04/09/2010

Renowned Italian photographer Lisetta Carmi and the migrant African workers who demonstrated in Rosarno, Italy last January – to tragic consequences – were the subjects of the two European titles shown in Venice Days on Friday. They may seem an unlikely combination, but they are very much united by the idea that society’s strongest members must protect and defend its weakest.

Photographer-turned-filmmaker Daniele Segre said his no-budget Lisetta Carmi: Un’anima in cammino was a project of love. The photographer, who worked primarily in the1960s and 70s, is best known for her pictures of transvestites, the inhabitants of some of the world’s worst slums and controversial poet Ezra Pound.

Carmi grew up under the racial laws of Italy’s fascist period, and was kicked out of school for being Jewish. The experience would mark her forever, and was the driving force in her artistic career as she sought, she says, “to understand and capture with my camera the most marginalized and impoverished citizens of the world.”

She dressed up as a man to befriend Genoa’s transvestites, many of whom were prostitutes. She compiled a definitive book of photographs on the notoriously anti-Semitic Pound upon his release from psychiatric prison and return to Italy. And when she started making more money for her work from the industry sector, rather than from magazines, this woman who has lived her life without compromise walked away from a thriving career to build Italy’s first ashram.

For his extremely timely documentary Green Blood, Andrea Segre (no relation to Daniele) said he decided to wait until this winter’s media storm over the Rosarno demonstrations died down. He traveled to several refugee centres to which the workers were dispersed, he said, “to hear what the mainstream refused to listen to.”

What emerges is the horrifying reality of migrant workers’ inhumane working and living conditions, and the racism that is all too rampant in Italy today. One after another, the interviewees speak of the wars and poverty they fled in Africa, in the hopes of a better life. Only to find themselves subjected to humiliation, exploitation and, in some cases, even greater poverty in Italy.

Some of the men accompanied the film to the Lido, and repeated their heartbreaking plea to be treated like human beings, not as criminals or legalized slaves. They reminded audiences that the situation has not changed since last year. Harvest season is upon Italy again and there is no sign of conditions improving. On the contrary, racism and violence are being fueled by current policy, although Italy, like all Western countries, would spiral into an even greater economic crisis if migrant workers were to disappear.

According to Giuseppe Pugliese, who works for an immigrants’ rights group in Rosarno: “Rosarno became ‘Rosarno’, famous, only because the Africans reacted. But there are innumerable Rosarnos in this country.”

Lisetta Carmi has not been picked up for television while Green Blood will screen on Italy’s RAI TV in mid-September.