with Rosa Maietta began a year before shooting, working on the project’s teaser. For the visual approach, I started from ideas and references the director gave me. As always, the production design was fundamental: the extraordinary location of the Archivio di Stato di Napoli is a place outside of time. Shooting among files dating from the 1600s was something like touching History with your own hands. The director would have liked to shoot on film, but we had a Sony Venice with Canon Prime lenses at our disposal. The colour work, with the exceptionally talented Simona Infante, was essential in achieving what we had in mind. We sought a timeless image, working with pastel tones and adding the grain of 35mm Fuji T film stock. The work was made possible by Lorenzo Cioffi and Armando Andria, producers at LaDoc, and by the outstanding camera team: Ettore Abat, gaffer; Ezio Pierattini, key grip; Guido Peluso, Steadicam operator; Lorenzo Rocca, camera operator’s assistant; Emanuele Arfe, second assistant camera. ».
