Ottavio Mai

Giò Stajano's secret to face life was and is that of never having taken himself too seriously. Already the fact of being born homosexual in a village in the deep south, in the middle of the Fascist period, and moreover in the Storace house, choosing as a mother an unsuspecting daughter of the "very virile" right arm of the Duce, and then peeing in his arms of the latter, at the tender age of one year, speaks volumes. Then in the 1950s, a young man of high hopes, he arrives in Rome and with his nonconformist lifestyle and his book Roma capitolina on "excellent" homosexuality in Rome, immediately kidnapped, becomes a "character" and is called by Fellini to interpret himself same in the film La dolce vita. Then suddenly in '81, after having been an assault journalist, having continued to write books and interpret films, tired of this role, he flies to Casablanca, and becomes Maria Gioacchina, thus confirming his innate tendency to provocation and mockery, towards life and himself.

Giò Stajano's secret to face life was and is that of never having taken himself too seriously. Already the fact of being born homosexual in a village in the deep south, in the middle of the Fascist period, and moreover in the Storace house, choosing as a mother an unsuspecting daughter of the "very virile" right arm of the Duce, and then peeing in his arms of the latter, at the tender age of one year, speaks volumes. Then in the 1950s, a young man of high hopes, he arrives in Rome and with his nonconformist lifestyle and his book Roma capitolina on "excellent" homosexuality in Rome, immediately kidnapped, becomes a "character" and is called by Fellini to interpret himself same in the film La dolce vita. Then suddenly in '81, after having been an assault journalist, having continued to write books and interpret films, tired of this role, he flies to Casablanca, and becomes Maria Gioacchina, thus confirming his innate tendency to provocation and mockery, towards life and himself.

Giò Stajano's secret to face life was and is that of never having taken himself too seriously. Already the fact of being born homosexual in a village in the deep south, in the middle of the Fascist period, and moreover in the Storace house, choosing as a mother an unsuspecting daughter of the "very virile" right arm of the Duce, and then peeing in his arms of the latter, at the tender age of one year, speaks volumes. Then in the 1950s, a young man of high hopes, he arrives in Rome and with his nonconformist lifestyle and his book Roma capitolina on "excellent" homosexuality in Rome, immediately kidnapped, becomes a "character" and is called by Fellini to interpret himself same in the film La dolce vita. Then suddenly in '81, after having been an assault journalist, having continued to write books and interpret films, tired of this role, he flies to Casablanca, and becomes Maria Gioacchina, thus confirming his innate tendency to provocation and mockery, towards life and himself.

Giò Stajano's secret to face life was and is that of never having taken himself too seriously. Already the fact of being born homosexual in a village in the deep south, in the middle of the Fascist period, and moreover in the Storace house, choosing as a mother an unsuspecting daughter of the "very virile" right arm of the Duce, and then peeing in his arms of the latter, at the tender age of one year, speaks volumes. Then in the 1950s, a young man of high hopes, he arrives in Rome and with his nonconformist lifestyle and his book Roma capitolina on "excellent" homosexuality in Rome, immediately kidnapped, becomes a "character" and is called by Fellini to interpret himself same in the film La dolce vita. Then suddenly in '81, after having been an assault journalist, having continued to write books and interpret films, tired of this role, he flies to Casablanca, and becomes Maria Gioacchina, thus confirming his innate tendency to provocation and mockery, towards life and himself.

A film about a boy, Piero, who discovers he is HIV-positive. The starting point is the meeting of two men among the thousand problems of the HIV-positive nature of one of the two; that of arrival the birth of a love that becomes solid day after day and that finds its balance between the rules, the needs and the times of the illness, challenging the conventions and establishing, under the eyes of all, a new and necessary way of living the relationship as a couple.

“It is a difficult task to achieve an existential balance, and sometimes it is not necessarily possible. Sometimes, in the complex construction of our personality, the strongest component ends up prevailing, the one capable of silencing all the others. But this often leads us to suffering, to a continuous mutation of ourselves ". Andrea and Nora, two longtime friends, are working together on the drafting of a screenplay, the two characters "from the film" collide with the "real" characters.

A mother with a small bank account and a pessimistic view on the future of humanity. The desire for a nice funeral and a son "too" optimistic and interested in redeeming her. A priest to ask for help.

"It is only an alternation of energy that operates here" is the visible inscription on a man's grave where another man can be seen lying on his back. The man, professor of Physics, is explaining the theory of relativity "One of the most important concepts used in the description of natural phenomena is that of energy ..." In physics, this is always associated with some process or some type of activity: " it can change shape, but nothing is lost… ". During the explanation, he traces, outside of chronological conventions, in an alternation of situations and thoughts, even paradoxical ones, part of that path lived with his man, abruptly interrupted by death.

Giovanni who lives with his mother and is engaged to Tiziana, hides his homosexuality out of shame and fear, but on the point of getting married, something happens to him that will lead him to refuse to live it again in a clandestine and guilty way, and so, after a somewhat troubled personal analysis, he recovers a certain existential courage and decides to live it "in the light of the sun".

An afternoon with Franco and Dario, two young friends who made different choices at the end of compulsory school. Franco decided to continue studying, Dario chose to go to work in a mechanical workshop, to fix machines. It is the end of the first week of work for Dario, Franco is waiting for him outside the workshop, they spend a few hours together, playing, talking, and picking up on old conversations.

Each of us, sentimentally speaking, has happened to have been at least once in our life, either a hunter or a prey, perhaps even without his knowledge. But what is the best role or simply the most convenient one at any given moment is difficult to establish. Sometimes it can even happen to be both, or to start off as hunters, only to find "prey". Of course, however, the opposite can also happen. Continuing undeterred in the territory of the desecration of pre-established roles, this time we have targeted (always with irony) another stereotype, that is, that which attributes to the woman the role of enemy, or at least antagonist of the homosexual.

Through the reading of some of Sandro Penna's poems a boy, as if by magic, visually “relives” some of them, as if he were the Poet himself. A tribute to Sandro Penna, this short film, also dedicated to the "solar" beauty of these guys, immortalized by the poet's lyrics in time and space (in fact they will always be there and so, even between 10, 100, 1000 years). A tribute to purity, to the simplicity of unspoken things... to the beauty of images stolen from the monotony of the real world. In short, an attempt, through his unwitting complicity, to make a film-poem to dedicate to him.

“If you meet me, pretend you don't know me”, “I'm not like you”, are now classic phrases in the “furtive and veiled” homosexual relationship. This is for those who, out of fear, compromise or a thousand other reasons, decide to live their sexuality in a dissociated way. The "official" one, heterosexuality, and the clandestine one, homosexuality. Some do it very well ... others less so. Situations of this kind are more frequent than they appear. This short film wants to give the idea of ​​how easy it is to border on melodrama in such cases.

"Man is projected towards the stars, the landing on Mars is near, the fifth generation computer is almost ready, the intelligent one... yet, and yet today one can still die because of homosexual prejudice". “We kill ourselves because the moral condemnation of the people would have made our life impossible”, wrote two homosexual boys before committing suicide. "Prejudice killed them," wrote the newspapers. All this happened on the threshold of 2000, in a southern country, due to the disinformation of the people and the moral condemnations of the church.

When a love story begins, differences, negative character sides, personal needs, are immolated on the altar of love…. Then, over time, everything inexorably resurfaces on the surface. One rediscovers with amazement one's own individuality, which seemed to have been diluted by love, relentlessly reaching the crossroads of transmutation. Then the veils of sentiment that concealed our tendency to individualism from ourselves become more and more transparent, revealing us sadly selfish and unrealistic beings. At that point comes the "big opportunity". Accept and be accepted for who we are, beautiful or ugly ... good or bad... in short, us. Paradoxically, at that moment we realize that everything was clearer, right from the start.

Piero is 26 years old, works in a butcher shop, lives with his mother and sister, and has been engaged to Tiziana for years. Something is wrong in his life, his mother senses it, and their relationship is strained. One day, however, Piero meets Mirco, and his ideas begin to clarify. Helped by Mirco, Piero recognizes his homosexuality and the right to live it openly. The reactions of his mother, sister, and girlfriend vary, but none is condemning.