OFFICIAL SELECTION: COMMUNITY

Theme: Human Connection

Directed by Isabel Rodriguez Ramos

Country of Origin: Italy

The short-film "PRIMORDIALITY", conceived and directed by Isabel Rodriguez Ramos, was born from the collaboration of the singer-songwriter Rossana De Pace and the independent artistic project “Natural Mente Corpo”.

▶ What about the "short film"?

Accompanied by a woman born from the womb of the Earth, the viewer will be involved in a dreamlike journey to discover a primordial humanity. An ancestral ritual of purification of the spirit and fusion with natural elements will lead the protagonist to rediscover the cyclic nature of Nature by living it on her own skin. Through the senses, initially exercising tactility, Rossana accesses to the memory of water and the ancient mountain forest. The protagonist has visions that reveal the life of an archaic community which lived in harmony with the creatures and the natural elements of those places. This tribe, learning universal love and care from the elements - the concreteness from the earth, the movement from the water, the lightness from the winds and the warmth from the fire - blends and mingles with the landscape. The journey begins with an initiatory ceremony in which the Earth becomes a healer, develops in the alternation of opposites - between light and dark, hot and cold - and ends with Death, with the return to the Earth, to be reborn fruitful and begin a new Cycle.

▶ What about the "song"?

The song “Primordiality” has been conceived as a prayer, as an answer to a call.

Nature asks human being to come back to the roots of life; that is made in order to find the real essence: the fusion with the earth. Thanks to this process it will be possible to rise up and find the divine in every single being and creature of the planet.

This project came to life originally from the world of music with no help or influence of language and lyrics; in fact it can be considered like a “call” or a musical motif of our soul that is impossible to ignore and needs to be released outside and, in second time, analysed in his human expression.

“Primordiality” is pure instinct: it’s the way of singing free from human language and based exclusively on emotions. The voice will try to paint them in the most consistent way through the melody: a universal language that can be understood by everybody.

Only in the second phase of creation the prayer has been verbalized. Because of the addition of words and lyrics to the song, human being can describe and find itself in the reality around that is made of every single being and creature living on the earth.

Thanks to this ceremonial, the human being can become part of the all things and distance itself from the artificial and the shallow. In this way it will be possible to find his most authentic and primordial Being.
In the second part of the song it takes place the synthesis of “prayer” and “call”; lyrics turns into a mantra: “sono marea, sono vento” (“I’m tide, I’m wind”) becoming integral part of the original and instinctual flow. By this process it can be clarified and strengthened the inherent meaning of the singing. So it happens the symbiotic relationship between lyrics and melody, like the one between body and earth.

At the end of this cycle we find the starting vibrations. The last verses compare everyday life’s pictures and images inspired by nature; we want to bring back the audience to its real life and membership system with the thought than natural law, conceived as sustainable living, can and must be applied to our society. At the closure of this aural experience, the audience will return to the starting point in a new way, purified and reborn in awareness being conscious that the most important thing is cultivate earth and spirit to make both fruitful and ready to welcome life.

▶ What about "Natural Mente Corpo" project?

"Natural Mente Corpo" is an ambitious multidisciplinary independent project focused on environmental and social sustainability. It is founded by the visual artist Isabel Rodriguez Ramos and the actress Marta Maltese.

In accordance with “The Global Goals for Sustainable Development” we aim to promote in particular: sustainable communities and realities, reduction of social and economic inequalities, health, education, gender equality, responsible consumption, preservation of natural heritage, peace and justice.

Starting from the reflection on the interdependence between human and nature we want to: enhance our environmental heritage by giving new life to the wild natural spaces of our territory, educate for responsible tourism, attract new targets with innovative artistic and cultural proposals and offer a concrete alternative, a protected and safeguarded opportunity to encourage young people to meet, in order to face the growing social and psychological distress aggravated by the isolation measures necessary to fight the pandemic.

The first edition of the project was developed over four days during the 2020 summer season, in Val di Susa, involving four groups of participants from all over Italy.

The second edition of "Natural Mente Corpo" took place during the summer season 2021. In August we organized an artistic residency open to 25 young people from many Italian regions, who cohabitated and worked together for a week in order to create a creative community and to return, during the last day of residence, site-specific performative acts located in the woods of Torre Mondovì (Italy). We propose a space that favor the dialogue between the different languages ​​of art - such as theater, photography, sound art and video-art - in order to offer a multipolar and dynamic experience that provides differentiated and effective strategies for encouraging an inclusive creative process. The theater allows access to the internal worlds of everyone, while photography and videography become a visible and concrete testimony of the individual and collective experience.

The photographs resulting from the experience have achieved great resonance thanks to a series of publications in international photographic magazines and the video contributions have been destined for the creation of a video series and the production of an experimental short film.

Director Biography - Isabel Rodriguez Ramos
Isabel Rodriguez Ramos (Turin, Italy, 1997) is an Italo-Cuban filmmaker, performer and visual artist based in Italy. Tuning into philosophy, theatre and literature, she investigates the mystery of the human body as a space of confrontation and sharing of the human inner world. The interdependence between humans and nature is a recurrent theme in her artistic journey. Inspired by the principles of therapeutic art and eco-therapy, her visual and performative research wants to encourage self-expression through the poetics of the body in a creative and non-judgmental environment. Isabel feels her true inspiration is coming back to Mother Earth, as raw material and primordial core of the our true Self; she lets herself be guided by lights and colours coming from wild landscapes, human encounters with other individuals that come to our life to fill us up while being part of the artistic experience. Isabel’s photographs gained recognition through several solo and group exhibitions; and a series of publications in national and international magazines. In addition to photography, Ramos also expresses herself through video-art. Her journey in artistic video-production started with the project “Somatic Spaces”. The first act of this project – which uses audio-visual language to vehicle body-education and environmental education messages – is part of the “official selection” of national and international cinema festivals. She is the founder and artistic director of the multi-artistic project “Natural Mente Corpo”.

Credits

Filmmaker - Isabel Rodriguez Ramos

Songwriter/Singer - Rossana De Pace

Artistic Project - Natural Mente Corpo

Director - Isabel Rodriguez Ramos

Writer - Isabel Rodriguez Ramos

Producer - Isabel Rodriguez Ramos

Theater Operator - Marta Maltese

Performers

Rossana De Pace

Marta Maltese

Anna Saccone
Chiara Berard
Eleonora Turaglio
Naomi Sgambato
Tiziana Gagliano
Soukaina Maarouf
Lorenzo Martone
Gaia Valetto
Francesca Beroggio
Elena Cottino
Daniel Greco
Claudia Papaleo
Cecilia Mignanti
Alessio Rutigliano
Noa Chiantor
Ruggero Mattiazzo
Gloria Napolitano
Ilaria Bonaglia
Cristiana Guzzon
Chiara Borgaro
Cecilia Aba
Andreea Hutanu
Federica Francioso
Maria Lisignoli
Elisa Mina
David Diop
Camillo Vio
Gabriele Berthelot
Gemma Morganti
Rachele Ferraro
Alessia Mancino
Ilaria Pizzo
Agnese Zorzi
Francesca Lionetti
Sara Mancino
Erica Pianalto
Alice Tarabella
Virginia Campanella
Simone Romano
Stella Bergenti
Francesco Tonon
Davide Canova
Raffaele Ricciardi
Alessio Lazzaro

Production Assistants - Wanda Gomboli

Production Assistants - Federico Pozzato

Production Assistants - Dani Galenda