Winner > Best Short Documentary
Synopsis
Malta, a tiny island-state in the Mediterranean Sea, has been a member of the European Union since 1 January 2004, and a member of the Schengen area since 21st December 2007. Since then Malta has shifted to become a country of immigration and has seemingly provided a golden gateway for the boatloads of people that escape the African shores in search of a better way of life. In the meanwhile, the dynamics of ethnic and race relations on the island have grown to be synonymous with migration. Within social discourse, policy, and research, the emphasis is now on understanding and combatting racial discrimination.
The exponential growth of anti-migrant movements in Malta is a phenomenon of large proportions, with dozens of groups on social networks and three ultra-nationalist parties.
The government has been accused several times for the conditions of the reception centers where asylum seekers are hosted, while Malta has no long-term integration strategy targeting refugees: they remain the most vulnerable and marginalized group in Malta, experiencing isolation and a very low level of interaction with Maltese people.
Director > Mauro Mondello, Nunzio Gringeri
Producer > La Poderosa DOC, Zabriskie Studio
Key Cast
Tricia Brooks
Mitch Captein
David Garmon Hines
Jenn Tripp
Kai Liu
Pak Castillo
Paul Garrett
Dawn Donohue
Kathryn Cima
Jim Jones
Director Biography
Mauro Mondello, Nunzio Gringeri
Nunzio Gringeri (Milazzo, 1981 Italia).
After graduating from the Academy of Fine Arts in Reggio Calabria in 2007, he worked in Bologna as a fashion photographer for Red Snap.
His artistic training and aptitude for video lead him to Berlin, where he realizes video performances such as: “That’s Amore” in 2011, on display at the Macro in Rome, and “Abitarsi”, finalist at the Celeste Prize in New York in 2012. In the same year, he made a documentary about the refugee camp in Shousha, on the border between Libya and Tunisia, entitled “Stateless, Shousha refugees camp”.
In 2015 he graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di cinematografia in Palermo, where he made two documentaries as director: “What do I have to do to make you love me?”, the story of the Italian-American actor Charlie Abbadessa, and “I come to Isgrò”, where he tells the Sicilian conceptual artist and his Technique of erasure in everyday Reality. This work was selected at the 11th Biografilm fest and received a special mention at the (COFFE) ART Festival Berlin and Paratissima Torino.
Nunzio Gringeri is also involved as D.O.P. on documentary films and short films such as: “Officium” by Giuseppe Carleo, “La compagna solitudine” by Davide Vigore, “Fiori di Fuoco” by Riccardo Cannella and “La traiettoria ideale” by Giovanni Totaro. For Totaro also signs the photograph of “Happy winter”, in Official Selection Out of Competition in Venice 74.
He made photography for two seasons of “Italia Sicilia Gela” (2018-2020), a series that won 3 awards at The Next International Film Festival in Calcutta, Sicily Web Fest in Ustica, and the International Online Web Fest in London.
In 2021 he shoots with Vittorio Moroni a docu-series, entitled “Denise”, distributed by HBO – Discovery
Mauro Mondello (1982) is a freelance reporter, war correspondent, documentary filmmaker, and a Yale World Fellow 2020, https://worldfellows.yale.edu/person/mauro-mondello/
His reportages appeared on New Lines Magazine, La Repubblica, La Stampa, Expresso, RSI, Radio Rai, Radio 24, Aspenia, L’Espresso, Profil, Panorama, Rivista Studio, Vita, East, Die Zeit, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, among others.
His reportages from war-torn and conflict areas (Somalia, Iraq, Ukraine, Tunisia, Syria, Yemen, and Lybia, among all) show the extent to which is committed to the dignity of all individuals, but also to garnering respect for all cultures and religions and to fostering an open European society that provides shelter for refugees and space for all humanity.
His documentaries include Stateless, in collaboration with videomaker Nunzio Gringeri, a study of Tunisia’s Shousha refugee camp, and Lampedusa in Berlin, a live investigation of Oranienplatz refugee camp in Kreuzberg, Berlin.
