Small Land

Original title Piccola Terra

Valstagna, Venetian Prealps: on the desolate lands of abandoned terraced landscapes some very different figures try to build from ruins a new life and to fulfill their dreams: a single man remains obstinately hold to the little fatherland of his ancestors, another one left his alienating job in an quarry to find himself, a couple from the town of Bassano del Grappa decides to adopt a terrace and to take care of falling walls, and a young Moroccan immigrant try to integrate himself and his family cultivating mint. Small land is a history of hope for forgotten mountains, a tale about the universal value of the relationship between man and land, which leap over economic profits, political obstacles, cultural boundaries. The “world of losers” of the Sixties, here displayed through the documentary of Giuseppe Taffarel (1963), nowadays see a new revival, with a fresh taste of mint, belonging and freedom.

Author/s MIchele Trentini

Michele Trentini. Born in Rovereto (Trento) in 1974, he carries out his research and documentation using methods of ethnography and of visual anthropology at the Museo degli Usi e Costumi della Gente Trentina and for various Institutions. He has directed many ethnographic films including \”Furriadroxus\” (ISRE Nuoro 2005), “Tre carnevali e ½” (MUCGT 2007, Premio Nigra Antropologia Visiva 2007), “Carnival King of Europe” (MUCGT 2009, Grand Prize for Academic Film Kyoto University Expo 2009), “The Smart Song” (ISRE Nuoro 2009, Premio Nigra Antropologia Visiva 2009), and \”Cheyenne at thirty\” (Trotzdem 2009, Primo Premio sezione antropologia visuale, Leggimontagna Tolmezzo 2010).

Research Mauro Varotto, Luca Lodatti, Marco Romano, Michele Trentini
Photography Michele Trentini
Sound Marco Romano, Michele Trentini
Editing Michele Trentini