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CHUTZPAH - SOMETHING ON MODESTY

by Monica Stambrini

synopsis

Chutzpah is a Hebrew word that can be translated as insolent, cheeky, impertinent. Although the Yiddish word khutspe (חוצפּה ) has a very negative connotation, the form adopted in American English has also acquired positive meanings of "boldness." One of the circulating examples of the word chutzpah is as follows: "A boy is on trial for the murder of his parents and appeals to the judge's goodness because he is now an orphan." In the midst of a personal and work crisis, I start filming everything obsessively: my parents, grandparents, children, friends, but also myself and psychotherapy. Some footage is consensual, some is “stolen” and some is personal found footage - taken over a lifetime, with seemingly no purpose other than to look at me: who am I? In putting all this material together, the personal-intimate becomes narrative: my recent separation, the pain of my children's distance, my parents' separation, my inadequacy as a mother. Inevitably, in this process of 'coming out' I clash with the privacy of those around me: that of my mother - who has always refused to be filmed by me, of my children - who can no longer stand the camera pointed at them, and finally the psychoanalyst - to whom I confess my sin and who will force me to make a choice. The result is a kind of intimate diary that, in becoming public, is perhaps shameless and obscene. But where are the boundaries between what should remain private, off-stage, and what can be made public and shared? Today then? As in the chutzpah example, I struggle to justify my actions, appealing to a sense of what it means to make films for me.

international title: Chutzpah - Something on modesty
original title: Chutzpah – Qualcosa sul pudore
country: Italy, Switzerland
year: 2023
genre: documentary
directed by: Monica Stambrini
film run: 70'
film editing: Paola Freddi
music: Diana Tejera, Patrizia Cavalli
producer: Monica Stambrini, Marco Valerio Antonini, Raffaella Milazzo
production: A Little Confidence, Dok Mobile

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