Caterina Erica Shanta - Il cielo stellato
Il cielo stellato
The Starry Sky
Caterina Erica Shanta
Italy, 2020
Short Film - Single Channel - HD Video 16:9 - Italian - Audio Stereo - 15’45’’
In Matera, every July 2nd, the Festa della Madonna della Bruna bridges the ancient Sassi district with the outlying neighborhoods built during Italy’s economic and construction boom of the 1950s and 1960s. Increasingly mediated by images, the festival continues to reflect major historical, social, and technological changes—transformations that the medium-length film aims to explore.
The "starry sky," praised for centuries by travelers, writers, and filmmakers, has now become a horizon of glowing cell phones above the crowd and a virtual point cloud, generated by contemporary techniques of digital preservation.
The work was exhibited at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (Germany) in 2023.
Official Trailer
CATERINA ERICA SHANTA - BIOGRAFIA
Caterina Erica Shanta (1986, Germany; lives and works in Pordenone) is an artist and filmmaker. She studied in Venice, where she earned a Master’s degree in Visual Arts at IUAV. Her primary medium of investigation is video, working mainly with montage and remixing of footage and archival images. Her research focuses on the redefinition of images through the language of documentary cinema. She is currently collaborating with archivist and photographer Rawsht Twana on the TWANA ARCHIVE project, supported by the Italian Council (DGCC – Italian Ministry of Culture).
SYNOPSIS
Matera. July the 2nd.
The centuries-old celebration in honor of the Madonna della Bruna connects the ancient city centre of Sassi to the modern city suburbs - built between 1950 and 1960 during the Italian economic boom. The whole procession lasts 24 hours.
It’s 10.30 pm. In the crowded square, smartphones and cameras are raised, ready to capture an image of the huge papier-mâché chariot of the Madonna.
The air is electric and everybody is waiting for the final moment of the ritual.
Finally, the triumphal chariot appears on the square pulled by mules. A moment of stillness. Then the animals suddenly run directly into the crowd. Groups of people attack the chariot, climb on it. In a few moments it is torn apart in thousands fragments, photos and videos.
Through the pictures taken by the multitude of smartphones, the destroyed chariot is transformed in a 3D point cloud model, where lights are suspended in the black abstract virtual space. The third starry sky.
TECHNICAL DATA SHEETS
The Starry Sky
Film duration: 50:32 min
Color
Stereo sound
Audio Language: Italian
Subtitles: ITA/ENG
Finished in: december 2020
Director, Texts, interviews: Caterina Erica Shanta
Subject: Caterina Erica Shanta
DOP: Daniele Vascelli, Ugo Carlevaro
Original soundtrack and sound: Andrea Buzzi
Editing: Nicola Buffoni;
Animation: Caterina Erica Shanta & Andrea Buzzi
Produced by: c/o Careof Non-profit organization for contemporary art and INVISIBILE FILM
Sustained by: Lucana Film Commission
And by: Associazione della Madonna della Bruna.
