Un paese ci vuole
Mola di Bari, Italy — 2017–2018
A documentary project created with Giulia Sangiorgio, exploring the relationship between the people of Mola di Bari and the place they call home.
Developed over seven months through conversations and interviews with people of different ages, the film investigates memory, belonging, everyday life, and the personal meaning of a community. Moving through homes and streets, the project gives voice to different perspectives on the town, its past, present, and possible future.
The title comes from Cesare Pavese’s La luna e i falò, reflecting the central question of the project: what does a place mean to the people who live there, remember it, leave it, or imagine it differently?
Pinuccio Sciola - The Sound of Stones
Short documentary - San Sperate, Sardinia, 2012
A short documentary portrait of Sardinian artist Pinuccio Sciola, filmed in his home in San Sperate in October 2012.
Known for his singing stones, Sciola transformed stone into a resonant material, revealing sounds and vibrations hidden within its apparent stillness. During our encounter, he spoke about his relationship with stone, its origins, its inner life, and the connection between matter, sound, and light.
The film captures a personal conversation with an artist who understood sculpture not simply as the transformation of matter, but as a way of revealing something already contained within it.
Corderia Palmi
Mola di Bari, Italy - 2016
A short documentary about Corderia Palmi, a family workshop in Mola di Bari and a recognised Historic and Traditional Craft Workshop of Puglia, where the traditional craft of rope-making has been passed down through generations.
The film observes the gestures, materials, and rhythms of the workshop, focusing on the knowledge contained in a manual practice closely connected to the maritime history of the town. From ropes made for fishing and boats to new forms and applications, the work of the Palmi family brings together tradition, craftsmanship, and the ability to adapt to the present.
Through a close observation of the workshop and its makers, the film portrays not only an ancient craft, but also the relationship between work, memory, family, and place.
Mola Notturna
Mola di Bari, Italy - 2016
A short poetic film portraying Mola di Bari as evening falls, moving between the city, the sea, and the changing light of a summer sky.
Seen from above and from different perspectives, the town gradually transforms as daylight gives way to night. The images move through familiar places, inviting a different way of looking at a city that is often experienced from the ground.
Mola Notturna is a reflection on the city, but also a meditation on perception itself: a prayer, a poem, perhaps an illusion or a small gesture of freedom. The film suggests that every place can reveal something new when observed from another point of view.
Drone footage: Giuseppe Aversa
Editing: Joe Pansa
Voice-over: Elisabetta Aloia
An idea by: Nicola Rotondi
Editing: Joe Pansa
Voice-over: Elisabetta Aloia
An idea by: Nicola Rotondi
Mola come non l'avete mai vista
Mola di Bari, Italy - 2016
A short film that invites us to look at Mola di Bari from a different perspective, transforming familiar places and everyday scenes through an unexpected visual point of view.
The project was born from the desire to look beyond the appearance of the city and discover beauty where it might otherwise remain unnoticed. The same streets, buildings, landscapes, and details of everyday life become something different when observed from another perspective.
Rather than presenting an idealised portrait of Mola, the film proposes a change of gaze: a way of rediscovering a familiar place by looking at it as if seeing it for the first time.
An idea by: Joe Pansa and Nicola Elia
Mare e marinai
Mola di Bari, Italy - 2015
A short film dedicated to the relationship between Mola di Bari and the sea, and to the men whose lives have been shaped by it.
Through images of the coast, the harbour, the boats, and the people who inhabit this maritime world, the film reflects on a tradition that has long been part of the identity of the town. The sea is presented not simply as a landscape, but as a place of work, memory, belonging, and freedom.
Mare e marinai is a visual portrait of a community deeply connected to the Adriatic, where the gestures and presence of its sailors become part of a larger story about the enduring relationship between a place and the sea.