Lights, camera, take action
 Charlie Noell, Alexandra Platt, and James Kilton on location in Rome. |
Last summer, a group of students at the John Felice Rome Center discovered that life in Italy isn’t always “la dolce vita.” As part of a summer film course at the JFRC, three students, Charlie Noell, Alexandra Platt, and James Kilton, spent four weeks shooting a documentary film about the Gypsies of Rome and the plight of all Gypsies in Italy.
Last May, while the students were settling into summer sessions at the JFRC, an unknown assailant threw a Molotov cocktail into a Gypsy camp in Naples, Italy. The incident unleashed a wave of anti-Gypsy sentiment across Italy, leading to the burning of several camps and government legislation targeting Gypsies for deportation.
Unbeknownst to most students at the JFRC, the largest Gypsy camp in Rome is a short busride from the center. When Noell, Platt, and Kilton were brainstorming ideas for a film, Todd Waller, associate director of student life at the JFRC, suggested a visit to the camp. Lorenza Fabretti, internship coordinator at the JFRC, accompanied the students on their first trip there.
“It was clear on the first day that we were
not welcome,” says Noell. “Many journalists
have portrayed Gypsies in an unflattering light. The Gypsies of Monte Mario were
suspicious of our intentions.” After spending
more time at the camp, however, the crew
began to earn the residents’ trust.
Platt, a junior at the University of San Francisco, and Kilton, a recent alum, also from the University of San Francisco, employed their film-making skills. Noell, a Loyola senior who had spent the ’06–’07 school year at the JFRC, used his fluency in Italian to interview their subjects. All of the students worked under the tutelage of Rich Martini, a film-making professor who taught a summer session at the JFRC.
The three students traveled to the Gypsy camp five days a week for four weeks, capturing life at the camp and speaking with residents. The individuals interviewed expressed their frustration with policies that deny them citizenship in the country of their birth and won’t allow them to gain the necessary permits to work. The students also interviewed Tom Kington, a British journalist with expertise in Gypsy affairs. He voiced his concern over Italian laws that make it exceedingly difficult for Gypsies to play a productive role in society.
The weeks of work resulted in a short film, “Sono Niente,” or “I Am Nothing,” which was shown, along with six other films, at the JFRC inaugural film festival to great acclaim.
Noell is now at work promoting the film. It has been submitted to several major film festivals, including Cannes, and has been accepted at the Bologna Film Festival. Noell hopes that increased exposure will bring increased awareness of the difficulties many Gypsies face. The aspiring filmmakers have big dreams. “Right now, with ‘Sono Niente,’ we’d love to win some awards and gain some exposure,” says Noell. “We want to go back to Rome and make a longer film, something bigger and better.”
Unfortunately, the film can’t be viewed by the general public at this time, but visit
http://romecenterfilm.blogspot.com to see the rest of the student-made films featured at the JFRC film festival.