Sabina Guzzanti on the Lido: “You learn politics from Pope Francis on the last ones”

“Surely this Church, the Church of Pope Francis, stands out for its attention to the least, to the invisible, as it has never distinguished itself”. Sabina Guzzanti admits that the inspiration for her new documentary film, ‘Spin Time. What an effort democracy is! ‘ – presented on the Venice Film Festival Days and in the hall from 16 September accompanied on tour by the director herself – came from the gesture of the Pope’s almsgiver who reconnected the light to the large occupied Roman palace of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. The protagonist of the story is in fact the 17 thousand square meter building, in which “180 poor families live” and where “a political and social experiment is underway, an attempt to build a utopia”. “The decision to make this film comes from an almost comic inspiration for how sudden and intense it was, after having known the theatrical work of Christina Zoniou and the gesture of civil disobedience of the Pope’s Almoner, who restored the light to a building occupied by 180 destitute families. The slogan to advertise Spin Time could be: the poor as you have never seen them “, explains the director, who, after a period of inspections also to overcome the distrust of the occupants, shot the documentary among September and October 2019. “Just in time before the pandemic stopped everything,” he admits. The building is as if divided in two: the former offices have been transformed into homes with shared kitchens and bathrooms, the ground floor and the basement are dedicated to cultural activities that involve many more people than the occupants who live in the building. “A reality that seems both distant and so familiar. In reality – explains the director – as I also declare in the title of the documentary, what happens in all cohabitations and human organizations is recreated in the building, from the condominium to the Parliament: it is not it is easy to get many people to agree, to organize, to find the right forms of dialectic, not to enter into conflict, to live peacefully between different ethnic groups, traditions, habits or needs “. The building in question, like several other properties in the same situation, has been the subject of controversy for years, because the owners would like it to be vacated and returned: “This building – remembers Guzzanti – is formerly securitized public assets, sold to an investment bank, without that among other things a euro went to pay off the public debt. While Raggi and Salvini continue to argue that the building must be cleared, distinguished scholars from Sapienza and RomaTre believe that the experiment underway in the building could be a model of integration to export “. The director explains why hers is a different social documentary than usual:” Usually this type of documentary has a blackmail intent. You must feel guilty seeing it but since you have seen the film you are somewhat acquitted because to say that at least you give a damn and have a pietistic relationship with the issue in question. Here there is no need for pity. Here we need political solutions. There is the Ch iesa who does charity and that’s fine but on the other hand, political solutions will be needed, because the question of inequality and poverty is destined to become more important “. What could the next mayor of Rome do? “Regularizing these situations,” the director tells Adnkronos.