Description
Borders, the ways to Europe “is a documentary that intertwines the stories of migrants and those of volunteers, stories that meet every day on routes to Europe.
Since 2014, more than 19,000 people have died, swallowed up by the most deadly border in the world, that of the Central Mediterranean.
The Open Arms, as well as other NGOs, have filled the void left by governments, which have disinterested in the fate of the people, mainly Syrians, Afghans and Sudanese, who took the sea route from Libya to get to Europe and rebuild a distant life from the war.
Riccardo Gatti and Anabel Montes, the two heads of mission of Proactiva Open Arms, together with other volunteers, including actor Richard Gere, tell us how important it is to be present in that stretch of sea and save lives.
Mohammed, Hortensia, Mussar and other migrants instead tell us about the life they escaped from, the long journey, the Libyan prisons and torture. Above all, they tell us what they expect from the future.
A documentary shot on board the Open Arms, between July 2018 and August 2019.
Director Biography – Valerio Nicolosi
Valerio Nicolosi, filmmaker and photojournalist born in Rome in 1984, has always had a passion for photography and video. In 2008 he graduated with highest honours from the ‘Experimental Television Center’ in Rome and went on to win awards from the ‘Feel the Reel International Film Festival’ as “Best Film” with “Bar(n)Out duepuntoniente”and the ‘Roma Videoclip 2016’ as “Best Videoclip with “A un passo da qui”, “Paris Around International Film Festival” as “Best Trailer”, the ”European Cinematography Awards 2017” “Mediterranean Film Festival” as “Best Director” with “Bia”.
He won also the “All About Photo 2018”prize for the “Travel” category with a photo from Humanitarian motor vessel “Open Arms”.
With the reportage “Open Eyes”, he won few festivals in the world ad “Tokyo International Foto Award”, “Budapest International Foto Award” and “Moscow International Foto Award”.
“Premio Amerigo 2017” for the category “photojournalism” with the reportage “Postcards from New York” and the “Premio Montesacro 2015” ad “Best Book of the Year” with the photobook “Be Filmaker a Gaza”.
He won two honorable mentions from “Asia South East – Short Film Festival’ and ‘Canada Shorts – Canadian International Short Film Festival’ with the short film “Bia” and two honorable mentions from “ND awards” and from the contest of “The Indipendent Photographer” with the photo-reportage from the Humanitarian motor vessel “Open Arms”.
Ha has directed the documentary “Bestie di Satana” for Discovery Channel Italy and “I fili dell’odio” produced by “Zero Studio by Michele Santoro”.
He has made numerous music videos with Italian and Palestinian singer/songwriters and has published two books of short stories and photography, “Bar(n)Out” published by New Culture and “Be Filmmaker in Gaza” published by “Ass. Nat. Filmmaker “.
He also works as an occasional lecturer with the ‘Audio-visual Journalism Tribune’ of the faculty of Communication Sciences at La Sapienza University and the Palestinian Al-Aqsa and Deir El-Balah, both located in the Gaza Strip.
With ICRC he has made few reportages from the Syrian-Lebanon border about the crises of refugees for the switzerland television RSI and the italian newspaper Repubblica.it
He collaboreted with the international press agency Reuters and leading Italian and european network and investigative journalism programs for which he has made many reportages on the issue of immigrants and in particular in the “Jungle of Calais”. Covering the terrorist attacks both in Paris and Brussels he also made a special reportage on terrorism for “Presa diretta”, an analytical news program on Italian national TV. During the months of October and November 2016 he followed the US elections making a series of reportages together with the journalist Giovanna Pancheri, broadcast by SkyTg24 and published by the website of the newspaper La Stampa. Making the documentary “Death Before Lampedusa”, ‘’Tod Vor Lampedusa’’ in german, for the German national TV, ARD, he followed the operation “Mare Nostrum” on board the Italian military vessels deployed in the recovery of boats coming from Africa.
He is based in Rome where he collaborates with Associated Press.
Director Statement
I am very happy and proud of this documentary, because after more than a year spent on board the Open Arms I was able to tell what really happens at sea: despair, anger, courage and happiness. A mix of feelings that mix and give strength to volunteers to move forward and migrant people to trust in a new life.
Project Title (Original Language):Frontiere, le vie per l’Europa
Project Type:Documentary
Genres:Social, Drama, really
Runtime:1 hour 3 minutes 27 seconds
Completion Date:July 27, 2020
Production Budget:8,000 EUR
Country of Origin:Italy
Country of Filming:Italy, Spain
Language:English, French, Italian, Spanish
Shooting Format:Canon Reflex 35mm, Sony Camcoder
Aspect Ratio:16:9
Film Color:Color
First-time Filmmaker:No
Student Project:No
