Fondazioneconilsud.it

The documentary of Alessandro Marinelli, produced by Fondazione Con il Sud in collaboration with Vision Lab, describes the resilience and the redemption of the local communities that have decided to push forward their vision aimed at changing the region through the proactive organisation of the tertiary sector of the economy. As stated by Erri De Luca: “The South of Italy sits on a treasure trove and strives to find it elsewhere.” These communities are now more aware that the change in the South cannot come from outside, but that it needs to start from within, through active citizenship and personal and collective responsibility.

The stories presented follow the path of ordinary citizens, not of heroes, who have formed a community based on shared values of solidarity and who have managed to set up a new economic paradigm in which ethics becomes viable and encourages the development for the whole region. This is the main thread of the documentary which takes place in the regions of Calabria, Puglia, Campania, and Sicily. It is about different and individual stories, united by common visions in which the proposals and actions of a group spread further and influence the communities and the regions, generating new opportunities of change.

The documentary film director Alessandro Marinelli says “From the encounters with these communities, stories of dignity, strength of community, and love for their land emerge, as well as a belief that staying in their region, with initiatives of social and solid welfare, is the only possibility to have dignity and hope return to the community of the South of Italy. Therefore, it was easy to approach this project as I share the same motivation and the same battles as these people.”

THE STORIES

In Puglia the Ketos project (Euro-Mediterranean Sea and Cetacean Centre) is presented, conceived, and managed by the Jonian Dolphin Conservation. The project is linked to a wide, positive, and purposeful vision that looks at the city of Taranto as a privileged context for development tied to the so-called Blue Economy, delineated in the four specific sustainability angles: social, economic, environmental, and cultural.

In Benevento Angelo Moretti introduces his project Sale della terra which was established as a consortium of various cooperatives that follow the path of social inclusion, community welfare, entrepreneurship, social farming and “scattered hotel”.

In the city of Caserta, in the region of Campania, the Nuova Cooperazione Organizzata  transforms an acronym that could evoke a terrorist organisation rather to a synonym of hope and recovery for a territory wrecked by the Camorra.

In Palermo the story of the Centro Tau is told, a structure created more than 30 years ago that provides a valid alternative to the streets for the many young people that live in the neighbourhood of Zisa.

In Messina Gaetano Giunta is the founder of a community that has given life to the Fondazione di Messina with the clear goal of promoting urban and social changes through the creation of sustainable and solid communities.

In Calabria, Vincenzo Linarello presents the Goel group whose vision is of paramount importance: to help the region of Calabria to renew itself by removing the feeling of impotence triggered from the presence of criminality. The 2003 group started a path that involves the local communities reclaiming their land and their liberty.

Alongside the Goel group the Comunità Progetto Sud  is another important ally working on renewing the region of Calabria. The community, founded by Don Giacomo Panizza 46 years ago, was born from the willingness to take the side of the weakest in society and, with concrete facts, to respond to the questions of sustainable alternatives in the social, cultural, and economic fields.